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As Teru, Ako and Nobuo move outside their derailed train to gather supplies until help arrives, little do they know the terror that awaits them. Death and decay fill the pitch-black tunnel, and Nobuo suddenly starts to lose sight of reality. Meanwhile, Teru finds an air duct that may lead to the outside. But the intense struggle to survive is just beginning, and salvation is still far from everyone's grasp...

232 pages, Paperback

First published July 6, 1995

10 people are currently reading
147 people want to read

About the author

Minetarō Mochizuki

69 books66 followers
Minetarō Mochizuki (望月峯太郎) is a manga artist. He is best known for his apocalyptic thriller series Dragon Head (ドラゴンヘッド Duragon Heddo), as well as the comedy series Mai Wai. Mochizuki has also written one-shot manga such as Zashiki Onna.

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5 stars
132 (21%)
4 stars
230 (37%)
3 stars
180 (29%)
2 stars
53 (8%)
1 star
22 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
Profile Image for daph pink ♡ .
1,301 reviews3,282 followers
March 11, 2023
when you look for items while wandering around a mysterious, dark place. A very comparable atmosphere. However, I think it will drag on a lot, which will lead to a few chapters getting 1 or 2 stars.
Profile Image for Melissa Chung.
950 reviews319 followers
December 8, 2014
Nobuo is crazier then ever. Teru and Ako are still trying to survive and keep away from Nobuo. Teru thinks he has found a way out but is uncertain where the water pipe will lead. It's getting hotter in the tunnel. It's already been a week with no clue as to what is happening on the surface.

I am enjoying this weird story. The illustrations for the most part really help the story along. I will definitely be picking up vol: 3
Profile Image for Quentin Wallace.
Author 34 books178 followers
October 26, 2023
Very similar to the first volume with the claustrophobic horror turned up to ten. I do think the story is moving a little slowly, but I'm thinking it picks up in future volumes. This is unnerving stuff not for the faint of heart, even though it's more psychological horror than anything else. One of the better horror manga I've read.
Profile Image for Flor.
33 reviews1 follower
October 27, 2024
Decae un poco del primer tomo.
Estaría mejor sin las escenas desagradables que le hacen a la chica.
Aún falta...
Profile Image for Manny.
194 reviews19 followers
November 2, 2020
That went by so fast it feels like I didn't even read it, haha. I think that's because a lot of the panels in this installment were action with few pieces of dialogue. Usually, I'm not a fan of mangas with a ton of action because sometimes they can be a little bit illegible, and it's hard to follow along with what is happening. Action heavy mangas work a lot better as animes to me. However, I feel the author/artist does a good job of making the action clear so you can understand what is occurring. I like where the story is going here. The mystery becomes more complex in volume 2, and we have yet to get any answers for what is going on. This series does a great job of getting you to read the following volume because of the cliffhangers. I wouldn't say I enjoyed this more than the first one, but I am looking forward to picking up volume 3. The one thing I did not like about this issue (trigger warning under spoiler) It was very off-putting, and I don't think it was entirely necessary to add that in the story. I mean, it gives you more insight into one of the characters, but still, I would have rather not seen that. Overall, this gets a solid three-stars from me.
Profile Image for Hafeez.
692 reviews6 followers
March 15, 2022
Volume 2: Chapter 12-23
Arc 1: Escape from the tunnels

The setting of the story still in the collapsed tunnel and they try to find the way out. The second volume not as a creepy as the first one. I think the main highlight for this volume is Nobuo getting crazy due to excessive fear of darkness.

Highlight:
• They tried to find an escape route from the tunnel
• Nobuo lost his sanity
• Teru finds an escape route through the ventilation shafts but he trapped inside it
• He managed to escape from the ventilation shafts due to water flows in.
• Ako being chased by crazy Nobuo.
Profile Image for Amanda.
333 reviews
October 27, 2017
I hope this gets better, this has all of the stupid tropes I hate:
1. People not working together in a survival situation. It goes Lord of the Flies. Seriously. There is more than enough books about that damn plot.
2. Rape. Yep. There's a woman there. Therefore she needs to be raped have to get that in.
3. Useless woman. Useless. When she's not being a weak piss-ant, she's trying to stop Teru from killing the guy who has gone insane.

The next book had better be better or I'm done with this series.
Profile Image for Lisa Lynch.
705 reviews361 followers
March 27, 2019
Minetarō Mochizuki's Dragon Head, Volume 2 is astoundingly, shamefully bad. The author should be spanked for this garbage. There is NOTHING good here. NOT ONE THING!

So the appeal of manga and graphic novels is that the storytelling is visual. Dragon Head,Volume 2 has the same problem that Volume 1 had; the characters talk excessively when they are alone. They say things to communicate information to the reader when that information should be communicated visually. It is obnoxious, unbelievable, and annoying.

As in Volume 1, not much happens in Volume 2. It seems to want to focus primarily on developing the character of Ako, the antagonist. Unfortunately, he is stereotypically "evil" to the point of being ridiculous.

As we see from the cover, Ako paints his face so his outer self visually represents how ugly his inner self is. I kind of like this idea, but he finds a purse with makeup and manages to cover not only his face, but his whole body with spots. First of all, it is so hot in the tunnel that there is no way this makeup would stay on. Also, he would have had to find every purse of every dead girl on the train to find enough makeup to paint his entire body. He also paints Nabuo's body, but I'll get to that soon.

Actually I'll get to that now.

**spoilers**

So the book opens by making a big deal out of Nabuo taking her skirt off because it is so hot. But don't worry! She happens to have shorts on! I expected this kind of thing because this is manga after all... but this is also a YA manga, so I didn't think it would be that bad. Oh my god, was I wrong.

