Pumpkin manga

The manga follows a deranged girl who adopts the name “Pumpkin Night” when she escapes from a mental hospital by killing all the nurses and patients. She goes out in the world, seeking bloody vengeance against a group of teenagers who played a prank on her and ruined her life back in middle school.

In a effort to expand into other new horror manga, not just Junji Ito, I spent the last couple of months reading almost anything I came across. Some honorable mentions include Happiness (Shuzo Oshimi), Kiriko Kills’ (Shingo Honda), and Killing Morph (Masaya Hokazono), but nothing entertained me more than Pumpkin Night. This manga is currently on-going and this review contains some spoilers!

I wouldn’t call Hokazono Masaya (Freak Island, Emerging, Insomnia) and Taniguchi Seima’s Pumpkin Night a horror masterpiece, but I definitely enjoyed it. We can agree to disagree on the story line of this manga, but you have to admit that the art is freaking amazing. Of course you should never judge a book based on it’s cover, but for me one of the great appeals to horror is it’s graphics/imagery. Beyond the artwork, the other appeal to this series, for me, was how it borrow elements from some of the best American horror movies, and created a series that put new twists on the stories that seem a little bit too familiar, while still keeping us on the edge of our seats.

Japanese horror tends to focus on either psychological or the supernatural, Ju-On (2002), Ringu (1998), One Missed Call (2003), Audition (1999). With awful tropes, ridiculous teen drama, torture porn, and people making completely illogical choices/reactions, Pumpkin Night reminds me of a classic 80’s slasher flick. If you share my appreciation and love for B-rated horror movies, I 100 percent recommend this manga too you.

Pumpkin Night Manga Goes on Hiatus Until July (Updated)