I still wonder if it wasn't lead poisioning tho... like from the forced period of gold panning, mixed with the abuse from his family? I could see that leading to this sorta unfortunate mental state.
God I love this artist, the way he drew the guy in the bear pelt grabbing at Sugimoto and the only thing you can see is his hands and eyes... Any other artist would go over the top with it but he knows how to hold back and make an amazing panel.
I think these last few chapters are some of my favorite in this manga yet. It really managed to creep me the fuck out in a way I rarely get outside of straight up horror manga. The growing sense of dread as you realize who Heita is and the hilariously freaky surrealist imagery that displays Noda's talent are really impressive.
Edogai's reveal was creepy but you kind of saw it coming because well... he's a taxidermist in a fiction story so you could guess how he was going to turn out. Ienaga (GOD i miss her) was a little less expected but if you're familiar with HH Holmes it still wasn't that surprising/shocking. But Heita... wow. I thought he was going to be another fun little weird man. The gradual reveal of what's ACTUALLY going on and how he's acting as an unreliable narrator was surprising since I don't think there's been another part of the manga where we have unreliable narration (or at least not one that's occurred recently enough that we would see it coming).
I'm not a huge fan of the whole "killer has DID" trope because I think it's rarely well executed but I'm so impressed with how its used in this arc. Also I like that Noda included an interesting take away about the dangers of misinterpreting/misappropriating specifically indigenous cultural artifacts & concepts. Makes me think of how the concept of skinwalkers has become distorted and divorced from Navajo culture within Western media.
Man this arc ruled. I never want to look at Heita's creepy bear face again.