Shikabane Kaigo - Vol. 3 Ch. 16 - Final Night - Taboo ⑤
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Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this story. I’ve also read the novel this was based from, and I’ve been thinking a lot about the differences.
One thing the novel explains is that there are actually 2 different types of injection fluids used on the caregivers. One is what happened to Hikita, essentially making her complicit and causing her to act against her own will. The other is what happened to Kiwako, turning her into a breeding vessel. This also explains Kumakawa’s situation better. She intentionally gained weight and wore those bands to stop the injection from properly reaching her system. So no wonder she managed to keep serving there for so long without becoming like Hikita or Kiwako - she had been taking precautions the whole time.
Another detail is the scene in Chapter 8 where Akane sees someone walking and limping around at night. That wasn’t Kiwako - it was Hikita, who was still limping because of the leg injury she had during the attack. Also, the monster in Hiroto’s creepy drawing wasn’t Kiwako - it was actually Kanbara.
The ending also feels different between the 2 versions. In the novel, Akane’s ending is much clearer and more human. She regrets everything, apologizes to Hiroto, realizes the oni may still be out there, and swears to protect him. The final feeling is more like: “I’ll run with him. I’ll survive. I’ll protect him.”
By contrast, manga!Akane feels much more ominous. Her “motherly protection” comes across as something more unsettling, almost as if she has been changed by the oni’s influence and their intense protectiveness toward their children.
Edit: I've posted the translation of the novel's ending in my discord comm.
One thing the novel explains is that there are actually 2 different types of injection fluids used on the caregivers. One is what happened to Hikita, essentially making her complicit and causing her to act against her own will. The other is what happened to Kiwako, turning her into a breeding vessel. This also explains Kumakawa’s situation better. She intentionally gained weight and wore those bands to stop the injection from properly reaching her system. So no wonder she managed to keep serving there for so long without becoming like Hikita or Kiwako - she had been taking precautions the whole time.
Another detail is the scene in Chapter 8 where Akane sees someone walking and limping around at night. That wasn’t Kiwako - it was Hikita, who was still limping because of the leg injury she had during the attack. Also, the monster in Hiroto’s creepy drawing wasn’t Kiwako - it was actually Kanbara.
The ending also feels different between the 2 versions. In the novel, Akane’s ending is much clearer and more human. She regrets everything, apologizes to Hiroto, realizes the oni may still be out there, and swears to protect him. The final feeling is more like: “I’ll run with him. I’ll survive. I’ll protect him.”
By contrast, manga!Akane feels much more ominous. Her “motherly protection” comes across as something more unsettling, almost as if she has been changed by the oni’s influence and their intense protectiveness toward their children.
Edit: I've posted the translation of the novel's ending in my discord comm.
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Huh... bug fight 
and the real oni is them or still out there?
and the real oni is them or still out there?
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either I am stupid or this manga did a confusing ending because I don't get it! is she going to take the next place as the oni mother? is she seeing hiroto as a wasp/x mark on him? is the mother oni alive? is she going to help hiroto in raising him? WHAT IS WITH THAT SMILE DAMNIT
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I really can't say I cared for the "What if Akane also bad?" ending vibes, and reading the additional context from the novel I guess I'm simultaneously kind of happy that the original ending didn't lean in that direction, but that I also really don't think that this story would've benefited from an 11th hour exposition dump about the precise biological mechanisms underpinning the parasite insect oni reproductive system.
On the whole I'd say I liked this, but mostly on the merits of the first third or so. The first chapters have got some great setup and establish the atmosphere and the main plot hook, and give some strong hints of the recurring theme of pregnancy and motherhood (or a traumatic lack thereof) as sources of horror. Chapter 3 in particular has some great execution with the lead-in of having the relatable real-life horror experience of the dreaded Intensely Uncomfortable Job Interview with the added creepy vibes of having this happen in flashback form so you know that the ostensible high point of her discovering that she actually landed the job is actually going to end in her being the live-in caretaker of a bug-infested corpse in a creepy mansion on a mountain in the boonies.
