There is a stereotype about manga, but perhaps about comic books in general, that they are for children, the barely literate, and the otherwise immature. Anyone who knows anything about comics can quickly dismiss such thinking, but often it’s hard to come up with an example of a book that can truly and singlehandedly do away with such generalizations.

Inio Asano’s wonderful Nijigahara Holograph is one such book. Through its beautiful art and wonderful non-linear and surprising plot this book breaks all such generalizations.

It follows the stories of a group of people – a group of students and some of their teachers – along two timelines. The first is during the character’s youth, and the second eleven years later. Each character has to deal with a tragedy from their past, more or less recent, and the stories show how our lives are connected with one another, by showing how each tragedy can influence those around us. In this sense it reminded me of Paul Haggis’ excellent 2004 film Crash (Not to be confused with the 1996 David Cronenberg film by the same name). Each character’s life is intertwined with each other’s, even though these connections aren’t necessarily apparent at first.

The driving force of the plot, and the connective between the disjointed archipelago of the character’s lives is a story the children weave in the past storyline. As one of their fellow students has an accident in a tunnel behind their school, they start rumours of a mysterious creature living in the tunnels. Asano shows us, that the greatest monster though, is ourselves.

The story is snappy, yet it doesn’t feel rushed. Each chapter moves it forward and reveals another piece of the puzzle. The outbursts of violence encountered within force one to stop and consider their reasons. Are there many? Perhaps not. I’m undecided at the moment. Perhaps I’ll write about this book again in the future.

What I particularly enjoyed about this book was the art. Not that I’m particularly well read when it comes to manga, but I find the style to often be very erratic and focused on action more than on telling the story. Sure, sometimes that is the story, and the style perfectly suits many of the stories, what I particularly enjoyed about Nijigahara Holograph is the toned down calmness of the art. It is a book that is certainly driven by the artwork, and at times it feels as though even without the text the story would still be clear. It’s simply beautiful.

I reckon you should probably go and get a copy either on Amazon

or on Book Depository