Fantagraphics is hitting off the new year with a new license already, announcing though Robot 6, that they will be releasing Inio Asano’s Nijigahara Holograph.
Viz Media has released two books by Inio Asano – What A Wonderful World and solanin. Both are great reads that have a keen sensitivity and sympathy to being a young adult and struggling with the decisions that will define and effect your life. Because I know Inio Asano writes for characters so well and feeling so grounded, I’m all the more curious about reading this new book because unlike those previous two, this is a horror story. Sometimes stories of the human mind are easily the scariest of all! And then toss bugs in the mix? Eep.
“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, teach- ers, 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.”
Nijigahara Holograph will be released as a single, 200-page hardcover book for $26.99/US, which should be around $33.99/CAN based on their past releases. You can see some sample pages provided by Fantagraphics over at Robot 6. Currently there’s no set release date that’s been publicly announced.
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