Soil | Manga - MyAnimeList.net

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Japanese: SOIL

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 11

Chapters: 90

Status: Finished

Published: Mar 12, 2004 to Nov 12, 2010

Genres: Mystery, Supernatural

Theme: Detective

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Comic Beam

Authors: Kaneko, Atsushi (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.47¹ (scored by 1,416 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #3219²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #3126

Members: 7,189

Favorites: 111

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Wikipedia

7.47

Ranked #3219Popularity #3126Members 7,189

MangaComic BeamKaneko, Atsushi (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /11

Chapters: /90

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Synopsis

Something strange is going on in "Soil New Town." The sudden disappearance of a seemingly normal family leads the two detectives Yokoi and Onoda to the idyllic town in the middle of nowhere. What looks like a routine case at first quickly turns into a complex and deadly riddle where nothing is what it seems to be. Will the two desperate investigators manage to solve the mystery before it's too late?

(Source: MU)

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Characters

Yokoi

Main

Onoda

Main

Tamura

Supporting

Reviews

Nov 1, 2017

Agerno

Recommended

Soil is a manga written by Atsushi Kaneko. This is what you would call a weird story, and it's true. This manga is different from any other you have read.

Soil is a crime and mystery work, not a classic one... It has some elements that make it a unique piece of art.

STORY - 7
This manga has a good story, a clearly defined plot with some main parts and a little background.
The main objective in the story is to find out what happened to a missing family and a police officer and where they are. The problem begins when the autor introduce weird ...

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Feb 7, 2025

typewritermonkey

Mixed Feelings

Soil is brilliant but I hated reading it. It's one of those mystery stories that takes two completes to appreciate. The first time you'll be thoroughly confused, and the second time you'll see how consistent and simple everything was, once you understand how its "rules" work. Apt metaphor for a lot of things I suppose. It's also similar to Ergo Proxy in that regard, which I reviewed positively, but Soil has nowhere near the charm for me to want to bear with it.

The beauty of Soil lies in how everything goes back to its premise: oddities are sprouted by some original sin, and in ...

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Apr 22, 2021

Oxybuzz

Not Recommended

This is one of those works where the author believes existence is something’s everything and anything is nothing. Look, I’m not a writer, but I think I can write something better. Anyways, spoilers ahead.

You get glimpses of bizarreness in “Soil” from the beginning. The art is pretty limited yet somewhat detailed. The characters, even the main ones, seem normal and yet they have shticks that make them seem unreliable. The setting takes place in a normal-looking town yet the place feels quite ominous and fake. And the story just seems to be going on without ever having a predictable aura. Seems like a nice foundation ... for an enjoyable and mysterious piece of fiction. But in actuality, once you have finished “Soil”, you realize it was all a facade and a deceiving disguise of the true nature of this manga: a convoluted mess with random oxymorons. And that’s not me giving a negative opinion - the manga tells you from the beginning that some mysteries were never meant to be solved. And that’s true, this piece does contain a mystery that might as well be a dream. But the bigger question at hand is if you could actually justify an implementation of this type of mystery in your story. That sounds somewhat contradictory considering the mystery is supposedly unsolvable and illogical, and so the answer to that question is inherently “no”. And yet, this manga actually tries to give reasons and explains its mysteries. Okay, then let’s try and view this rationally.

The final chapter contains the big reveal or confirmation that we’ve all been waiting for - the root of the Suzushiros’ existence. But is that reveal actually satisfying? Well, that amount of satisfaction equals the amount of rationality in the connection between the cause and effect - none. And that’s the whole manga. X happens, totally inconsequential Y happens. Why? Well, because X doesn’t make sense, a portal that is connected to the realm of Santa Claus is created and by nature gives birth to Y which also doesn’t make sense - 10/10 what more can I say. The mystery doesn’t follow a consistent and reasonable narrative. An idea like this is inevitably bound to be executed terribly no matter its complexities and that is this manga’s greatest sin.

