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4.27 AVERAGE
4.27 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
rereading!
i'll forever love how easily this story draws you in, its queerness (in every sense of the word) and the characters' feelings and internal conflict being the driving force of it all. so excited to keep reading
i'll forever love how easily this story draws you in, its queerness (in every sense of the word) and the characters' feelings and internal conflict being the driving force of it all. so excited to keep reading
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
There’s something about stories that don’t blink when you’re staring them down—something about the hush between panels, that silence that feels like it’s been marinated in grief, or rot, or memory. The Summer Hikaru Died, Vol. 1, doesn’t roar into its horror. It hums. It whispers. It worms its way beneath the skin like mold creeping under wallpaper—subtle, insidious, and heartbreakingly intimate.
Let’s start with the setup, though I’d rather not—because, in truth, this manga doesn’t care for plot in the way most stories do. The premise is there: Hikaru, the sunshine boy in a sleepy mountain town, is dead. Something else—not Hikaru—has taken his place, and Yoshiki, his best friend, knows. Knows, and yet stays. That’s the story. But it isn’t, really.
Because what Mokumokuren crafts isn’t just a horror tale. It’s grief wearing the skin of familiarity. It’s the ache of wanting something back so badly you pretend the replacement fits. The horror here isn’t in the monster’s teeth, though they are there, when they want to be. It’s in Yoshiki’s quiet denial. In the way he keeps saying “Hikaru,” knowing full well it isn’t. It’s the trauma of staying.
Visually? It’s sublime. The artwork swings from ethereal to grotesque with whiplash speed—like a memory that suddenly curdles. Hikaru’s not-quite-right face is rendered so precisely that it doesn’t need distortion to feel uncanny. The trees loom. The air thickens on the page. There’s a weight to the world, a patience. Everything feels suspended. Like it knows what’s coming. Like it’s watching.
But the real triumph is tone. The dialogue is sparse, and it has to be—because the silence is where this manga breathes. The pauses are not empty. They are grieving. The pacing drifts, like summer heat on asphalt, slow and sticky, and full of something just about to burst. And the relationship—if you can call it that—between Yoshiki and Not-Hikaru is handled with disturbing tenderness. It’s love. Or it was. Or it could’ve been. But it isn’t now. And no one will say it aloud.
Now—if I may swerve a little (I will)—I think what breaks me is that this story isn’t about possession. It’s about willing surrender. Not-Hikaru isn’t forcing Yoshiki to stay. Yoshiki chooses. Day after day. Despite the knowing. And in that choice lies the most terrifying truth of all: that grief is a kind of hospitality. That we let our monsters in because they look like someone we loved.
Do I recommend it? Yes. But not lightly. Read it if you’re ready for something slow, sad, and serrated. Read it if you like your horror quiet and your characters bruised. Don’t read it looking for resolution. This is the first volume, after all, and it ends the way a long breath ends—just before the scream.
There is no catharsis here. Only recognition.
And that’s what makes it beautiful.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes