Peephole - Reviews

Peephole aka Ana Satsujin.

The name and first chapter let you believe this is some dirty ecchi / semi-hentai manga. I found the masturbation scene at the start not fitting with the rest of the story.

It is however still quite dirty, but more because of the many many ...many...murders which take place in this story. So far I've read all released chapters and I must say this is quite an intriguing twisted romance story.

The synopsis doesn't say much about the story so let me give you a little summary of this manga, without revealing too much spoilers beyond the first chapter.

The very first page starts with Kurosu peeping on Miyaichi after a failed suicide created a hole in the wall. As Kurosu kept observing Miyaichi he fell in love with her and found a reason to keep on living. But what he did not expect was Miyaichi being a serial killer.

After seeing her murder someone he gets discovered but surprisingly Miyaichi lets him live, at least for now! What follows next is Kurosu getting more and more involved with her murder spree and the problems associated with that while the love between the two keeps on growing. Will Miyaichi stop killing? Will they live happily ever after? Will there be problems with the cops, gangs and rivaling serial killers? Or will Miyaichi kill Kurosu after all?

The art is okay in this story, the severed heads are however heavily censored, and I do not know if that is done by the scanlators or by the author, I suspect the latter. But me being a lover of gore find that a little bit disappointing. Other than that there are no complaints on the artwork.

Characters:

Kurosu is the main character of the story however Miyaichi steals the show, mainly because Kurosu is faint hearted and easily faints so Miyaichi has to save him. His life lies in the hands of Miyaichi who might kill him any second if she wishes.

Miyaichi is my favorite as the cold heartless but extremely smart serial killer. Her elaborate plans let her escape the grasps of her hunters every time. I expected her background story to explain why she was killing, but it didn't she is just a natural born killer. Despite that I keep on rooting for her. Even if she gets her way with Kurosu...which by the way would be a very unique and interesting ending of the story.

Overall this a very interesting and unique story so I suggest you keep on reading for at least the first couple of chapters and not drop the manga on the first misleading pages. I'm curious how this manga will end and if it will receive a bad ending, happy ending or happy happy ending.

Update after the manga finished:
I've got the ending which I hoped for but unfortunally it left a bad taste behind. But for spoiler reasons I can't tell more as that. Overall it was a pretty good manga but unfortunally it started to drag a little the later stages, if it ended sooner it would have probally remained at the 7,5 rating. But it started to drag with the Abiko Subaru part which was rather boring and the characters became flat, so I lowered my score to a 7 out of 10. It is still a rather refreshing and unique manga. And reading all chapters in 1 go instead of waiting 2 weeks per chapter will make, maybe, the last part more interesting. So still a manga I can recommend to read.

Does Peephole look like Nozoki Ana judging from first chapter? Yes. Is it really like Nozoki Ana? Absolutely not. If you're looking for a nice thriller with a mass murderer as protagonist, I think you've found it.

Plus/minus considerations:

• STORY: story starts really well, almost felt nostalgic being a Nozoki Ana fan myself, but the sexy panels were just misleading; you can divide the story in two big "chapters", as the mangaka calls them: the first part gives you a nice all-around presentation of the two main characters; the second "chapter" loses a lot, being really slow and far from what you were used to. This being said, I liked the last two chapters quite a lot, I'm satisfied. (++)
• ART: the art style is not the greatest thing I've ever seen; some of the panels are poorly drawn and they seem to lack technique and precision (I think it's the first serialization for this mangaka), but that's being picky. You can say that despite all the imperfections, you can clearly understand what's happening all the time. (+)
• CHARACTERS: no complaints for the main characters, the main couple is well described and you somewhat feel their sadness and pain (to an extent, I ain't no killer); do we want to talk about Rio for a second? She's nuts! What I feel it's disappointing is the rest of the crew: secondary characters (lady cop is one example) and minor characters are almost irrelevant to the story, they almost do nothing and I don't care at all what happens to them, no bueno. (-)

I also want to add that all the chapters are really really short, some of them don't go past the 7 pages, don't let the chapters count scare you, especially if you're not into manga that much. Overall it was a good time for me and I enjoyed it, 6/10

No thank you! 

I know I maybe should've read more but I lost interest once we met the corpse woman/man. I find the main character very annoying I don't know what it is about him but I just don't like him same with the main girl. However I do like the police woman she was very interesting during her first appearance. Overall: Not my cup of tea

This was one of the most convoluted and vile things I've ever had the urge to actually finish reading. Every single chapter had me thinking, "What the hell am I reading?" from both a figurative/moral standpoint and a literal/narrative standpoint. There's no reason to read this unless you're into edgy softcore gore plot logic. If you came here thinking it might be similar to an ecchi-esque/voyeur story like Nozoki Ana, you'll be sorely disappointed. And on the flip side, if you came here hoping for a disturbing/gore thriller like Dead Tube... you'll be similarly disappointed.

Story - Our protagonist tries to hang himself in depression but fails, leaving a hole in the wall where he'd anchored his noose. He peers through the hole and finds that he can see his neighbor's apartment. He latches onto her life out of desperation and keeps watching her through the hole day after day, until he eventually witnesses her murder someone in her apartment. And another. Soon he realizes she's a serial killer. Of course, the next logical step is for them to start dating. They make an agreement that they'll be a couple and love each other until she decides to kill him. From there, we spiral deep into a convoluted tale of secret organizations, mass murders, and more ass-pull plot twists than you can shake your fist at, all for the sake of prolonging the inevitable murder/suicide they end on. It's rife with terrible logic, character deaths with no weight, and an overall cavalier attitude about death and suicide that somehow feels even more wrong than most "thriller" type horror manga out there. The number of times characters "die" only to show up again in a later chapter is infuriating, and the absolutely appalling number of people that are aware of who this serial killer is makes it absurd to believe how the police behave. 2/10; One of the most trash stories that I've ever actually finished. At least it wasn't offensive.

Art - Surprisingly decent, all things considered. The author's choice for how to censor certain things kept changing, which was a little annoyingly inconsistent, but overall the designs and aesthetics are actually pretty good. Some quality effort went into the art here. 7/10; Well above average, though not quite "impressive".

Characters - I've never been so torn between giving a category a 10 or a 0. The author clearly understands all the hallmarks of good character writing and puts them to use here. Everyone carries a clear motive, sticks to their moral compass, and the important characters show demonstrable 'growth' over the course of the story. The problem is that every single one of them starts from a fundamentally irredeemable point that makes them all feel completely unrealistic and fake. They are *so* edgy and *so* egregiously stupid that I cannot accept any of them as real characters. It's like an exaggeration of what makes Serial Killer characters in other media interesting, but without any of the motivation or depth that is supposed to go with it. 2/10; Putting a nice coat of paint over a turd doesn't change that it's a turd.

Overall - Honestly I feel like I've wasted my time on this one. This is now officially my new baseline for what I'll consider "worth finishing". 3/10; Not egregiously offensive like some other works I've dropped, but not worth finishing at all.

Ok, this story is really messed up. The beggining made me think I was about to read a copycat of the Nozoki Ana manga (which is based in two people who basically spy on one another through a hole on the wall). As soon as the murders start, everything changes, the atmosphere of the manga and the story take a big twist into some messed up things.

Needless to say that if you want to know more, you should read it. Recommend it, it's kinda crazy, but it's really enjoyable!