Homunculus (manga)

Other than fruitsbasket, I read this manga in my reading week. Sad, isn't it?
I'll make a post on fruitsbasket when I find the time to rummage through the manga and pull my thoughts together.

Mangafox starts the summary of Homunculus by stating that this manga is about trepanation; a procedure of drilling a hole in the skull. While trepanation plays a vital role in this manga, it's not really all there is to it though. This manga is about a homeless man who was once a rich banker. He lives and sleeps in his little car that's parked between a hotel he used to frequently go to, and a park filled with other homeless men. He is caught in between those two extremes, unable to fully reject what he once was, or fully accept what he is now. This is how the manga starts...

The protagonist sleeping in his car.

 This, of course, is not all. The story's plot really stars when a man comes knocking on our main man's car window and asks him to participate in an experiment. The experiment is to drill a hole in the skull of the main character, hence the explanation of trepanation. The psychotic doctor claims that he seeks to understand humans, and that trepanation will allow the person to see things others can't; that it should awaken this "sixth sense".

...and it did...

The psychotic doctor

The main character, after agreeing to this insane procedure, starts to see strange things. whenever he closes his right eye and peers with his left, he sees some people as homunculi. Some people appeared as robots, hidden behind an armor, others as trees, and others as thin sheets of paper. When he reports his findings to the doctor, the doctor explains that not only are these hidden subconscious desires and feelings within that person, but those desires and feelings reflect the main character's subconscious as well. This is when the messed up things begin.

The main character begins to desperately try to find out who he is, and what's wrong with him, and what he is through the homunculi of the people he meets.

Wah, isn't he the cutest?! I must say, I've never seen an animated man drawn with a beard and look so good.

This is a completed manga, that is rated M for MATURE! forget 16, if you're not 18 or older, don't read it. There are many sexual scenes, graphic gory scenes, and mentally psychotic scenes.

The manga is drawn beautifully, as you can see. It is one of the rare mangas that I was barely able to predict while reading it. I was able to assume some events were going to happen, but there are so many plot twists, that it just hit you as one shock after another. The genres for this manga are MATURE!, psychological, mystery, and I would also say some dark ambiance.


Spoiler about the ending:

Let's just simply say, that if a normal person had super powers, this is probably how he would end up.

The ending was not all that disappointing, but not all that satisfying either. I wouldn't call it a tragedy, but it's definitely NOT a happy ending. It just ends.

Comment what you think if you've read it,

Peace,

M.D.