manga: Yumekui Kenbun: Nightmare Inspector Vol 1

[meganbmoore]

Hiruko is a baku, a demon who eats dreams, in Japan’s taisho era. He operates out of the Silver Star Tea House, and seems to be its only regular customer. The pretty owner seems to blame this on him, but not hold it against him, even though people tend to run into her shop waving knives around. For the price of the dream itself, Hiruko will cure a customer of whatever nightmares plague them, though he may make the dream a little nastier before her does, just to make it taste a little better when he eats it. In this volume, we have silent film stars committing suicide in their fans’ dreams, inanimate objects coming to life so they can hug their owners, people losing body parts that represent enemies, and others.

I was a little bit surprised when I started reading and realized Hiruko was a guy. I…uhm…thought he looked like a girl from the cover, and when I quickly flipped through it at the store. Certainly doesn’t act like one, though. Like most of the “mysterious shopkeeper/deal maker who is part of the supernatural world” he seems to operate in a mostly gray zone. (One day, I should figure out why I seem to grab almost every one of these series I see.) He carries a cane that he uses to open portals into the dream world, and to whack people with knives who go after the as-yet-unnamed waitress. She is either a very tolerant girl, or up to something herself. That, or the shop is her nightmare. Or something. When he goes after dreams, he also has a suitcase that he hangs from the cane, but there’s no clue about what that’s for yet.

The taisho setting, I admit, is one of the appeals for me, though in terms of plot, it’s really only come into play in the chapter about the silent film star, and when the waitress was in awe of a customer who had his own telephone. Visually, though, it adds a great flavor to the book. Come to think of it, outside of Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden, I can’t think of any manga set in that period, and most of FY: GK takes place in a fantasy ancient China anyway.

Anyone know of any other manga set in the period, out of curiosity? 

Comments

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

I also find the Taishou period interesting. The one other series I know of in that setting is tactics, about an exorcist and his youkai servants. There's a historical side-story in Vol. 6 of Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (the main series is set in modern times). And, of course, the "Oto" VR world in Tsubasa is modeled on the Taishou era.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I need to catch up on kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. I got distracted after Vol 2. I think I have the first volume of Tactics lying around somewhere.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I think Tactics takes place during that era.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I must find the copy of vol 1 that I swear I have somewhere.

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

Tactics is set in the Taisho period. Tactics is one of my old faves. 8D Very much of the "even though this is ostensibly shounen, it is totally actually BL, we're just not admitting that outright" variety of shounen manga. Which is funny, since it's not even all that fanservicy. (Well, the authors did several porno doujins for it, but the series itself is only mildly fanservicy.)

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

Lol, I see two people already beat me to the punch. ^^;;

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Sounds like Peacemaker. "This is totally normal shounen where they're all 100% straight badasses...ignore the part where one guy sleeps in the other guy's bedroom all the time when his own is just as nice, ok!"

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

Also like Peacemaker in that the authors are (not so) secretly total perverts. XD

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

This reminds me that I still have vols 2-3 of Peacemaker waiting for me to read them.

[musouka-manga.livejournal.com]

Golden Days. Absolutely gorgeous series, especially in regards to the details of the time period. (I especially liked how one chapter had the protagonist dealing with how boring it was without modern entertainment)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Is it licenced, and what's it about? (From what you said, I assume there's time travel involved?)

[salimbol.livejournal.com]

This sounds totally awesome, I must say. Was Sakura Wars Taisen set in Taishou? (Or was it in the preceding period?) Not a great manga, but the period itself always lends itself to visually interesting stuff.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...yeah, I think it was. That or right after. I forgot about that one, despite watching the anime and reading the first few manga.

This is fun. It's pretty clearly a "first volume of first series" thing, but it should be good.

[musouka-manga.livejournal.com]

Is it licenced, and what's it about?

I'm pretty sure it'll be picked up eventually, but so far it's not licensed.

I'm in a bit of a hurry at the moment, so I'll just C&P the generic-tastic blub the scanlators are using: "Feeling rebellious toward his overprotective mother, Soma Mitsuya, a first-year high school student, only cares about his violin and his hospitalized grandfather. On the night his grandfather�s condition suddenly worsens, an earthquake hits, sending Mitsuya to 1921 in the Taisho era�"

Since this is something relevant to your interests, I'd like to mention that I adore Takao's female characters. They take some getting used to, but they tend to be very "outside the box" in terms of what you normally get with heroines. I especially love "Teru Teru Shounen"'s--which is licensed, btw--Shinobu. I think it's because I get the feeling Takao isn't afraid to have her female characters be disliked, so she gives them real flaws above "can't cook" or "too wishy-washy". And it always pays off and makes me love them all the more.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

*looks up Teru Teru Shonen on Amazon*

Ok, that sounds kind of awesome. I'll look at that next time I'm at the bookstore.

[retsuko.livejournal.com]

Did you think Yumekui Kenbun was a bit of a Holic ripoff? I love Holic and enjoyed YK, but couldn't make up my mind how linked they were to one another.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Actually, it would be the reverse. According to mangaupdates.com, xxxHolic started in 2003, and Nightmare Inspector in 2001. And Petshop of Horrors predates both.

The whole "mysterious shop owner/deal maker with supernatural connections" thing is a fairly common manga theme. Off the top of my head, there's also Hell Girl, Antique Gift Shop, and Nightmares for Sale. And I swear I've read a couple others. I haven't read Clamp's Legal Drug yet, but I think it has similar themes. I wouldn't be surprised if xxxHolic's popularity contributes to the fact that a lot seem to be getting licensed the last couple years (probably a big contributor, really) but I doubt any of the series have anything to do with each other.

*minor sub-genre obsession, pay the info dump no mind*

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Sakura Gari (http://avierra.livejournal.com/31195.html) has a Taisho setting, but it's unlicensed, yaoi, and EXTREMELY dark and dysfunctional and all sorts of disturbing, so I don't know if I'd exactly recommend it to you.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Is that the Yuu Watase one? I was actually going to check it out since I've liked most of her work that's been licensed to some degree (and, lets face it, if you've missed out on the fact that that woman loves yaoi, you probably deny the fact that the genre even exists...) even though I've largely lost interest in them (I maintain a fondness for Ceres and Alice 19th, though) and I was thinking it'd be some sweet little fantasy with an energetic if sometimes annoying guy with an angsty protector then I saw what it was and kinda ran in absolute fear.

(But I have seen pictures, and they are pretty! I just know I couldn't read it with living in complete terror for the main character and wanting to educate him about Nice Men and Men We Should Avoid. I say this while planning to start Tokyo Babylon soon, and I know how Seishiro/Subaru turns out thanks to the X/1999 anime...)

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's the one, and fear is a pretty appropriate reaction; it's really, really dark and messed-up.