Homunculus

[Ced1106]

Oho. Same mangaka as Ichi! ✒✒✒

 

[SonicSonedit]

The ending looks like it was axed. Still a solod 8. Although I wished for a happy ending for them.

 

[Brackass]

Man this ends darkly. Our dear protagonist fucks up so hard at the end. It's gut-twisting.

I really like Itoh. The degree to which I feel some kind of kinship with Itoh makes me wonder if I should try wearing women's clothing. Uh oh.

 

[NeoGoroGon]

mastapeece

 

[tiger1296]

Middle dragged and the end was meh. Could have been more

 

[happy420]

not really what i expected or wanted it to be bit still very interesting. quite confusing at times, but maybe its just because it happened to be only the 2nd manga i ever finished. still loved it tho, especially the all around melancholic atmosphere, realistic art style and always intriguing characters. but honestly, this kind of a story could have been so much more, feels like some wasted potential 🤒
solid 7/10 for me

 

[daallday]

This manga is one of a kind

 

[whoisyao]

Just reread this, still a story that is so impactful and well done. Doesn't feel compromised by trying to be approachable or pleasing, it's challenging and gross and makes you think about the bad parts of yourself and the world.

Part of me thinks it deserves to be a live action movie, but also feels it would be weakened in translation. The art and style works so well and is so key to the impact.

Truly a story I will carry with me forever.

 

[Frhan]

Is this worth to read? They have 198 pages, that's quite number

 

[failgecko]

I see a lot of people here on the fence about whether to read this or not.

I read this manga by complete chance. Was just browsing the 'Horror' Tag and I kept seeing it highly rated so I thought I'd give it a try.
It's not really a 'tradition' horror title in the sense that it's SPOOKY or anything (There are some disturbing parts [Gore, Body horror] but, that's about it).

This manga is so gripping though, I almost read it in 1 setting my first go around. Since then I've probably read it 6 times, anytime I need a surreal reality check.
It easily made it's way into my TOP 10 (If not TOP5 or TOP3), I'd hate to say more and spoil it. BUT, if you have time and want to try something different; I, 10000%, recommend this title.

 

[Frhan]

The last vol is really really fucked up, they twist and twist

 

[Anish_Agarwal]

@failgecko
Whats your top 5 or top 3

 

[mushroomsteel]

I just don't understand anything

 

[FrostySeven]

The ending just sad

 

[MalaFarron]

One of the best classic mangas

 

[migh]

edge

 

[Reveraiv]

I read it all in one sitting and ended up staying up way too late, would recommend the manga.
Would not recommend immediately trying to sleep after reading it, because you'll be trying to figure some stuff out and might end up with weird dreams about crazy eyed drill women.

 

[Woefu1]

Pain.

 

[GGpX]

There are many reasons I love this manga, but among them is the different interpretations of the ending.

The ending wasn't rushed, the series wasn't axed, it's the natural ending.

On the SomethingAwful (SA) forums a few years ago, there was a discussion between a few people about the ending and it was some of the most interesting manga-related forum conversation I had ever read. I even saved the posts.

1st post:

God drat. That was hosed up. I wasn't really expecting the end to be "unhappy" like that,
although I'd always thought the guy might die at the end.

Can we get some discussion on it? I'm still not really sure what to take away.

So there's the obvious: He got plastic surgery and ran away from his girlfriend because
he didn't like being associated with ugliness. He wanted to find himself again, the real
him and not the one covered in lies and so began his quest with the homunculi.

By seeing other people's hearts he thought he would discover himself - and he slowly did,
however it turned him insane at the same time.

I guess the reason he saw himself in other people at the end was him discovering the
final part of his psyche - that he had been lying to himself and was desperate to find
himself at the same time. It didn't need a "homunculus" by that stage since by uncovering
that final piece he knew who he was and homunculi were just representations of the truth,
whereas he had the real thing.

I suppose what Nanako saw was the madness he had when she saw that demon.
Should've gone with that.

Moral of the story: Don't have freaky sex right after having a hole drilled in your skull.

---

2nd post:

The way I figure, it's established that he really is getting esp understanding of
other people. At the end, he becomes so good at it, that he achieves an empathy that not
only he didn't have before, but that no one has: he directly perceives our shared humanity,
he can literally see himself in you. He reacts to everyone as if they were a long-lost
friend It's so good to see again, and so honestly that that it can convince people that
they do recognize him from somewhere.

But! In the end, this doesn't really solve his original problem, a sensation of emptiness
that grew out of never showing his real face to folks (figuratively, I mean), the feeling
that no one understood him, that no one really looked at him. His ESP has helped him come
out of his shell, but it also raised the bar impossibly high: now he knows that no one can
understand him, unless they also share his ability, so...

Basically, this manga was great. No other comic has made me yell "No!" and partially
cover my eyes so often. I just wish it had been drawn out even longer.

