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Phantom Tales of the Night #1
Phantom Tales of the Night, Vol. 1
"Your secret now belongs to me."
Welcome to Murakumo Inn, a curious establishment that opens its doors to the troubled masses, human or otherwise. But the equally curious innkeeper takes compensation only in the form of one's deepest secrets...Who will come calling today?
Welcome to Murakumo Inn, a curious establishment that opens its doors to the troubled masses, human or otherwise. But the equally curious innkeeper takes compensation only in the form of one's deepest secrets...Who will come calling today?
182 pages, Paperback
First published December 26, 2016
40 people are currently reading
1320 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 169 reviews
December 9, 2020
hmmmm not sure about this series just yet...I didn't love the different story arc in each chapter, but I did like that the final chapter related back to the first one.
I don't like procedural anything (tv shows, manga, books) so anything that doesn't follow one main story kind of loses my interest...however, since the first and last chapters did relate to one another, I am curious to see what the second volume is like (of which I already own).
Stay tuned for my thoughts on volume 2, hopefully coming soon!
I don't like procedural anything (tv shows, manga, books) so anything that doesn't follow one main story kind of loses my interest...however, since the first and last chapters did relate to one another, I am curious to see what the second volume is like (of which I already own).
Stay tuned for my thoughts on volume 2, hopefully coming soon!
October 1, 2019
Hell Girl and xxxHoLiC sittin' in a tree
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
First comes love
Then comes marriage
Then comes this weird series that I like more the longer I think about it, even if it does wear its influences on its sleeve.
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
First comes love
Then comes marriage
Then comes this weird series that I like more the longer I think about it, even if it does wear its influences on its sleeve.
March 10, 2024
3.5 stars. The art and character designs in this manga are STUNNING and the individual stories give off this creepy psychological horror vibe that will definitely appeal to people into that sort of thing.
Given the way this first volume is structured, I'm not sure what to expect going forward. We are given an introduction to the three main characters and the mysterious hotel in which they inhabit. The currency of the hotel is your darkest secret and in exchange you are given things such as protection from those who wish you harm, being released from a curse, or granted a wish related to said secret. The guests to this hotel seem to be already dead or close to it.
I'm interested in finding out where the innkeeper comes from, why he collects these secrets, and what happens to the spirits that divulge them. Are they gone forever or do their secrets allow them to be resurrected when needed? I'm going read volume 2 and that will determine whether or not I continue with the series. Overall, I give this 3.5 stars. That's usually what I give to the first volume of a series that I'm undecided about.
Given the way this first volume is structured, I'm not sure what to expect going forward. We are given an introduction to the three main characters and the mysterious hotel in which they inhabit. The currency of the hotel is your darkest secret and in exchange you are given things such as protection from those who wish you harm, being released from a curse, or granted a wish related to said secret. The guests to this hotel seem to be already dead or close to it.
I'm interested in finding out where the innkeeper comes from, why he collects these secrets, and what happens to the spirits that divulge them. Are they gone forever or do their secrets allow them to be resurrected when needed? I'm going read volume 2 and that will determine whether or not I continue with the series. Overall, I give this 3.5 stars. That's usually what I give to the first volume of a series that I'm undecided about.
January 6, 2022
Phantom Tales of the Night is a dark collection of tragedies based on the secrets we keep from each other and ourselves. For a first volume, it successfully sets up the premise and introduces us to the otherworldly elements that will be present throughout the series. A mysterious innkeeper will keep you safe in exchange for your secret. At first it seems like these stories are not connected, but I believe over time these stories will intertwine and reveal the biggest secret of all -- who is the innkeeper?
The manga is rated Teen 16+, but this might fit better on the adult shelf.
Review copy shared to me by the publisher on Edelweiss.
The manga is rated Teen 16+, but this might fit better on the adult shelf.
Review copy shared to me by the publisher on Edelweiss.
January 26, 2025
Stunning art style meets tales of mystery and imagination with Japanese folklore, Edgar Allan Poe would have loved it, Ranpo Edogawa kinda too
February 10, 2025
I loved the art but the story was a bit too overwhelming .
March 26, 2022
Interesting, but ultimately I feel very meh about the reading experience. Jury's out on whether I'd ever read this volume again or continue.
May 28, 2020
Plot - 3
Character - 3
Writing Style - 3
World Building - 3
Art - 3
Cover - 5
Overall - 3.3 / 5
Character - 3
Writing Style - 3
World Building - 3
Art - 3
Cover - 5
Overall - 3.3 / 5
September 9, 2019
This first volume made me think of it as a nastier version of xxxholic. The “owner” is quite sadistic and inhuman, and I just had some uncomfortable impressions of the four chapters herein. It’s definitely more a horror manga than a supernatural series like Noragami. Probably will not be continuing with this one.
