Manga A Day: Category: Freaks Vol 1

Amazon.com: Category Freaks Volume 1 (Category Freaks): Books: Sakurako Gokurakuin ISBN: 1588993000 ISBN-13: 9781588993007

Category: Freaks volume one is a collection of creepy stories about "freaks" who feed off of the pain and misery of humans. "Freaks" seem to be something like ghosts or demons, but they come about because of the dark and nasty emotions of humans. But there are creatures who can destroy them, something called "Stands." The main character, though I use the term loosely, Asagi Nanami is a Stand and runs a Paranormal Investigation firm. He looks like a middle school student but it hasn't been revealed how old he or his grade school looking bunny girl sidekick Tokiko actually are. His chief researcher is a college student named Amano. They also have an assistant, Mahime, a typically clumsy and cute college age girl who is sometimes the self confident Yahiro. I don't know if it's a spilt personality situation with her, or if Yahiro is some kind of supernatural being sharing Mahime's body. Over all, I'm confused.

Each story is rather straight forward, something nasty starts happening to humans and Nanami and crew find the Freak and take care of it. The Freaks are pretty varied, volume one has a golum-looking thing in a corporate office basement, a sex god with a penchant for maids, and a giant teddy bear version of Jack the ripper among others.

However Nanami usually just appears and the beginning and end of the stories. He makes comments like he's getting orders from or answers to someone else, but you never find out who that is. Things like Tokiko's penchant for gobbling down the remains of the freaks, or Mahime's personality switch aren't explained at all. They also don't explain Izumi, the eyeball thing that lives in his stomach. They only give a sketchy explanation of what the Freaks and Stands are, not enough to get a good understanding of them. I hope that they'll be explained in future volumes.

I like the creepy atmosphere Gokurakun establishes in the stories, but I feel they rush to the conclusion a little too quickly. Each story is contained in just one chapter, meaning a lot is packed into thirty odd pages. This is one manga I think would be better as an anime. The audio and visuals, properly executed, could make up for the short length of the stories. I have to say I really love Nanami's snarky know it all attitude.  He looks like a middle school student, so I picture him sounding like Hiro from Fruits Basket. He's subtly funny.

The artwork varies. The girls in this book get loving detail, and there is a fair share of fanservice throughout. Anyone under 30, male or female, look attractive. Anyone older, especially older men, look like caricatures. Being a horror book the author does give a lot of detail to the backgrounds, setting up a nice dark vibe. When Nanami uses his "Stand" abilities the artwork takes on a cool abstract tone that I really enjoyed and it's something that would really look neat animated.

If future volumes develop a plot to connect the stories together, and explain some of the unanswered questions, this series could be really entertaining. If it doesn't, the disconnected stories could quickly fall into a boring "monster of the week" format with no tension. I hope the stories become longer too. I think with two chapters they could make a much creepier story.

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