Homunculus. L'occhio dell'anima, Vol. 15

ホムンクルス [Homunculus] #15

by Hideo Yamamoto, Wakako Hirabuki (Translator)

Susumu conduce una vita materialmente ricca, ma sentimentalmente arida. A un certo punto subisce un trauma emotivo che fa crollare il castello di menzogne che si era costruito. Parte così alla ricerca della sua vera identità. Nella sfida è aiutato da grottesche visioni, gli homunculus, proiezioni della psiche delle persone con cui condivide qualcosa. In un corposo volume, l’epilogo di questo fosco viaggio nella psiche umana.

Genres: Manga, Comics, Horror, Seinen, Comics Manga, Fiction, Graphic Novels

376 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 2011

About the author

山本英夫 Yamamoto Hideo , is a Japanese manga artist best known for the manga series "Ichi the Killer" (which was adapted into a live-action film in 2001) and the series, Homunculus (manga).
Recurring themes in his manga are crime, sexual deviations, and psychology.

Reviews

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baby's first manga. This is practically a literal mindfuck. Intriguing (pseudo)scientific and psychological concepts. Visually impressive. Shocking, clever, gruesome, surreal, emotional. Not to be missed. This one will be hard to top. When you watch the homunculi, the homunculi watch you.

[richa ⋆.˚★ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Homunculus : a very small human or humanoid creature.

A manga that will forever haunt me. Homunculus is a tale about a homeless man who spends his time in a park and lives in his small car. He is offered 700,000 bucks by a young man to get a hole drilled in his forehead which causes him to see the weird floating " homunculus ". He is capable of seeing them through his left eye only. What starts as floating creatures soon opens up a world full of homunculus and he becomes a doorway to the real and homunculi world. The man soon meanders through the world, unearths the truth behind these floating creatures and goes through a disturbing journey to search the meaning behind and if it has any cure.

These creatures which soon we find out are a manifestation of our deep seated traumas, unanswered questions, suppressed memories, traumatic incidents that we move on without dealing with them. Behind all of them is a man who seeks someone who understands him as he is- the ugly, scarred and lonely man. He even has forgotten his real self and he is made to confront his deeds. The past always comes back to haunt us. No matter how we hide it.

The themes of this book were difficult to read, the drawing is extremely detailed and made me uncomfortable. Some of the hallucinations/creatures were drawn so imaginatively- especially the water man with a guppy inside him. It definitely makes you reflect further down to the message that it carries. Some of the women are so unsettling and has one of the weirdest sex i have ever seen. 😶 How we often are unconsciously leaning towards a behaviour pattern or our insecurity. If you want to pick a psychological manga, this is highly recommended.

Trigger Warnings: Assault, Gore, Sexual Assault, Dub con, Non con, Identity theft, Gaslighting, Self Harm, Underage Prostitution, drugs

////////
Deeply disturbing and this series has made me hit a new low mentally. Taking off for now to catch a break.
Will provide an elaborate review soon. 👁️👁️

[Keiko, the manga enthusiast ♒︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel at loss. I was putting the last few volumes of this series off for a long time because I was afraid of what's to come. Yamamoto did it with Adam & Eve, I knew he'll do it again. The thing is, this is exactly what I was getting afraid of. Utter dismissal, I'm so angry.

I was not expecting this kind of ending to such an incredibly disturbing series. The ending isn't giving much as well, but the thing is, this is what Nakoshi would have wanted for you to do. You have to look. And it's a good thing if you did see it. I'm still haunted by his smiling face on the last page. This is so devastating.

The homunculi are me. Not monsters, not hallucinations, not reality—just truth.

Nakoshi is an unreliable narrator. Rather than seeing the truth, he probably went crazy seeing all these hallucinations, especially trepanation after trepanation and getting obsessed about being able to see himself. Bulging eyes and all that, Ita's death must have been the final nail that sealed his coffin. He was so obsessed to belong somewhere, to fit, after all that mess he did about being in the middle of things and all that. But in the end, he never left his car. We didn't get to see Nanako after the trepanation at the hotel as well, leaving her wound untreated, with blood leaking out. Exactly like what happened to Nakoshi when he trepanated himself (his was treated by Ito though, so he's fortunate that time.) With that, Nanako probably died there. Hence, Ito looked for him (with guilt as his burden) bringing the police.

Overall, I really liked this manga series so much...

[Met · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finale amaro ma comunque appagante per quanto mi riguarda. La serie è stata assurda per 15 volumi, per vari motivi: ci sono dei momenti in cui i limiti sono talmente superati che non capisco se posso accettarli o meno (ad esempio dovrei rileggere come va la scena in macchina con il secondo homunculus, che non è chiaro dove inizia e finisce la violenza carnale).
Al netto delle assurdità, è una serie che lascia il segno. C'è una critica alla società giapponese e alla sua incapacità di accettare gli individui che non si conformano alla collettività. C'è una profonda analisi della psiche, dell'affermazione di sé, della consapevolezza della propria inettitudine, della codardia e della follia che in parti diverse albergano in ognuno di noi. Decisamente una lettura che non passa inosservata.