So Teru decides to look for a way out and crawls through some ductwork that appears to go up to the surface. It collapses and he is trapped until the end of the book. Ako starts threatening Nabuo with a knife. Nabuo runs away from him and ends up finding the dead body of one of their school teachers that Ako has dragged to a room and propped up in a seat.

Here's where things get stupidly outrageous. Nabuo is alone, hiding from Ako, when she says "I can't stay awake... I'm so tired" before falling asleep. Ako finds her sleeping and proceeds to sexually assault her by groping her boobs. He then strips her down to just her underwear and paints her naked torso with spots. AND SHE NEVER WAKES UP!! What the absolute fuck???

If that wasn't bad enough, he then takes her shorts off, gets on top of her, and begins unbuckling his belt in preparation TO RAPE HER. Now, I don't think he actually goes through with raping her because the tunnel starts to cave in, but WHAT THE FUCK??!? Nabuo wakes up, wipes the makeup off, and gets dressed.

The end of this book is an overly long depiction of Ako attacking Nabuo and Teru arriving right in time to save her before everything goes dark.

All the same problems from Volume 1 exist in Volume 2, but it is so much worse. I can't justify continuing with the series, so this will be it for me.

1 out of 5 stars.
Profile Image for Michael Sorbello.
Author 1 book316 followers
May 15, 2023
It all starts with a class trip on a subway train. All of a sudden the underground railroads collapse beneath the weight of an earthquake and all the students aboard the train are trapped underground where it’s hard to breathe and it’s excruciatingly humid. The few survivors must dig their way out from the labyrinthian tunnels to reach the surface, but the world above might not be as they remember it.

A great concept with a weak execution. The atmosphere is intense and the art is hauntingly bleak. Unfortunately, I found all of the main characters very unlikable. The dialogue is also pretty bad and doesn’t always make sense which could be the fault of a poor translation. The story also drags out way longer than necessary with repetitive drama and the unlikeable cast constantly bickering over dumb issues doesn’t do the plot or the stakes of the narrative any favors.

Not a terrible horror manga, but not nearly as good as it could’ve been. The few solid moments were underwhelming compared to the long periods of monotonous boredom, bland characters and uninteresting villains in between.

My rating: 2.3/5
Profile Image for Alice.
603 reviews24 followers
December 31, 2018
Trigger Warning: Sexual assault, phobia of holes/circles (I can't remember how to spell it and I'm not looking it up because it will show photos! Starts with a T. If you have the phobia, you know what I mean.) The cover is a giveaway for that, but I guess I am a glutton for punishment. Ew.

***

A character has drawn circles all over his body... well, that is just disgusting and *shudder* if you have a phobia, you might understand. I had to squint when reading, so the image blurred and try and not look at the pictures while reading the text. Luckily, the circles are not super tight clusters, which is worse! Gross!

Circle guy sexually assaults the female character while she is passed out.

I'm still going to read more of this series, but I hope Circle guy dies soon. He is the type of character I can't stand and I don't just mean the whole circle business.
Profile Image for CesarSadAsh.
30 reviews1 follower
January 3, 2025
Este volumen mejora mucho más en cuanto a narrativa, tanto que se hace palpable el hecho de que este arco sea una referencia a El señor de las moscas de William Golding, el constante descenso a la locura de Nobu acompañado al menos hacia la constante oscuridad que todo lo consume hace que se te meta de a poco el miedo en la piel. Pero sigue sin llegar a demostrar todo lo que esta obra llega a ser en volumenes posteriores.
Profile Image for Cameron Takeda.
59 reviews
January 30, 2025
Creepiness and horror factors improved from the first volume, and this is shown in some of the art and designs (see the cover). Still nothing to write home about. The characters are bland (personality-less or just crazy) and still nothing much has really gone on apart from crazy guy does crazy things. The underground labyrinthine tunnels add some interest though.
Profile Image for A. B. Frank.
78 reviews8 followers
October 21, 2020
This took everything from volume 1 and turned the volume up. The story as moved forward and we're building up to something big - a reveal, the next obstacle, something. I can't wait to dive into volume 3.
Profile Image for Your Common House Bat.
749 reviews34 followers
February 15, 2022
This is still one of my absolute favorite manga series. It's thrilling and intense and pretty much hit the nail on the head for what makes a perfect survival/apocalypse novel. It's got touches of psychological horror and a whole lot of suspense. And the art style is great too.
Profile Image for Mariano.
738 reviews13 followers
September 2, 2023
Un quilombo. Pendejos sobreviviendo, apocalipsis, desesperación, locura. La historia deja el túnel y sale al mundo, pero eso no quiere decir que las cosas estén mejor. Esto es survival en la desesperanza más absoluta. Hermoso.
Author 4 books11 followers
November 24, 2019
The second volume focuses a lot more on the growing desperation and insanity of the characters. The story continues to be interesting, but not as creepy as the first volume.
Profile Image for Kurtis Burkhardt.
6,000 reviews51 followers
February 9, 2020
Pretty awesome Psychological Apocalyptic manga, really awesome artwork and story! 😁😻❤️❤️
Profile Image for Lausbiana.
571 reviews6 followers
July 19, 2020
seguiré leyendo cuando mi hermano compre el resto de tomos, pero tampoco me apremia mucho
Profile Image for Solim.
874 reviews
August 7, 2022
4.5/5 This manga is bat shit crazy two volumes in! Apocalyptic setting with a very claustrophobic feel. Everyone is losing their minds!
Profile Image for Florencia.
294 reviews4 followers
November 8, 2023
Me hace acordar al señor de las moscas. Este manga transmite desesperación.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews

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