February 12, 2025
Spannender Mysterymanga über ein übernatürliches Hotel, in dem ein Patron Geheimnisse von Menschen sammelt.
Ich find ziemlich schwer zusammen zu fassen, worum es wirklich geht. Jedes Kapitel ist eine mehr oder weniger in sich abgeschlossene Geschichte über Wünsche und Geheimnisse von Menschen, die irgendwie in die Fänge von dem Patronen kommen, der ihnen hilft - oder eben auch nicht. Es ist alles sehr doppeldeutig und hat viel mit der Psychologie von Menschen und ihren Gefühlen zu tun.
Ein junger Schüler, der von allen ignoriert wird, darf zurück in die Welt der lebenden, aber dafür hat er keine Organe und Brustkorb mehr.
Eine junge Frau, die sich wünscht mit ihrer glücklichen Schwester den Platz zu tauschen, nur um dies wortwörtlich zu tun und ihr eigenes Ich verliert.
Ein Monster, das glaubt, kein Sklave ihres Herrn zu sein und doch nicht anders ist als die Diener des Patronen.
Gleichzeitig ist es aber auch extrem gory, aber auf eine sehr künstlerische Weise. Mir hat es extrem gefallen.
Zum Ende hin gibt es auch offenbar mehr als nur den Kapitel-Plot, denn natürlich gibt es auch Jäger, die dem Patronen nach dem Leben trachten.
Dazu kann man sehr viel shippen, wenn man gerne dubiose Red-Flags shippt. Denn die drei Mitarbeiter des Hotels sind weder menschlich, noch ethisch auf der guten Seite, bzw. auf gar keiner Seite.
Ich find ziemlich schwer zusammen zu fassen, worum es wirklich geht. Jedes Kapitel ist eine mehr oder weniger in sich abgeschlossene Geschichte über Wünsche und Geheimnisse von Menschen, die irgendwie in die Fänge von dem Patronen kommen, der ihnen hilft - oder eben auch nicht. Es ist alles sehr doppeldeutig und hat viel mit der Psychologie von Menschen und ihren Gefühlen zu tun.
Ein junger Schüler, der von allen ignoriert wird, darf zurück in die Welt der lebenden, aber dafür hat er keine Organe und Brustkorb mehr.
Eine junge Frau, die sich wünscht mit ihrer glücklichen Schwester den Platz zu tauschen, nur um dies wortwörtlich zu tun und ihr eigenes Ich verliert.
Ein Monster, das glaubt, kein Sklave ihres Herrn zu sein und doch nicht anders ist als die Diener des Patronen.
Gleichzeitig ist es aber auch extrem gory, aber auf eine sehr künstlerische Weise. Mir hat es extrem gefallen.
Zum Ende hin gibt es auch offenbar mehr als nur den Kapitel-Plot, denn natürlich gibt es auch Jäger, die dem Patronen nach dem Leben trachten.
Dazu kann man sehr viel shippen, wenn man gerne dubiose Red-Flags shippt. Denn die drei Mitarbeiter des Hotels sind weder menschlich, noch ethisch auf der guten Seite, bzw. auf gar keiner Seite.
October 14, 2025
Does exactly what it says on the tin. The first three chapters are eerie and get under your skin. What makes them successful is that they don't try to explain exactly what's going on: things are left to the reader's interpretation. The fourth chapter brings in an overarching plot, which ruins the magic a bit. Another criticism I have is that the art isn't very legible. With certain panels and spreads, it's hard to make out what's going on. Can see this becoming a favorite if the art and writing are tighter.
November 11, 2022
Un insieme di storie abbastanza dark sui segreti che nascondiamo non solo agli occhi del mondo, ma anche a noi stessi. Vibes oniriche tra il fantasy e l'horror, tre protagonisti adorabili e disegni pazzeschi. Non so se le trame di queste quattro storie in particolare mi hanno convinto del tutto, ma promette bene. Quattro stelle sulla fiducia.
July 5, 2020
Beautiful art with lovable characters as mystery meets horror and Japanese folklore.
July 17, 2023
Just kinda formulaic and the writing didn't appeal to me. Dunno what I was expecting, but I'm not hooked after reading the first volume, sadly.
January 12, 2020
pretty plus it’s giving me xxxholic vibes (i swear the spider guy looks like watanuki but with accurate proportions and not a long, skinny, lethargic torso that haunted my nightmares because i thought his chin was going to slice someone open)
April 4, 2020
Welcome to the Murakumo Inn -- where the desperate and the frustrated can find an answer to their worries, all for the low low price of ... a secret.
I really expected to love this series. I see a lot of people comparing this to xxxHolic, but to me, it was more along the lines of like Nightmare Inspector or Nightmares for Sale. And I think if it had gone more in either of those directions, I would have liked it a lot more, but instead if sort of went its own way that totally failed to capture me.