[fonz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quince tomos y casi tres mil páginas que me han dejado como si me hubiera pasado por encima el convoy de Immortan Joe al ir a comprar el pan. Entre el tebeo de terror y la intriga psicológica; el consciente y el subconsciente, el psicoanálisis, la identidad, la relación del individuo y la sociedad, la empatía, el egoísmo, la imagen, el cuerpo, la mente, lo real, lo irreal, el misterio de la existencia que nos une a todos los seres humanos y los peligros del "conócete a ti mismo". Un batiburrillo enloquecido cuya gracia ha estado en eso mismo, en esa forma de presentar todos estos conceptos de forma caótica y confusa, como si Yamamoto se dirigiera al subconsciente para que las ideas que arroja fueran calando en la mente del lector, asociándose luego de forma extraña e insospechada. Por no hablar del las agallas de Yamamoto, que, aparte de dibujar de maravilla lo grotesco y lo terrorífico (y lo emotivo, que también hay mucho de eso) y narrar como Dios, hace aquí cosas que ningún autor en sus cabales hubiera llevado a cabo (hay varias escenas en este tebeo que parecen el resultado de una apuesta). Irregular, sí. Que emplea algún mecanismo argumental chungo, pues también, pero no dejan de ser minucias a la hora de disfrutar de uno de los mangas más adictivos y desconcertantes que he tenido el gusto de leer.

[Angie Ospino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Si buscas un manga que profundice en la identidad humana y explore emociones complejas, Homunculus es una lectura imprescindible.

Este manga es un viaje intenso, lleno de momentos extraños y profundamente complejos. Una de las cosas que más disfruto al leer es encontrar personajes grises, con esas pequeñas o grandes decadencias emocionales, y aquí están muy bien retratados, de una forma interesante y cautivadora.

Eso sí, hubo escenas que me incomodaron por lo explícitas que eran, aunque siendo un seinen, era algo de esperarse.

[moiza ໒꒰ྀིᵔ ᵕ ᵔ ꒱ྀི১ · Rating 4 out of 5]

What was that he was left alone 😭 saying LOOK AT ME ILL LOOK AT YOU THIS HURTS REALLY SAD FOR HIM 😭

[Dhia Nouioui · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never liked Ita...I had a bad impression on him when he hit that crow with a rock when it was just trying to eat along with pigeons ....And I feel bad for that daughter.

Am I a bad person for laughing at the panel where he's covering her face with his hand while doing her? lol sorry. Also let's appreciate the plastic surgeons involved, they did a great job.

Another Yakuza crying oh god.

The pacing grew quick too fast and that doesn't feel right at all, I think something bad is going to happen...?

Nakoshi is achieving heights of narcissism that should not even be possible.

Poor nanako dying in there while he in his egotrip completely forgetting about her.

Ito was the one who called the cops, seeing as no-one could've done so, presumably after she found out Nanako was dead, and the guy had gone crazy (seeing as he'd drilled multiple other holes in his head).

The ending was pretty much perfect for the story, but it was delivered so quickly, it felt rushed. I don't blame the author though since mangakas are always rushed to finish ahead of schedule.

[Cristhian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fuck.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Mind fuck.
Fuck.

Nakoshi se aceptó como era en un inicio. Nanaoko también. Ambos en su fea apariencia y felicidad concibieron un hijo que abortaron, uno por abandono y la otra por tristeza. Nanaoko podía ver homunculus y ya no, por lo que deciden realizar una trepanación a ella para que juntos puedan ver.

Esto lleva a uno de los capítulos finales más raros en el manga que he visto -and boy, I had my share of them-.

El final es completamente satisfactorio desde mi punto de vista e inesperado, por un instante pensé que tendría un final feliz.

3000+ páginas en dos días.
No regrets.

[Niente di promettente · Rating 5 out of 5]

Come si fa a vivere dopo Homunculus…?

[Connor Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

a deeply disturbing, confusing, [verb (placeholder)] manga. spoilers ahead for the series / ending

i really liked this. interesting premise, wonderful execution. main character was a pathological liar, a narcissist, and a general piece of shit- and i couldnt help but want him to overcome and uncover his past and try to be a better person

spoiler alert: he didn't. he essentially lobotomized a gal and left her to die and went insane because of his guilt, only feeding more into his own madness through more holes in his head (literally). pretty much all because he saw other people as a way to uncover more about himself and try to "fix" himself through a guise of helping others. the homunculi were just a mirror all along.
fucking HATED the ending of this, but it's the ending he deserved. manabu on top but he has his problems as well. will be thinking about this series for a while still.

