The Fall 2024 Manga Guide

Manhole

What's It About? 

When a naked man goes berserk on a city street in broad daylight, before vomiting blood and dying, police investigators Ken Mizoguchi and Nao Inoue become involved uncovering a disturbing conspiracy to unleash a new parasitic epidemic upon the Japanese people.

Manhole is written and drawn by Tetsuya Tsutsui. English translation by Mercedes C. Gilliom. Published by Abrams Books, October 29th, 2024.

Is It Worth Reading?

I dislike the idea of parasites, especially worms. The thought of creepy, wriggly things invading my body and reproducing there brings me cold sweat. I then chose to review this extremely gross manga about a new strain of Filariasis, spread by mosquito bites, that causes victims' eyes to explode and brains to degenerate. Manhole depicts the effects of this disease with feverish glee, with scenes of potent body horror interspersed between longer stretches of a more standard police procedural story.

The fact I'm medically qualified made the sheer ick factor in this story even worse for me because I'm aware of how true some parts of this manga are. Don't eat raw meats. Use mosquito nets and take chemoprophylaxis when you visit tropical countries! This is a fairly compelling, if standard police story livened up by some rather lurid subject matter. Our central police duo isn't that memorable as characters go, and the artwork is functional rather than exceptional, with female faces in overly simplified compared to the men. The latter chapters become less tethered to reality as we learn more about the disease that threatens to spread out of control in the next volume and its probable origins.

There's quite a bit of nudity, some of it sexualized, other examples more intended to evoke a sense of disgust in the reader. If you think you'd like to read a manga where a naked woman emits wordless grunts while covered in mosquitoes and swollen weals from their bites, or a filth-ridden naked man stalks through the sewers, dripping with effluent and bodily fluids, then boy, this is the manga for you. I'm not so sure I have the stomach to read anymore.

Hoo boy—don't read this one if you're squicked out by mosquitoes or parasites! What starts as a strange manslaughter case becomes a widespread biological suspense story as a gaggle of cops start unraveling a plot to infect the Japanese populace with parasites stemming from mosquitoes. It's a simple set-up and we've seen these character archetypes before—the paternal career cop, the inexperienced newbie—but the story is nevertheless effective. The art really hammers in the grody details, like mosquitoes emerging from their pupae or the horrid parasites making their way into people's eyeballs. The series also wastes no time in spelling out the plot from the villain (another loon who wants to “rid society of its dregs”), and the first volume ends just as things are really starting to hit the fan.

It's been a bit since we've had a good thriller like this, and Manhunt does a great job of illustrating why it is that these stories are so effective. Provided bugs don't creep you out too much, this manga gets a strong recommendation from me.