Homunculus (Omnibus) Vol. 3-4 (2024)

OMG! A book that advocates for the healing power of rape. Graphically.

And embellishes the pages with so much sem*n and blood, and does such gross stuff with those body fluids. Ewwwwww.

I'm going to hate-read the next volume since I have it on hand from the library.

The story has a really cool idea with a good start in the first 1.5 volumes and decided to drown it in misogyny and rape.

will not be continuing this series. I was hoping for some psychological horror but bamboozled by pages and pages of extremely graphic assault- and also sem*n??? Literally WHAT IS THIS?!?! I normally love dark stuff but this just took it way too far- do not recommend this series

Disgusting and disturbing. Everything that happened in volume 3 and half of 4 was completely pointless. I’m dropping this series. It’s not for me.

The psychological horror behind it was very interesting. Such a shame it turned into a truly perverted and unnecessary thing. Seriously, what does Japan have with sex offenders? It seems like every media has some element of sexual harassment. From girls yelling stop while meaning to keep going, to so many perverted things in the name of fanservice. I still have one more volume, though I might drop the series. Such a shame, it was a genuinely interesting concept.

Disturbingly very graphic.

But so very different from anything I've read in a while.

The first time I read LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN...I felt like this

Very uncomfortable to read.

I'm so unsure how to feel about these two volumes, omnibus one was so solid and intriguing. This edition was just full of confusion and sem*n.

I should've read Goodreads reviews before picking this volume up... The healing power of r*pe? And it's graphic and it's close to 50% of the page count? Nope.

Volume 1-2 was promising, but this one ruined it for me. Dropping this series.

Ick 🤮. I have the next omnibus volumes from the library. Let’s hope it gets off this trajectory and back onto something more psychologically interesting/mysterious. I personally did not enjoy this one. That being said, it did prove without a shadow of a doubt that the main character is extremely morally depraved. It gives the reader background of his work history that is cold/callous as well as his poor personal relationships with women. This helps bring us some type of perspective as to why he is seeing things the way he currently does beyond the excuse of simply having the sketchy medical procedure. He has underlying issues without a doubt. This is less about other people and more about him. Amidst all my disgust the one point of interest to me in this omnibus is that he is so completely convoluted that he believes that by actively traumatizing others he is healing them of their homunculus. Phew 😮‍💨 this character is a real piece of work!

YEAH NAH I DON’T KNOW MAN

TW: Sexual Assualt
Spoiler filled below:
This series can be graphic and follows morally shady characters. I think it also depicted things in a harmful way that justified abhorrent behaviour.
Yukari is depicted as this teenage girl who doesn't know herself. She conforms to other people, and Ito takes advantage of her vulnerability. Nakoshi also takes advantage of her. Having 'fixed' people's issues before, he is compelled to doing the same to this girl. He acts in a forceful obsessive manner. He is ticked off by her wanting to become 'one' with someone. He ends up TW:raping her. She is saying no and is not a willing participant. In my notes I wrote that her homunculus is kinda teasing him. Because he has this supernatural vision, the reader is supposed to take that to mean that shows her inner 'reality'.
After this incident she becomes ‘normal’. I think that perhaps the message is that she was able to let go of the silly dream she had of becoming ONE with someone. Maybe through this experience she was able to ground herself in reality and let go of her prior expectations. I think that is harmful. Because no way in hell would THAT result in that.
When they are parting she seems to look at him appreciatively or at least playfully. It is a dangerous concept because the moral of the story is it was for her own good. She was asking for it. And she is better for it.
To imply she was fixed of her silly ideas by being assaulted is inhumane. It says that: it's okay to take away your agency if it's for your own good. I know what you need better than you.
Now Nakoshi isn't portrayed as a stand up guy. He's unhinged and repulsive, but in this moment and others he is fighting against the 'bad'. This scene doesn't condemn his bad behaviour. He gets away with it and is portrayed as having helped her.

Rating: 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 stars.

I loved the first omnibus and gave it 5 stars. This second omnibus is a bit more complicated with plenty to like but even more to dislike - enough to make many readers (including my friend I'm reading it with) give up on this series. The creepiness hinted at in the first volume is amped up to 11 in this one.

