Suicide Girl

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Suicide Girl is a rather interesting little manga. I would describe it as a horror magical girl manga that has a dose of comedy here and there, with characters and an artstyle similar to Getter Robo or Gurren Lagann. This manga is in its infancy at the moment, but it shows potential to be a rather splendid and interesting series. There’s not too much to say right now about the series so this review won’t be too long, but it’ll give you the general idea of what this manga is about.

--Story— (slight spoilers for ch. 1-2)

The synopsis on this page doesn’t really go into enough ... detail, so allow me to elaborate on the main plot. Our story starts off with our main character Kirari joining a group suicide ritual at this place known as the Suicide Cafe. Surprisingly giddy about this, she wears a smile on her face as she lets the gas get the job done. She wakes up though to not only be alive, but the other individuals in the group ritual to suddenly be much happier. She figures the gas just failed and goes home to commit suicide, only to find she cannot die.

It turns out the admin of the Suicide Café is running an operation to exterminate demons that cause these suicides known as “Phobia”. These phobia amplify the negative thoughts and emotions of a person eventually making them turn to suicide. Through anti-magic substances, the admin creates a gas that gets rid of the phobia. These people are saved from the phobia, but it’s not enough to beat the threat of the phobias. So over the years, there will extremely rarely be a girl who comes who wants to commit suicide of their own will instead of a phobia’s will. Cue Kirari being one of those girls, and she is employed as a “Suicide Girl”. This gives her the power to see visions of people committing suicide in the future, and it’s up to her with some help from the admin to stop these phobia. From then on, the story basically becomes a mission based magical girl story with a lot of horror mixed in. It’s a little generic sure, but I would say without spoiling anything else the author has done a good job of making it a fun read.

--Art—

Now THIS is where the manga truly shines imo. Nakayama has a very overexaggerated, but rich way of drawing his characters.The characters themselves and their personality are reflected in the artstyle. I specifically love just how much he uses the “spiral eye” visual element. I would compare it maybe to Go Nagai’s or Ishikawa’s work a bit, but with a modern touch. He goes for a big-eyed, intense expression, dynamic style that just works really well. It’s contrasted greatly by the actual demons themselves. There’s a variety of rather creepy and dark looking creatures, with a bit of body horror mixed in even. The backgrounds are well drawn, and the action/fight scenes are pretty easy to follow for the most part, while also just being good eye candy. Though do know some of the English scans for this series aren’t the best, and you might have to refer to scans in other languages to get the art with good quality.

--Characters—

There’s not really much to say here since the manga is young in its development. Right now, there’s Kirari, the admin, and another Suicide Girl as far as main characters go. However, I’d say Kirari works well as a main character so far. She’s got a simple, but well done enough backstory to work as a foundation for her character to grow. She’s hotblooded, determined, and uh maybe a bit insane at times lol. At the same time though, she’s compassionate, cute, and a bit of an airhead. The other Suicide Girl’s personality is good too and contrasts well with Kirari’s, but that’s all I’ll say about her since spoilers. I don’t have much to say about the admin really, he’s cool.

--Overall Enjoyment—

So far, I quite like this manga. I think this series makes a “dark/edgy magical girl” story work well while avoiding the typical tropes that make the genre infamous these days. It helps that the horror part of it is handled quite nicely. Artstyle is very unique and wild, and I love it a lot. Characters are enjoyable enough so far. This series could admittedly get axed in the future, but for now I’d say it’s doing pretty well. Give it a try, and if it doesn’t grab you in the first uh let’s say 4 chapters, it’s probably not for you.

[Warning]
Suicide (obviously) and self harm

TL:DR
Jumbled story and one-note characters that doesn't even say anything of worth about suicide. Don't read this.

Description
At first glance, Kirari Aokigahara appears to be an average, happy-go-lucky first-year high school student. But instead of running late for school one day, she finds herself running late for a meeting at Seaside Cafe hosted by Rushio, the admin of a website called Suicide Cafe.

The sparkling, charming young lady stands out amongst the gathering's cast of suicidal individuals. She joins the group in swallowing sleeping pills and entering a car filled to the brim with toxic charcoal smoke. However, rather than dying, she wakes ... up from a dream about a girl's suicide and is surprised to see that the once-suicidal group appears to be revitalized. Upset that she did not die, Kirari goes home and attempts to kill herself, only to realize that she cannot die, no matter the method.

