A review by thatgirlwho_reads
Otherworld Barbara, Volume 1 by Moto Hagio

5.0

This was so wonderfully weird! Probably one of the best mangas I've read and I love that it has been created by two women. The concept is just fantastic, so complex and so many layers of interweaving stories. I love the combination of psychological mystery, sci-fi and parallel futuristic realities. And of course a crazy mix of cannabals, dream scientists, robot dolls, martians, kagura dancers, immortal beings and absent fathers (you know, as you do). It was also a lot darker than I expected which was interesting. I would say it's easy to get lost in this as there is just so many characters and so much going on but if you stick with it you can appreciate how well it's been constructed. I truly turned each page with no clue what would happen next as it's so unpredictable and this made for a really exciting reading experience. I can't remember the last time I read something which gave me that feeling. Looking forward to seeing where volume 2 takes the story and hoping some of the narrative threads start to join together.