Nijigahara Holograph

It is crazy to think that a story could be so complex, well condensed and filled in such a small number of chapters. A functional experimental use with a non-linear and disconnected narrative, but with intertwining ties.

And it's also complicated to talk about this manga since it's something you experience, and this type of experience varies from reader to reader, some welcome this type of narrative experimentalism in a good way and chase its meaning by reading it once, twice, three times. Others understand nothing, preach the idea that it has no meaning and goes on with life. Because I see Nijigahara as something unique, drawn between the lines to be read several times and with more layers being discovered with each reading, I say this having read the manga about 2/3 times.

A very strong point is the trauma that the events cause, having the condemnation of the past for one, the obsession and mental deconstruction for the past for the other, the event has a strong effect on the entire universe presented by the manga, and this is very well represented . There is a great mature and raw portrayal of themes like abuse, depression and trauma.

Nijigahara Holograph is perfect for those looking for a journey to decipher an ambiguous meaning in such a work. For my part, I was rewarded with a plot well worked between the lines with mastery in all its requirements.

Eleven years ago Arie Kimura, a young girl bullied by her classmates, fell down a well. As a result of her injuries she has been in a coma ever since. She told a story about a monster that lived in a tunnel along the Nijigahara embankment that would bring the world to an end, which terrified the other children. Arie’s accident is only one small part of an ongoing pattern of fear and violence. It isn’t a pleasant memory for anyone involved. Her friends, classmates, teachers, and family members have continued living their lives, but even more than a decade later they still can’t escape their pasts and the consequences of their actions. Some of them live in denial while others have tried to move on and to forget, but for some that is a complete impossibility. They have no choice but to remember, tormented with the knowledge of the suffering and pain caused by the unnecessary tragedy. The story of the monster in the tunnel may be more real than any of them could have imagined.

Nijigahara Holograph is a dark and unnerving story leaving us disconcerted. It deals with some very plump motifs, involving incest, abuse, suicide, and violence along with many other momentous subjects. Rather than sanitizing or romanticizing the story, Inio decided to fabricate an uncompromisingly harsh disquieting story in which all of the said elements are blended and knitted. This is one of the most embroiling story that springs back and forth between the events of the past and the present. The present story is heavily based on the dark intertwined events that had happened in the past and throughout the manga we can see the results of the doings of the past. The contemplated results are hazy and vague due to the deficit close attentiveness, and thus making it compelling to plough through the dark and entangled story. It is interesting to ascertain the bearing each character has with the other character. At the start nothing of this is clear, in the end they all cross each other’s path in life in an unimaginable way. Quoting, “The butterflies separated by fate are becoming one.”

The characters and the story as frightening and vexing they are, the manga is phenomenally interesting and engaging, by portraying both beautiful and brutal notions. Nijigahara Holograph is astonishingly involute and well layered---the characters, their past, their lives, and the stories that connect and overlap with each other’s, oft-times in unforeseen and surprising ways. The emotions and the milieu of the story strengthened with the artwork. Visual indications are embraced throughout the manga which chain the portrayal together, drawing upon the semblance between the character's emotions and situations. The parallelism found in the artwork and the story of Nijigahara Holograph are marvelously effective, underscoring the ever increasing sense of despair as the characters are caught in a never ending cycle of anguish and misery.

Nijigahara Holograph sepulchers deep symbolism and philosophy. The story is open to sundry interpretations as its ethereal uncertainty makes it difficult to condition how much of the story is real and how much of it is simply the product of impaired persona of the characters. The possibility that it shows the characters’ reality is terrible to contemplate, thus making it passable even if it was a rendition of purgatory. Inio Asano creates a cold, volatile, intense world to present us the quandary, what if the menace of the horror is internal? How would you escape from the menace, but leaves us on our own to create answers. Quoting one of my friend, “However what's interesting is that the thematic representation can be interpreted in various ways. It can be interpreted from the point of view of an idealist, nihilist, romanticist or a realist and all the viewpoints will make sense, which truly provides an artistic feel to the manga.”

"Butterfly Field" + Holograph.. is pretty much an interesting title for a manga like this one because it can be interpreted in different ways.. like how a butterfly molts from a caterpillar, and then adding the word "holograph" that has different meanings if your actually check it out in some online dictionary or something.

