Portus

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Portus was the first Horror manga I ever read. Maybe that is the reason why it was so impacting on me. It's a one volume book and the storyline is extremely unique. It is a story about revenge, friends, love, and despair.

A lot of the time I could feel the character's fear as I read it. The facial expressions were drawn with such fine detail.

The horrific images that the characters see can disturb you even though they are just simply drawings. I feel that the author did a great job in bringing this story to life. There is only so much you can show ... and describe on paper, the emotion's that the author were trying to make the reader feel are all too clear.

The character's proceed to the end as if they were meant to, as if it was their fate.

The story has a bizarre ending. One you would never expect. Two thumbs up!

Portus was given to me by a friend who bought it on a whim because the front looked like something I'd enjoy. Upon unwrapping it and reading it I found out that judging a book by it's cover is a bad bad thing.

While the art was interesting and the story was fairly complex, it just did not hook me into it. I ended up abandoning it several times and picking it back up after forgetting why I stopped reading it.

The ending was somewhat expected on my part, while I wont give away any spoilers. Let's just say about mid way into the story you could ... guess the ending.

Though one thing I did not like about the art was that often times it felt overly detailed and too busy to focus on. I'd say if you want to read it for the story I'd borrow it rather than purchasing it.

Strongly disliked this manga.

For some reason I expected a lot from this one. I remember it was hyped very hard in the horror manga community when I was in high school (or at least I remember it was) but I hadn't read it until now. I was very let down. I feel like I must have been mixed it up with something else or everyone who hyped this has shit taste.

Not sure if I'm stupid and the plot was too complex for my small ADHD brain or if the plot just didn't make much sense at all. It did not keep me engaged. Found it ... very hard to make it through it. The second part of the book completely lost me.
Spoiler! The two rape scenes were completely unnecessary. Felt like they were just added to fulfil the minimum page limit. Definitely did not enrich the story at all honestly made me hate it more. I just feel like of all things to add to the plot, rape would be at the very bottom of my list.
The cursed kokeshi was creepy though I'll give them that. Wish there was more gore.

Portus is essentially one of those "cursed video game" creepypastas but in a manga format. At least, it starts like that. But explaining the story would be no good. Suffice to say it was quite enjoyable, with good pacing, and better than what I initially expected.
Art-wise, the scenarios are detailed and eerie, with a cinematic quality to them. The... let's call them ghost photography parts of the illustrations... are disturbing but in a nostalgic way for horror enthusiasts. They're the kinda found footage editions you see online for SCP objects but because this is all in an almost realistic manga style, they sell the idea ... that "this is not supposed to be there" so much better. Character's disturbed expressions also hit very well.
It's one of those books you forget why you got it and then one day devour in less than an hour.

I have a very boring experience from reading Portus.

As mentioned in another review, the story seems overly complex because the author mixed too many themes and plots together. I think the narrative appears elaborated but it's actually a very simplistic story. In other words : it's artificially complex. Some events are completely forced to try to shock the reader but oh dear it's not shocking at all, when it happens you just wonder why suddenly the characters act like that.

Drawings are bad. Very bad. If you have a few notions of drawing, or at least used to look at good art, you'll see ... that anatomy is never accurate. perspective is lacking. Even the shots that are supposed to be scary, you laugh at it (in a bad way). Typical example, the author tried to draw "realistic" close ups of the faces when characters are supposed to be scared, or horrified by something... But it's a total fail and they just look like Memes trolls' faces...

Speaking of the characters, most of 'em aren't introduced properly. They're all very flat and artificial. I haven't got any empathy for any of them.

So Overall, and about the enjoyment, well, this is all going very low. I think, if you never heard of "The ring" and that is your first horror story ever, it might be a decent (like 5/10) manga to start with. But otherwise, really, I don't recommend it, it's pathetic. If you're a horror fan, you'll be disappointed.