I'm a follower of the author, so I'm writing this as a fan who's also critical of their work. I'm quite passionate about this one, so this is a lengthy review, sorry.
Masae Nohara is a great artist and character designer. From their social media, you can tell they have a passion for horror and psychological settings, and they have a lot of love for the characters they created for this manga. Passion, however, can only take you so far.
"From the Red Fog" had a lot of potential, with an intriguing plot and interesting characters. Its main issue, however, is its pacing and character development. With
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it being only 25 chapters long, it tries its hardest to show the whole picture of Rwanda's story while also giving some spotlight to the other characters, but it ultimately has no time to truly develop them, which is not surprising, as it barely has enough time for its own protagonist in the first place.
As a result, every character besides Rwanda and his mother feel like they have missed potential, especially Macalo and Midwinter. Since her first appearance, Macalo seemed like she would play a bigger part in the plot with how she connected with Rwanda when they met, but she disappears for a long time and, when she makes a comeback, it's over very quickly and ultimately feels underwhelming since it has no bearing on the main story.
As for Midwinter, his backstory was very underdeveloped, as were his motivations, which were very superficial and cliché. I kept hoping the story would further develop his subplot, especially with how big the scale of his plans seemed to be, but we barely get to learn about it. By the time that arc comes to an end, it seems to get resolved off-screen, as the manga deals with his character in a way that is more of a let down considering how big of a presence he had until then.
The ending of that arc itself was fine -- it was satisfying enough, though I do wish its execution was better. Although I said that Rwanda's mom is one of the better developed characters, that isn't to say her character writing was particularly clever, and I did wish her backstory was more relevant.
Then there's the next and final arc. There's not much left of the manga at that point, so it feels more like an epilogue than anything else. The idea of exploring how Rwanda was going to deal after the end of the previous arc is a nice one, but the execution wasn't good. A lot of new characters get introduced, but there's not enough time for the reader to get invested enough to care about them even if they wanted to. The villain of this arc was very disappointing too, he honestly felt like the character with the least heart poured into, as he wasn't original at all, nor was his writing any good. I was also disappointed with how Macalo's character turned out, as she barely held any resemblance with the character we first met. The author tried to bring back some of the stuff from Rwanda's past, which would've been nice if there was enough time to actually explore it. Even with the open ending, the fact there were so many things left unresolved really bothered me.
I keep repeating the word "time", but that's because I really feel like that's the main problem here. I know the author wanted to show as much as they could with what time and power they had. However, in trying to show both Rwanda's past and present, while also trying to give attention to other characters, even minor ones, everything ended up feeling rushed, and the pacing was awkward even when it wasn't trying to rush. Had it been a lenghtier manga, there would have been more time to properly develop every plotpoint and character. Maybe we would get to see more of Rwanda's childhood and his time at the hitman organization would've had more of an impact on him. Even the last arc could've been more enjoyable once we actually connected with the new characters, even if it would still have its flaws.
I see some people complaining about the characters bringing up family and love, but I honestly feel like these are genuinely important ideas to be explored here, with the focus on Rwanda's upbringing and what brings each character to kill. There's also a short discussion about whether attachment makes you weaker or stronger, and it would've been nice to see Rwanda figure this out by himself through his connections to characters like Ivan and Macalo. But, of course, none of this gets explored past surface level, and none of the questions brought up in the later arc are any better.
My personal rating is a 6, if only because of how much I like these characters, but critically, I can only give it a 5 at best. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who knows their way around psychological manga, because the higher your standards are, the more disappointed you'll be: there probably isn't anything here you can't find somewhere else done better. If you still want to give it a try, I suggest not reading past volume 4.
Mar 1, 2023
Akai Kiri no Naka kara
(Manga)
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I'm a follower of the author, so I'm writing this as a fan who's also critical of their work. I'm quite passionate about this one, so this is a lengthy review, sorry.
Masae Nohara is a great artist and character designer. From their social media, you can tell they have a passion for horror and psychological settings, and they have a lot of love for the characters they created for this manga. Passion, however, can only take you so far. "From the Red Fog" had a lot of potential, with an intriguing plot and interesting characters. Its main issue, however, is its pacing and character development. With ... 
Feb 28, 2023
Usotsuki Mille Feuille
(Manga)
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It's your typical fake marriage setup: girl lies about getting married, guy happens to find out the truth and proposes that they should get fake married, they get closer under the pretense of acting like a convincing couple and it escalates from there.
While the plot might be a bit cliché, the execution is good! As far as "reasons for getting fake married" go, Akane's is relatable and makes for an entertaining character to read. I like that she's not "conventionally attractive" and she's a really sweet and honest person. I don't usually like characters like her boss Tsuneyasu and I'll admit I wasn't really interested ... 
Feb 24, 2023
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As for the writing of the characters and their relationship: Shougo is surprisingly inexperienced despite his previous relationship experience, but he knows what he wants and is honest about his thoughts, ... 
Feb 24, 2023
The best way Theo can be described is that reading it feels like napping on a big bed full of comfy pillows and blankets.
Whenever I think about my favorite BL manga, Theo always comes to mind first. Rei and Theo have a really cute dynamic as a couple; Rei's affection and attachment towards Theo are really obvious through his actions, while Theo might be a bit inexperienced/oblivious at first, but he's always very caring and devoted to Rei from the start. For a one-shot, it still manages to feel packed with worldbuilding and plot, both the story and characters are very well written. The author's ... |
