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REVIEW: Secret Urban Legends GN




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MagicPolly



Joined: 26 Nov 2020
Posts: 1588
PostPosted: Thu Jun 24, 2021 2:01 pm Reply with quote
Shoujo horror is an interesting subset. You would think that horror would be automatically targeted at boys because they're "tough" and like being scared and stuff like that, but magazines like Ciao have an entire horror spinoff magazine (Ciao DX Horror & Mystery, though I don't know if it's still running). I happen to be reading one right now, the Hell Girl manga adaptation, and despite being pared down from the anime it's surprising how scary it manages to be at times.

I might end up reading Secret Urban Legends at some point for this reason. Even though it's clearly aimed at younger girls, the stories still seem pretty interesting (especially that mosquito one).
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SHD



Joined: 05 Apr 2015
Posts: 1752
PostPosted: Thu Jun 24, 2021 4:18 pm Reply with quote
MagicPolly wrote:
Shoujo horror is an interesting subset. You would think that horror would be automatically targeted at boys because they're "tough" and like being scared and stuff like that, but magazines like Ciao have an entire horror spinoff magazine (Ciao DX Horror & Mystery, though I don't know if it's still running). I happen to be reading one right now, the Hell Girl manga adaptation, and despite being pared down from the anime it's surprising how scary it manages to be at times.

Horror is also a fairly old genre of shoujo. A fairly unsettling one is Shi to kanojo to boku ("Death, Her and I"). It looks harmless and perhaps kind of clumsy due to the artwork (despite the occasional scary art), but then you start thinking about it and it slowly gets under your skin.
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harminia



Joined: 24 Aug 2015
Posts: 2006
Location: australia
PostPosted: Thu Jun 24, 2021 5:00 pm Reply with quote
I really love shoujo horror, it's one of my favourite genres (subgenre? Subset like MagicPolly said?). There's just something about this cute artwork wildly changing to horrific themes and content that's so satisfying (I love seeing cute shoujo girls suddenly turn evil with wicked facial expressions). Some of the artists really can surprise you in how frightening they can draw.
(One of my favourites is Zekkyō Gakkyū.)
They often deal with sort of "morale" type stories but do so in a suitably creepy way (though I agree horror shoujo does go for the old "love interest makes girls evil" theme a lot. That or "my best friend wants what i want [job etc]", but the catharsis there is seeing a horrendous jerk get her just deserts.)

I'd like to read this manga. I've never heard the mosquito urban legend but it's a really interesting concept.
I bought a couple of volumes of the Hell Girl manga and enjoyed it enough, but it didn't quite have the edge of the anime (and I preferred the anime art style), but it did some interesting things.
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 16 Dec 2008
Posts: 2614
Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City
PostPosted: Thu Jun 24, 2021 6:49 pm Reply with quote
SHD wrote:

Horror is also a fairly old genre of shoujo. A fairly unsettling one is Shi to kanojo to boku ("Death, Her and I"). It looks harmless and perhaps kind of clumsy due to the artwork (despite the occasional scary art), but then you start thinking about it and it slowly gets under your skin.


Bride of Deimos is another really good old shoujo horror. Seven volumes came out in English way back when and I've spent years wishing someone would pick it up and finish it. It's a little more polished than the one SHD mentioned, but equally good at the way it just creeps into your mind.

Chie Shinohara (Red River) also has several very effective shoujo horror for a slightly older readership than Secret Urban Legends or the Hell Girl manga. I agree, it's a wonderful genre of shoujo manga, and I wish we got more of it in English.
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shosakukan



Joined: 09 Jan 2014
Posts: 294
PostPosted: Fri Jun 25, 2021 10:39 am Reply with quote
SHD wrote:
MagicPolly wrote:
Shoujo horror is an interesting subset. You would think that horror would be automatically targeted at boys because they're "tough" and like being scared and stuff like that, but magazines like Ciao have an entire horror spinoff magazine (Ciao DX Horror & Mystery, though I don't know if it's still running)...

Horror is also a fairly old genre of shoujo...

Yes, shōjo horror manga is rather an old genre. For example, Koga Shin'ichi, who would later contribute Eko Eko Azarak to Weekly Shōnen Champion, contributed Shirohebi Yakata to Weekly Margaret in 1964. Umezu Kazuo, who would later contribute The Drifting Classroom to Weekly Shōnen Sunday, contributed Hebi Shōjo to Shōjo Friend in 1966. Miuchi Suzue was well-known also for her shōjo horror manga in the 1970s. Yamagishi Ryōko's Watashi no Ningyō wa Yoi Ningyō is a well-known horror manga of the 1980s. Publishing firm Asahi Sonorama published Halloween, a horror manga magazine for shōjo from 1985 (the cover date was 1986) to 1995.

MagicPolly wrote:
...though I don't know if it's still running...

The Winter 2021 issue of Ciao DX Horror was released on December 16, 2020.
https://ciao.shogakukan.co.jp/horror/
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ninjamitsuki



Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Posts: 598
Location: Anywhere (Thanks, technology)
PostPosted: Fri Jun 25, 2021 4:36 pm Reply with quote
Hell, a lot of Junji Ito's works, including Tomie, were actually shojo!
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