But in retrospect the high point of the series I'd say is really chapter 6: it's focused on Akane's backstory and inner turmoil, while simultaneously covering the largest variety of geographic locales of any chapter. It starts in the mansion, moves into the courtyard, takes us on a drive down the mountain and into town, through the checkout line of the grocery store, and back the way we came to the mansion again while detouring into a jaunt into Akane's past to establish her unresolved feelings about her miscarriage and the ensuing shunning at her job as a nurse as a result of her (unknowing) affair with a married co-worker. It also demonstrates a degree of canniness on her part, with her subtly nudging the situation in a direction where Hikita entrusts the money to her as a way of testing the truthfulness of the story Kumakawa told her. In a fairly short span of time we've demonstrated her ability and willingness to assert agency in her intensely weird situation and we've added social isolation (via being shunned by her former nurse co-workers and being unable to form a connection with her new co-workers) and emotional isolation (courtesy of her inability to discuss her miscarriage with anyone) to the pre-established physical isolation brought on by the fact that she's living in a super sketchy mansion on a mountain with a presumed corpse, a couple of sketchy fellow caretakers, a mute child, and a bunch of bugs. Oh, and also this escaped missing hiker dude, here he is in a sequence of three panels being visible to the reader while Akane enters the room with him, and then a final panel of her noticing him. Page 36 of chapter 6 is a fantastic piece of sequential art. Top tier, no further commentary.
Yeah, so, I started off kinda ambivalent about this ending, but over the course of reviewing the early chapters I talked myself into disliking it with some intensity. If the strongest part of your narrative is when you make the protagonist of your horror story easy to both empathize with and root for then your full page panel of her in silhouette making crazy eyes in the final chapter is always doomed to fall flat.
Anyway, all bloviating aside, many thanks for translating this. It really was an enjoyable horror manga, all of my overly-verbose criticism of the ending notwithstanding.
On the whole I'd say I liked this, but mostly on the merits of the first third or so. The first chapters have got some great setup and establish the atmosphere and the main plot hook, and give some strong hints of the recurring theme of pregnancy and motherhood (or a traumatic lack thereof) as sources of horror. Chapter 3 in particular has some great execution with the lead-in of having the relatable real-life horror experience of the dreaded Intensely Uncomfortable Job Interview with the added creepy vibes of having this happen in flashback form so you know that the ostensible high point of her discovering that she actually landed the job is actually going to end in her being the live-in caretaker of a bug-infested corpse in a creepy mansion on a mountain in the boonies.
But in retrospect the high point of the series I'd say is really chapter 6: it's focused on Akane's backstory and inner turmoil, while simultaneously covering the largest variety of geographic locales of any chapter. It starts in the mansion, moves into the courtyard, takes us on a drive down the mountain and into town, through the checkout line of the grocery store, and back the way we came to the mansion again while detouring into a jaunt into Akane's past to establish her unresolved feelings about her miscarriage and the ensuing shunning at her job as a nurse as a result of her (unknowing) affair with a married co-worker. It also demonstrates a degree of canniness on her part, with her subtly nudging the situation in a direction where Hikita entrusts the money to her as a way of testing the truthfulness of the story Kumakawa told her. In a fairly short span of time we've demonstrated her ability and willingness to assert agency in her intensely weird situation and we've added social isolation (via being shunned by her former nurse co-workers and being unable to form a connection with her new co-workers) and emotional isolation (courtesy of her inability to discuss her miscarriage with anyone) to the pre-established physical isolation brought on by the fact that she's living in a super sketchy mansion on a mountain with a presumed corpse, a couple of sketchy fellow caretakers, a mute child, and a bunch of bugs. Oh, and also this escaped missing hiker dude, here he is in a sequence of three panels being visible to the reader while Akane enters the room with him, and then a final panel of her noticing him. Page 36 of chapter 6 is a fantastic piece of sequential art. Top tier, no further commentary.
Yeah, so, I started off kinda ambivalent about this ending, but over the course of reviewing the early chapters I talked myself into disliking it with some intensity. If the strongest part of your narrative is when you make the protagonist of your horror story easy to both empathize with and root for then your full page panel of her in silhouette making crazy eyes in the final chapter is always doomed to fall flat.
Anyway, all bloviating aside, many thanks for translating this. It really was an enjoyable horror manga, all of my overly-verbose criticism of the ending notwithstanding.
The novel's ending is way better. Why did the manga changed them!
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I'm going to assume that she didn't become a bugwomem or some shit and it's just that the kid got creeped out by her abrupt motherly instinct spike
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I got confused at the ending, the panel made me think that Akane got crazy too and ate Hiroto's face in the next panel lmao
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Did they really have to do a "The world is saved...OR IS IT?!?!" type ending? Guess that's pretty typical of horror movies but I would have liked to see something similar to the book ending.
Overall, this was a pretty compelling story. Could definitely work as a live action adaption. My one complaint is the plot was explained to the protagonist over voicemail instead of her discovering it naturally through detective work.
Overall, this was a pretty compelling story. Could definitely work as a live action adaption. My one complaint is the plot was explained to the protagonist over voicemail instead of her discovering it naturally through detective work.
