Hebi Onna Hajimemashita

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Hebi Onna Hajimemashita is a pleasant surprise, and one that deserves more attention.

As the synopsis says, this is a collection of short stories – creatively bizarre horror stories. Although this is a relatively new manga it’s noticeably old-style, to the point that if you told me it was published in 70s I would believe you. Such as, the emphasis is more on the bizarre part than the being scary.

Don’t take me wrong, the horror is there, it’s just a more seasoned reader will not get scared that easily. Still, the way the stories are written catches your attention and earns your curiosity. I was ... really amazed by how most of the stories were truly original tales, no rip-offs or similar plot of something I’ve read before. Plot twists are well executed and although it might not be outright scary, it will still give you some chills. The atmosphere is really well executed. I wish there were more manga by this author translated.

Although this is listed as a horror manga, I was personally not scared by any of the short stories featured here. Each story is only given 6 pages; any ideas that may have been scary are too rushed to have any sort of impact.
There was little to no personality with these characters, the art was decent but definitely not creepy, and the dialogue and stories were so awkwardly delivered that I was just confused half the time.
The only short story that I actually kind of enjoyed was Chapter 5: Ghost Picture. It has no dialogue and the ending genuinely caught me off guard. While still ... not scary, it had an interesting concept that wasn't crammed to fit in to the limited number of pages. If the rest of them had been handled similarly, I feel like this manga would have been more interesting.
As is, most of the stories are bland and forgettable at best, and weird and illogical at worst. If you're still interested, it's a very quick read that you can blast through in a few minutes. If you're looking for a memorable, horrifying experience however, I'd say to give this one a pass.