As the description stated.. it is somehow like the movie Donnie Darko with a mix of "The butterfly effect" converted into a manga but has a sicker twist in which everyone's lives are intertwined.. the story shows how humans are created to go with the flow out of each actions of the people that are surrounding them.. it's like the law of action-reaction which is really inescapable and really just varies on how you make your decisions...

As per the title itself "Butterfly Field Holograph", the story can be interpreted in several ways and can be applied into the whole flow of the story.. The manga shows humans and the world they live in as a field of butterflies and adding the word holograph as either an image that has three layers consisting of the past the present and the future or your own story written by your own hand.. whatever you did in the past can be considered to making decisions in the present so you could develop your own future and whatever you do, the world would never stop or rewind back for you.


The story is gripping from the first chapter up 'till the very last page.

I'm a little surprised at my own reaction to this manga, given my feelings about Asano Inio's works up until now. Ultimately, my lukewarm feelings about this manga mostly have to do with storytelling choices that I can understand, and sort of respect, but I just don't feel pay off well here.

That is to say, this story is extremely difficult to follow upon first reading it, not because too much is left intentionally ambiguous, but because details that end up being important aren't treated as if they're important at all. It's really up to the reader to notice visual details that Asano doesn't draw our attention to, and that the characters don't remark on at all, as well as verbal details that come up in passing. Also, there is a complicated web of character relationships that is covered in a pretty short time. It's not like you have to guess how the characters are related to each other, or even what's motivating them most of the time, though, it's just really hard to keep track of all the details. Passages that may seemingly have no meaning are actually explained by a brief 1-2 panel incident that happened 5 chapters apart from the section of the story you're currently reading. To be honest, I feel like I have no choice but to reread this story (though I definitely don't feel like it right now),

So the question is, is it worth it? Nijigahara Holograph strikes me as essentially a moral tale about desire and obsession. Again and again, Arie (and her mother before her) spur the characters to commit utterly heinous acts. It's not actually because they think Arie's prophecy is spooky (although they do, insofar as they fear recourse for the darkness inside themselves). Arie's story is really more of a narrative framework that gives form to the rest of the story. Really, it's because she inspires desire and jealousy in all of the characters attached to her. As for the obsession with Arie the characters have, is it really about Arie herself, or is it, ironically, this idea of purity and light that she represents, which the characters wish to internalize in order to extinguish their own darkness? The fact that every character is willing to stoop so low implies that their desires have nothing to do with attaining or protecting purity or moral goodness, and if they are, they're too emotionally stunted to act on their desires without their actions and their selves becoming utterly twisted.

Suzuki kind of prevents the story from being too tidy. His presence I guess kind of gives credence to implications that Arie is manipulating events through her coma, or is maybe actually God? Is Arie keeping Suzuki from dying? He's sort of a victim of the other characters' obsession with Arie, and he never does anything particularly bad, so I guess Arie/God is looking out for him, whether he likes it or not. Not to mention their special relationship which I guess there's no reason to spoil.

All in all, I don't think this story is really THAT interesting, or on the same level visually as some of his other work. But it is certainly challenging to read...

This analysis will cover specific details about Nijigahara Holograph, meaning: if you have not read the manga, it would be advisable to abstain from reading this review to avoid spoiling vital information.

A critical work to be familiar with while reading Nijigahara Holograph is the book of Zhuangzi (considered a foundational text of Daoism), by Master Zhuang. One of the key concepts that is taught through this work is the idea of spontaneity, and how we should eschew from artificial distinctions (i.e. good versus evil, beauty versus ugliness, and usefulness versus uselessness). In creating these dichotomies, we remove ourselves from the natural flow of the universe — which, obviously, existed long before human cognition — thus, diminishing our chances of achieving ultimate happiness. In essence, like the “butterflies that have been pulled apart by fate,” we, as humans, have deliberately pulled ourselves apart as a species, neglecting the features that make us “one.”

