[manga] Specter
KISARAGI Hirotaka is a favourite of mine, but despite this I had low expectations for Specter. The Manga is about Katsuya whose life is turned upside down when he contracts a strange blood disease. On one side, a doctor that’s an old friend tells him to seek treatment immediately — but then a strange man appears and tells him that the doctor will kill him. It’s up to Katsuya to try and tell who’s telling the truth, which may have something do to with his father, and also to find out what exactly this “Specter” is that he’s infected with. Just looking at the story it seems very typical, pretty boring sort of thing. It doesn’t really sound all that interesting but maybe the low expectations meant that when I did read it, I found it was one of the better Mangas I’ve read for a while now. But, perhaps it’s because this Manga is pretty damn awesome.
Right away we are drawn into the Manga’s story, with the strange drawing of the spector, the sound of a scream drawn over a splatter of blood, and the introduction of a boy as he looks behind him to see something that isn’t there- then event after event takes place after that, revelation after revelation- fast paced doesn’t even describe it. It’s amazing. The sheer depth and emotion captured in one volume. The art was good, if not to the standard of KISARAGI Hirotaka works today. I loved the design of the spector, such brutal beauty and very unusual. The concept of spectors did sound cliché, but turned out to be something amazing and something I’ve not encountered in Manga before. The spector was actually quite unique after all, and the way they came out of the body of the victim had a sort of gross beauty about it. There could have been more development on the spector side of things, and for sure it wasn’t quite explained what exactly happened to the spectors at the end- though enough was given that you could make your own logical conclusion(s). What was also nice about this Manga was how strong the characters were- there were no whiny idiots. People got hurt, they grew strong from it.
As I said before I was not expecting this Manga to be good and, in fact, I think if it was longer it could have gotten very irritating and seemed a little silly. However, jammed into one volume it’s fast paced and totally beautiful. The spector, and the events, all seemed likely in the context of the Manga…. basically, it worked.
Lastly, I have to say the ending was amazing, and not expected in a way. The last page is very cute ^^ After all the bloodshed and the angst, to have an ending like that leaves the reader feeling very satisfied. Overall this was great to read, and it’s still lingering in my thoughts. I docked off a couple stars at the end because it’s not perfect; however it comes close enough to it.
