Découvrez un conte cruel et vénéneux, dans lequel la puissance évocatrice du trait de Daruma Matsuura fait merveille ! Alors que les représentations d'Une goutte d'étoile battent leur plein, une comédienne manque à l'appel... Kasane, incapable de monter sur scène depuis la fuite de Nogiku, est portée disparue. Pendant que tous s'interrogent sur son absence, la jeune actrice erre le long de la mer, avec la ferme intention de mettre fin à ses jours.
Mais, au moment de passer à l'acte, une image lui revient : celle de sa mère, qui s'est sacrifiée pour la sauver de la noyade quand elle était petite. L'occasion de découvrir, pour la toute première fois, l'enfance de Kasane et la relation complexe qui unissait Izana à sa fille...
Et si la grande Sukeyo Fuchi prenait enfin la parole ? Dans cette nouvelle inédite, Daruma Matsuura, l'auteur de Kasane, lève le voile sur les secrets d'une âme tourmentée, déchirée entre amour et rejet, laideur et beauté.
Rating of the whole manga: 3.5/5.0 Rating of this volume: 3.0/5.0
Finally finished this manga! This last volume was underwhelming. Lots of unnecessary events at the beginning, in the first few chapters, and a totally rushed ending. The ending is so rushed that I thought there were pages missing! It was nice to see for once Kasane performs as herself and not disguised behind other faces! A talent does not need a pretty face necessarily.
Talking about the whole manga with all its volume can be tricky because some volumes were excellent, others were good then there were those that were unnecessary and did not add anything to the story. The manga started wonderfully but ended abruptly and in an unsatisfactory way! The author could've easily reduced the 14 volumes of this manga to 8 or 9 and tell a better compact story than something that became repetitive again and again.
Do I recommend it? Yes, for the beautiful art style and the unusual story concept. However, it is long with many unneeded volumes.
Everything was a perfection until last few pages. That ending just seemed like some strange turn. It didn't make everything more tragic, it just made everything strange, like it still needed more chapters to end. I understand the end, but it just seemed so rushed, it took away from that great performance and the point of Kasane finally accepting herself. Losing herself became the awful thing for her for the first time in her life, and she lost herself, but still... it needed more chapters, a little more of storytelling for that ending to work. This way... it was simply rushed and we could without these last few pages. But, we got what we got. It could end like a masterpiece but it destroyed itself and just stayed great. It turned into the first performance that Kasane played as herself and not in the last.
Hoof. Still not sure how I want to deal with manga binges on my goodreads; it feels sort of like cheating to list every single volume of a series I've read, but also like. Literally who cares. Humblebundle had a bundle of horror manga and the cover art for this one stuck out to me the most, so I gave it a shot. I loved it. Really sad, really creepy, with a nice gutpunch of an ending to top it all off. I love manga about acting/showbiz, I love nasty homoerotic girls, I love interpersonal anguish! Due to the plethora of content warnings on the series it's not one I'd recommend to most people, but it's right in a nice intersection of things I enjoy. Super dark. I'm surprised this is considered seinen - it reads much much more like very dark shoujo or josei to me. I tend to associate seinen with action and gore and politics and josei with trauma and rape and interpersonal drama... Cowboy Bebop vs Petshop of Horrors, yknow. idk.
Anyway. Kasane's good. I read it all in one day and stayed up until two in the morning by accident. Am now very tired, but it was worth it. Not really a Halloweenish pick, and I'd call it more of a tragedy than a horror. A great read, I'd never heard of it at all before the bundle and I'm super glad I picked it up. It's too bad the mangaka doesn't have anything else out at the moment, I hope they do more horror in the future.
As the story of Kasane Fuchi came to a conclusion, there was not better way to end a story as tragic and splendid as this one. To come in terms with yourself and accept yourself as who you are, truly is the hardest thing to do; and it's beautifully shown in this last entry. Love the art (main reason I started it btw), it’s so detailed and the story consumes you little by little to a point when you don't even know who the real villain is in the story, a d if the end indeed justify the means.
