Hell Mother

The first manga I've read from Inuki Kanako, and it's not disappointing. STORY - 7/10 Being a collection of oneshots, it varies. I personally enjoyed House and Nightmare the most, though that will likely vary depending on which horror tropes you enjoy. Without spoiling anything, lot of the horror relies on grotesque imagery and the sense of horror due to the main characters being young girls. Nonetheless, there's some fun concepts behind some of them and none are exactly bad, even if they can feel generic. ART - 7/10With round faces and peropero-esque sparkly eyes, it feels like an odd mix of anime styled features and non-anime styled features. In general, the art tends to be slightly wonky, but has lots of charm compared to the usual polished work of many others. The backgrounds are often not overly detailed but pleasant, and the actual horror part is effective and grotesque. Perhaps not a masterpiece of artwork, but nonetheless it holds up well. CHARACTER - 6/10 As can be expected from oneshots, there's little chance for development. Instead, it has to rely on making the characters stand out and serve their purpose. The main characters in each of the stories are girls, which really adds to the sense of vunerability and shock which accompanies the horror aspects. In stories such as Mirror Mirror and Hell Mother, it suffers from the issue of the two characters being similar in personality a lot. Most main characters do end up acting similar, a 'innocent girl' which something happens to. This serves it's purpose, though it'd be nice to see anything which would make them stand out better. ENJOYMENT - 8/10 Despite any flaws I've mentioned, there's nothing which makes it an unpleasant read, and at no point felt like I was wasting my time with it. It was a fun twenty minutes or so. OVERALL - 7/10 Perhaps not the most memorable horror oneshots you'll ever read, but there's some interesting concepts and execution, and seeing as it's only 5 'chapters' long, absolutely worth a read to any horror fan.