Wild ride! I wonder if Junji is trying to be weird or if its just his way of thinking? Damn, i'm such a fanboy. ( )

Meh. The idea behind it started out interesting and then completely fell flat with everything related to the energy spheres. The sphere plot could have worked if the book was longer but because only 4 out of 6 chapters were focused on it, it had no time at all to develop. The subject matter of suicide was also handled without much care. ( )

Not my favourite Junji Ito . . .

It delivers on the WTF moment - the story is very bizarre and plays on a human sin: greed.

The story is about four people who want to commit suicide, but due to circumstances, they can't - and appear the theory about doppelgangers come to life. When they try again: only one dies and goes to heaven/limbo bringing back gold balls containing souls.

Now the whole world is after these shiny balls - blah blah. It is repetitive.

I think fans of the movie Sphere might like this. ( )

Great art, and an intriguing idea, but just killed by bad writing and too much exposition in the dialogue. ( )

A suicide pact amongst four people twists and warps into a bizarre and heavy-handed parable about humanity's greed and its self-destructive pursuit of energy sources. It's all a little dumb and a little dull though, with wooden and shallow characters whose terrible fates could barely stir a shrug in me.

The ratio of panels with body horror to those with people just talking was way too low, and the gore -- while it had a couple moments -- wasn't on par with what you'd expect from Junji Ito.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: Chapter 1. Group Suicide -- Chapter 2. A Peculiar Pylorus -- Chapter 3. Pardonite -- Chapter 4. Dr. Suga's Cottage -- Chapter 5. The Spirit World Project -- Final Chapter. Toward a Dazzling Future -- Bonus Story: Strange Pavilion ( )