Homunculus - Reviews

Homunclus are not monsters, hallucinations or reality, they are just the truth

This has certainly been an intresting read, it really dives deep into what people are on the outside vs what they truly are on the inside.

The story begind with Mr. Nakoshi who is a person trying to find where he belongs eventually he meets Ito who drills a hole in his skull and the stroy picks up from there. One thing that was really well done was that the homunclus were a visual representation of a person's personality so just be looking at a person you could tell what type of person they are.

This is where you see the strength of this manga, with how Mr. Nakoshi reacts to these people and how he fixes their problems, however after somewhere around the half of the series, the story focuses more on him and just what is he looking for. This is where it gets really intresting.

We get quite a lot of insight into what happened in his past and why he does the things he does, he is very intresting as the main character that's for certain. In fact all of the characters in the series have very dynamic personalities and this is further improved by having the homunclus to give even more insight into them.

All of this means that there's quite a lot of psychology going on here, though it is exxagerated quite a bit, the homunclus themselves are supernatural but this manga does try to apply some logic behind it now that's where it sort of falls apart, don't try to apply commonsense to something that isn't. Besides that there's quite a lot of mind games going on which again boils back down to the way the homunclus are represented.

Now let's talk about the art, and this is intresting because the art is what represents the homunclus and as such it becomes part of the narrative. Which is a good thing because the art is damn good. Character's faces are very expressive we often get a lot of dark and close up shots of them, not to mention some really graphic imagery. Just be aware that there is some really messed up stuff that happens such as a guy eating is own cum, oh yeah and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Unfortunately a lot of backgrounds are reused over and over again and it can feel is bit monotonous. The panel layout is simple just all vertical, its simple but it gets the job done.

Overall Homunclus is an excellent read, its got deep characters an enagaing story and quite a lot of themes going on. One of my favourite was the irony, Mr. Nakoshi was searching for something he was missing, but the truth was he had already found that a long time ago.

Also this manga deals quite a lot with self esteem, this is quite a central arean of Nakoshi's character.

Spoilers ahead

Some people were a bit confused what happened in the end. It wasn't a good nor was it a bad ending, what happened was Nanako died due to blood loss i assume or maybe brain damage after that Nakoshi went crazy as all the homunclus he saw started to look like him and this led him to drilling more holes in his head. Ito of course now has to live with the guilt as to what he had done and the people who appeared at the end were going to take Nakoshi to a mental aslyum.

SPOILER!

Great manga my mind has been raped!!! :O

The dude was fucked up in the head to begin with. Nanako already was awakened way before she met nakoshi. I think the homunculus he saw were demons/emotions like fear,sadness,despair,regret. Those were the emotions that he could never overcome...."just a little bit of courage" is what we need..sometimes.

The art was the best you could get, chracters were deep, overall im gonna say unique and in a category of its own!!

Hideo Yamamoto sucessfully created a story that explores the hollowness of humanity and how it damages people turning them into souless/shallow beings.  

A gripping manga with a very interesting premise. Not something for the faint of heart, as the story deals with mature themes such as violence, rape, and major psychological issues that the characters had to deal with throughout. It is an intense manga with a blend of mystery, horror, and drama. 

It also explores the fragility of humans, and how it expresses itself as "homunuculi" or in the form of monsters that is hidden in the subconscious of people which only the protagonist could see through when he underwent the Trepanation process.   

An exciting read, highly recommended for those fans of horror/psychological drama.

It's interesting enough that i need to keep reading but i have to say just how much i hate the chapters with the high school girl and how the mangaka treated females until vol 7 which is how far I have read. It's disgusting.

It's REALLY good. At first, I enjoyed it a lot. It was something right up my alley! But the unnecessary r^pe & p3dophilla really did it for me. After the car scene, I dropped it. I'm aware it's supposed to be messed up nd crap, but man. That made me SO uncomfortable. I might try to pick it up in the future, but for now, nah. Not 4 me.