Lonely Deaths Lie Thick as Snow Volume 1 Review

From the team behind My Dearest Self with Malice Aforethought (available digitally from Kodansha) comes a new crime drama manga: Lonely Deaths Lie Thick as Snow. But does this new Vertical title prove a compelling read? Let’s take a closer look!

The story is set in 2006 and follows detective Jin Saeki, who is sent out to investigate a fairly routine burglary report. The crime in question has taken place at a large empty mansion in the middle of nowhere owned by Juzo Haikawa. The neighbours haven’t seen Haikawa in years, but the mansion is well maintained, despite seemingly being left uninhabited by the owner. This raises nothing but questions for Saeki, as does the fact it doesn’t seem like anything particularly valuable has been taken during the robbery.

However, as Saeki continues to investigate, he discovers a DVD containing haunting footage of human cannibalism, which then leads the police to find the bodies of 13 children in the basement. With Haikawa as their main suspect, the police start a manhunt for him, but the realities of this case soon become far stranger than Saeki could have ever imagined.

Not long after the wanted posters for Haikawa are put up, a woman called Kanon Hasumi comes forward with information and refers to him as her father. It turns out he’s not her biological father, but Haikawa used the mansion to take in children who had a troubled home life and needed somewhere to go. Hasumi insists that Haikawa would never have harmed any of the children he took in; instead, her suspicion is that one of the other children is responsible for the horrible crime.

Saeki is from an abusive household himself, so he understands the desire to be anywhere else. And in fact, he discovers that even his half-brother spent time with Haikawa. That doesn’t mean he’s changed his mind about Haikawa being the culprit, but he is at least willing to hear out and work with Kanon. Perhaps together they can get to the bottom of all this.

Author Hajime Inoryu and artist Shota Ito have come up with an intriguing premise here. Given the dark themes of both the crime and the backgrounds of the characters, it can be hard to read, but I find myself wanting to know more all the same. Although having seen there are 12 volumes of this and counting, I do worry about the plot getting convoluted. Haikawa took in a lot of children, and although some are unfortunately among the bodies they discovered, there are still a lot of suspects to meet and investigate. And I do worry that if they all have similar backstories to tell, it will eventually become overwhelming for the reader. I also feel I got to the end of this volume and had considerably more questions than answers since the setup took a long time, so I’m hoping once we get into Volume 2 there’ll be a better sense of where it’s headed.

This is only rated 16+ by Kodansha, but given the graphic depictions by Ito, I was surprised it wasn’t their adult rating instead. They don’t shy away from showing either the corpses or the ample physical abuse that happens in the flashbacks. It can be tough to tell this kind of story while obscuring the visuals, so I think Ito has chosen to go the right route with it, but that does mean if you’re sensitive to that sort of imagery, then this is not the manga for you!

As mentioned, Lonely Deaths Lie Thick as Snow Volume 1 comes to the West thanks to Kodansha under their Vertical imprint. This release has been translated by Mark Steer with lettering by Madeleine Jose, and it reads well on the whole. There are no extras included, which is always a shame.

The series is ongoing in Japan with 12 volumes currently released and is supposedly in its final arc. Here in English, Volume 2 is scheduled for a release in May, with #3 following in July and #4 in September. There was also a live-action drama adaptation that aired in Japan in 2024 starring Ryo Narita, but that doesn’t appear to have made its way to the West yet.

Overall, I find myself wanting to read more of Lonely Deaths Lie Thick as Snow after this first outing, but it’s not a series that is going to appeal to everyone, even if you’re traditionally into crime stories due to the overly graphic nature of the storytelling. There are too many unanswered questions, and I have some concerns about where the narrative will go longterm, too. But it’s clearly doing something right, as I’m intrigued enough to carry on. This is one to keep an eye on, either way.

A free preview can be read on the Kodansha website.

Our review copy from Kodansha (Vertical) was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).