Shannon, here – Halloween is my favourite holiday and to honour it I’m counting down 13 manga throughout the month that I think best capture the Halloween spirit. They aren’t all horror manga, as to me Halloween is about more than scares: it’s about a sense of fun and wonder. It’s about discovering that there may be more to this world than meets the eye. So with that in mind, there’s everything on this list from action-packed shounen to romantic-comedy to children’s manga to some lock-the-doors-and-leave-the-lights-on horror. (See all 13 Days of Halloween so far…)

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6. Petshop of Horrors
… + XXXHolic

I was torn about which manga to spotlight here. I knew I wanted to showcase some kind of horror story anthology, but up until the last minute I couldn’t decide between Pet Shop of Horrors or CLAMP’s xxxHolic. Even now as I type this I have to resist the urge to switch back yet again.

What makes it hard is that the two are both extremely similar and at the same time very different. Both share a basic central plot: a mysterious store owner (Count D in Pet Shop of Horrors, Yuko in xxxHolic) gives customers magical items/creatures, often with a cryptic ‘be careful what you wish for’ kind of warning. But do the customers listen? Is a mecha a mecha if it doesn’t have a human pilot controlling it from within? No, of course not.

The stories in both series are basically morality plays. While there are often monsters and ghosts in the stories, the danger to the characters isn’t from some outer force but from within: it’s their own bad habits that lead to their downfall. The characters who survive are the ones who manage to finally become self-aware and see the flaws in their character (though even that isn’t always enough if it comes to late). In xxxHolic especially a lot of customers never even make the connection between their own bad behaviour and all the things wrong in their life, and suffer all the more for it.

Both series have their strong points: I love the art in xxxHolic and think that it’s one of CLAMP’s most striking series style-wise, but Pet shop of Horrors’ old-fashioned shojo art style has its own charms. In the end I’m going with Pet Shop of Horrors, though like I said before xxxHolic could also easily fit into this slot.

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Shannon, here – Halloween is my favourite holiday and to honour it I’m counting down 13 manga throughout the month that I think best capture the Halloween spirit. They aren’t all horror manga, as to me Halloween is about more than scares: it’s about a sense of fun and wonder. It’s about discovering that there may be more to this world than meets the eye. So with that in mind, there’s everything on this list from action-packed shounen to romantic-comedy to children’s manga to some lock-the-doors-and-leave-the-lights-on horror. (See all 13 Days of Halloween so far…)

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

8. Kindaichi Case Files

Kindaichi Case Files is one of two manga on this list that has no supernatural elements to it whatsoever. In fact, one of the major points of the manga is that there is a logical explanation for everything. Sure, it might seem like some supernatural creature (like a snow demon, or a ghost, or Michael Jackson) is running around causing trouble, but by the end of the volume the main character lays out the clues and explains how a human culprit was able to pull the whole thing off.

The manga is a mystery series that follows Hajime Kindaichi, a high school slacker who is actually a genius when it comes to solving crimes. It’s a good thing too, because the people around him tend to drop like fruit flies. Where ever Kindaichi goes, be it a fancy hotel, a secluded island, or an elite prep school, people die by the boatload. It’s amazing this kid gets invited anywhere.

Because it’s so firmly grounded in the real world, Kindaichi Case Files may not seem like an obvious Halloween manga. But the series is great at creating a creepy atmosphere and tense moments. Also, each case is basically the manga version of a slasher film, where victims are picked off one by one by a seemingly omnipotent killer. Slasher films have been a staple of Halloween since, well, ‘Halloween‘, so it seems fitting that the manga equivalent of the genre should make the list.

A good overview of the series can be found here at Manga Worth Reading.

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