Series Rating: 4 stars Volume 14 Rating: 3/3.5 stars
"All that was real until this point suddenly becomes dim... am I beautiful? Am I ugly? I become unsure if I'm even myself. The darkness is just like death." - Kasane, volume 6, chapter 46
What an incredible thriller about the torment of vanity—how far will we go to obtain beauty and how much we resent it when it is ours. This was one of those series where I found myself torn between rooting for the main character while also hoping she gets caught and punished for her actions. Kasane is less of a heroine and more of an anti-hero. You, as the reader, objectively know that what she is doing is wrong, but can’t help but want to see her succeed. It’s honestly a bit of a scary feeling to confront. There is a certain allure to being beautiful. It’s so desirable that people claw their way through hellish obstacles to become beautiful—depriving, starving, purging, cosmetic surgery, advertising, spending, purchasing, disguising fat, camouflaging imperfections, hiding, repulsing, pain, suffering, anguish… Even without having to steal someone else’s face, are we, as a collective society, all that different from Kasane? Don’t we do everything that we can to be beautiful as well? Even when it turns right around and spits in our faces—berated, criticized, poked, prodded, grabbed, targeted, stalked, raped, disfigured, murdered. I was constantly hit with these thoughts as I made it through the story. I couldn’t stop thinking about the curse of vanity… I couldn’t stop thinking about Kasane. When I wasn’t reading it, I was counting the minutes until I could be.
Part of me sympathized with Kasane—the privilege of beauty is real, as are the lifelong effects of trauma—but another part of me knew she was in the wrong. What about Neena, Nogiku, and Iku? To steal away someone’s life, love, and opportunities—their entire identity—is wrong… and yet, I still found myself thinking: “but she could never have it otherwise. What else should she do? Suffer in solitude? Poor Kasane…” I struggled with how I should feel about her the entire time. I personally think that Habuta is the true villain of the story, but Kasane definitely doesn’t have clean hands either.
Overall, I really enjoyed this series and completely agree with the person who recommended it to me: it is highly underrated (for English speakers, at least... I can't speak on its success in Japan!). This is likely because it doesn’t have a printed English publication, so I will hold out hope that it will someday get the green light from Kodansha to be printed. It is worth the read, so, if you have the means, please support the author by reading it on one of its official platforms!
¡Por fin me he acabado Kasane, de Daruma Matsuura! Sus 14 tomos han mantenido la tensión hasta un final sorprendente. ¿Qué esperarse de una saga donde un pintalabios intercambia rostros de personas con un beso?
👥💄👥💄👥💄👥💄 Kasane es hija de una actriz famosa, talentosa, y muy bella con la que contrasta la fealdad de su rostro que hace que esté rodeada de personas que la apartan y humillan. Sin embargo, su sueño es llegar a descubrir cómo se siente estar bajo la luz de los focos encima de un escenario ¡quiere ser actriz!
Su madre ha muerto y ha sido acogida por una familiar para la que solo estorba. Para no dejarla desamparada le deja su gran secreto: un pintalabios mágico que puede darle el rostro de cualquier persona
¿Cómo será sentirse bella? ¿Ser objeto de miradas de admiración y no de asco y miedo?
Kasane lo usa por primera vez y brilla pero algo sale mal ¿Acaso para brillar necesita que otro sufra en su lugar? ¿Qué vendrá después de el fatídico suceso? ¿Podrá ser esa actriz con la que sueña ser? 💄👥💄👥💄👥💄
Toda esta serie manga cuenta además con una película live-action (que no vi) y una novela sobre el pasado de la madre de Kasane, Izana (pendiente también).
Desde el principio pensé una cosa que resultó ser su final y es que era una realidad que nuestra desafortunada protagonista acaba reconociendo y que nadie se lo hizo ver hasta que lo descubrió por si misma.
“Amarse a uno mismo es la mayor de las bellezas”.
Cuenta con un montón de elementos que te atrapan a través de las diferentes obras que nuestra ladrona de rostros tiene que representar. Por un lado, disfruté de obras que no conocía y por otro lado, no faltó la tensión, el misterio, las revelaciones, los momentos de calma y los de tormenta y los de llorar por supuesto.
“Porque… todos estamos sumidos en la oscuridad” como dice la propia Kasane.
This volume finally concludes the story. I actually liked the twist ending, since it showed that none of these themes are one-sided, and I think an open ending was definitely the way to go. Also, it closed up something that I thought would just be a loose plot thread. Anyways, the series as a whole was so impactful to me, since it seemed to be catered for my tastes specifically: dark, theatrical, poetic, visually stunning, with flawed characters who explore the impending anxiety of coming to terms with your own identity, sins and beauty. I'm not sure if I would recommend this to everyone, but I'm so glad I picked it up. Great dialogue, great characterization, intriguing story, wonderful artwork and panelling, and Izana is an underrated character. As the phrase goes, "We are all actors, set on the stage of the world, as the curtains open we put on our best performance to this audience of life." Thank you, and goodbye.
