Mashiro has finally come to terms with his feelings, but even though Sou has cast aside his controlling sister, her hold on him goes deeper than he thinks. When Kureha finds her own strength and decides not to graduate, Mashiro throws himself into his relationship with Sou... but was Sou ever really serious about him?
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Stunning Volume,
This review is from: After School Nightmare Volume 9 (Paperback)
After School Nightmare has been one of my favorite manga series since I stumbled on it about a year ago. Since then, I have devoured each new volume as soon as I could get my hands on it. The main highlight of the series is how the characters' struggles become fully realized in the dream world. In the real world, Sou is able to drag his feet when it comes to choosing between two people very close to him. However, when he enters the dream world, he is forced to decide which of them he wishes to save and which one he wishes to sacrifice. Every internal struggle is externalized and characters must act to resolve them, which makes for incredibly compelling reading and great amounts of character development.
Obviously, I love this series on the whole, but the ninth volume takes it to an entirely different level of quality. I hate to be melodramatic or enthuse too much about it, but this may quite literally be the best volume of manga that I have ever read. Sou receives the main focus, and we as readers are finally able to understand what made him into the dark young man he is in the series. He's never been my favorite character in ASM, but the way that the author portrays his psychological struggles is one of the most fascinating, gripping things I have ever seen or read, be it in novels, manga, or in a movie. The only downside to this volume is that it ends on a cliffhanger that feels a bit rushed, and doesn't seem to tie back into the main story--yet. However, I have faith that it will all be properly explained and integrated when we receive the tenth and final volume in January.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Does Not Suggest Easy Answers,
By
This review is from: After School Nightmare Volume 9 (Paperback)
Boy meets girl. Boy meets boy. Boy is pursued by both and struggles to choose between them.
Anyone who's read a girls' manga in the past few years can recognize the standard plot--play musical chairs with the genders, and you've got almost every romantic manga. After School Nightmare, in tone, depth, and style, stands above the crowd, though by twisting all of romance's conventions, this tale is not for the teens who want a swoony romance like Miwa Ueda's Papillon, but instead for those readers who like the grittier romances with a dangerous undercurrent, like Annette Curtis Klause's Blood and Chocolate or Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely, and enjoy the questions raised in Carol Plum Ucci's What Happened to Lani Garver? Our lead, Ichijou, is physically a boy and a girl, or as he thinks of it, a girl on bottom and a boy on top. Choosing the girl, fragile Kureha, means choosing to be the boy he was raised to be, with all the power, respect, and familiarity that implies, even if it means Ichijou must bury his blossoming feminine side. Choosing the boy, the fiery Sou, is far riskier and means a drastic change, a loss of status, and embracing a part of himself he barely understands. Many manga play with gender swapping and characters of both or neither gender, but they also handily sidestep any actual psychological or emotional questions about gender identity. Girls may dress as boys, or boys turn into girls, but however they push boundaries, like any good Shakespearean comedy, everyone ends up back in their original gender with their heterosexual romantic match. When differently gendered characters appear, from drag queens to transgender people, they are comic relief and sidekicks, never the main character in a drama. After School Nightmare successfully, and dramatically, pulls all of the gender shenanigans out to the front of the story, gives them real emotional weight, and then rips them apart. Mizushiro's way to embody these crossroads--boy to girl, honesty to lies, dreams to reality--is evocative and enveloping. Each student's psychology and fears are faced in the collective dreamscape as they attend a special after-school program. Upon entering the dream, the goal is to gain the key, as in a video game, to win and graduate. What graduation means is a mystery, except that each student who graduates confronts their fears, escapes from both the class and the school, and their existence is wiped from everyone else's memories. Each student is represented in the dream as what they fear the most, and these self-portraits are chilling: a girl with gaping wounds where her face and heart should be, a paper giraffe too flimsy to survive long, or an apparently endless stretch of arm, jointed with many elbows and coiled like a snake. Ichijou appears as himself, but in a girl's uniform, while Sou may or may not be the vicious Black Knight, hidden behind layers of armor. By throwing her characters into a dream, Mizushiro plays to her strengths of illuminating complex psychology through her art, both fluid and precise in expression and gesture. Her dreams feel like true dreams, flipping from moment to moment and setting to setting and somehow making sense, and she is deft at editing her panels and point of view to make the sequences clear even as they unsettle. Any reader who was lucky enough to read Mizushiro's earlier work, especially the complex school bombing tale X-Day, knows that she does not let her characters remain uncomplicated. Ichijou is a mass of emotional and psychological issues, and both suitors have their own demons to wrestle. The romantic triangle here is far from steady, with each point not really knowing him or herself enough to trust anyone else. The reader ends up curious about not only who ends up together but how they find themselves in the struggle. Kureha, who begins as a fractured, abused young woman who uses a sunny face to hide her horrific past, develops into the most stable, facing her demons and setting out on her own path. Each graduating student has their own story folded into the narrative, their vignettes showing the many ways they heal or self-destruct, and even side characters are rarely one note. Even in these odd circumstances, these teens do in fact act like teenagers. Ichijou and Sou are both easily swayed by outside influences, whether it be the gossip of classmates or the conniving whispers of an influential sibling. Their romance stutters and starts, alternately as uncertain and as hurtful as they are. Hormones and curiosity drive characters toward sex, but sex doesn't cure or damn them. Sou's quick shifts from focused persuasion to potential rapist are disturbing but not out of place, and unlike other romances, his force is not perceived as romantic. Past traumas, from bullying to incest to sexual abuse, are forced to the surface by the nightmare, and Mizushiro uses the darkness to undercut the melodrama. After School Nightmare asks all its questions head on and does not suggest easy answers. Add to that the suspense of students disappearing after graduation, the threats of the dreamscape seeping into the real world, and the lingering uncertainty of knowing what is real and what is dream, and you've got a gripping puzzle box of a story. With only one volume left, many questions have been answered along the way: Kureha seems to have found purpose and stability, and the elusive Black Knight has finally been identified. Just when it seems Ichijou has finally chosen, however, the whole game is changed by a dramatic revelation that turns everything on its head once again. Everyone may finally have a handle on what they need--but whether they can have it remains to be seen. -- Robin Brenner
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful story,
By
This review is from: After School Nightmare Volume 9 (Paperback)
I thought for awhile about this manga series till I finally decided to get Volume 1 and then had to order every one available. It is a story of mystery, intrigue, love and peer pressure. There is a bit of horror to it but to me not very much.
To not spoil the story itself it is basically a story of finding oneself and your place in the world. I highly recommend this manga series. IF there is an anime as well I would purchase as well. Although it appears to be light yaoi, but is it really?
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