The ubiquity of physical and mental anguish in Nijigahara Holograph accurately reflects the adversities of the real world. It reminds us of the iniquitous thoughts/tendencies that reside within all of us, waiting to be provoked with the necessary force. Unlike typical manga, Asano’s artwork immerses the reader into the cold reality of his fictional world, instilling palatable trepidation that is not easily consummated within the medium. We, as a public, hear about egregious stories in the news every day, but through some psychological mechanism within ourselves, we tend to overlook these abhorrent behaviors to maintain our own perceived happiness in this indifferent existence. Through his keen understanding of the human condition, Asano forces the reader to confront these abominable dilemmas without prior warning, clarifying the odious nature of the human species. Primal emotions (lust, anger, jealousy) serve as the impetus for much of the turmoil for our protagonists, reminding us, impertinently, how rudimentary we truly are.

The non-linear story, along with the constant transition between past and present events gives us insight into the relationship between time and reality. We tend to believe in the thermodynamic principle of the arrow of time, in which all events assume a “one-way direction” or “asymmetry” of time. But this, ostensibly, pertains to the known physical world, how does this scientific theory apply to entities of unknown mass or origin? I am speaking, of course, about human thoughts and dreams. Accept it or not, we view the world through the prism of our own experiences. We then use said experiences to construct a view of the world that we deem to be “real.” Since the concept of human thought and dreams are malleable entities, they have the ability to distort the perception of time itself. Establishing a reality that is indistinguishable from what we call the “real world,” obfuscating certain events, and giving us the opportunity to access them through our unconscious will; however, most dream-like events, are seldom pleasant. Perhaps the rigors of our ancestors having to survive in the wild for thousands of years imbued a biological tendency for us to remain in a perpetual state of fear, always reminding ourselves of the harshness of this existence. This may be why our minds latch onto the negative experiences of our lives to produce nightmares that haunt us time and time again. Similar to the physical scars Kyoko obscured through plastic surgery, the mental scars of each character cannot be forgotten, for as long as they possess the memories, the anxiety remains. Unlike prosaic manga characters, these psychological hindrances obstruct their forward progression, trapping them into a cyclical torture of the mind. The resulting physical catharsis is not desirable, nor justified; however, it is genuine to the human condition.

The prototypical protagonist/antagonist paradigm that is pervasive in the manga industry, does not apply to this work. Asano, most likely, wanted the reader to take a Daoist perspective to the character’s actions, understanding how artificial distinctions (like Narumi’s “ugliness”) clear the path towards cruel insults, limiting our potential of becoming one as a species. Each character portrays a certain level of malevolence, and it is not our job to find endearing qualities about them — giving “justification” for their actions — rather, we must understand how fragile their rationality is under complex situations. Take Kyoko Sakaki, for example, she exhibits a, seemingly, well-ground character with a calm demeanor and lax personality. On the day of her divorce, however, she confesses to a malignant emotional strain from her past efforts in thwarting a man from raping one of her students (resulting in a forfeiture of her own eye). Due to the inattentiveness of her soon to be divorced husband, Kyoko, placidly, threatens to kill him and the children. This gender dichotomy, in which a woman is prohibited from expressing rage — or else, she is viewed as being recalcitrant — and a man is permitted to feel angry, as evidenced by the bruises on the children’s arms, captures a pressing issue social issue that, along with subservient marriages, leads to a significant amount of depression and suicide. Furthermore, it hinders one’s ability to maintain a sense of presence, as Kyoko laments her past “careless actions,” she overlooks her role as a mother, and the future repercussions it will have on her children. On the surface, it seems absurd to compare her actions to say, Amahiko’s foster mother, but the omission of a parent’s compassion can be just as damaging as direct insults.

Speaking of blatant child abuse, Amahiko Suzuki, a socially withdrawn adolescent, experiences his maltreatment through verbal attacks from his uncaring foster mother. This frail family dynamic leaves Amahiko feeling depressed, and emotionally ill-equipped to cultivate strong bonds with his fellow classmates. In fact, he considers his botched suicide attempt — jumping off the roof at his old school — as the antithesis of a “clean break.” This hearken’s back to the spontaneity of life, and how through our constant attempts to manipulate the world around us, we distance ourselves from the natural flow of things. This does not imply that a predetermined purpose exists, but rather, as Asano put it: “every human being has their role in life.” But to fulfill that role, it is crucial to liberate oneself from past events, past arbitrary prejudices, and past the illusory divide we create through our incessant need to categorize things (consciously or unconsciously). Only then can we filter through the “bad” experiences of our lives to identify the “good” opportunities that lie in front of us — in Amahiko’s case, Narumi’s openness to friendship.