There is a sexual assault and rape of a 17-year old high school girl by our protagonist, Nakoshi, who is twice her age. It's unpleasant to read and goes on way too long and is confusing throughout. There's blood, sem*n, sucking on open wounds - lots of repulsive stuff here. I wasn't always sure what was happening in Nakoshi's head - I assumed he had gone insane from the procedure. I wasn't sure what the point was or his motivations, but I guess I have to keep reading to find out.

When he revisits his corporate job and the homeless camp across the street, it gets interesting. The book takes a more philosophical turn and explores interesting ideas like what it means to be human and how we look down on others and how sometimes life takes us to unexpected places.

We get flashbacks of his corporate life and learn he was always kind of a scumbag. I found this interesting and insightful. I mean, I'm not opposed to scumbag protagonists - hell, Lolita is on my TBR.

While the book is difficult and unpleasant, it's never boring or predictable. I have many questions and am intrigued enough that I will continue reading the series. I just wonder if the payoff will be worth it.

This series has gone from dark to disturbed.

I wish there was more heads up on upsetting situations like what happened in this volume. (WARNING: misogyny, r*pe, self harm, and graphic imagery in this omnibus).

That being said, I'm impressed how well Hideo Yamamoto has created this world where just about everyone has revolting side/personality shown on full display. Honestly, I was simultaneously disgusted and upset by this volume, but also found being drawn into what will happen next with this series. I'm not too sure what to expect next, but I do know Hideo's other works have no issues with upsetting the reader with horrible and terrifying real-life scenarios.

Basically: I would NOT recommend this series to others unless they are fully aware that this one gets down-right nasty. It is very upsetting and has horrific imagery, and does not pull any punches in showing the dark side of the human mind and experience.

What’s with these mangaka’s obsessions with sa’ing schoolgirls? I understand it’s a depraved and edgy plot point but it’s played out… and that in itself is disturbing.
It’s kinda lazy to rely on old (yet awful) gimmicks and not work on something as unsettling with characters that are of…legal age… Must it always be schoolgirls??

It is 4 🌟 because I am not bored yet… but I am a pretty disappointed with the first half of the omnibus.

While the grotesque imagery in Homunculus continues to enthrall, the storytelling is tepid at best and doesn't really capture the weirdness of the artwork. We open with Nakoshi and Ito (Nakoshi's surgeon who carried out the trepanation procedure in the first volume) having a conversation about the nature of the homunculi that Nakoshi is now privy to seeing. Nakoshi soon meets one such homunculus contained within a seventeen year old girl named Yukari. Most of these two volumes contained in this omnibus edition involve Nakoshi learning more about the nature of the homunculus in Yukari, much of which involves a nightmarish sexual encounter and other oddities. The story has a very brisk pace, but also very little is achieved in the 650+ page count here. Perhaps I've never been truly into the decompressed pacing in a lot of manga, but it felt much more noticeable in these two volumes of Homunculus. It felt like over half of the book took place in Nakoshi's car for just one scene, in which I can't really say much happened. Hideo Yamamoto's ability to craft tension solely lies in the creepy artwork which is reminscent of "PTSD Radio" or Junji Ito's works, with some mild ero guro stuff mixed in. I was hoping this volume would have me a bit more invested in the series beyond just Yamamoto's sharp cartooning, but the story still hasn't hooked me in yet.

I'm still interested, but some subject matter requires some sort of a trigger warning. I didn't find it particularly enjoyable to explore a teen girl, but I'm part of a culture and context where I teenage girls are studied and ignored (think Instagram or any damaging app for teens). So I'm sure I'll gain interest in the next one.

I did not expect this Manga-turn for myself, but it is turning out to be quite the experience. The drawings are really quite something else, and the ideas in this psychological thriller is as troubling as troubling can be. This particular two volumes were quite jarring, and may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

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As coisas tão muito loucas!

Não sei nem o que falar...

Ao mesmo tempo que estou adorando esse lado psicótico da trama, não estou ou então, não entendo nada.

Tô tipo: ''Só sei que nada sei''

Content warning: at least half of this volume is a somewhat ambiguous extended sexual assault sequence.

This one was not my favorite but I loved the end lol

Terrible. I'm dropping this series.

Nah. Horror that resolves around sexual violence is just cheap.

🤨🤨🤨

The original idea behind the story is interesting, but these two volumes are just disgusting and vile and glorify sexual assault and rape.

i’m pretending this volume doesn’t exist

Would not recommend and will not be continuing the series

I wasn't crazy about this one but I am curious to see where this is headed.