11 Jan / March Story (vol. 1) by Hyung Min Kim, art by Kyung Il Yang, translated by Camellia Nieh
I admit it: Reading this put me in freak-out mode. Do NOT leave it lying around for your young kiddies to find … the graphics (stupendous as they are!) are intensely, gruesomely brutal, pretty much from start to finish. But finish you’ll want to do – all the way up to the penultimate dialogue bubble: “Don’t keep me in suspense!”
Somewhere in centuries-ago Europe, the Ill – an especially heinous breed of demons – lure human beings through their sense of curiosity (or greed) for beautiful objects and once touched, the Ill infest and destroy the human’s souls (not to mention all the gory havoc those possessed bodies wreak!). “That’s why you must never touch that which is unknown,” the warning goes.
Where evil lurks, you must have a clean-up crew … and in this case, the heroic Ciste Vihad hunt the Ill, valiantly saving as many souls as possible. March is one such Ill-hunter, wandering the villages saving those in peril, including a young circus performer who hasn’t yet realized the power and joy of laughter, a beautiful mask-maker still longing for her lost love (and competitor), and a spoiled little brat with an overprotective mother. All the while leaving quite the trail of blood and tears!
The final section is the most frightening (and most intriguing in a gaper’s block sort of way): you’ll be nightmarishly haunted by March’s own history, complete with decomposing corpses, implements of unimaginable torture, virgin blood, and an everlasting denial of true love!
Might I advise … just don’t read this alone in a dark and deserted place!
Readers: Young Adult, Adult
Published: 2010 (United States)
MARCH STORY © Hyung Min KIM and Kyung Il YANG
Original Japanese edition published by Shogakukan Inc.