Hoozuki no Shima

tl;dr: A manga focused solely on plot that has a good 'mystery’ but some ridiculous writing to write around inconsistencies and not that great of an ending. 

This manga is one about a small group of kids that were abandoned by adults that they trusted, and thus became incredibly wary of them. Under such circumstances they do what they believe is best to survive while going up against a small group of adults. Both the cast of children and the cast of adults were pretty varied and had interesting personality quirks that played a major role in the plot. There wasn’t anything like character or relationship development though, the manga is focused solely on the plot. As for the plot, it was mostly told well to a degree. This is a manga that heavily relies on the suspense arising from a sense of mystery. As is sometimes the case with manga, it feels like how the mystery would be resolved wasn’t determined definitely in the beginning. Hence, there were a series of incredibly forced and somewhat nonsensical aspects to the explanation of everything that happened and how it ties into what the final answer to the mystery was. Still, I think it did decide on what the mystery was somewhat early on even if it wasn't at the beginning, which is a lot better than a lot of similar manga, and hence the majority of this forced writing had to do with writing around elements introduced really early on. The result of that is that when it comes to the majority of the manga, it does feel like it fully supports and builds up to the ending it heads into and I was able to predict what the ending and the ‘twist’ would be. Still, the twist itself I thought was a good one that I rather like and one that works very well with the cast of characters, being as they’re immature kids that don’t trust adults. However, the ending beyond that felt pretty weak, in that it made everything feel kind of pointless and dumb. I suppose that too ties into the twist and it would probably be pretty hard to write an ending that feels more substantial, but as it is it still didn’t feel very satisfying. The art was really rough but it mostly fit the tone and it did look pretty nice at times. 

Story:8
I found the concept of this story to be very interesting, and it had me hooked from the very beginning. I liked how they talked about by what means they must use to survive, and how they explained everything very logically. I didn't like how I couldn't figure out the ending though, but that's not the story's fault. If anything it makes the story great!

Art:7
I liked the art for the most part, though most of the characters look like they're from Boku Dake ga Inai Machi for some reason. Even so I really liked how everything was drawn. But I felt some of the drawing's were unnecarrasy, particularly fan shots luckily there wasn't a lot.

Characters:7
I found most of the character's very interesting such as their backstory. I don't like how most of the character's problems are resolved rather conviently. I would go into more details, but I don't really wanna spoil anything.

Enjoyment:7
I enjoyed this manga a lot, and marathoned it pretty fast. Even though it's only twenty-five chapters I have some trouble reading short manga, usually because I feel that it's short because it got cut so I send them to the back of my list. One thing I didn't like were some of the scenes didn't really make sense, and I felt I skipped a chapter. However the reason they did that was very good, so I justify it.

Overall:7
I think this was really good overall. I would probably tell most of my friends about it even if they didn't like horror, or had weak stomaches. Perhaps I may even reread this manga after I wait a couple weeks I don't know. It isn't something I usually do unless I really like the series, or a anime adaption is coming out. Anyway, I really liked it and all.

This is my third review, but I'm still not very good at it. But this series is good enough to deserve a review so...

Story: I liked it. It was pretty good, reminded me rather of Shutter Island actually. But the problem was, just like in Shutter Island, I figured out the ending a few chapters in, which ruined it for me. The twists and turns weren't as dark or scary as I expected, which was upsetting. But then again it takes a lot to make me flinch. A little random ecchi-ness, which was strange and out of place, but other than that it was okay. The ending ties everything nicely together, which I liked as well.

Art: I enjoyed the art work, I thought it was cute and detailed when necessary. Otherwise it was nice and simple, just like I liked it. However, the cuteness takes away from the horror so... its a double edged sword.

Character: The author did an amazing job of keeping each character individual. There was no blending of characteristics, and everyone has a distinct memory for me, even though the manga is rather short, which is amazing.

Enjoyment: It was a good read. Would I want to re-read it? Not really. Its one where you should read it for the experience, and after its done, its done.