---

3rd post (pnumoman)

The way I interpreted the ending is that he was slowly descending into complete madness.
He ostensibly wanted to seek out his true self, but he ended up gaining the power to see
other people's true selves. He could not see his true self, because it is impossible;
your true self is made up of the relationships with you and other people. This seems to
be borne out by the explanation by Manabu about the portions of other people's homunculi
Nakoshi sees in himself. It also fits because he never had a real relationship with anyone
other than Nanako, until he began to see homunculi and began to help people solve their
problems. In helping others with their issues, he starts to finally bond with others on a
deep level, which imprints his true self with reflections of the deep connection he made
with other people. When he meets Nanako, he latches on to her as his salvation because he
thinks she's the only one who saw his true self, the 'cloud', when in fact that vision was
the relationship that they had.

However, she doesn't see visions anymore, as she cast away her past when she got plastic
surgery. So he decides to give her trepanation, but he ends up killing her because, well,
intense physical activity after you bore a hole in someone's skull is pretty fucing stupid.
(Also, see the blood seeping through the bandage, in the last shot of Nanako we get)

In any case, I interpret his face being on Nanako as Nakoshi finally accepting, and loving,
himself. His love of Nanako is a farce; he loves Nanako now because he thinks she is someone
who can see his true self, but he does not love Nanako as herself. He is in love with a
mirror, essentially, and that allows him to finally be able to love himself. By loving
himself, we see that the homunculi he has been seeing is simply reflections of his own
issues on others, with the caveat that he does see the problems of others simply because
humans share the same problems. Guilt, fear, anxiety; they are all shared by humanity, yet
unique at the same time. I think that's why he's able to solve that random couple's problems
near the end, after he kills Nanako, even though he only sees his face on everyone. He still
has the ability to perceive other people's problems in an ESP fashion, but now that he
finally loves himself, he sees it as his own problems and issues reflected in others.

However, he has passed through the door to complete madness by this point. We can see the
turning point when he does self-trepanation; his face is eerily similar to the ones on the
magazine sheets and the trepanation kit box. That marks the point where he depends on the
visions to make sense of the world, as he refuses to live like a normal person again.
Once past that point, the only other thing he needed was someone else like him (leading
to Nanako's death), as he understands subconsciously that man cannot live alone. He needed
someone to be with, someone who understood what he saw because that person saw those things
as well, but he deluded himself by thinking that he just wanted someone to 'look' at him
properly.

In any case, he finally breaks; maybe he understands that he killed Nanako, maybe he doesn't,
but in any case, at the end, the multiple holes in his head indicate that he kept seeking
answers in self-trepanation. He never found any answers, however, leading to his submission
and admission that he's finally tired of seeing these homunculi. He finally understands
that he will never find what he seeks through these visions, as these visions are simply his
own self reflected in the world. His quest, from the beginning, was about finding meaning
within himself and his relationships with other people, because he felt like he was living
a shallow, meaningless life. He was, but he never fully understood that he was complicit in
this. He abandoned Nanako, he slept with materialistic girls, he never bothered to even
attempt a deep relationship, and until Nanako rebuffed him when he didn't know she was
Nanako, he simply accepted the numb feelings that go along with leading a shallow life.
He never bothered with human relationships until it was forced upon him; even Nanako had to
dip her face down when she first met him, essentially thrusting herself at him. In the end,
he finds no answers through more and more holes in his head, so he finally gives up, and
decides to go back to society and other people. He finally understands that humans find
meaning and purpose in their relationships with other people, and isolation is something
that can only happen because you want it to.

Shit, sorry for the wall of text.

---

4th post (Doc Hawkings)

No need to apologize, it's a good post, although I can't tell:
you did realize that he became a serial killer, right?

---

5th post (TheFallenEvincar)

Oh snap, where is this implied? Given pnumoman's awesome post he may have realized that
but I'm not ashamed to admit that a lot of this manga totally went over my head towards
the end and/or is still digesting inside my brain. Where's that implied that he became one?
Is it just the authorities coming after him? Because I figured that was just because of
his role in Nanako's death.

---

6th post (canned_fruit)

That and he tries to drill a hole in fish guy's head and asks him to look at his heart,
the same thing he asked Nanako. This implies it's been his focus the whole year and he's
been going around drilling people so they can tell him what he looks like. It's certainly
open to interpretation though (or maybe doc hawkins has a better explanation).

I'm surprised everyone thinks he had esp, although I guess it doesn't matter if it was
magic or pseudoscience in the end.

---

7th post (TheFallenEvincar)

Well I just thought of his attempted drilling of fish guy as happening because of their
personal connection in the story and fish guy's role in initially triggering these events,
hence the going on about it being his 'fault' and his 'responsibility'. I never connected
the main character's attempted drilling of Ito with the implication that he'd also been
trying to drill random strangers, I mean there was at least a connection between the main
character and Nanako/Ito, they weren't just random strangers he walked up to and tried to
grab and drill. I guess I wouldn't be surprised if he did become some serial killer though,
given his clear mental collapse towards the end. He vaguely does say he's been 'looking'
and is tired of doing so but I thought the whole point of him drilling people would be his
selfish desire for them to see his 'true self'...so the target of his trepanation would
have to be someone that at least had some sort of personal connection with him, I can't
imagine he'd contemplate random strangers being given the 'power' of visions and seeing
his 'true self' because they'd still just be random strangers who didn't even know him.
I guess he could have been a danger to any family and friends that were still alive though.