Nothing is spelled out in clear or unambiguous terms, yet the journey endeavored by those who seek to clarify the hidden “meanings” behind the mangaka’s intent, will undoubtedly be rewarded with enhanced mental acuity. Enjoy.

Nijigahara holograph (虹 ヶ 原 ホ ロ グ ラ フ) is the second major work of Asano Inio. Written almost simultaneously with What a wonderful world!, this means that the two works are inevitably linked to each other. We are not talking about a similarity of literary genre or in the method of writing, but of that thread that unites all the works of every great author, each of them is a piece of the puzzle of the writer’s thought. Indeed Nijigahara holograph can be considered the twin work of What a wonderful world! but, unlike the latter, it explores the most obscure corners of the author’s mind.

Analyzing Nijigahara holograph was, to say the least, complicated. Despite being a fairly short manga (13 chapters), it is imbued with themes that differ from philosophy, religion, mythology; so much so that I had to reread it several times to be able to tidy up my consideration.

Nijigahara holograph is a dark work. Asano throws the reader into the abyss of human immorality. Murders, pedophilia, abuse, rape, cynicism, indifference, madness, discrimination, fear. However, the message of the work is positive, it pushes the reader to enlighten his own soul, to have a bit of self-love, to trust the world and people. Asano creates a marvelous contrast between the darkness of the narrative and the enlightment of his message.

After a first reading I thought that Nijigahara holagraph was unnecessarily complex. A non-linear narration, continuous jumps between present and past, supernatural elements in a realistic context and so on. Then the more I reread it, the more the will of the author was revealed to me. The message of the work is to dig into one’s own soul to understand oneself, and Asano wants his reader to do the same thing with his work, to dig deep to understand the message.

Nijigahara holagraph is an existentialist work where Asano, like an Albert Camus of our times, tries to find a good reason to continue living in a world that is not so “wonderful”.

Nijigahara Holograph by Inio Asano
Long-Winded Review #2 [Sleep Deprivation Edition]

Nijigahara Holograph is an absolute masterpiece. When a story makes you endlessly theorize and try to piece together all the symbolism, timelines, and subplots, you know it's a damn good one. Someone could write a book longer than this manga just analyzing it. It's that literately dense. This book is a puzzle, a maze, a dream, and a mosaic. It takes a lot of skill to put together a story such as this, and Inio Asano absolutely nails it. I'm sure some have criticized it for being confusing, but this is not meant to be an easy read. This book demands your complete attention, interest, and effort in actively seeking out meaning. I had to constantly page back and forth, cross-examining previously cryptic scenes with new scenes that elucidated possible meanings. There are so many layers to this 15-chapter story that it is simply mindblowing how seamlessly Asano made it all work. Nijigahara Holograph has been compared to a David Lynch film, and that couldn't be a more apt comparison. This is a surreal as it gets, all while maintaining that signature Asano slice-of-life vibe. Reading this will feel like a dream, which depending on your interpretation of the story, maybe is not so far off.

The themes explored in this are your average Asano fare: existentialism, depression, suicide, despair, human psychology, philosophy, and surprisingly even spirituality (mostly Taoism, but other influences as well). Mostly it focuses on negative facets of human nature, so I wouldn't recommend reading this if you're sensitive to the subject matters I mentioned. Throughout the book, we see human beings being huge piles of shit, and how their actions affect others. The only semblance of purity is Arie, the girl who is in a coma since the beginning of the story, while everyone else tends to be reflected in a poor light. The beauty of Asano's writing is how real, grounded, and raw he makes these characters feel. He captures humanity in a way I have never seen another writer capture; not just with his writing, but his art as well.

