Story Hideout is pretty short. It only has nine chapters so the whole thing took me one hour to finish. I must admit even though this manga is short it still amused me. Story revolves around Seiichi. A novel writer who we see is going into madness. Each chapter was like a puzzle, showing us what really happened and why Seiichi is losing it all. The flow of the story is a bit fast but that’s ok because it didn’t ruin the plot that much. Whole story was focused on Seiichi and his life. Other characters that were shown stayed a mystery and I wished we would get to see them more. Seiichi has lost everything he had. His job, his son, his family and basically everything he ever cared about. I talked about first chapter so now let’s get to rest of the story. While trying to get out of the cave Seiichi got lost. He was forced to stay there with the monster and that’s the moment he starts losing it. We start seeing flashbacks of his life and how everything got to this exact point and that’s one of the things I like about this manga. One thing that annoyed me was that I didn’t get to see more about other characters. Psychological aspect of this manga is amazing. Seiichi wanted to start a new life and he goes to any extent to do that. He even killed his wife’s family. I found this manga pretty interesting, specially the plot twists. I
Characters As I said because this manga is short we didn’t find out about characters a lot. We mostly learned about Seiichi and his wife, Miki. I can’t really say I liked any of the characters but I can for sure say I hated Miki. Since this manga is short we don’t get to see their personalities but in the flashbacks I noticed Seiichi is a hardworking husband who does anything to make his family happy. Unlike him, his wife is really outgoing and likes to shop a lot. Character designs in this manga were good but nothing special. Seiichi was average. Mikii’s appearance was good. Monster and his son’s appearance were amazing as well. They were drawn in the ugliest way possible. I wish we could’ve seen more about the characters and learn more about their personality. Another thing that made me curious was Monster’s backstory which we didn’t get to see.
Art Hideout’s art is stunning. Since the story is placed in nature. Everything is drawn in so much detail. The beach, the cave, the forest and etc. they all looked amazing and beautiful. Characters looked pretty good as well. Specially the monster and his son. Their face and body were drawn flawlessly. The Mangaka, Masasumi Kakizaki, has an amazing art style and his art had the power to make me have goosebumps.
Overall This manga has only one volume, nine chapters, and deserves way more attention. I haven’t see anyone talk about this or even recommend it. I recommend it to thriller and horror lovers.
