Bizenghast: Creepy Town, Large Eyes and Bone Dresses

Playing Herself at the Party.

So for Halloween, let's review a horror/creepy graphic novel. There's plenty of good horror manga out there, and that's saying a lot because I was told that horror manga is still pretty new, like most horror manga barely came out in the eighties. I'm not sure if that's true or not but in my opinion, Japanese horror manga is pretty damn good. Some mangaka is amazing at bringing this creepy and sinister atmosphere in their drawings. This being said the graphic novel I'm gonna review is not made in Japan and the person who made it is not Japanese. Here's some backstory.

Once upon a time, there was this publishing house that dub Japanese manga called Tokyo pop. Tokyo pop dub and release manga titles like Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew, Vampire Game, Trinity Blood and other manga. At some point during the early 2000's, Tokyo pop created this manga contest called "The Rising Stars of Manga", basically aspiring U.S manga artists can submit their work and if they were good enough, their work will become actual manga and they will get paid as a mangaka. Because of this contest, new U.S manga came out. And how did they fair? Well...poorly. Unfortunately, many contest winners realized that the process for actually making manga for a living was difficult because most U.S manga never made it far past volume one. Some series only lasted for three volumes.

Then there's M. Alice LeGrow's "Bizenghast" which lasted for eight volumes. And how did it fair? Pretty damn decent actually. Beware! Spoilers!

Bizenghast lasted from 2005 to 2012, and it was a horror/ psychological story. It had a gothic atmosphere and LeGrow's artwork was more reminisce to Margaret Keane's Big Eyes portraits than to say modern anime styles. Manga critics were pleased as both story and character designs were a breath of fresh air. As for me? Well, this series took me FOREVER to finish! I did start reading it when it first came out back in 2005 and I was following the series pretty well until I got to volume 4 and then things got complicated. At the time it was 2007 and high school was over. I was debating what I wanted to do with my life and at the same time having relationship issues. My love interest broke up with me at the time, and I had an extremely (EXTREMELY) difficult time letting go. It had gotten to the point where I was becoming well...stalkerish. However by the time I finally did start to go to college I was able to get the therapy I needed and after some more dark years pass, I was finally able to move on with my life and focus on my studies. Then in 2015, I remember the Bizenghast series and I was still stuck on four. Luckily the series was already over by now so I could purchase the rest of the series without having to wait. So finally I finished the series over months ago and now can give my review. So let's get started.

Artwork: 7/10 I'm conflicted with LeGrow's artwork because it's somewhat inconsistent. There are plenty of moments when she would create well detail pictures. Some of Dinah's dresses are very nice detail and creative as hell. There was this great surrealism to her art. However, too many times LeGrow would not bother to create backgrounds for comic panels. Some panels hardly had any effort at all. And then there are times when the artwork looked too scribble and unprofessional. I think LeGrow at times would just get tired drawing and just start scribbling to finish pages. This is strange cuz when she really puts effort into her art, she makes some amazing pictures. While this isn't a super issue for me, I still kinda find it disappointing to see an artist not using her full potential.

