Zashiki Onna
Hauntress

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This is one of my favorite mangas.
A really creepy story, I'm pretty sure there's something more on this work because you can't stop reading it.
The stalker lady is one of the creepiest characters ever, it's all about the appearence and the personality, some details on her makes this manga scary as hell.

right well, this is horror done right.

zashiki onna isn't horror in the sense of gore/torture/etc. but there's something so horribly disconcerting about it, that you can't look away.

the plot's not overly complicated, as should be expected of only 11 chapters, and the artwork's straightforward (though not bad) too. nothing's particularly impressive about the majority of the character cast too. it's a simple manga, and that's what makes it terrifying.

the way the stalker woman is drawn isn't horrific - she's not got blood dripping out of her eyes, or a smile cut across her lips - but honestly i'm expecting that face to be popping ... up in my nightmares. it's so normal, yet just not quite right.

honestly, i think the normality of zashiki onna is what makes it so terrifying to read. this isn't a far fetched story; we can separate ourselves from a torture scene but not a woman walking down the street. and that horribly ambiguous last chapter means that, to the reader, it really doesn't feel that the manga's finished.

she could be outside, right now, asking for a guy called yamamoto.

and she'll be outside for a very long time.

Story - I only just read Ibitsu the other day and I have to admit that I much prefered Ibitsu to this manga. The plotlines are pretty much identical. Two very creepy women stalking the main lead by breaking into their houses, etc. I felt that Ibitsu however had a lot more meat to the story and in comparison I felt that 'Zashiki Onna' just did not match up to the creepiness and twists that was experienced through Ibitsu. However, if you want a creepy manga without the goriness that is drawn in Ibitsu then this is the better choice to make. I felt the ... gore made the Ibitsu what it was. I felt this was more a mere shell of a story.

Art - I wasn't overally bothered by the art but I felt that the creepy tall woman was drawn to look almost unhuman which was pretty well done.

Character - One thing I have to say about this is that I felt there was almost no character development at all. You don't really feel anything for the characters and as a result, the story probably has less of an impact for this reason. Not to sound like a broken record but the characters in Ibitsu were much more development which helped aid in the creepiness. I did not feel this as much from this manga.

Enjoyment - As the manga is short, it didn't take long to read. I think I might have enjoyed it more if I hadn't read Ibitsu first as I may have appreciated the story a little more. I felt the idea in this story is very reminiscent of Stephen King's 'Misery' (which is also worth reading if you like this!).

Overall - I think its pretty clear in this review that I much more preferred Ibitsu to this. If you are one who is partial to a bit of gore and epic creepiness, I highly recommend Ibitsu which literally had me hiding in the company of other with the lights on and in comparison I could watch this in the dark, alone.