Nijigahara Holograph

by Inio Asano, Rachel Thorn (Translator)

Overview

In this manga, acclaimed cartoonist Asano tells a complex, oblique tale about how an tense atmosphere, symbolized by proliferating butterflies, lead schoolchildren to “sacrifice” a fellow student, and how that act impacts various characters across two timelines.

Fantagraphics is proud to welcome the great Inio Asano (Solanin, What a Wonderful World!) to its acclaimed literary manga line. Even as butterflies ominously proliferate in town, the rumor of a mysterious creature lurking in the tunnel behind the school spreads among the children. When the body of Arié Kimura’s mother is found by this tunnel’s entrance, next to apparently human traces, the legend seems to be confirmed. Is the end of the world coming? In order to appease the wrath of the beast, the children decide to offer it a sacrifice: The unfortunate Arié, whom they believe to be the cause of the curse, is shoved into a well that leads to the Nijigahara tunnel — an act that in turns pushes Komatsuzaki, the budding thug who has carried a torch for Arié for a while already, entirely over the edge. But this is only the beginning of the complex, challenging, obliquely told Nijigahara Holograph, which takes place in two separate timelines and involves the suicidal Suzuki; Higure, his stalkerish would-be girlfriend; and their teacher Miss Sakaki, whose heavily bandaged face remains a mystery; and many more — brothers, sisters, parents, co-workers, teachers, aggressors and victims who are all inextricably linked to one another and all will eventually — ten years later — have to live with what they’ve done or suffered through.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781606995839
Publisher:	Fantagraphics Books
Publication date:	03/19/2014
Pages:	200
Sales rank:	115,661
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	16 Years

About the Author

INIO ASANO was born in 1980 in the Ibaraki Prefecture. The Japanese national Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper described him as one of the voices of his generation.

Rachel Thorn is from in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. She is a cultural anthropologist, writer, and an associate professor in the manga department at Kyoto Seika University. Her translations include the New York Times Best-Seller Nijigahara Holograph by Inio Asano and Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

Editorial Reviews

★ 03/17/2014
Asano, best known for the acclaimed manga Solanin, delivers a dark and twisted psychological horror story that links together a series of characters and tragic events in one timeline that have devastating ramifications for a second timeline. Equal parts beautiful and highly disturbing, this story of love and loss, obsession and vengeance, is sometimes too opaque to be easily understood, but it has the kind of depth and layers that encourage multiple readings. Weaving together a series of characters tangentially related to one another on the surface but intimately connected when one probes deeper, the story is full of murderous revenge, hidden agendas, and majestic visuals that contrast well with the darkness of the story. The book follows the paths of a mysterious girl, a physically and emotionally scarred young teacher, an obsessed bully, a suicidal student, and others, as their past crimes come full circle to haunt them 10 years in the future, with the world enacting its own kind of poetic but brutal justice. The work is impressive and will leave readers puzzling about it, with many likely returning to dig deeper and discover further meanings. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"This beautifully drawn but elliptically told story is almost relentless in its depiction of the evil that lurks behind everyday life, but it’s impossible to put down. Fable and film-noir crime mix in a small town where the children believe a beast living in a tunnel is a sign of the end of the world, and adults cope with the aftereffects of a hideous crime. This is a book that rewards repeated readings…"

Robot 6 - Brigid Alverson

"It’s a brilliant piece of psychological horror that is both deeply intimate yet expansive in scope, with a large cast of characters that are sucked into the terror in different ways. The cyclical, abstract story is challenging, but greatly rewards rereading, and it’s easy to get lost in Asano’s intricate art, which does outstanding work realizing the setting that is so important to the plot."

The A.V. Club - Oliver Sava