The Summer Hikaru Died
by Mokumokuren
published by Yen Press (ongoing, this is about Chapters 22-26)
2024 – present
I learned yesterday that the TSHD Volume 5 tankōbon won’t come out until March 2025. But the chapters published in Japan and translated into English already go up to Chapter 30! I am not willing to wait, so I’m buying the available digital chapters individually (from the Apple Books app). I’ll reread the entire series once it is complete.
This horror series is one continuous story (NOT an episodic collection of standalone adventures!). You should start with Chapter 1. I highly recommend this series – it is an impressive, creepy, humid, summer night story of things that go bump in the forest above a cursed village with a debt to repay.
I’m trying not to post spoilers, but rather a map of the series, so I can find parts I want to emphasize to others when I talk them into reading this. :). But you should skip this review if you haven’t started reading.
Chapter 22 begins seconds after Chapter 21’s last slash. Yoshiki tries to save his dearest friend, and then… wakes in the hospital, with his worried mother telling him that the events at the house were all hushed up. Kurebayashi visits and assures Yoshiki of his friend’s… durability. The out of town ‘scholar’ (who resembles Hikaru) reveals to a local that his centuries-old employer has an interest in specific <beings> from the other side of the rift, but won’t disclose his personal agenda.
Chapter 23 continues in the hospital with an astute observation by concerned Kurebayashi. A classmate tells the boys local mines supplied abortifacients to get the village through times of scarcity, which led to the worship of the local mountain god, which also led a decrease in local epidemics?
There is a pencil sketch of Hikaru destabilizing in Chapter 23 that is SUPERB.
Chapter 24 continues that the destabilizing theme, and Yoshiki realizes that he isn’t purely human anymore… A visit to the Indou family shrine reveals what the village’s dire offerings to the mountain god were, and how they have been memorialized by Hikaru’s family. New Hikaru feels pangs of guilt about how original Hikaru’s friends miss him.
Chapter 25 introduces Yoshiki’s father, who was dear friends with Hikaru’s father. He tells Yoshiki exactly how the Indous brought calamity to their village and the curse upon themselves. New Hikaru goes to Kurebayashi while trying to figure out how to save his friend – from himself. And Yoshiki finds a sketch of the thing new Hikaru really is – from Europe in 1519. (Aren’t art books great?!)
Chapter 26 is summer vacation. No, really. The boys get to go to the beach! I love this cover – there is a nice panorama in the issue. It ends with a revelation or trick, it’s too early to say which.
I continue to love love love this series. So creepy. Action-packed, but with steady progress as the boys uncover so much dark local history. Their friendship and love for each other – indifferent to the fact that one of them isn’t human – is deep and sweet. The village landscapes, the details in the houses, the chirping of cicadas – it is all so atmospheric. This is a compelling, well executed story!