"Inside Mari" Review

(Before we get started, YES, I know this is the visual for the cover of Vol. 2, but this was the most reasonably-sized "Inside Mari"-related image that Google Images could get me.)

That being said, we now come to our final manga review of the year, for Shuzo Oshimi's "Inside Mari".

This creator has already given us the psychological horror greats of "Happiness" and "The Flowers of Evil", so this reviewer came into this series with slightly-higher expectations than usual.

The blurbs made it sound like this would be just another body-swap manga, but, then again, this is Shuzo Oshimi we're talking about; surely it can't be that simple.

And it isn't.

Our ostensible hero Isao Komori is a college dropout NEET who yearns for a chance to go back and build himself a better life from back in high school.  And, speaking of high school, he has also gotten into the habit of noticing a certain high school girl at the local mini-mart now and then.

And here we have the first point where we begin to deviate from the formula.

Isao, for all his faults, is not a pervert (at least, not yet, anyway).  He does not lust after this girl, this Mari Yoshizaki.  He does not desire her physically or even approach or talk to her.  He knows how this could be misconstrued and how any physical attraction he might feel towards her would be wrong.  And, when he does find himself in her body the next day, he makes no attempt to look at her naked or watch her body urinate or in the bathtub or anything like that.

Normally, any male character in a body-swap manga would be doing exactly those things (to a degree), which is quite refreshing, given the "played for horror" perverted nature of Oshimi's male protagonist back in "The Flowers of Evil".

And another deviation is that, when Isao in Mari's body confronts his own former body at the mini-mart, it is NOT Mari inside!  We don't exactly know who it is, but whoever it is does not react like the body-stolen Mari-turned-Isao would react.

Mari.  Is.  Gone.

And thus begins the main conflict of the story: navigating a strange new social landscape in a new body, while keeping a secret, while trying to find out what happened to the soul/mind/spirit of the real Mari Yoshizaki.

That's right-this change between bodies isn't a body-swap.  It's an outright takeover!

This series moves about as slowly as "The Flowers of Evil" did, but that's a small price to pay for an interesting twist on the body-swap story, not to mention Oshimi's usual artistic flair and horror writing style.

Volumes One through at least Three are out in English now at your local bookstore, so here's another shining review from yours truly!

Have a great rest of the year!