Jisatsu Circle by Usamaru Furuya (Manga Review)

I am going to sum up my feelings about this manga series with a single gif:
I normally include the occasional image or panel for my horror manga reviews but I am not going to do that with this one because it was that bad. I couldn’t find a single image that was nice or interesting to share. The only well drawn pieces would have either scared my readers away or put me on some sort of watch list. Seriously. Actually I might be on a list just for reading this manga.

Now, before any weebs pop up and start giving me a lecture on whatever they learned about suicide and Japan from the internet, I will tell them now, I don’t have an issue with suicide as a subject matter. I am a horror blogger and I knew this was about suicide when I started reading it. I eat gore with my cereal in the morning. This was just…nasty!

So what is this dumpster fire about? Well, it opens with 54 school girls holding hands and stepping out in front of a train. There is one survivor, a troubled teenaged girl with a self-harming problem, who is upset that she survived because she wanted to die with her friends. Her best friend, who is worried about her (understandably so), decides to try to help her by investigating the deaths. She uncovers a horrific suicide club that stretches throughout Japan and tries to stop it before her friend can be sucked back into it again.

Now, I know that doesn’t sound too bad, maybe a bit grim in the subject matter, but not terrible. But here is the kicker: the girl who survived the train incident in a teen prostitute. It isn’t just hinted at either. It depicts her naked in graphic ways quite lot and it a major part of the story. I know manga is visual but this was just gross.

I had a lot of issues with the suicide topic in the series too. The only parts of it that are really well drawn are the gory parts and the shocking parts. The scenes of self-harm, the piles of bodies in front of the train, people’s heads hitting the ground after jumping off buildings, ALL gorgeously drawn. Meanwhile normal people having a conversation had heads like potatoes at times. This whole series just gave me the impression that it was trying too hard to shock its readers.

There was nothing to enjoy about this series at all. I am never one to judge people for liking things, you do you, but I honestly think if you love this series there is something really wrong with you or you are going through an edgy 13 year old phase where you think self-harm and suicide is cool and you think it is fun to like shocking things.

This is definitely not a series I would be recommending anyone any time soon, and I suggest not looking it up. You will want to rinse your eyes out with bleach after.