Children is a horror manga by Yuu Ichiurahttps://anilist.co/staff/128736/YuuIchiura. This is... a horror manga... titled... Children. So... you know. 9733CONTENT WARNING9733 9733CONTENT WARNING9733 9733CONTENT WARNING9733 9733CONTENT WARNING9733 9733CONTENT WARNING9733 9733CONTENT WARNING9733 9733CONTENT WARNING9733 9733CONTENT WARNING9733 9733CONTENT WARNING9733 9733CONTENT WARNING9733 440https://i.ur.com/iPeevCj.png If you are squeamish about gore and/or you arent looking to be disturbed this manga is absolutely not for you. Whether or not this series is actually genuinely disturbing and not just being edgy for the sake of edginess is a debate we can and I will have all day but no matter what I would not classify this as a light read. Also I recommend if you are resistant to gore and are considering on reading this to read it right away without experiencing the spoilers that will most undoubtedly be present within this review. Cause iunno if that impact of reading this for the first time would have been the same had I been warned beforehand. Although that being said I suppose I basically was warned... 500https://i.ur.com/cwOM7QX.jpg ...What could possibly go wrong?? 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 Everything. 440https://i.ur.com/OGdJl1D.jpg Maybe you thought I was going to segue into actually introducing this manga and maybe I will in a minute but first I just have to say this series has some of the fucking most gruesome gore Ive seen in a manga. Now I know what youre probably thinking. TGG youre exaggerating. You probably think that because its usually either kids getting killed or kids doing the killing. 440https://i.ur.com/2x0Jh2I.png I cant possibly deny that isnt a part of it. But thats not solely why the gore of this series hit me quite as hard as it did. People think putting gore in stuff is just I dont know just throw a bunch of blood everywhere. Some severed limbs maybe a bit of entrails here and there. But theres a multitude of degrees and ways to handle gore. And I honestly think the challenge is finding the correct balance. 440https://i.ur.com/iBpvRvt.png Is there too much blood? Is there too little blood? Should I go absolutely over the top and just do ridiculous shit? Or should I make it more realistic? What should the blood actually look like? Should characters basically be walking bags of blood just waiting to burst at the right moment? And while I risk coming across as some sort of psychopath the more and more I focus specifically on the gore of this series I think the key component is honestly the characters reaction to the gore itself. 440https://i.ur.com/dfzfLZk.png Like it doesnt matter one iota of how disgusting or shocking your gore is if the characters dont sell it. Whether its the characters creating the gore the ones witnessing it or the poor victims themselves. But thats no problem with this series because the greatest strength is without a doubt the facial expressions of the characters. The big eyed creepy ass stare of the poster character of the series the absolute horrified look thats frozen on the main characters face for a lot of the series and theres just a whole bunch of empty deadeyed stares throughout the whole series... 440https://i.ur.com/5CMSzsF.png Its so good. I genuinely hope Yuu Ichiura does more stuff because while the rest of the stuff of this series is hit or miss I want to see more of these expressions and gore. Its so rare at this point of desensitization for gore in a manga to get a reaction from me that goes beyond thats dumb or thats gross. I was horrified yet wanted to see more. 440https://i.ur.com/mJzyYY2.png 440https://i.ur.com/WflpJWA.png 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 Now to the plot where it falls apart a little bit To play a hypocritical devils advocate a little bit as far as horror is concerned plot... isnt a necessity. 440https://i.ur.com/sigfBYM.png Lets walk that one back a little bit. If a horror series has a wellwritten and interesting plot thats great. Thats the unicorn Im hunting down in the dark woods desperately trying to catch. And then brutally murder and harvest every single section of its carcass for the sweet nourishment it would provide. Thats not the expectation. Much more often horror series have nonsensical and awful plots usually riddled with holes. But just because a horror mangas plot is absolute garbage or complete and utter nonsense doesnt mean its automatically a full loss. After all the other components could potentially carry it if theyre solid enough to bear the weight. 