Sekai Oni
a review by TheGruesomeGoblin
a review by TheGruesomeGoblin
#Introduction#
Sekai Oni is a horror series by Uru Okabe… except maybe more than horror, it would be better to call it an action series that also wants to be horror? I mean, don’t get me wrong here. There is a whole bunch of crazy stupid horror nonsense in this thing.
But at the end of the day, I would argue this is way more of an action series. Given that at the center of it all, it’s essentially just
I don't really care much about the actual plot of the series. I mean, not that there's much to it.
There's a bunch of characters with this weird illness where they see weird shit in mirrors, then weird monsters called World Devils show up, and the Cheshire Devil pulls these characters and the World Devils into a weird mirror dimension to do battle.
The real fun of this manga in my opinion is our team of characters that are picked to do battle against these otherworldly World Devils. As pretty much the majority of them are psychologically fucked.
The way these characters cooperate with each other (or don't) to battle the World Devils is where a lot of the fun of this series lies.
The rest is in the absolute batshit craziness that permeates throughout the entire series. I'll begin with the core of Sekai Oni's insanity.
#Shinonome Azuma#
Our main character is without a doubt one of the most fucked up and craziest characters of the manga. And she is the primary reason why I ended up really enjoying this series.
Not to draw comparisons but she gave me exactly what I wanted from a certain other "horror" series about a young girl with a horribly awful (TO A COMEDIC EXTENT) life.
Azuma has:
She got stuck in this family because... I don't think it's made clear early on what the exact situation is with Azuma's mom, but as it turns out her mom just... doesn't have a house for her to live in???
???
Regardless, because of this, Azuma gets abused and tormented by this family pretty much every single day of her life. So when monsters start appearing in the world and she's whisked off to go do battle with them... she really couldn't give less of a shit.
Literally her words, not mine.
Until she learns that the horror lying in killing these World Devils means that one of the people closest to whoever kills the World Devil... will die.
And then fucking suddenly Azuma summons gigantic axes and murders the fuck out of a World Devil in one page. I don't give a flying fuck about saving the world, but bringing about the deaths of my tormentors? DEAL.
The immediate chapter following Azuma killing her first World Devil is her relatives accepting the death of a member of their family. And you have a page where it's just the three surviving members' tears literally raining down from the panels and onto Azuma.
And then right after as Azuma leaves the house alone, we finally see her display positive emotion of any sort probably the first time outside of when she's alone with her bird (dead or alive).
Complete elation. Our protagonist's only goal beyond meeting her mother is bringing about the deaths of the remaining three members of the family. She doesn't whine, she doesn't repent, she becomes a 100% ~~insane~~ determined whirlwind of violence and axes and it's great.
...If it wasn't already clear, Azuma is my favorite character of this series and is probably the primary component of why I initially kept reading. Because while the battles are over the top and have crazy gore, again, I just didn't really care about the origins of these monsters or etc. But then the dark truth about these battles and "Reserve Tanks" came out and all of the characters immediately wanted to bail from the series itself, and here comes Azuma... the one with a mission.
Killing her abusive and terrible foster family.
#Over the Top#
Pretty much the rest of the series is completely over the top and crazy too, Azuma is just personally my favorite.
Rather than a sensible and interesting plot, it's really just battle after battle but scattered throughout it all is all the crazy over the top horror shit and gore Uru Okabe has to offer. In one instance, one of the more psychologically damaged members of the group who is completely obsessed with sex, actually follows Azuma's lead and actually taps into the power of Materialization.
That's the name for harnessing your most powerful emotions and using them as power in Wonderland. ~~Or something like that, anyways.~~
And her reason for it... is quite similar to Azuma's. She has a reserve tank she wants to get rid of. Namely, an unborn fetus...
...and when two other members of the group tries to stop her from accomplishing her goal, she rips one's penis off with her bare hands, rips out another's eyeballs, and then proceeds to... to complete the shape.
But then!
Then Azuma hatches from her egg form, and steps forth reborn as the Grim Reaper herself!
Haha, take that! You're nothing without your gigantic earthquake causing magical vibra--look, do I even need to go on here???
...There's a whole bunch of more crazy shit I could bring up (always appreciate when something has someone use a full corpse as a weapon) but I'll end by noting that "the King" is the second best character right after Azuma.
#Bad Writing, Bad Pacing#
If my personal enjoyment of this series wasn't so high, I probably could have a field day with this section. But I've said it once, and I'll say it again, I didn't read this for the plot...
That being said there are still a few major things that really bother me.
Like the Alices' power comes from their negative emotions. That's why Azuma's power level is so stupid. Her life has been complete shit and she's driven on solely by the desire to kill her relatives. But yet all of a sudden way late into the manga, it's revealed that the bald prisoner character who was in the army and a drug addict reveals that he does not possess a darkness like the rest of the Alices do.
His power... is LIGHT!
In a normal and saner series, this character would proceed to probably be the most powerful because his power isn't from the fucked up shit he saw in the war or his desire to do drugs, but because he genuinely wants to fight and protect his comrades.
Instead he... turns himself into a suicide missile and takes out the World Devil before the King's arrival.
And dies. Which like in itself would maybe be fine, if like Azuma then proceeded to like follow his example and instead try to harness her own version of the light but that shit just gets dropped entirely. Why even introduce that as a thing if it's not actually... like it really seemed like that should have been made a bigger deal than it was!
I mean I guess they did bring him back
But still, that's not exactly how I pictured they would end up using the "Light."
...
...Actually, I'm an idiot. I've been rereading it while simultaneously writing this review and Azuma totally has her own version of the "Light."
Okay. Now I remember it all. My issue was with the absolute shit ending.
...
#Conclusion#
The ending (specifically the epilogue) is garbage and almost ruins the whole series, but what can I say? I still love it. It's just so unabashedly over the top that I love it. Some parts kind of feel as if they're dragging on a bit too long, but then something else crazy or ridiculous happens.
And you know while I do still stand by what I said at the start of this review about this feeling way more like an action series, I think it being tagged as horror still actually fits which should say something. As I've said various times in other "horror" reviews that these series should not be considered as such because they're just awful or have nothing resembling horror.
With this I have various characters just descending into darkness and a young girl carrying around a dead bird everywhere she goes, working tirelessly to bring about the deaths of her family members.
Sekai Oni is a 9 out of 10. I don't give a shit!
Get it? Because... because all of the characters don't give a shit? It's a recurring thing in the... in the thing? No?
...WHATEVER, NOW I DON'T GIVE A SHIT FOR REAL.
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