Mad Miniscape Volume 1 Review
Asahi is living in a small apartment with her childhood friend, Minoru, and they’re spending the summer together. But this is no ordinary childhood friendship because Minoru died four years ago, and the ‘thing’ living with Asahi wants to take her life. But why doesn’t Asahi mind ‘Minoru’ being there? And why is she keeping him a secret from everyone else?
Ayumu Hirose is a new mangaka, with only a handful of series released since starting in 2019, and so far their other series have been comedy and romance. According to the afterword, Ayumu has been wanting to write a horror for a while, and is thrilled that this series got a serialisation. This is especially heart-warming as the back of the book contains many early sketches of the characters in other outfits and previously rejected concepts. It’s clear that these characters have been living in Ayumu’s head for a good while, and you can feel it in the execution that they thought very hard about who they are, and what they wanted to accomplish from this horror manga.
The manga has a very tight cast: Asahi, ‘Minoru’ and Minoru’s younger brother, Wataru, who joins in halfway through the book. Other characters are mentioned but they’re strictly off-page, and that’s for a reason because of the themes of self-isolation, madness and grief that are prevalent in this book.
Minoru died four years ago due to a tragic accident, but it’s clear that Asahi still suffers from his loss, as she’s quite willing to have a monster who looks like Minoru living with her, even though the thing has made it clear that it wants her life. She is willing to put up with threats of violence, gore and body-horror to keep him by her side. She also holds a lot of anger about his death as well, with one scene going inside her head for a brief moment, where she lashes out with a knife at losing her friend. She notably looks unbothered by the threats that ‘Minoru’ makes, like she’s heard it all before, but there are moments when she freaks out at sudden danger, when things get too intense. That keeps her from being an unshakable protagonist with enough humanity for the audience to relate to her, but it also makes you wonder why she puts up with it in the first place. Is the risk of danger worth living with a monster that looks a little bit like her old friend?
‘Minoru’ is the centre of the horror here, and interestingly, he isn’t a ghost, spirit or demon that you’d expect from this kind of series. Instead he takes a form of mud (or maybe blood?) in a humanoid shape, that can move and change how it looks and sounds at whim. It also has a unique feature where it needs Asahi to give it shape; for example it can’t eat any ice cream until Asahi pushes her hand into its mouth and goes deep enough to form a throat. It’s very eerie and inhuman, effective indeed. There’s mention of a ‘promise’ that Asahi needs to keep with ‘Minoru’. Whilst it’s not made explicit, you can kind-of guess what it is, and the tug of war between ‘Minoru’ and Asahi is effective across the whole book.
The mangaka is not just excellent at storytelling, but the art as well. The characters look like your typical teenage boy and girl, with the girl having striking blue eyes and white hair. The backgrounds aren’t much to write home about, the standard apartment building and such. However the mangaka’s effective use of panelling is commendable; there’s a clever bit in Chapter 3, taking place in the kitchen, where the speech bubble placement looks like it’s an error, but it’s not and makes for a fun thing to notice on re-reads. Within the same chapter, there’s also a panel where ‘Minoru’ has a rant of sorts; taking up half the page with a haunting look in his face and eyes. I hadn’t seen that in a manga before, and, as someone who enjoys a good horror story, I appreciate the unpleasant feeling that it gave me.
Mei Amaki gives an enjoyable translation as well; there are no translation notes but the extras, like the early concept art at the end of the book, are great to see.
Mad Miniscape is an excellent start to a new horror series that the mangaka was clearly passionate about telling and is highly recommended for any fan of the genre. Looking forward to the next volume!
Read a preview on Yen Press’ website here.
Our review copy was supplied by the publisher Yen Press.
