Holiday Review: PHANTOM TALES OF THE NIGHT

As we wind things down, I like to reflect on some of the manga that didn't necessarily fit any trends but simply made an impression on me like this one.

PHANTOM TALES OF THE NIGHT (Bakemono Yawa-zukushi), by Matsuri.  First published in 2016 and first published in North America in 2019.

PLOT:

Somewhere on the edge between reality and the spirit world is an inn.  Inside, its owner will see to your every comfort and maybe even make a wish come true...for a price.  This owner does not deal in money, but in secrets, and to him nothing is more valuable than the deep, dark secrets that one would die to protect.

STORY:

One of the few horror manga I legitimately love is Pet Shop of Horrors.  As I noted before, what makes that series special to me is how seamlessly it manages to weave together the stories of the customers along with those of Count D and Leon.  Phantom Tales of the Night is the first manga I've seen in a long time that grasps that formula while giving it its own particular flavor.

Part of what makes it work is that the owner (who remains nameless) and his minions Spider and Butterfly don't just stand by commenting on the fates of others, but instead are actively involved.  There's a lot of good back-and-forth between these three that does wonders for establishing their characters in a very organic sort of way.

It's also less explicitly moralistic than these sorts of horror stories tend to be.  Only one of them falls into the "be careful what you wish for mode" (in this case, a twin who is all too envious of her bright, popular sister).  The rest are really more about atmosphere and world-building, where curses take the form of a jealous naga, a dead boy's secret be obvious to everyone but him, and a wanna-be sorcerer with a generations-old grudge against the owner.  It's incredibly effective at bringing the reader into this world and even delivering a few mild scares in the process and I utterly loved it.

ART:

Also like Pet Shop of Horrors, Phantom Tales of the Night has great art.  The designs are not quite so ornate, but Matsuri makes good use of lush black spaces and glowing lantern light.  There's a little bit of gruesomeness here, but it's used sparingly and usually saved for a climax.  She often pushes the panels out into large spreads to highlight it, and even then she finds a way to make it elegant, like a corpse's flesh melting away into butterflies in the night.  They are striking and stuck with me months after I first read this volume, which means it must be doing something right.

RATING:

Phantom Tales of the Night gave me not just nostalgic thrills but also some elegant, atmospheric thrills.  It's a very polished start to a very promising horror manga, and one of my favorites of the year.

This series is published by Yen Press.  This series is ongoing in Japan with 3 volumes available.  2 volumes have been released and are currently in print.

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