Horror Manga Review: Goth
by Otsuichi
This manga was a random find that led me to discovering one of the more interesting mangakas out there – Otsuichi. I have only read two of his stories, so far, but both focus on how the human mind is impacted by trauma. Like most humans out there, I’m certainly not immune from the curiosity of how a criminal comes to be; Otsuichi’s perspective in writing is, therefore, greatly fascinating to me. However, despite his interesting story concept, Goth falls just short of what I expected.
The manga begins by introducing the male lead (Itsuki Kamiyama) – a boy that does not feel and see the world in the same way as a normal person. He’s probably what we would call a psychopath (a psychopath being ‘born’ without empathy; whereas a sociopath would be ‘made’), though nowhere is he described as such.
Kamiyama takes a fascination with a girl in his class – Morino. They become ‘friends’, though in the loosest sense of that word. You see, despite Kamiyama faking being a normal, happy kid with the same mundane interests as his classmates, he actually has dark desires that he hides, and which includes wanting to see Morino die. Like I said – the loosest sense of that word!
In this story, Kamiyama and Morino begin hanging out with each other when they both discover a common interest between them – they both like researching gruesome murders. Throughout the story, however, Morino manages to get herself into trouble with those who want to … oh, you know – kill her! What should have been party time for Kamiyama, however, becomes one disappointment after the other as he manages to accidentally save her every time. (Drats!) That Morino just can’t seem to die … Let’s talk about the positives and negatives of this manga.
As for positives, I enjoyed the fact that Kamiyama is not your typical type of hero. He is not saving Morino from the goodness of his heart and that is an interesting perspective to read from. The manga also does a great job of portraying both these characters’ dark personalities. Further, the story, despite being quite simple and without any major plots or shocks, has a continued intensity that still makes it an interesting read. For me, I was fascinated to see how two people, who seemingly cannot empathise with others, could possibly build up a relationship with each other. That’s what kept me reading.
As for the negative, there’s one major flaw with this manga – it’s too short to take the story to a higher level. Specifically, although we get a conclusion on Morino’s personality, we didn’t quite get the same thing with Kamiyama. The story could have done much more to build up Kamiyama’s character, and I think that would have been a more interesting read than delving into Morino’s past. This is because, unlike Morino, Kamiyama seems to have been born without empathy. I think it’s more unusual for a person to be born ‘wrong’ (shall we say) than made that way, so it would have been exciting to see more background information on Kamiyama. For instance, where did he learn to fake being ‘normal’? Was he taught, or did he teach himself? There’s a lot that could have been done here.
In conclusion: though this manga is worth reading, at least once, I’m not so sure about a second take.