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Well, this sure is a mixed bag. There's some amazing stories, some okay stories, and one... that is questionable. I had a lot of fun reading this collection, for the most part.
!SOME SPOILERS AHEAD!

Futon is both short and slow somehow, but at least it helps get you in the mood for horror with something lighter than what's to come.
5/10

Things pick up from the second story, Wooden Spirit, although the thing I liked most about it was the visual horror, and not as much the story itself. There was something compelling about the protagonist though.
6/10

Tomio - The Red Turtleneck is a rollercoaster, shocking, terrifying, gross. ... I love it. The story is simple but the premise is absolutely terrifying!! The grayscale manga style makes it better IMO because in the beginning your brain doesn't immediately connect the dots that the turtleneck is covered in blood, because it just looks gray. So the realisation later on becomes all the more horrific. And despite how horrifying a story it is, it has a happy ending? At least a happier ending than most Junji Ito stories. I think that helps a lot, it lets the reader take a breather from the horrors that they just witnessed.
9/10

Gentle Goodbye is a very sad (albeit slow) story, but I like the ghost elements that it has. Very simple, eerie enough.The ending is especially heartbreaking in a quiet sort of way. There's no grand monster or gore, just melancholic acceptance.
8/10

Dissection-chan won't be for everyone, but I personally like it. It's unsettling, and it keeps taunting you that there'll be a lot of gore soon, to keep you on edge. I ends in a satisfactory enough way, although a bit too abruptly IMO. I like characters like Ruriko, and the way the story frames her is not just "look at how crazy and creepy she is!" but also "look how tortured she is by what's happening to her body". I just wish we could have seen a bit more of that.
7/10

Blackbird is okay. It feels like the most to-be-expected horror story out of all the stories, and that's not a bad thing. There's the mystery, the creepy lady, the gross element of the raw meat & blood that ends up being human, and the horror of the conclusion of the story that it was all somehow inevitable and that it'll happen again. I think it's a good way to use timeloops/time travel in a story, there's no questioning of the logistics of it.
7/10

Magami Nanakuse... Let me just say, I feel utterly betrayed by the chapter cover image. Magami looks so unsettling and cool and playful with her pose, facial expression and fashion in contrast to the eerie background! The story itself tricks you that something cool will happen. Until the protagonist meets Magami. For example, why does her apprentice look so old and withered down? Is Magami some kind of witch that lures fans into her home in order to drain their life force, does she use their memories to write her stories? I wish. Instead of something like this, you get the uncomfortably familiar and transphobic trope of "man in women's clothing!" reveal, and then a bunch of other things that are never truly given the space to develop.
2/10 (the 2 points are for what could have been)

The Whispering Woman is the reason why I bought this collection in the first place. It's less loud than most of the stories, but it's so human and sad, and tragic. Speaking as someone with anxiety, it feels very real, despite it being very exaggerated. The end is both triumphant and unsettling. The art is truly amazing, it gives Mitsu the impression of someone who is suffering while also looking creepy.
9/10 (although this might be a very subjective rating)

I feel like I need to give this a low score because of how much of a letdown it was. I had heard that it's amazing, but apparently, the animation is the only thing that's amazing about it.
With such an interesting concept, it feels like lost potential when it comes to the story, especially the ending, which I found actually bad.
The fun adventures in the dream world will only do so much if the characters are uninteresting. Chiba has so much potential for being interesting, but they never delivered on it at all. We don't learn why Paprika exists and how she came to be, ... we don't learn anything about Chiba's past! There is very weak character development for her, but it all boils down to "she used to be cold and mean to this guy but now she's learnt to open up a bit more, and she got together with the guy she was mean to because she was worried about him". What??? When did she start to like him so much?? She was worried about him yes, but that does not equate to wanting to be together with a person??
The only good story arc was the police officer/ detective. Despite him not being the main character, he got an actual backstory, a point of interest/conflict, and a resolution to said conflict. And the unique setting helped in this resolution. I just wish the main character's arc could have been as well developed as his, because everything about him was so interesting, and moving at times! The chase sequence, the hotel hallway with the body, that was some great stuff!! Why didn't the protagonist get any of that? Why was the resolution to her story defeating the cliche bad guy and then getting together with the person who she yelled at the last time they spoke?

If you can ignore the art style for the most part, I think this manga is pretty good. The mystery is interesting, but what I love the most is the characters and their individual stories that we slowly learn. Their stories were really touching and they didn't feel shallow or repetitive, something that could be a problem in the way that they are revealed.
Without going into spoilers, I can say that the ending was interesting and surprising in a few different ways, though a mystery will always be more interesting that its answer.

