Reading: SUMMERTIME RENDERING 1 & 2 - Yasuki Tanaka (author), Jocelyn Allen (translator)

1st Line (Vol. 1): "'Hey, Shimpei?'"

1st Line (Vol. 2): "It's so dark ..."

Review: Volumes one and two in the projected six-volume English-language omnibus editions of the hit manga Summertime Rendering (already slated for a live-action adaptation plus a real escape game) opens with our young hero, Shimpei Ajiro, arriving from Tokyo back to his old hometown on the island of Hitogashima for a funeral. Orphaned at a young age, Shimpei grew up with the Kofune family, in particular bonding with the two daughters - Ushio (his own age) and her younger sister Mio. It is Ushio's funeral that has brought Shimpeii back, and he is heartsick over the loss of his close friend and crush from drowning, as he reconnects with Mio and her father and the town residents - but almost right away Shimpei is overwhelmed when he is told that Ushio when found, had marks on her neck, as if strangled, making Shimpei wonder if she drowned, after all. Even worse, Shimpei starts to glimpse Ushio around town in the coming days - a ghost? Warning? - and things grow weirder from there as Shimpei tries to investigate, some of the locals turn more loco, and it becomes obvious that some sinister, deadly, very supernatural forces are about to turn Hitogashima and its residents upside down ... Shimpei squarely in their sights. 

OMG, I loved volume one of this manga so much! Over 350 pages and I careened through it mostly holding my breath, the stakes and violence and gore level growing higher and higher, ratcheting up the suspense up until the very, very climactic ending of volume one at the local Summer Festival. Plot, characterization, art, it's all pure gold here; artist/author Yasuki Tanaka knowing how to tell a story via characters you care about, just before all hell breaks loose and sanity goes out the window.  5/5 stars

Volume 2, picking right up after the events of the Summer Festival, took a tiny bit longer for me to get into with a slower start once the initial action plays out (it's so hard to write these reviews in particular without spoilers, which was why I put the two books into one review), but about a quarter of the way I was hooked again, and even though a manga I tore through all 350+ pages of volume two like my life depended on it, as well - disbelieving, afterward, when I read that four more volumes were to come. I can't IMAGINE the insanity to come, based on what's happened already! Both volumes heartily recommended must-haves for manga, mystery and horror lovers alike.  4.5/5 stars

(Volume 1 due in paperback late May - in hardcover in June, when volume 2 also drops!)

NOTE: I received free ARCs of both titles via Edelweiss and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.