440https://i.ur.com/KiB0ZFj.png Children actually had something with its plot. For a good while it had me hook line and sinker. I genuinely wanted to see what this was building up to and not purely out of morbid curiosity. Of course while it held out a surprising amount of time disappointment did eventually begin to creep in. 440https://i.ur.com/gBY1PNB.png What started with a simple enough premise soon began to tear itself off the tracks just as it was approaching the climax. The premise is as follows. Igarashi Tohru is off to start his new job taking care a bunch of children in basically an orphanage located deep in the mountains. Only the job isnt all it seems. Or rather the job is exactly as described. His job really is to watch over a bunch of children in the mountains. ...Except the children themselves have a job. Garbage disposal. 440https://i.ur.com/MGYwKVA.png Some of the kids arent quite as adjusted to this life as the others are. And I was just absolutely riveted to see where this went. Would the protagonist try and escape? Or would he be broken? Whatever the outcome I was actually fully on board which is such a goddamned rare feeling to experience anymore when reading horror manga. 440https://i.ur.com/fVbHaYw.png Rather than being broken as I expected him to be the protagonist actually begins to bond with several of the children. Who for the most part arent exactly all bloodthirsty monsters who enjoy killing and dissecting people. Though more than a few of them are. This is the only place pretty much all of them have and even if they left it theyre isolated in the mountains. And of course none of them want to risk becoming a star. 440https://i.ur.com/OtMnVuu.png While obviously the spotlight is mostly on the protagonist and the head teacher I actually did like the kid characters. 440https://i.ur.com/7tMgDT6.png But I wont lie my prime interest was definitely on what the protagonist was going to do. And thats when the disappointment sank in. There were great moments where he was really beginning to fit in and even several of the kids were starting to like him. But then a certain moment happened which I was pretty sure finally broke him because it certainly broke me yet he turned silent and simply accepted the grim nature of the place he found himself trapped in. 440https://i.ur.com/FAVmAZ2.png Yet... in truth... WARNING massive seriesruining spoilers: The main plot really should have remained centered on the protagonist and head teacher. Because this is a completely different issue Im not even gonna go into but the way the orphanage finally meets its downfall also sucks. 440https://i.ur.com/zH4p11N.png If the plot had just remained intact just a bit longer I could have maybe even seen myself throwing this among my favorite horror manga. 440https://i.ur.com/VrytWfr.png Because there were numerous points where I found myself genuinely experiencing horror at what I was looking at. 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 9733 Conclusion 440https://i.ur.com/vrubDtv.png I can imagine a lot of people reading this and just dismissing it. Its just edgy for the sake of being edgy and/or its not hard to incorporate children into horror. Especially if theyre getting killed because 99.999999999999999 of people typically have an immediate negative reaction to seeing children die and if youre among the .000000000000001 that dont please stay as far away from me as possible but I mean while that was exactly what I thought it was going to be when I started reading this series theres something more to it. Like I never expected I was going to like any of the kid characters. I just assumed all of them were going to be like the sister that immediately starts laugh screaming and demanding her brother to give her the eyeball of someone he just shot dead. 440https://i.ur.com/WG3WtiC.png ...Im still just mystified. This was just supposed to be nothing but stupid and obnoxious gore. Why wasnt this just stupid and obnoxious gore??? Oh no Im a bland generic male main character and Im off to start my new job in the mountains Sure hope nothing goes wrong Or theres some dark secret to this job I wasnt told about But it was actually interesting for a while. Horror manga arent supposed to be interesting https://i.ur.com/R4VEnTU.png https://i.ur.com/cxpvdcc.png I give Children by Yuu Ichiura a 6 out of 10. That might be seen as a bit of an anticlimactic score. Letting it land somewhere in the middle rather than going for either one of the extreme ends but I mean that score fits my opinion of this series perfectly. Im so fucking split on it. I love parts of it. 440https://i.ur.com/MqFGhfG.png Hell parts of it genuinely horrified me and in the good way. But simultaneously it was also really fucking disappointing. I would still say though its definitely worth reading if youre into horror and also youre very resistant to gore. I mean even if your opinion actually is that this series is entirely just for the sake of gore or even just being edgy I would argue that this would still be one of the best of that sort of series. Considering you know a lot of the series in that category is mostly just straight bottom of the barrel trash. 500https://i.ur.com/P6X70CS.png 9733