Rushio then appears to tell Kirari that she has been chosen to save people from ending their lives, including the girl in her dream earlier, and become a magical girl of salvation—a "Suicide Girl."

Story: 5/10
This is not as edgy as expected. The premise necessitates a little of it but this manga is actually fairly upbeat and positive, leaning more towards a cheery dark comedy than melodrama and self-indulgent angst.

The story itself feels somewhat disjointed, like many things are all just happening because the plot demands it to and it felt like there was a major lack of connective tissue between some arcs. I will grant there are some genuinely good ideas and I was caught off guard a few times but, overall, it's pretty predictable and you can see some story beats from miles off. Except for the latter third where it gets more interesting, in a good and bad way. Positively, it ups the stakes and begins to explore it's world a little more. Negatively, it's ideas are a bit out there in a way that's not set up well enough and isn't given enough time to breath. Unfortunately it all feels a little rushed.

Thankfully, the author ultimately manages to bring it together and the ending is actually pretty good. But was a decent ending worth all the mediocrity that came before? I would have to say no, it's not worth it.

There is an emotional core to this manga, it strongly implores the reader to find the joy in their life and live the life they wish to. The issue is that it's all very surface level, we never really dig into what that actually means for the characters and how this influences them.

Frankly the whole concept of the manga is just insulting. The idea that people don't really want to commit suicide and are forced to by magic demons and this can also be solved by magic girls killing the demons is bizarre. Look, I can forgive this, maybe it's a metaphor about how people really want to live and they're ‘forced’ to commit suicide by despair and you need someone to help you. Except that completely random people are also driven to commit suicide just by being in proximity of these demons so what's the message there? It leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I would suggest anyone who who was put off by the trigger warning at the top to just skip this one. Let's just chalk it up to a bad metaphor and move on.

The more serious issue is that the manga treats suicide extremely lightly. For example, the ex-lovers of one of the main cast shows up and she tells them she never really liked them. They all go to commit suicide and this gets resolved off-screen while the whole thing is used for mild character growth that she should be a bit nicer. No insight into what the lovers are going through or feeling, they get two panels of background each for why they even care about her and they never show up again. Three potential suicides are barely given any attention at all and are used purely to develop a different character. And the worst part is that the whole chapter is topped off with a joke about how this whole event has taught the character she's a perverted masochist! Why the $#*!@ would you end the chapter like that!? This manga, despite it's premise, doesn't seem to actually care about suicide. Genuinely, if the whole premise was changed to be that the demons were making people murderers and the magic girls had to stop that, almost nothing about this manga would have to altered which really doesn't suggest that it treats suicide with any level of depth or insight. I personally believe that media should be able to depict anything but surely we should expect more from a manga that's chosen to engage with such an emotionally-charged and complex topic?

Characters: 4/10
Kirari lost her childhood crush to suicide but is super cheery all the time. That is all.

Manten is an idol who is a creepy stalker that's in love with Kirari. That is all.

Akane is a 15 year old girl who's personality consists of being a creepy stalker in love with Kirari and having big breasts. That is all.

Are you noticing a pattern here? Yeah the main characters are flat and one dimensional. They never develop as character, the few times the author tries to dig deeper are confined to a chapter or two per character and it falls flat. I do not really care about any of them. As the manga goes on, a few characters with a little more promise are introduced but they never get the screen time needed to really make them shine.

Art
The art for this manga is amazing. The characters are so expressive, they all have cutesy characters designs that complements the dark comedy tone of the manga. Yet the artist can also do intensive, bloody action just as well, with greats fight scenes that can be difficult to follow at times and the occasional panel that's too busy to make out what's going on. The monster designs are creative and suitably creepy with some strong body horror elements thrown in for extra measure. The way it depicts the monster's hold over their victims with empty, bleeding eyes and bugs crawling over them is incredible and really sells how terrible these things are. Honestly did not expect this kind of quality from this manga but I was consistently surprised by just how good it could be, I would even say that it gets better over time.

Overall: 4/10
A good ending cannot save a jumbled story that rushes from one place to the next without ever really diving into anything it introduces. Filling the manga with one dimensional characters doesn't help. Fact is, the core concept of ‘Suicide Girls’ needs a deft hand to make it work and the author simply isn't capable of that, only superficially engaging with the topic. Honestly, the author barely seems to care about suicide despite writing a manga all about it. At least the art is good.

I obviously do not recommend this.