Apparently this is the same artist of Your Lie in April? I had ... only watched the anime for that so I don't know how their art in that manga is, but in general it's strangely bad when it comes to faces? It only happens sometimes though, and I don't really understand how they can sometimes get things right, and sometimes not. They don't seem to have a problem drawing more complicated poses or backgrounds, but a 3/4th view of a face is really hard for them to do. Still, I just ignored that as much as I could (plus I don't particularly like how they shade in the lips of the characters but that's just a personal preference. I think it works better in the Your Lie in April anime where it's not pure black)

I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who's triggered by fatphobia and by teacher-student relationships.
This anime should have been about two weeb girlfriends who get into fights about ships. It has shown time and time again that it cannot handle any other topics. When the MC was not skinny she was considered ugly and made to exercise by two of the love interests with the goal of making her thin again. The hot teacher who hits on students and wants to date a student is just there, and then he isn't but that's only because he decided to. Even the romance between the MC and ... the guys is shallow, and of course it is since they only care about her looks (except her senpai).
It had some funny and cute moments, but they were the ones that were focused on how she's a weeb, and how she and the female love interest bond and clash because of their interest in shipping.
Literally this story could have been 90% better if it was only about a love triangle between the MC, her senpai and the girl that's into her because their interactions were the only ones that were actually cute.

Some vague spoilers ahead



This was a really shocking read for me. It started off with this aura of mystery and creepiness, but it evolved into full blown terror later on.
I'm kinda glad that we never get a real answer about what these things are. I don't think horror stories need explanations behind their monsters, and even though we get two possible explanations, there is no real answer.
The ending was especially surprising to me ngl. It left me feeling really sad, which was honestly unexpected, sadness is not a feeling that I expect to get from horror in general. It's more than just bittersweetness. But ... I don't think that's bad necessarily. It's like, the story kinda starts off slowly, but it ends rather abruptly.

I get that a lot of people don't like gou and sotsu, but I personally like them the most out of all the higurashi seasons that I've watched.
I like the focus on satoko and rika, especially since before gou I thought that satoko was a pretty boring character. I also love how they ended sotsu, though it was definitely the safest route they could have taken, and perhaps they could have made a stronger connection to umineko.
Lastly, I am REALLY upset that the ending of sotsu tried its darnest t to keep things between rika and satoko platonic, even though in the opening ... they're almost kissing. But that's homophobia I guess :/ Like, you can't tell me that if one of them was a boy, there wouldn't have been romance involved. Imagine if there was a bittersweet moment (maybe a kiss) on the train station. But a girl can only dream I guess T^T

Disclaimer: I have not played any of the games, so my opinion has nothing to do with how good of an adaptiation this is. ALSO SOME POSSIBLE SPOILERS!

I rewatched this recently and I found it more enjoyable than the first time I had watched it. The story and mystery are very entertaining and fun, and I absolutely love the creative decision to have blood be a neon pink instead of red. It's such a creative way to censor it, and it makes the series overall more memorable IMO. Too bad that this was not continued in the next season

AGAIN WARNING FOR SPOILERS
With this review ... I mostly wanted to point out two things that really bothered me while watching the series:
-The first thing is how it handles DID. The fact that one of the personalities is just a serial killer feels icky, especially considering how misunderstood this disorder is IRL and in other media.
-Secondly, there is a scene that felt transphobic to me. I looked up discussions on the topic online and it seems that there are a lot of people who don't consider it transphobic. However, four different trans people said that it felt very transphobic to them, and I absolutely agree. It does not matter if the story tries to justify it in some way if the execution of the whole thing is just... in poor taste. The reveal definitely had transphobic undertones even if you think it does not apply to the specific character, so it's still something that should be talked about.

So yeah... if you plan to watch this, just a heads up I guess...

WARNING FOR SPOILERS KIND OF?
(I tried my best to not spoil too much)


After episode 15 is when it gets good IMO. Until then it's played out to be just like the first season of higurashi but it really isn't. Just like a lot of people, I thought this was a remake of that but I do not mind at all that it isn't. Because for me, higurashi (the main storyline that is, all the fanservice spinoffs are gross) had been enjoyable but really nothing special.
Tbh I was really not interested in satoko's character until episodes 15/16. I know this is a pretty unpopular opinion among ... other fans, but I love her so much after that point.