Story Plot: 9/10 The plot, in my opinion, is very creative. The idea that the town of Bizenghast had this dark secret and only Dinah's visit to the mausoleum shows that secret is a concept I haven't really seen before. There have been stories and shows about towns with dark secrets and the protagonists must find out what it is. You got classic horror like Children of the Corn and Salem's Lot. Then you got suspenseful comedies like Hot Fuzz. However, LeGrow takes her time giving us the true secret of bizenghast, opting instead to keep building up the mystery and suspense with different events and clues. When I was rereading the series, I would review some clues that do tie to the ending. So there is this consistency of storytelling. There's maybe one or two loose ends I found unanswered. There was this great atmosphere to the story too. I never knew what was going to happen because the story was indeed hard to predict. In the first three volumes, LeGrow does set up this idea of what the story is gonna be. Dinah comes across this mausoleum, accidentally signs a contract where she must convince or battle spirits in vaults or graves to go to the other side. She does this by entering the spirit's dreamworld and figuring out what the spirit's desires are. If Dinah successfully does her tasks, she will be rewarded. If not, she will die. So it was explained early on by Edaniel that Dinah must empty out all the vaults. Along the way, she will meet mausoleum guards who will help her. So ok, by the third volume I saw the story as this journey (like Alice in Wonderland or Wizard of Oz) where Dinah will meet creepy and weird characters, learn something about herself and in the end she will be rewarded, but nope! Volume 4 is where things make a turn. Here her best friend dies. Now she's alone and that is only the beginning because soon the story takes a full 180, and now it's more of her solving the town's mystery and saving the town from a witch. I truly did not expect this change of events. Small details like the giving of gold to the hooded angel is seen as important to the end. Same goes the broken fountain that Dinah mentions hating. Even the ending was not what I was expecting. Now it could be seen as a creative ending, not giving in the cliche or it could be seen as a lazy ending. But basically, Dinah does end up staying forever in Bizenghast but now appreciate the town a bit more. She doesn't get rewarded the way I thought she would but she gets to be with her friend Vincent again. But to be honest the whole scene of her visiting her mother in heaven was a bit random to me. We never have seen her mother and there was never a mention of her mother having a role in Dinah's mission. So yeah totally random. Also, the gathering of the spirits Dinah saved so they could help her defeat the witch was kinda pointless because after the battle we never see them again. Where they all destroyed by the witch? But other than some randomness, I found the story refreshing and the fact that I couldn't predict it at all is extra impressive for me.

Pieces, Pieces,..Pieces of Me

Characters (Protagonists): 8/10 The characters have both good development and lack of development. So the main characters have pretty good development. Dinah herself has the best. But let's get to the side characters before I get to her. Vincent is Dinah's good friend and most likely love interest. It's very obvious Vincent has feelings for Dinah, however, their friendship has always been more important to them. In the beginning, Vincent was the one who made the plans, had the ideas and fought the problems while Dinah was the typical damsel. Vincent would do anything for Dinah, like that one chapter when Vincent tried to trick the hooded angel and this caused Dinah to get endanger, Vincent was determined to save her. That's pretty good loyalty. He was also pretty damn smart. Before his death, Vincent was already researching on the mysteries surrounding Bizenghast. Something that eventually causes his death. Vincent does mention his parents but they are never seen and according to Vincent, are never around so there is sad neglect here. Then we got Edaniel, the first mausoleum guard. HE'S DEFINITELY THE COMEDY RELIEF. He has an animal and human form, however, we mostly see him in his animal form. Like a modern Cheshire cat, Edaniel doesn't give answers completely instead, using jokes to distract Dinah and Vincent from asking more difficult questions. He gets somewhat ditzy and would get distracted many times. His jokes are pretty funny and sometimes he pulls one so good, it got me laughing hard. In his human form, he's hornier. Always asking anyone to make out, yeah that means both Dinah and Vincent. Despite his humor, Edaniel still shows sadness and did mourn Vincent's death without cracking one joke. Edrear is the older brother of Edaniel and second guard. There's not a lot of background with Edrear, he does like Dinah, giving some rivalry to Vincent however once Vincent dies, Edrear's passion for Dinah kinda goes away. He still is determined to protect her but now his attitude for her seems more out of friendship. However, Dinah must have understood Edrear's feelings because they do share a passionate kiss towards the end of the story. However, the ending never states whether Dinah and Edrear pursuit their relationship or Dinah ended up with Vincent. I think LeGrow was more concerned with Dinah's character than her potential love life.