By establishing that things like diseases, deaths and general non-conformity actions are things that could be considered “inexplicable” and make “rifts”, you make these random supernatural cases general and somewhat common, and so the “Suzushiros’ disappearance” becomes an unremarkable case out of many in the world. And I get it, the leakage of the “inexplicable beings” has to start somewhere. But that just goes to show that there is a fundamental flaw in the portrayal and progression of the main mystery. By the time we reach the truth of the Suzushiros’ case, we’ve come to learn about several abnormal cases which undermine its impact. It doesn’t really feel like a mystery being unfolded, but rather a nonsensical and messy concept being unraveled. Somewhere in the middle it seems to have lost its initial point. We also learn that reality always tries to fix itself; any “inexplicable being” is destined to disappear. But it׳s not clear whether it disappears because a density of “inexplicable beings” surrounds it or because it gets too immersed in materialism. It is most likely the former, but the Suzushitos disappearance suggests otherwise. Either way, this idea is way too general to be consistent (what is the minimum requirement for it to disappear?), so it relies on randomness and convenience. This intricacy leads to an irredeemable, terrible, abrupt and nonsensical ending which destroys almost everything the story has built.

And it’s a shame really considering the first 30-40 chapters are actually pretty solid. The story is quite captivating in that span of chapters (though shows signs of being illegitimate by the end). I especially like the beginning when Onoda and Yokoi are slowly getting a grasp on the town and its residents’ true nature. The atmosphere is quite eerie and ominous, especially when it involves the Suzushrios, which adds to the intensity and yet repulsiveness of the plot’s development. Those chapters contain some familiar themes that are presented in a chaotic and unsettling way like escapism and hopelessness that stem from a numb environment and damaging circumstances. It’s manifested fairly well within Kento who tries to seek fake happiness (Accordingly, Mizuki represents “fake happiness” which matches with the perceived idealistic happiness her fake family embodies), while he is encompassed in his rough mental state derived from a reality full of sorrow. The problem though is that his ordeal is left inconclusive by the end and the later chapters ruin it by having characters suggesting that the kids are just insane; nothing really comes out of it in the end because by then, no one cares, including myself.

And so the characters are not good overall.

Some characters seem to exist for either comic relief or just to witness the plot. The prime example is Onoda, which for the most part, is an extremely passive character (ironically she keeps spouting her resolve but does almost nothing) with no character depth whatsoever. Her “logical” approach to the case is inherently wrong and makes her static. Not even a backstory; she’s basically nothing.

Yokoi’s character is a mess. At the start, it seemed like the author wanted to give him some depth with him meeting his child and the story indicating he’s divorced. Unfortunately, nothing whatsoever is tackling it afterwards. Seems like something the author has abandoned midway as it makes it awkward. And eventually he’s absorbed both mentally and physically in the “inexplicable realm” and becomes a character who is hurt by the plot immensely. He does random abstract things in order to reach the truth of a specific abstract case - just an example of the stupidity of the plot and naturally Yokoi’s character becomes stupid.

Kosaka’s son is a messy character with wasted potential as nothing is really revealed about his “inexplicable” nature. Is it his mental state? If so, why is he like that? I would probably take “well, it IS inexplicable” as an answer if I was wearing socks on my shoes. It would’ve been nice if the story had been consistent in its reasoning with this major factor. We get a random character indicating in an absolutely random way that Kosaka’s child is destined to be an “inexplicable being” before he’s born. Not very convincing if you ask me. Anyway, his character ends abruptly and incohesively.

Some characters have unclear purpose or motivation like the two inspectors that confront Yokoi who are a mess. There is not one mention about who they are or what they’re trying to accomplish. You have to assume they’re some “inexplicable beings” that try to make the story reach a climactic end. And Tamura - is he relevant or not? Surely his betrayal must hold some significance. I think it’s pretty obvious how terrible of a character he is.

Something went wrong with the writing of these characters, and the notion that some of them stick out not for any good reason is hilarious.

If you look at this manga and can’t draw any meaning out of it, I definitely wouldn’t blame you. Considering how this manga likes to shove its chaotic nonsense down your throat, there might as well be no meaning. The “mystery” here - is it even mystery or just nonsense? Is it mysterious nonsense? Maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t meant to be taken seriously. Yeah… that would explain the naked guy with a sock on his penis.

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Poll: Soil Chapter 1 Discussion RVDA - Sep 25, 2016	1 replies	by Strukla »» Yesterday, 7:57 AM
Poll: Soil Chapter 90 Discussion TitanInsane - Jun 11, 2021	1 replies	by realestever »» Feb 26, 2024 12:44 PM
Poll: Soil Chapter 3 Discussion Agerno - Oct 20, 2017	1 replies	by animEid »» Oct 9, 2023 12:55 AM
Poll: Soil Chapter 8 Discussion Agerno - Oct 22, 2017	0 replies	by Agerno »» Oct 22, 2017 1:24 PM
Poll: Soil Chapter 2 Discussion Agerno - Oct 20, 2017	0 replies	by Agerno »» Oct 20, 2017 1:58 PM

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