I won't summarize the plot, but I will attempt to explain its appeal. The story itself feels like a mix of slice-of-life, mystery, and psychological horror, perhaps even supernatural horror depending how you interpret it. It revolves around 10 or so characters, mostly the students of a particular class, their family, and their teachers. All of these start out with individual arcs, but eventually every single character becomes intertwined with the others and with the main plot of the story. It might not be apparent at first, it might even go completely over your head, but every character is important. The plot itself is told through two timelines, both of which do jump around a lot, and it requires a lot of attention to detail to understand how and when things happen. Sometimes there will be repeated lines and motifs that hint at the significance of specific events and the nature of the story as a whole. If you're not paying attention you might completely miss out on a whole layer of meaning. In fact, I would say that you are almost guaranteed to not understand everything on a first read. There will be revelations later on that will completely change how you view specific events or mechanics in the story. The butterflies are one of those things for example, as there are various interpretations of what they could be, and I don't think there is one single answer. Another example would be the tin box. Even the very last page could recontextualize the entire story depending on how you interpret it. It's like trying to interpret a dream.

I don't want to get into spoilers, or turn this review into an analysis essay, but I would recommend reading up on Zhuangzi's Butterfly Parable and Taoism to get a better sense for the central themes at play here. Themes such as Tao/The Way, the Three Treasures, Cyclic Cosmology, I Ching/Yin & Yang. General enlightenment beliefs from other religions might be useful as well. This should help understanding the story as it goes along. You will likely still enjoy it without any of this, but you probably won't understand why I consider it a masterpiece.

As for the art, it is absolutely gorgeous. Asano has a knack for facial expressions and body language. His character designs are simple and realistic, sometimes breathtakingly beautiful, sometimes mundane, and sometimes even deliberately unpleasant. His use of the sequential medium is sublime. He likes to use a lot of establishing shots to cement the setting, which is important considering this is basically a small town mystery. He uses spreads only when absolutely necessary to capitalize on a powerful moment. His use of blank or black panels with or without text is extremely effective, and his panel pacing is meticulously calculated. For the most part, his panels consist of close-ups or body shots, with focus being placed on specific actions, objects, expressions, or body language. I'd say the things he values the most are atmosphere and emotion. His goal with his art is to make you feel. His goal with his writing is to make you ponder.

All in all, I have to give this a perfect score of 10/10. It's a literary masterpiece, in my opinion. Easily one of the best manga I've read. I could see some faulting it for being confusing, or maybe even pretentious or uneventful, but I would highly disagree. Inio Asano completely nails the execution, and any open-endedness is deliberate and calculated. I could also see some faulting it for not being what they want it to be, but this manga is exactly what it wants to be.

I will leave you with a quote paraphrased in the book that perfectly captures its essence:
"Once upon a time, I, Zhuangzi, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Zhuangzi. Soon I awakened, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man."

"Nijigahara Holograph" really leave lots of lingering questions after reading the first time. The first read will get you a sense of characters recognition and then the second read will most likely help you understand the whole story. You'll need to read it three times to complete the timeline puzzle the author left.

The GOOD about this manga:
- Once you've pieced all the scattered scene together, you will understand the story very well which takes about 3 read to to this.
- The characters are very well developed and connecting them is what make the story interesting.

The BAD about this manga:
- All characters are sick in the head: a father who regularly have sex with his daughter, the daughter getting raped/having sex with other men, a son who have mommy complex (Oedipus Complex) and want to have sex with his mother, a classmate who go crazy and kill people because the girl he like keep getting rape/having sex with other guys...etc. You'll come to understand this if you pieced all the timeline in the correct order while understanding the significance of each character in the manga.
- The butterflies in the manga probably signified identity confusion due to guilt of the individual character. This is because of the quote mentioned in the manga about Zhuang zi who confused his own identity with the butterfly.

Overall, this manga is very unique to the point that you even confuse yourself with the characters.

Nijigahara Holograph is a Seinen, Psychological, Mystery, Drama that will take anyone brave enough to read it, on a mind-trip. This is quite the experimental manga, as it delves into a realm that hasn’t been entered before, so you can expect to become lost in the intricate plot.