So let's finally get to Dinah! Oh my god is this a good case of beautiful character growth and development. Dinah alone will get 10/10. So Dinah does start off as very weak and always whining. First volume she complaints about the town, she hates everything and the only friend she could find is Vincent. When she first has to do her mission, she lets Vincent do pretty much all the work, despite it being her contract. Like he has to fight the monsters and solve the problems while Dinah kinda takes the sidekick role and is useless against attacks. However, by the end of volume one, Dinah does develop some determination especially when offered to give her contract to Vincent which she doesn't. It's only after Vincents dies does Dinah gets some serious character change. After volume four, and in volume five Dinah was devastated to lose Vincent. Now when it comes to mourning to a dead character, most shows would dedicate one episode or one chapter for the rest of the cast to grieve. Not here. It takes the entire volume five for Dinah to get over Vincent's death. I actually really like this idea. It feels more real to see Dinah struggling to accept the loss of her friend. And he stays dead. He never comes back to life. Throughout volume five Dinah goes thru trouble. First, she can't see herself moving on with her mission without Vincent so at one point during a serious battle with a demon Dinah gives up and literary starts to sink. Edrear has to convince her to keep fighting. Then she tries to believe that Vincent isn't dead, that if she looks hard enough she will find him again. Edrear had to remind her Vincent isn't coming back or alive. Then she accepts his death but thinks maybe she could bring him back to life. She herself realizes death is permanent and Vincent is gone. Finally, she confronts the actual spirit of the mausoleum and she blames the mausoleum for her suffering. The mausoleum reminds Dinah that it may be cold and made of stone but what is Dinah made of? Dinah transformation is complete and she goes from being scared and weak to determined and badass. So much so that by the end she dons full warrior mode so she can take down the witch.

The prettiest evil decapitated head you've seen!

Characters (Antagonists): 7/10 Speaking of the witch let's finally hit some of the bad guys in this series. So the main antagonist is a witch called "Maphohetka"...oook that's not an easy name to say, so I'm just gonna called her the witch. Ok so the "witch" was the main baddie, there were some other bad guys. They were all demons and evil spirits who cause misery to other spirits and it was up to Dinah to stop and send them to hell. The first major evil spirit was Maggie Murdoch, who I'm sure was a cannibal who ate children. However, she was extremely easy to defeat. Vincent just smacked her with a shovel. The next mean girl was only called her "ladyship" who was killed by her servants and now is an evil spirit who drowns people. She definitely gave Dinah a scare but was destroyed because she was still a spoiled brat. Then you got the two face (or many faced?) girl called "IXI" What is up with LeGrow's love for extremely weird names? "IXI" was more difficult to defeat because she immediately imprisoned Dinah and company. She also had an interesting design. Ok ok there are other villains but they were only one chapter villains so let's get to the main one. Map....the witch is the villain who cursed the town because the townspeople accuse her of witchcraft and kill her. She was imprisoned in the mausoleum but somehow escapes (not sure how the story never confirms how) She then puts everyone in her spell so everyone sees her as a guardian angel. She's definitely one of those villains who think she's good and its everyone else who is evil and is blind to her own evil doings. It was actually terrifying how easy it was for her to take over the town and turn everyone against Dinah. Luckily, in the end, Dinah sees the true (very creepy) form of the witch and is able to kill her. And yes this was the witch (bitch) who killed Vincent. The series did a good job on building the coming of the witch and evil she brings.

On the Side Note: If the series did have a major flaw, it has very weak supporting characters. Like Elala dies very early in the story. Eniri was brainwashed by the witch but is never seen in the end, what happened to her? did she die? did she survive? Dinah's aunt got some show time and good moments with Dinah but nothing else more. Vincent's parents apparently never found out their son had died. A girl named Erzebet introduced in volume 2 yet is never seen again. Was she real? or a figment of Vincent's imagination? No explanation. so 4/10 on side characters.

Overall: So this series was pleasantly good with its surprising story plot. My first read of it, I really thought it was gonna go a different way like that in Alice in Wonderland but no instead became a story of fighting evil and restoring an old town to normal. It had great character development, creative surreal artwork, and the ending was satisfying not amazing or epic but I was impressed. I'm glad I finished this series and finally found out what became of these characters. I'm actually hoping, praying even, that there will be an anime or American anime of this show. I really hope someone from a good animation studio sees LeGrow's work enough to make a show. Please let it happen.

Well, that's the end of my review of Bizenghast, hope you enjoyed reading it as I did. Next manga review I will do another creepy horror title. Another American manga title called THE DREAMING.
I'm out!