Setona Mizushiro

After School Nightmare is a ten-volume manga series by Setona Mizushiro. Darkly psychological with elements of horror as well as social commentary, After School Nightmare can at times be a deeply troubling and challenging read while still being engrossing and oddly compelling. I first started reading the series several years ago, but have only recently been able to bring myself to read beyond the first few volumes of the manga, largely because I did find it so disconcerting and hard-hitting. show more Granted, the dark, anxiety-ridden atmosphere which makes the After School Nightmare so intimidating to approach is also what makes the story particularly effective and is an aspect to the manga that I can appreciate. After School Nightmare, Volume 9 was first published in Japan in 2007. The English-language edition of the volume was released in 2008 by Go! Comi. Sadly, the entire series has now gone out of print and is becoming more difficult to find.

One by one the students participating in the special after school class which forces them to share their literal nightmares with one another are graduating and disappearing, leaving only a vague memory of their existence behind. Though at times vicious and cruel, the dreams are intended to allow the students to work through their personal traumas, crises, and fears so that they can let go and move on from their troubled pasts. However, the violence and turmoil they experience within the dreams frequently spills over into their waking lives and graduating doesn't necessarily guarantee a peaceful resolution. Koichiro in particular has reached his breaking point. He is ruthless in his determination to graduate and leave his overbearing and abusive father behind along with his carefully crafted public persona. Triggered by outside events, the nightmare Koichiro brings down upon the other students as he tries to free himself turns into a shockingly brutal and bloody rampage, signalling the beginning of the end for himself and for those who still remain.

A few questions still remain, but for the most part Koichiro's character arc is resolved in After School Nightmare, Volume 9. Like so many of the other characters' stories, Koichiro's is a tragic one and it is heartwrenching to see it play out. The culmination of his anger, pain, and suffering has a direct and devastating impact on the others, ending with a violent attack on Mashiro, the portrayal of which has blatant parallels to a sexual assault. Koichiro was at one point the most stable and seemingly well-adjusted character in the series, so to see such a drastic shift in his outward attitude and behavior is especially startling. He isn't the only character to have significantly changed over the course of After School Nightmare, though. However, for some the process, while still being extraordinarily difficult, has ultimately been more positive. Just as the dreams have led Koichiro to abandon his self-restraint, they have also allowed Mashiro the freedom to begin to come to terms with his fluid gender identity and the fact that he may feel more comfortable as a girl. Compared to the beginning of the series, Mashiro has greatly matured.

After School Nightmare, Volume 9 has a fair number of major plot twists, surprising reveals, and crucial story developments, many of which call into question everything that has come before in the manga. Some of these things have been foreshadowed and are not entirely surprising but there is still some disorientation as they are revealed to be not quite what they initially seemed. Koichiro dominates the first few chapters of the ninth volume but from there the focus of the manga turns toward Sou as more of his backstory is explored. An explanation of a past that he has not entirely dealt with yet and that has been incredibly damaging both emotionally and psychologically is finally given. After School Nightmare was never a light series, but the ninth volume is a particularly heavy and dramatic one. Considering the very final scene which challenges many of the assumptions that I had made regarding the series, I am very curious to see where Mizushiro takes the story in the final volume. After School Nightmare has been a dark and twisting journey and I have no idea how it will end; I'm almost a little frightened to find out.

Experiments in Manga show less

just finished it (started a few days ago but stayed up past midnight last night and then just finished during my break)

oh man, my eyes got watery when leo told alice that he had to propagate his seed NOW after she refused him when they started having sex. and then i did almost cry when alice started to walk through the city after she found out that Leo died and nobody had told her that he was going to die--gah! i'm doing it again as i'm writing now. i guess i'm just sentimental.

Mizushiro did show more a really great job of building it up and then paying it off. the reminiscences sequenced with the cityscapes and closeups were cinematic and evocative.

the pacing is just right and doesn't wallow too much in the mundane. show less

I haven't normally given a full run at reviews of manga. Normally, it's just been a little paragraph, and I haven't even really bothered posting them here. But this series is different. For something that I picked up because I kinda wanted a BL thing to try the last time I was in Japan, and I liked the cover, this story was really remarkable. It's the best BL thing that I've ever read, and in terms of the story and the reality of the characters, it's up there with the best manga I've ever show more read, period. And it's short and self-contained to boot, 2 volumes and your story is done. So what is the story, you ask? Well...

Ootomo Kyouichi is a salaryman in his late 20s. He's pretty good at work, but in his personal life, he just gets carried along by whatever comes his way - if someone's interested in him, he usually just gets swept along, and does as they want. Seeing as he's married, that can be problematic. He's approached at the beginning of the story by Imagase Wataru, an old college friend who's now working for a private investigation firm, and who's been commissioned by Ootomo's wife to look into whether Ootomo's had any affairs. Since he has, Imagase proposes a bargain. See, Imagase turns out to have been closeted back in college, but he had a huge crush on Ootomo the whole time when he was in school, and now that he has the chance, he can't pass up trying a little blackmail. Even if all he wants (for now) is a kiss.