One of the trickiest things to explain, about Nijigahara Holograph, is the story & plot because it is hard enough to comprehend, let alone articulate it in words. The manga is like a montage of the lives of different people, who are all interconnected in some way. There are numerous themes but the ones most prominent are on the unfairness of life and the redemption that follows, upon choosing the right path. The story itself focuses on one troubled person at a time, giving the reader a peek in their lives and what they went through during their past elementary school days. This puzzling set-up certainly gets you thinking however the story has no flow whatsoever and is all over the place. It would have been better if events were in some kind of chronological order, yet you wouldn’t get the same experience any where else.

There are quite a lot of characters through the duration of this short manga but the three that leave the biggest impact are: Komatsuzaki (a violent guy who’s unpredictable actions seem to be directed by something), Suzuki (a troubled guy with disparaging views of those around him) & the girl that seems to be at the centre of it all Kimura (a sort of sacrificial lamb figure). All the characters face personal struggles, with the mental & verbal dialogue adding a whole new depth to each of them.

Unlike most seinen manga I have come across, this one goes for semi-realistic & semi-surreal artwork. That may not make much sense but having finely drawn characters & environments amalgamate with various entrancing imagery is truly mystifying. The artwork isn’t exactly made to look attractive, as it mainly expresses the writer's view of the imperfect creature that is humans.

Overall Nijigahara Holograph is an engaging manga that showed the brutality and unfairness of life. This manga is so surreal that you may find yourself staring at a page, wondering what it’s supposed to portray or what the butterflies are supposed to represent. This really isn’t a manga to enjoy but rather something to think about, by piecing bits of the story together. For those who are actually struggling to understand the thoughts that are being put across in this review would have no chance in comprehending this bizarre manga.

^_^

Asano Inio's works are known for the mature, realistic and character driven stories, that ranges from slice of life to psychological horror stories. Nijigahara Holograph is one of Asano's published works, but where to begin this manga? The story narrated was difficult to follow, and after reading it for a second time, it still wasn't clear what its ultimate purpose was.

The story of Nijigahara Holograph revolves around the lives of Suzuki, a troubled boy; Komatsuzaki, an unpredictable bully whose trauma causes him to act in inexplicable way. Arakawa, who is in love with Komatsuzaki. A daughter in coma, a mother who committed suicide. Together with the sudden explosion of the butterfly population, the story of the manga spans 10 years in which the lives of all these people are connected with each other.

Now comes the difficult part: following the different storylines of each character,how these interact with each other, and the motives and decisions of the characters. While the narration jumps from the present to the past, 10 years ago, which is relatively easy to follow, the actions of the people and the connection with the butterflies is not. The story is apparently linked with an urban legend, a monster in a tunnel, though the purpose of this and how it leads to certain actions of the characters was not entirely clear to me.

The narrative felt like it was a puzzle where only certain parts were available. It was done in such a way that makes the reader really think about human nature, and with the help of the different actions of the characters and stories behind them, try to assemble the puzzle, knowing that some pieces will miss. I personally wasn't able to this, making it very difficult to comprehend the ultimate purpose of the story. Any enlightenment on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

There is a big cast of characters in Nijigahara Holograph. The characters presentation is done well in the story, though in some cases too little information was offered to truly understand the nature of that character, leaving it to the reader's imagination on what their background was to have that particular behaviour/nature.

Character development takes place in the manga, though the ambiguous story made it difficult to present a clear character development, though most of them lead to become even more depressive. The characters behaviour in most of the cases are realistic, presenting typical human nature: jealousy, anger, revenge, you name it, in which Asano conveys the imperfect nature of humanity.

The art of Nijigahara Holograph is impressive, as we know of Asano Inio's works. The big variety in character design and the facial expressions adds to a more realistic feel to the story, which is necessary to transmit the emotional state of the characters. The backgrounds are impressive and detailed as well. The shading skills of Asano are very good and fits with the story, as it matches with the dramatic and mysterious atmosphere the manga tries to convey.

I personally enjoyed Nijigahara Holograph, though the story that it was trying to tell made it difficult to follow. The art style,  characters and the mysterious atmosphere made it nevertheless worth the read. If you are interested in psychological mangas, than this may be something for you, but be prepared to lose yourself in the story in the attempt to understand it and try to fit the puzzle together.

Thanks for reading.