So, Phantom Tales of the Night is a largely episodic book, where people with problems come to the inn and the main characters and we see the ways in which their problems are solved, normally in a very monkey's paw style. And yeah, on the surface that does sound like the books mentioned above. But there's a problem of framing here.
In Nightmare Inspector, for example, the story is framed from the POV of the characters who are trying to help people with their problems. Because we bridge the time between stories with these people, we can get to know them and like them. Even when their actions seem cruel on their surface, we
xxxHolic, on the other hand, gives us a different frame. Here we follow Watanuki, a character who we can like and sympathize with, and the wish-granter is more distant. So again, even if her actions seem cruel, we're following and sympathizing with a different character.
This book, by contrast, makes the interesting decision of framing the stories mostly from the POV of the people seeking help. So while our three main characters do get slightly characterized through this, very little of it was enough to make me interested in the backgrounds of the characters, and certainly not sympathetic to the main character. I did come away with the book slightly curious about and interested in the spider guy. The other two just kind of come across as assholes, and not interesting enough to me personally that I care why they do what they do or how they got to the state they're in. It's a situation where there are no good guys, but the bad isn't bad enough that I want to see one side or the other destroyed.
I can see where that sort of story appeals to some readers, but for me there was just nothing to get me to come back. It's a volume of manga, yet I had trouble getting through the last chapter.
I'd give it a 2.5 stars, but I'll round it up to 3 because the art can be really beautiful at times. They got really detailed at some of the best times, and the use of contrast was highly effective sometimes. the flip side of that is that sometimes the art was so detailed that I wasn't actually sure at a glance what I was looking at, and the panel-to-panel action is sometimes a little confused.
Like, there's a scene where a person walking down a path stops walking because he sees a monster holding a cage in a field, some 15-20 feet away. We cut to a couple closeups of the monster, but there's no sense that the monster is moving quickly, or even at all. The next panel shows the person trying to run away (and it's a little confusing because the fence behind him makes it look like he's up against the bars of a cage at a glance). Next panel, the monster is grabbing the person's hand. And the panel after that, the monster is trying to force the person into his cage by his head (not the hand he grabbed a panel ago). It's a situation where I can follow the action, but it doesn't flow naturally as I read.
But I've learned over the years that stuff like this bothers me a lot more than it bothers a lot of other people. So if you don't think the stuff that bothered me is going to bother you, it's a beautiful book with some interesting ideas.
I really expected to love this series. I see a lot of people comparing this to xxxHolic, but to me, it was more along the lines of like Nightmare Inspector or Nightmares for Sale. And I think if it had gone more in either of those directions, I would have liked it a lot more, but instead if sort of went its own way that totally failed to capture me.
So, Phantom Tales of the Night is a largely episodic book, where people with problems come to the inn and the main characters and we see the ways in which their problems are solved, normally in a very monkey's paw style. And yeah, on the surface that does sound like the books mentioned above. But there's a problem of framing here.
In Nightmare Inspector, for example, the story is framed from the POV of the characters who are trying to help people with their problems. Because we bridge the time between stories with these people, we can get to know them and like them. Even when their actions seem cruel on their surface, we
xxxHolic, on the other hand, gives us a different frame. Here we follow Watanuki, a character who we can like and sympathize with, and the wish-granter is more distant. So again, even if her actions seem cruel, we're following and sympathizing with a different character.
This book, by contrast, makes the interesting decision of framing the stories mostly from the POV of the people seeking help. So while our three main characters do get slightly characterized through this, very little of it was enough to make me interested in the backgrounds of the characters, and certainly not sympathetic to the main character. I did come away with the book slightly curious about and interested in the spider guy. The other two just kind of come across as assholes, and not interesting enough to me personally that I care why they do what they do or how they got to the state they're in. It's a situation where there are no good guys, but the bad isn't bad enough that I want to see one side or the other destroyed.
I can see where that sort of story appeals to some readers, but for me there was just nothing to get me to come back. It's a volume of manga, yet I had trouble getting through the last chapter.
I'd give it a 2.5 stars, but I'll round it up to 3 because the art can be really beautiful at times. They got really detailed at some of the best times, and the use of contrast was highly effective sometimes. the flip side of that is that sometimes the art was so detailed that I wasn't actually sure at a glance what I was looking at, and the panel-to-panel action is sometimes a little confused.
Like, there's a scene where a person walking down a path stops walking because he sees a monster holding a cage in a field, some 15-20 feet away. We cut to a couple closeups of the monster, but there's no sense that the monster is moving quickly, or even at all. The next panel shows the person trying to run away (and it's a little confusing because the fence behind him makes it look like he's up against the bars of a cage at a glance). Next panel, the monster is grabbing the person's hand. And the panel after that, the monster is trying to force the person into his cage by his head (not the hand he grabbed a panel ago). It's a situation where I can follow the action, but it doesn't flow naturally as I read.
