Jan 16, 2024
*Spoiler-free section.*
I have quite a few hobbies outside of anime and manga. Including, but not limited to, paleontology, teaching, reading novels, camping, video games, and watching YouTube. One of the 50-odd channels I'm subbed to on YouTube is a book-tuber named Daniel Greene. During a weekly news video, he says that H.P. Lovecraft’s famous story The Shadow Over Innsmouth has a manga adaptation that will be released in November of 2023. I, of course, went, “A what of huh? Is this real?” Not only is it real, but there are, at the time of writing, 10 manga and 1 anime adapting Lovecraft’s works. I was
...
truly at a loss for words. For more reasons than one.
Now, I have read all of Lovecraft’s works and can tell you that all of his stories revolve around the horror of the unknowable and/or incomprehensible. So, how do you translate something that is meant to be beyond the point of human comprehension, and make that into a drawing on a page? The answer is, not as bad as you might have expected. Gou Tanabe does a pretty good job of conveying the strangeness of the creatures, and he was able to translate some of the atmosphere of the original story into this manga. Minimal changes have been made to the story, so it’s very good, however, the characters have always been weak in Lovecraft’s works, and it is no different here. 7/10.
*Spoilers beyond this point.*
The story starts with Robert Olmstead looking to do some genealogical research, and this leads him to the town of Innsmouth. Turns out the ancestors of the people of Innsmouth made a pact with the Deep Ones who have ties to Dagon and Cthulhu. Therefore, the people of Innsmouth begin to resemble these Deep Ones the older they get. Robert gets attacked and flees from these half-fish people and makes it home. Then it is revealed that Robert’s ancestors are half-fish people, and so he also begins to change.
There is a reason why this story is one of Lovecraft’s most well-known works, and that’s because it is amazing. There is mystery, and horror, and fishiness oozing from every pore of the story. The town of Innsmouth itself is extremely off-putting, and you can almost feel the slime of conspiracies and sinister intentions that coat the town. The action scene is pretty well done and tense. I never would have expected Lovecraft to write such good action. My final bit of praise for the story is that it ties so well into the Cthulhu mythos.
The story isn’t all good though. First, if you dig into the story beyond the basic level you find that it is a story about miscegenation. Who knew Lovecraft was a frothing racist? Also, there is so much exposition it hurts. Lovecraft could have found a better way to deliver this information than a drunk old man talking at the main character, and therefore the reader, about Innsmouth’s history. He is not above splitting a story into a dozen parts, so why not do that here and make it flow better? Honestly, his racism probably got in the way. Finally, if I was Robert, I would have left when I saw my first fish person. Nothing could keep me around those Fishmen.
I really like the art. I know that adapting a Lovecraft work must be difficult at least, and impossible at most, but Gou Tanabe did it. Also, the level of detail in the wide shots is fantastic. The fish people look rightfully off-putting, the town looks appropriately decrepit, and the page-turn reveals are well done when implemented. My final point on the art is that the cover is amazing. Having it be almost all back and white, but then have the green eyes of the priest shine back at the reader as if the moonlight is glinting off of them like in the story. Genius and well-executed move.
Almost nothing can be said for the characters in this manga. The old man is for exposition, the Innsmouth people are hateful Fishmen, and Robert acts like you expect anyone in a horror story to do. That being, of course, inexplicably staying around danger for the sake of the story. You should read this manga if you want to get into Lovecraft, if you have read the original story, or if Lovecraft’s writing style gives you a headache. With all that said, Art and Enjoyment gets an 8.5, story a 7, and Characters a 6. For a final score of 7.5.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn. Iä R'lyea! Iä Cthulhu ftagn! Iä! Iä! 7/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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