What? This againhttps://anilist.co/review/3646? Really? 440https://i.ur.com/GQUZtAd.png Alright fine. I mean Im still actually reviewing Yamihttps://anilist.co/anime/98978/YamishibaiJapaneseGhostStories5/ Shibaihttps://anilist.co/anime/101743/YamishibaiJapaneseGhostStories6/ seasonshttps://anilist.co/anime/109603/YamishibaiJapaneseGhostStories7/ and an actual third Fuan no Tanehttps://anilist.co/manga/108261/FuannoTane/ went into publication earlier this year so just fuck it I guess. Wait... hold on... I just heard a sound behind my computer monitor. Oh my god no. 440https://i.ur.com/7wQ5sW7.png Alright. Im just gonna stay calm. Fuan no Tane has taught me that if there is something spooky or creepy going on you absolutely should just ignore it and maybe itll go away. Lets just pretend theres not a skeleton glaring down at me and continue the review. Seeds of Anxiety 440https://i.ur.com/Bsm9SMB.png My feelings towards Fuan no Tane by Masaaki Nakayamahttps://anilist.co/staff/98581/MasaakiNakayama are kind of complicated. On one hand I really think a bunch of the stories are just lame. The ghosts are just creepy faces or spooky female ghosts theres really no build up or explanation to the scares and sometimes there are chapters where arguably nothing whatsoever happens at all. 440https://i.ur.com/DErjlhN.png But on the other hand this actually is a genuine attempt at a horror manga series where characters actually get scared. There are ghosts there are spirits there are... debatable creepy things that go on. It feels so often that I look at a random manga under the horror genre and this is what I see. https://i.ur.com/Qj7E1w1.png Gores obviously fine but those other three are immediate red flags... In a sea of that no matter how unsatisfying the scares are or how dumb they are I have to respect Fuan no Tane for what it continues to be. Genuine attempts at spooky stories and scares. 440https://i.ur.com/3z6EzoC.png I just want spooky stories... preferably good ones... thats all Ive ever wanted... And you know its not like all the ideas are complete flatlines or just require no effort. Which is why Ill give it more props than Yami Shibai seven seasons in... 440https://i.ur.com/oUDbZOV.png Also with Plus there surprisingly are some improvements. There are actually a good amount of stories that are surprisingly long for Fuan no Tane standards. Ten page long chapters??? https://i.ur.com/WwLNVtX.png Wow I feel like Im reading a novel over here Its almost like theres not much you can do with just two or four pages And especially not for over 100 chapters 440https://i.ur.com/klUYbi6.png I mean theres actually even some stories that extend past one chapter. Not many but the fact that there are at least some is nice. Especially since one of my biggest problems with Fuan no Tane was that the story would end with a character seeing a ghost and that was it. WELL DID THE GHOST DO ANYTHING? THATS THE PART WE WANT TO SEE. IM FINE WITH LEAVING IT UP TO THE READERS IMAGINATION BUT NOT EVERY SINGLE STORY. 440https://i.ur.com/Ub4p7Gh.png But also you have the additional problem that if youve read the first Fuan no Tane and to be fair quite a decent amount of time is between the two series original publication first manga = 2002 to 2005 and second manga = 2007 to 2016 but the majority of the stories from Plus feel really repetitive to read because a lot of them really are just more of the same. Okay here are two scares. One is from the original and one is from Plus. If I look at this review in a months time I can personally guarantee that I will be completely unable to tell which is from which series. 440https://i.ur.com/KW5E1sX.png 440https://i.ur.com/0wkcYlN.png No matter what these panels are what youre ultimately reading Fuan no Tane for. So when you hit a chapter where the whole chapter is a woman waking up thinking shes twelve hours late for work and the scare is her realizing that she misread the time... Oh it actually is 8 AM and not 8 PM... weird. 440https://i.ur.com/PCZS2g6.png ...Where the fuck is the spooky face??? Look Im sure everyones woke up at one point and couldnt immediately tell what time of day it is. Youre just waking up its normal to not be 100 there the MOMENT your eyes open. 440https://i.ur.com/MmnfmrL.png I will say though there is one story I especially liked. A guy happens upon a guy who is halfway sticking out of a hedge. For the record its story 96. 