I Reads You Review: HANAKO AND THE TERROR OF ALLEGORY, VOL. 1

Creator: Sakae Esuno with Satsuki Yamashita (translation) and Bryce P. Coleman (English adaptation)
Publishing Information: TOKYOPOP, B&W, paperback, 222 pages, $10.99 (US), $13.99 CAN
Ordering Numbers: ISBN: 978-1-4278-1608-5 (ISBN-13)

The new manga series from TOKYOPOP, Hanako and the Terror of Allegory, has an unwieldy title, but this breezy read offers ghost stories for your afternoon reading delight. Created by Sakae Esuno (Future Diary), Hanako and the Terror of Allegory is about a detective who battles urban legends come to life.

Hanako and the Terror of Allegory, Vol. 1 introduces Detective Daisuke Aso. He usually deals with con artists and cheating spouses, but he is also known as the Allegory Detective… much to his chagrin. Folktales, legends, old wives’ tales, myths, etc. (the killer with hook for a hand who stalks lovers’ lane) have a way of coming to life, and Aso is the man who battles these monsters.

Aso doesn’t fight alone. Kanae Hiranuma is a recent client; she was vexed by the man with an axe hiding under the bed, an allegory come to life and haunting Kanae’s days and nights. Because she was too poor to pay him, Kanae became Aso’s assistant at the Aso Detective Agency. Even there, Kanae finds more weirdness. The agency’s resident computer and tech geek is actually a resident of the office. Hanako is the allegory of the girl in the bathroom.

Hanako and the Terror of Allegory is pretty standard in terms of story structure – inciting incident (usually a customer), complications, climax, and the end. There is a surprising amount of action – fights, chases, and some gunplay, and there is even minor violence and a few panels featuring semi-nudity and sexuality. That is the strange thing about this title: it seems like a teen horror series with a mixture of shojo and shonen elements. However, it has quite a bit of edge, which makes Hanako and the Terror of Allegory just offbeat enough to attract adult fans looking for ghost story manga.

B+

Buy Hanako and the Terror of Allegory Volume 1 (Hanako & the Terror of Allegory)