But I've learned over the years that stuff like this bothers me a lot more than it bothers a lot of other people. So if you don't think the stuff that bothered me is going to bother you, it's a beautiful book with some interesting ideas.
March 29, 2021
The Murakumo Inn comes and goes on a whim and never charges a dime. It only takes payment in the form of secrets and what could be the harm in that? The innkeeper along with his staff certainly seem friendly enough, but there’s a dark side hidden behind the smiling exterior...
I do like a fun horror series and this one is off to an odd, if enjoyable, start. I haven’t read a ton of manga horror, but this one has a looser feel akin to a more nebulous xxxHolic versus something like, say, Mail (although Mail nailed the atmosphere it was also repetitive as all get out).
Still, this one appears to be going somewhere and I like that parts of it weave in and out of one another. The second story is apparently unrelated to much of anything (and has the most basic horror twist at its centre), but gets referenced at the end in a way I really appreciated.
What it lacks in general cohesion it makes up for with delicious art (if you like your bishie boys, your ship has come in) and overall style. The innkeeper and his assistants appear neither particularly evil nor especially good, mostly they cater to the base desires of the clientele.
Between that and the interjection of folklorish visitors/intruders, there is a lot going on here and it’s possibly nebulous to a fault at the start. Still, like I say, the style pushes it forward even when the text leaves me scratching my head a little.
3 stars. I definitely didn’t dislike this and I am anticipating another volume or two will hopefully get me up to speed on it. The art’s a pip, I like the characters, the story’s are fun, it just isn’t all coming together quite right just yet.
I do like a fun horror series and this one is off to an odd, if enjoyable, start. I haven’t read a ton of manga horror, but this one has a looser feel akin to a more nebulous xxxHolic versus something like, say, Mail (although Mail nailed the atmosphere it was also repetitive as all get out).
Still, this one appears to be going somewhere and I like that parts of it weave in and out of one another. The second story is apparently unrelated to much of anything (and has the most basic horror twist at its centre), but gets referenced at the end in a way I really appreciated.
What it lacks in general cohesion it makes up for with delicious art (if you like your bishie boys, your ship has come in) and overall style. The innkeeper and his assistants appear neither particularly evil nor especially good, mostly they cater to the base desires of the clientele.
Between that and the interjection of folklorish visitors/intruders, there is a lot going on here and it’s possibly nebulous to a fault at the start. Still, like I say, the style pushes it forward even when the text leaves me scratching my head a little.
3 stars. I definitely didn’t dislike this and I am anticipating another volume or two will hopefully get me up to speed on it. The art’s a pip, I like the characters, the story’s are fun, it just isn’t all coming together quite right just yet.
August 18, 2022
Phantom Tales of the Night by Matsuri was an amazing read. I'd absolutely recommend it to anyone who's interested. Every single character is very interesting, even if they just appear in one chapter. The art is absolutely gorgeous. The story goes entirely chapter by chapter, and each chapter is something new but they all tie together in the end. At first, chapter two might be a bit confusing but it's cleared up pretty quickly and everything makes sense again.
June 18, 2023
What an amazing first volume to an intriguing storyline and characters! The art is captivating, yet unsettling, especially in the more gruesome panels. I was truly in awe. If you are a fan of horror, non-human protagonists, Japanese folklore, and short stories that tie together into one, then you’ll enjoy this manga!
November 6, 2022
I already know I'm going to love this series. It's hard to find new manga with just the right feel for me.
December 24, 2022
YEP!!!! so much of this checks all my boxes in so many ways and even if the plot didn’t develop at all and was just this again and again and again, i’d be happy
February 16, 2024
I was not exoecting it to be like this, but I kind liked it???😭
February 26, 2025
Art style is insane, but the the plot is overwhelming. I couldn’t find it in me to pick up the next volume.
May 25, 2021
the concept is really original and interesting but i do think it could have been executed a little better. some of the chapters felt a little disconnected but that could also be because they’re serving as somewhat of background/context about the proprietor of the inn and how the inn works in general. i am interested to see what comes next, though.
September 7, 2022
I’ll definitely read the second volume. Not a perfect volume, but I’m indubitably curious about what’s gonna happen next.
December 22, 2023
This was a Christmas gift from a dear friend and oh my gosh as the world's biggest xxxholic stan this made me SO HAPPY. I can't wait to continue on with this!! Inject it into my eyeballs please.
September 12, 2020
** 3.5 stars **
August 9, 2023
WILDDDDDD AS HELL. I have literally no clue what is happening but in a good way. It's disturbing and creepy. I love it.
May 13, 2023
Lowkey👀
Displaying 1 - 30 of 169 reviews