姑獲鳥の夏

THE SUMMER OF THE UBUME

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
4
RELEASE
December 10, 2014
CHAPTERS
10

DESCRIPTION

Manga adaptation of the first novel in Kyougoku Natsuhiko's award-winning Kyougokudou Series.

Tokyo, 1952: The bizarre case of a missing doctor and his supernaturally pregnant wife captures the imagination of novelist Sekiguchi Tatsumi, so he enlists the help of an old friend, Chuuzenji Akihiko, a bookstore owner and part-time exorcist who begrudgingly agrees to help investigate the disappearance. They'll face a family's darkest secrets... Secrets that Sekiguchi himself can't escape.

CAST

Akihiko Chuuzenji
Tatsumi Sekiguchi
Reijirou Enokizu
Atsuko Chuuzenji
Shutarou Kiba
Bunzou Aoki
Morihiko Toriguchi
Yoshichika Kuonji

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO THE SUMMER OF THE UBUME

MANGA ComedyHyakki Tsurezure-Bukuro

MANGA MysteryMouryou no Hako

REVIEWS

Boreduser
70/100
Good enough for an afternoon
Ubume no Natsu

I like a good pretentious mystery story. Introducing specific concepts and having them be the pieces of a larger whole of a mystery is something that i believe is difficult to do and makes for really interesting stories when done correctly. My favorite of this specific genre comes from Kotaro Uchikoshi and his game 999. You're given the proper pieces to solve the mystery, and it is entirely possible to do so. These stories exist in their own reality, and whatever they say goes. Even if the actual science is incorrect. Ubume no Natsu is one of these stories, of course, and it's not the best I've ever seen.

The first problem i found is that it slowly solves itself until the very end. What I mean by this is that what truths we are given, we are given way faster than we should be if the intention was to allow the reader to be able to solve the mystery themselves. Taking 999 as an example again, you aren't even given truths in certain endings of that game. You're only given truth in the finale. Not the case for Ubume. It spells out itself throughout the story, and the finale is only possibly solvable within the same time frame you are given the final piece of information. Immediately after all the pieces are given, the story has already solved itself. There's no moment for deliberation.

This wouldn't be the worst thing ever if the characters were also interesting. Chuzenji is the main solver of the case. He has all the answers all the time. Once again, taking a look at 999, there is nobody to fit that "solver" role. Everybody has pieces of the puzzle individually, but no one single person has every answer. This adds tension to the story. If nobody knows everything, then everybody has to work together to pool their knowledge and figure it out. Not the case for Ubume. Chuzenji knows everything and solves it immediately. It would be like if Kindaichi took one look at a crime scene and solved it then and there. It would be boring to read. That isn't to say that Ubume no Natsu is boring to read. It's entertaining enough, and what concepts it does bring to the table for discussion (minus an outdated one) works well for a mystery.

Ultimately, Ubume no Natsu is a fine manga. It does stumble on the aspects of its specific genre, but it makes up for it in other ways. The actual mystery told here is interesting. Alongside characters that aren't Chuzenji being fun to watch. By no means is this a perfect mystery manga, nor should it be. As the beginning of a seemingly long series, this is a good enough introduction. There is room for improvement and potential for something great.
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