By Leroy Douresseaux
September 27, 2007 - 17:21
In the novella, BAKU, a young man named Takeshi learns that he is “The Baku,” a spirit that devours people’s nightmares. This discovery leads him down a path of twisted history of a lost family seeking reunion and a murderous rival who wants to devour Takeshi’s flesh in order to absorb the Baku’s power.
In novella, Mephisto, we meet the title character – known as either Mephisto or “Mephist.” He has the power to lead ghosts from this world into the next, but when he encounters the ghost of a female college student who supposedly killed herself, Mephist can’t bring himself to just send her away.
In the second part of the Mephisto novella, a short story entitled, Nana, the title character is a diminutive girl who is part of Mephist’s family. Nana finds a lost doll determined to be reunited with its owner. The doll, named Francoise, is endowed with its own spirit, a spirit that can’t rest until she finds her owner, but will her owner be as anxious for a reunion?
THE LOWDOWN: Mizuki’s stylish art remains a fixture in this collection of edgy, gothic fantasy. The mixture of curvaceous lines and slinky, supernatural characters is occasionally intoxicating. The themes present in Demon Flowers: the intense devotion to family, the threat of the past coming back, and the notion that eating a person gives the diner his meal’s powers are all present. Here, Mizuki pours on the poignancy and sentiment, and sometimes they ring true.
POSSIBLE AUDIENCE: Fans of supernatural and gothic romance will find that this is the comic for them.
B-
Shop BAKU at the Amazon aStore.
Read the review of Demon Flowers, Vol. 1.