Okay, so far, this sounds pretty normal for a BL series, and it's true, the first chapter is the weakest. But the story grows so much, and has all sorts of good hallmarks. It has two realistic - really realistic - lead characters, in a real-world setting, with the problems with being gay, and different people's reactions to that. It has female characters that are meant to be real, to be sympathetic, and to be real alternatives for Ootomo than Imagase, and that's a rarity. It has, yes, some graphic sex scenes, but they actually advance character development. That's right, they really are used to build up the characters, and they're there for a reason. I don't think I can come up with other titles that do that. And the author, Mizushiro, knows the story she wants to tell, has a good length for it (2 volumes really is enough), has great, great art, and fills the pages with nice blocking and good symbolism in the art.

The writing is just very good, as well, and complements the art really nicely. Seriously, she makes the most of the graphic format, and I don't want to sell the art short, but the writing... the character voices are so clear, and they sound like people I've met (actually, Imagase's voice in a lot of cases reminds me of me). The books take on a lot of questions: What if what you want is someone who just really cares about you and supports you... but the one who does that the most is the opposite sex from what you'd normally want? How do you deal with it when your emotions for someone twist who you thought you were out of shape? How do you work out what you want emotionally when you're a bit older, you're in your late 20s or early 30s, and you want to settle down? If you're not really gay, as a man, can your feelings for another man be as strong as a gay man's? And can your partner trust those feelings?

There's a lot more that I can say about this series, but what it comes down to is that I love it to bits. Seriously. It's got its really funny moments, and it's romantic and moving and just real. I love the characters so, so much, with all their flaws (and they are both pretty damn flawed people). If this was translated to English, I would be buying it for people already, but it hasn't... although you can probably find it if you look. It has been translated to French, and of course it's in Japanese, if you want it. And you do want it. Trust me. show less

I haven't normally given a full run at reviews of manga. Normally, it's just been a little paragraph, and I haven't even really bothered posting them here. But this series is different. For something that I picked up because I kinda wanted a BL thing to try the last time I was in Japan, and I liked the cover, this story was really remarkable. It's the best BL thing that I've ever read, and in terms of the story and the reality of the characters, it's up there with the best manga I've ever show more read, period. And it's short and self-contained to boot, 2 volumes and your story is done. So what is the story, you ask? Well...

Ootomo Kyouichi is a salaryman in his late 20s. He's pretty good at work, but in his personal life, he just gets carried along by whatever comes his way - if someone's interested in him, he usually just gets swept along, and does as they want. Seeing as he's married, that can be problematic. He's approached at the beginning of the story by Imagase Wataru, an old college friend who's now working for a private investigation firm, and who's been commissioned by Ootomo's wife to look into whether Ootomo's had any affairs. Since he has, Imagase proposes a bargain. See, Imagase turns out to have been closeted back in college, but he had a huge crush on Ootomo the whole time when he was in school, and now that he has the chance, he can't pass up trying a little blackmail. Even if all he wants (for now) is a kiss.

Okay, so far, this sounds pretty normal for a BL series, and it's true, the first chapter is the weakest. But the story grows so much, and has all sorts of good hallmarks. It has two realistic - really realistic - lead characters, in a real-world setting, with the problems with being gay, and different people's reactions to that. It has female characters that are meant to be real, to be sympathetic, and to be real alternatives for Ootomo than Imagase, and that's a rarity. It has, yes, some graphic sex scenes, but they actually advance character development. That's right, they really are used to build up the characters, and they're there for a reason. I don't think I can come up with other titles that do that. And the author, Mizushiro, knows the story she wants to tell, has a good length for it (2 volumes really is enough), has great, great art, and fills the pages with nice blocking and good symbolism in the art.

The writing is just very good, as well, and complements the art really nicely. Seriously, she makes the most of the graphic format, and I don't want to sell the art short, but the writing... the character voices are so clear, and they sound like people I've met (actually, Imagase's voice in a lot of cases reminds me of me). The books take on a lot of questions: What if what you want is someone who just really cares about you and supports you... but the one who does that the most is the opposite sex from what you'd normally want? How do you deal with it when your emotions for someone twist who you thought you were out of shape? How do you work out what you want emotionally when you're a bit older, you're in your late 20s or early 30s, and you want to settle down? If you're not really gay, as a man, can your feelings for another man be as strong as a gay man's? And can your partner trust those feelings?

There's a lot more that I can say about this series, but what it comes down to is that I love it to bits. Seriously. It's got its really funny moments, and it's romantic and moving and just real. I love the characters so, so much, with all their flaws (and they are both pretty damn flawed people). If this was translated to English, I would be buying it for people already, but it hasn't... although you can probably find it if you look. It has been translated to French, and of course it's in Japanese, if you want it. And you do want it. Trust me. show less