Name: A mediocre read compromised by its inability to understand when to stop.
Item: Peephole
Rating: 65
Author: Revisionary

Waifra

A mediocre read compromised by its inability to understand when to stop.

“Ana Satsujin” is a manga that, after losing its initial shock value, becomes a rather convoluted and prolonged experience that loses its lustre the longer it goes on. While there were glimpses of potential throughout the course of its story, the author never really explores the themes that would have elevated this manga in terms of its storytelling impact.

While not every manga or anime has to be deep or profound, it does need to at least be engaging enough to be worth the time. Taking that into account, it is debatable whether “Ana Satsujin” is worth the time at all.

The story is centred around protagonist Etsurou Kurosu, who is a suicidal loner who sees no purpose in the world. During one of his suicide attempts, he inadvertently damages his apartment’s wall and finds a peephole where he is able to spy into the life of his next door female neighbor. Aroused by this sudden opening, Kurosu becomes a voyeur and watches eagerly, noting that this one event gave him the will to live.

All that changes when he one day witnesses a brutal murder committed by his neighbor. Through a series of bizarre and surprising events that follow, Kurosu not only meets his murderous neighbor, who later introduces herself as Rio Miyaichi, but also falls in love with her. This dangerous and twisted relationship begins to unravel as the two have to struggle against police officers, vengeful family members, and bizarre cults.

While there are problems with execution, this manga’s premise is actually extremely interesting and filled with potential. Had it been pulled off well, “Ana Satsujin” would have been an amazing series that would have appealed to audiences looking for an unorthodox anti-hero to root for. Kurosu’s obsession with dying and Miyaichi’s obsession with taking the lives of others is a complex dynamic that really drives this bizarre romance throughout the manga. Their love is one of destruction, yet it is this dream of destruction that really makes them feel together. If there’s one thing that this manga pulls off, it’s this twisted dichotomy that really steals the show.

However, as mentioned before, “Ana Satsujin” is not very good overall. Side characters that appear have little to no depth, and it is completely unclear what their purpose is. For instance, audiences are introduced to police officer Jun Schneider, who is driven to uncover evidence linking Miyaichi to the string of boxcutter murders that have been happening around the area as of late. However, even until the end of the manga, she serves no purpose aside from acting as a rather weak obstacle for the protagonists. Not only is she underdeveloped, but she is also completely useless and achieves almost nothing aside from being a nuisance. While most manga have their own fair share of useless characters, “Ana Satsujin” manages to make her uselessness more obnoxious since she is given a great deal of focus throughout the manga.

The following contain major spoilers. Please skip ahead to the conclusion.

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“Ana Satsujin”’s issues become increasingly apparent when the story enters its final arc. Before Miyaichi and Kurosu attempt to fulfill their dream of the latter being killed by the former, Miyaichi is shot by a desperate Schneider, who has made it her mission to bring Miyaichi to justice through whatever means possible. Realizing that the only way to make their love eternal was for one of them to die, Kurosu stabs the wounded Miyaichi, which fulfills their promise to each other. In spite of the series’ issues, this would have been a rather interesting end, as it would have not only been relatively conclusive, but it would have also been interesting as it would have transformed Kurosu into a killer as well. This would have been a fitting and perhaps ironic end to the series.

However, after serving years in prison for the incident, Kurosu soon discovers that not only is Miyaichi not dead, but she has come out of a coma completely forgetting that she was a killer at all. All of her killer instincts have instead been replaced by a rather innocent persona. Extremely saddened by the lost of his Miyaichi, he strives to commit murders and trigger the Miyaichi into remembering her past and fulfilling their shared promise together. This is where the plot falls apart. The characters in the story discover a cult obsessed with Miyaichi, and the story quickly becomes a rather poorly-written action series about Kurosu and his unlikely allies fighting against a murderous and sex-crazed cult. In favour of extending the plot for no good reason at all, the author discarded the rather decent ending of the first arc.

By the time this arc is finished, nearly everyone is dead, with the only interesting outcome of this arc being that Miyaichi actually gave birth to a son in her coma, who will go on to become a serial killer himself in the future, thus beginning the cycle again. It’s unclear what the author was attempting to convey with this extension of the plot. When it is finally revealed to the dying leads that they had actually brought a child into the world, their last thoughts question whether their obsession with dying and murder was worth it at all. This is troublesome for the manga as a whole as there was never a moment in the series where any hint of these thoughts were mentioned in any capacity. Rather than the well-written finale of the first arc, this manga introduces new elements that will never be explored for the sake of a “profound ending.”

All in all, “Ana Satsujin” is a mediocre manga. It has an amazing premise that seemingly promises an interesting exploration into the psyche of a serial killer and her lover, but ends up being a mediocre thriller that is powered by tired shock value and overly convenient twists that end up diluting the story as a whole. While the earlier parts of the manga are decent on their own, the second half of the story falls apart as the author attempts to continue after a relatively conclusive first arc. “Ana Satsujin” isn’t a waste of time, but it’s also not a particularly good use of it either.