---

8th post (pnumoman)

All good points folks; I love this work precisely because there's so much interpretation
that has to occur. And for the record, I agree with Doc Hawkins about the end. The
number of cops around to take him in definitely suggests that he didn't stop with Nanako.

---

9th post (Doc Hawkins)

Canned_Fruit, that's pretty much exactly how I see it. ^^^^ And also that.

He says "I'm tired of looking. I couldn't get that Nanako girl to look at me...
I was searching for someone who would...No, I've always been searching. Will you look at
me?" Then he says "Look at me. I'll look at you..." just as he also lifts up the drill to
Manabu's head. To me, the obvious implication is that he kept looking for someone who
could see him like he could see them, and after gaining their trust with preternatural
friendliness, he put them to the drill. He didn't want to kill them, of course, but he
wasn't trained, and anyway, it doesn't really bother him that they keep dying - note that
he doesn't even mention Nanako being dead, it's like she's just a failed relationship
he's almost forgotten about. He doesn't have any malice, but he doesn't get that he's
doing something wrong, which is part of why it's so heartbreaking to Manabu, who finds
humans so interesting.

Also, as far as the ESP goes, I mean, come on: I liked that the pseudo-scientific
"oh maybe it's just subconscious cues from posture" explanation was plausible for most
of the comic, but the incident with the sugar-daddy settles the question. He can rattle
off your drat life story as soon as he meets you. We are way beyond Tim Roth territory at
that point.

---

10th post (canned_fruit)

Also, as far as the ESP goes, I mean, come on: I liked that the
pseudo-scientific "oh maybe it's just subconscious cues from posture" explanation was
plausible for most of the comic, but the incident with the sugar-daddy settles the
question. He can rattle off your drat life story as soon as he meets you. We are way
beyond Tim Roth territory at that point.

Yeah fair enough. The reason I wasn't into the ESP idea was because there was no precedent
for ESP or "magic" and no attempt at an explanation. However, I think it was done like that
on purpose simply because it didn't matter what it was, it was just a tool for telling the
story.

A couple of thoughts (some of which overlaps with other posters' opinions, some which
doesn't):

The gained parts of "defeated" homunculi were trophies like Manabu said to show that he
could see inside other people. Part of him obviously knew that he didn't try to see other
people despite condemning them for not trying and that's why it was important for him to
have those trophies, to show that he could look inside others.

Another reason is that they were also parts of him. The robot arm was guilt for the taxi
driver thing, the sand girl was his obsession with material possessions (and his subconscious
desire to not take part in it) and the mirror egg head was him locking himself away and
escaping the world after he ran from Nanako. I can't remember if he gained a part from
Manabu but it would make sense since he was shamed by his father which led him to develop
as socially introverted.

As he gets these parts he "unlocks" these parts of his psyche,
realizing they're a part of him.

I think the reason he sees himself after using trepination on Nanako is because Nanako was
aware of everything he had done and "who" he was and she was also the same to a great
extent. By finally seeing her homunculus he uncovered the last of his psyche (as did she
when she saw herself as him). The homunculi, which manifested because of aspects of his
own psyche, became completely uncovered because he now knew himself perfectly. The reason
he questions whether he is in heaven or hell is because he knows everything about himself
and thus everyone else, which could be seen as both a blessing or a curse.

The reason he could see Nanako's homunculus after the trepination was because it was an
act of her allowing herself to give in, have trust, and not cover herself with lies, as
was the sex afterwards.

When he went out afterwards and saw every homunculus as him that just meant that he could
see their natures perfectly, there was no longer any "figuring out" because he knew himself
completely. He also saw everyone with homunculi as a friend because he did in fact know them
in a way - as himself.

Expanding on what I said last page: Nanako could still see inside people, despite saying
she couldn't. http://mangafox.me/manga/homunculus/v15/c004/40.html Here she sees the madness
in Nakoshi - note that his non demon eye is how it looks when he's about to drill.

I think the reason he keeps going on his quest for people to see him (i.e. serial killing)
is partly because he wants to be seen back like he always wanted and also because he can't
see the madness inside him because it's brought on by looking at homunculi.

---

11th post (canned_fruit)

Expanding on what I said last page: Nanako could still see inside people,
despite saying she couldn't. http://www.mangafox.com/manga/homun...15/c004/40.html
Here she sees the madness in Nakoshi - note that his non demon eye is how it looks when
he's about to drill.

Woahhhh that's a really good point that I had totally missed and/or forgotten about.
I think I rushed through the final chapters a little too fast.

 

[avilap]

one of the best shit i've read in my life