440https://i.ur.com/3C5P0ic.png The guy stuck in the hedge asks the man for help as hes actually a motorcyclist whos been in a terrible accident and now hes stuck in the hedge. Still not exactly at ease but able to believe him since he sees the wrecked motorbike he attempts to help the hedge man. And with some effort he gets him free. Except... 440https://i.ur.com/y98Lo4h.png He didnt exactly escape the accident without a scratch. This is probably without question the goriest thing out of both of the Fuan no Tanes and it is actually effective. Except for the fact that I still cant really tell what he was actually stuck on? Im not sure if its the side of a house or a car on the other side of the hedge. I want to say its probably a car? But then you have the added element of the mans remains falling down onto the living one after he actually got him free. And we actually get to see his reaction which is key because it is a look of pure fucking horror. 440https://i.ur.com/qa2XxYZ.png Because since hes still looking in the direction from where the man fell he is probably looking at the remains of the mans other half which is probably nothing but a grisly mess. After all the accident had resulted in instant death... Theres also a clever story or two taking advantage that this Fuan no Tane goes over 100 chapters. As the 99th chapter is about the Hyakumonogatari. 440https://i.ur.com/PSiaqhS.png Basically a bunch of people tell ghost stories with each other and for every single story you put out one candle. The idea being that once the 100th candle is put out something otherworldly may appear or something terrible may happen. And then the 100th chapter of Fuan no Tane Plus is just some white pages. Except for 440https://i.ur.com/7Arxmnh.png And thats when it clicked. The ghost stories of Fuan no Tane itself are exactly like that of the Hyakumonogatari. Just ghost stories youd tell in a ring of friends for a goof. Maybe one or two of them will genuinely be a bit creepy or dark even and some of them will just flat out fucking suck. https://i.ur.com/ojAWyjF.png And when the Fuan no Tane creator acknowledged this directly in a meta way by implying that this entire second manga was just a round of Hyakumonogatari being done by some kids that went wrong and that the reader would meet some spirit since they had hit chapter 100 I smiled. Fuan no Tane actually made me smile. 440https://i.ur.com/lf0k1Ct.png Even so I still on the whole dont like Fuan no Tane but Im actually coming out of this sequel with more respect for the author. He could have just thought of it on the spot when he neared 100 chapters but Id like to think that he aimed for it intentionally just to make that cheeky joke. And sure theres still a lot of really short stories in there but a hundred stories is still a lot. Unfortunately he probably DID just think of it on the spot because he of course goes well over 100. 440https://i.ur.com/JJgGJmv.png Conclusion Its still Fuan no Tane. If you didnt like what the first Fuan no Tane had to offer you then youll probably not like the sequel. And if youve read the first Fuan no Tane and was just curious if this was more of the same because youre already suffering from spooky faces fatigue 440https://i.ur.com/8nVHiEv.png ...Well its the same. Additionally despite a somewhat improved opinion of the author I cant do what I did with the last review and actually provide a list of the stories I thought were interesting or creepy. As there really was only that one 96 440https://i.ur.com/8ykPrZd.png Whether theres less stories I genuinely found creepy or it was the spooky faces fatigue settling in and causing a lot of the stories to blend together Im not sure but since theres a whole fifty more chapters than the first series and I actually have less stories to recommend from them Its only fair I give this a lower score than I did for the original. A 4 out of 10. Its unfortunate but still not far from the expected result 440https://i.ur.com/sl41SIO.png ...Now is my boney friend gone? Yes. Good perhaps droning on and on about not always spooky stories scared him off. ... Eh wait. Wait a moment. How silly of me. I have nothing to fear from skeletons. After all... 440https://i.ur.com/Czo5SNC.jpg I already am one.
40 /100
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