WARNING SLIGHT SPOILERS. THIS IS A FIVE CHAPTER MANGA SO ITS KIND OF HARD TO DISCUSS IT AT ALL WITHOUT SOME VARYING DEGREE OF LIGHT SPOILERS. Hiki is a horror shoujo manga that began and ended in 2007 its a very short 5 chapter manga about a teenage boy who finds a treasure map in his desk and decides to follow it for whatever reason. The reason I put treasure map in quotations is because the map itself is very crudely drawn in crayon and I can not fathom how they read it or why they would even want too in the first place but hey for the plot I guess right? 220https://i.ur.com/Dn4m4s6.png Immediately after receiving the mysterious map of untold fortune we are given a very quirky and stupid. backstory that is played so nonchalantly that I genuinely can not tell whether this was supposed to be played straight and casually despite the obviously edgy undertones. For those of you wondering what the story is they literally just put frog eggs in a jar and let them grow in it and suffocate as their tadpole bodies evolve into full froggy bodies. Not really sure thats possible at all seeing as they would both starve and suffocate in such a confined space. Not to mention I dont think tadpoles can live outside of water? I dunno man someone is going to have to fact check me on that one. After our edgy little side story we are back to treasure hunting and given a very quick introduction to some more characters that I couldnt be bothered to remember the names of. The main characters are pretty boring and bland themselves so forgive me for not wasting what few brain cells I have left on the NPC filler friends. Not long after running into them we are thrusted right into what we are all here for the horror elements. I must confess despite the shoujo flowery soft girl art the spooky characters are done justice sometimes. It looks nice passable. 220https://i.ur.com/clGM91q.png By the way for anyone wondering and or worrying no this is not a spoiler. It literally happens within the first chapter not even 20 or so pages in. As soon as they find the dresser that this entire manga is centered around they are forced to return home because of rain. Unsurprisingly this is when the weird paranormal stuff starts to happen in the manga and its really cliche they do some parts pretty well and I think the subtle horror is pretty good at what it does sometimes but it just looks cool and ends at that. The author likes to make some really extra scenes here and there that kind of feel like theyre trying too hard. It can be very meh at times. I do like their subtle scares the most for example there is one panel where a ghost limb reaches into the mouth of the main character and tries to pull him down which inevitably begins to pull his teeth out ever so slightly. I didnt like that imagery at all it was well done but the story itself is really lacking. 220https://i.ur.com/p5bafKl.png Its not long after all of this that we basically speed run through a bunch of characters he meets at school as spooky things happen around him then he just goes insane and we get a hard cut to his uncle or dad or whatever moping and being angry that his ward is mentally ill and its so stupidly done it kind of borders on humorous if Im being honest. I mean we get a nice long scene where he has duct taped himself and all of his room because of the ghost shenanigans and its honestly just silly. 220https://i.ur.com/CrgOsvV.png I mean come on man look at this Seeing your main character brooding and being emo while duct taped into a brooding position is just laughably bad. The manga then speed runs and drops a bunch of plot twists and imagery that really just leads to a whole lot of nothing its pointless and serves no purpose and the random and rushed feeling ending does not help especially when it tries and fails to end on a mind fuck type ending. I dont like mindless nonsense that feels random for the sake of being random its really juvenile and this entire manga is juvenile enough on its own already. The character personalities are very shallow and non existent but I expect no less from a 5 chapter shoujo horror story so I cant judge it too harshly. I can and I will All in all I at least liked the art. 220https://i.ur.com/yC38Oze.png