Nightmare Inspector: Yumekui Kenbun, Vol. 1
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 5/24/2011
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 5/24/2011 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I'd read and enjoyed Volume 3 of this Twilight-Zone-esque manga, and when I found the first two volumes at The Comic Store I decided to take advantage of their 20%-off-graphic-novels-on-Tuesdays sale to pick them up.
The premise of the series is that young Hiruko is a baku, a dream-eater, who can devour someone's nightmares and - presumably - give them better nights' rest in the future. He stays at the SIlver Star Teahouse run by a young woman named Mizuhi, and accepts clients who turn up there. The individual stories stand alone, making this an anthology series of sorts, but there is an over-arching storyline concerning the mystery of Hiruko's past - and some secrets of Mizuhi's as well.
In this volume, the clients include a young boy who dreams that his dead mistress is alive and in trouble. Hiruko takes him into the dream, and tries to teach him how to manipulate his own dreams to make them turn out as he wants them to. But it turns out that the boy isn't who he appeared to be, and there's a bittersweet resolution to his dream-quest.
This sets the pattern for the series; often, the dreamers - and/or the subjects of their dreams - are other than they appear, whether they realize this or not. Their goals are sometimes sweet ones - to save or reunite with a beloved, for example; at other times they beg for help in facing some awful fate. The second story opens with a young woman marching into the tea house with a raised butcher knife in her hand, and only after she's been disarmed does she explain that she has nightmares about notes saying "tomorrow will be a repeat of today". In her dream, exasperated by the sameness, she writes "tomorrow I will stab someone", and now she fears it will come true.
Another client dreams she's losing parts of her body - eyes, ears, hands; this one leads to memories of a lost lover, but again, there's a dark twist to the story. And we're left in some doubt as to whether the baku really wants to help, or simply enjoys savoring the most terrifying of dreams...
Even when a particular client's case works out - the forlorn lover lets go of her memories and is able to accept her new love - there's often a more twisted epilogue. "Nightmare" is certainly the theme for this series, and I admit I enjoy trying to guess how things are going to turn out!
Luckily, a few of the cases DO turn out well - but it doesn't do to count on it {wry grin}.
[The TV Tropes page provides more info about the series, but do beware of spoilers.]
The premise of the series is that young Hiruko is a baku, a dream-eater, who can devour someone's nightmares and - presumably - give them better nights' rest in the future. He stays at the SIlver Star Teahouse run by a young woman named Mizuhi, and accepts clients who turn up there. The individual stories stand alone, making this an anthology series of sorts, but there is an over-arching storyline concerning the mystery of Hiruko's past - and some secrets of Mizuhi's as well.
In this volume, the clients include a young boy who dreams that his dead mistress is alive and in trouble. Hiruko takes him into the dream, and tries to teach him how to manipulate his own dreams to make them turn out as he wants them to. But it turns out that the boy isn't who he appeared to be, and there's a bittersweet resolution to his dream-quest.
This sets the pattern for the series; often, the dreamers - and/or the subjects of their dreams - are other than they appear, whether they realize this or not. Their goals are sometimes sweet ones - to save or reunite with a beloved, for example; at other times they beg for help in facing some awful fate. The second story opens with a young woman marching into the tea house with a raised butcher knife in her hand, and only after she's been disarmed does she explain that she has nightmares about notes saying "tomorrow will be a repeat of today". In her dream, exasperated by the sameness, she writes "tomorrow I will stab someone", and now she fears it will come true.
Another client dreams she's losing parts of her body - eyes, ears, hands; this one leads to memories of a lost lover, but again, there's a dark twist to the story. And we're left in some doubt as to whether the baku really wants to help, or simply enjoys savoring the most terrifying of dreams...
Even when a particular client's case works out - the forlorn lover lets go of her memories and is able to accept her new love - there's often a more twisted epilogue. "Nightmare" is certainly the theme for this series, and I admit I enjoy trying to guess how things are going to turn out!
Luckily, a few of the cases DO turn out well - but it doesn't do to count on it {wry grin}.
[The TV Tropes page provides more info about the series, but do beware of spoilers.]
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at Daniel Webster Highway (See Text For Details) in Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Friday, October 3, 2014
GoryDetails at Daniel Webster Highway (See Text For Details) in Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Friday, October 3, 2014
Released 9 yrs ago (10/3/2014 UTC) at Daniel Webster Highway (See Text For Details) in Nashua, New Hampshire USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
I left this book propped in the window of the Spirit Halloween store in the plaza at 166 DW Highway at around 4:45; hope the finder enjoys it!*** Released for the 2014 You're Such an Animal release challenge, for the embedded "mare" in the title. ***
*** Released for the 2014 Spook-tacular Halloween Challenge, for "nightmare". ***
*** Released for the 2014 TICK TOCK release challenge, for the embedded "night" in the title. ***