Tengo sentimientos encontrados con este manga. La historia en sí me ha gustado mucho, me ha mantenido intrigada y con misterios sobre el secreto del pintalabios y el pasado de la madre de Kasane durante los 14 tomos. La evolución que va sufriendo Kasane en cada tomo, cómo lucha por conseguir sus deseos aunque no sea lo correcto, y lo oscuro y macabro que hay detrás... Giros inesperados en la historia. Finalmente el manga en general me ha gustado, el dibujo es precioso y las expresiones muy bien representadas. Sin embargo, el final no es el que me hubiera gustado e incluso habría puesto un capitulo final a modo de epílogo que aclare la última página. Recomiendo su lectura, aunque algunas partes de la historia sean desagradables.
I enjoyed this series a lot with its meditations on beauty, outcasts, ugliness, and acting. The twists were fairly interesting and I was always interested in reading the next part. There are also a few parts of well-done art and paneling to tell this kind of story. It also helps that Kasane's face is odd-looking and not just another manga where the "plain" or "homely" looking person just looks like everyone else. I would have loved to see more of these artistic flourishes throughout, but such is the book. It is marred a bit by the rushed storytelling at the end. Still, I think it succeeds in telling a story in a mature way without devolving into overall edginess or dullness.
I didn't like the start, but I still had hopes this would finish strong. Then it gets a bit repetitive, showing slightly different angles on stories we've already heard. And then it gets better, but the plot turns a bit strange. There's, sadly, too much happening to make a huge impact. And I didn't like the twist ending. Just because I wasn't expecting it, doesn't make it good. I would've rather had a predictable ending :> Total rating of the series: 3.5/5
This is the best thing I've read in my life. The depth of each book and the tragedy bound to happen in the end. It's a disgrace no English copies were printed. More people should know about this it's perfect.
A great ending to the series, as Kasane faces her final challenge. Brings a worthy conclusion to the themes of ugliness vs beauty, the legacy that everyone feels they must live up to, and the very nature of acting. The smart use of two-page spreads in the penultimate chapter is awe-inspiring.
All in all Kasane was a great manga with an interesting story. But I wasn't satisfied with the ending. More so I'm quite confused what actually happened...
When I first started reading this series, I was excited for something dark and twisted yet really meaningful. It didn't cross my mind that Kasane would be all of this and on top of that, pack a punch more powerful than expected.
The depth, the symbolism, the meanings that can be derived from the story are all brilliant. I love how everything in this series goes in circles. From point A and then back to A without fail, doesn't matter how wide the circle becomes or whatever's thrown as an obstacle meant to obstruct the path, it'll all return to the beginning and start all over again.
All in all, Kasane is definitely the best manga series I've read this year. I cried so hard through the last four volumes, that my eyes were definitely swollen the next day. Kasane shows that beauty and ugliness are two sides of the same coin, just like how humanity and monstrosity is as well.
Quelle fin magistrale ! Enfin, il faut faire abstraction du twist du dernier chapitre, dont je n'ai pas vraiment compris l'intérêt ou la signification, mais sinon, c'est top. Ce qu'on nous révèle sur les personnages, la trajectoire finale qu'ils prennent... c'est tout ce que je pouvais espérer. Ce sera resté glauque jusqu'au bout, mais avec une touche d'espoir très bienvenue.
For the majority of this final volume, this was the perfect ending. Despite everything Kasane has done, you can’t help but root for her in her final performance. Although Kingo is my least favourite character, I really felt for him as he recounted how he happened to become Izana’s lapdog. This series does a wonderful job of making all the character very human. Although they do terrible, unspeakable things, you can understand their motives and empathise with them. It’s a testament to Matsuura’s storytelling. However, the last chapter, and end of the previous chapter, is where things get...strange. I do understand why the ending took that turn but it was extremely rushed and felt out of place. It’s a shame because this whole series has been fantastic. It is brilliant and paced out well. It’s a bit slow at times, but it’s has to be for all the detail that’s put into the storyline. The art is perfect and matches the beauty and ugliness of the story. This manga has been a ride and, although uncomfortable at times, it’s been a brilliant and gripping read! This series does deal with subjects that some reader may find distressing so that’s something to bare in mind but, if you like psychological horror, and stories with a lot of mind games and lied (like Death Note), this is a series for you. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5