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."