[daph pink ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the end, Homunculus succeeds in creating an experience unlike any other. This is not a manga that anyone with an open mind should pass up because of its exquisite artwork, sensitive interpersonal issues, outstanding characters, and horrific narrative. It's clever, entertaining, and, most importantly, unforgettable.

[knife · Rating 5 out of 5]

i have no idea what that ending was, but i loved it.

[Sima ✨ · Rating 1 out of 5]

This manga was a roller coaster but I couldn’t be impressed anymore after the first 2 volumes, I can say that this is like Haruki Murakami books but make it illustrated version.

[Serban Noodle · Rating 5 out of 5]

" In today's world, people are more machine than the machines are." this is how this manga started, just for the protagonist to deny all of this in the last chapters. A metaphoric naration and tricky characters were the greatest start for this series. When Manabu Ito approaches a homeless man called Nakoshi, their lives are about to change. Ito was a soon-to-become doctor, who was in love with the human mind and its pshychology. He convinces Nakoshi to do trepanation -which meant he had to drill a hole in his skull to "activate" his sixth sense-, in change for 70,000 yen. He accepts it in order to take care of his car, which he loved dearly. After the surgery he doesn't face any changes to his daily life, until some dust gets in his right eye and encounters an Yakuza Boss. Or, was he realy one? because Nakoshi could only see a robot with a child in it. The poor child was trying to cut off his pinky, but that was only in Nakoshi's head. Later, it was revealed that the Yakuza Boss had a lost memory of chopping his friend's pinky by accident when he was a child, although it haunted him until this day. To end his suffering, Nakoshi cut Yakuza's finger off. When he closed his right eye again the robot was gone. The Yakuza Boss was finally at peace. Little did Nakoshi know that the more people he connected with -as it is phrased in the book-, the more he got affected by it. He meets up with Ito to tell him what he sees and the guy tells him they are called homunculi and that they portray distortions of people's hearts.

I think this is my favourite book of the year, but it is not a clear 5 star. The story is brilliant. The characters are brilliant. However there were a lot of misses (the end).

Manabu Ito - He (or she) was the greatest characters and I think I like him more than Nakoshi. It was brave enough for the author to make a gender dysphoric person one of the protagonists (yk just for awareness), but he proceeded to have a great backstory. The problem was that the author did not develop it (and he had so many chances). I believe this is why the ending is so vague to me.

The ending - anyone who understood the ending PLEASE CONTACT ME!! When I read the last few chapters a lot of thoughts surrounded my mind. Were Nakoshi and Ito a couple? Why did Nakoshi try to do trepanation on Ito? And most importantly why is Nakoshi so ill??? I would be damn sick to see myself everywhere my eyes look. And I would be more sick to have 5 holes drilled in my head. For what, Nakoshi?

Nakoshi and Nanako - for my romanian friends the love story between them would be exactly like Lotte's and Dima's from the book ,, Elevul Dima dintr-a şaptea" -which was a beautiful but sad love story- and again the author missed on developing that. I would have loved to see their relationship continue and eventually cure themselves and I think this would have made the book way more fun.

I think this manga is so different from the others just for the plot twists that were so twisted, yet so interesting, although this is how most of Japanese lit works. It was great getting to know what a homunculus is just by reading the words of Ito and seeing the experiences Nakoshi went through. I recommend it with all my heart and I hope this manga gets the recognition it deserves.

[juju 𓏲𝄢 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series was something fr

[R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

هومونکلوس
مانگای با دموگرافیک سنین
بماند که اسم هومونکلوس همش منو یاد هومونکلوس توی فولمتال الکمیست میندازه و یه دلیلی که این مانگا رو خوندم هم همین بود؛ کوچولوی توی فلاسک، هومونکلوسه
داستانی روانشناختی و ترسناک که به بیان زخم های روانی و درمانشون می پردازه
خیلی وقت بود میخواستم بخونمش و هی پشت گوش مینداختم
و بالاخره قسمت شد
با توجه به دموگرافیک خاصش به درد خیلیا نمیخوره
ولی خوب شد که اینو خوندم
چیزهایی یاد گرفتم
✌

[Shannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful series, do not recommend.

I'd suggest watching the movie on Netflix but it wasn't that great either which makes me wonder what possessed me to finish this series in the first place. The movie is way more coherent at least but also doesn't completely follow the manga - although that ends up being a good thing.

Whatever, it's over now.

[Felix Zilich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Гран-финал всей саги. Над Токио идёт мокрый снег, Ито готовит для друга рождественские пироги, спасенные бомжи предпочитают тёплому сочельнику петлю, потерявшие деньги якудза растерянно рыдают на обочине, а Накоси наконец находит любовь и обретает себя.

Становится ли ему от этого легче? Нет, не становится. Финал порядком вымученный, трудный, ставящий крест на всех читательских надеждах и чаяниях, но зато с титрами, пафосной музыкальной темой и занавесом.

[Kurtis Burkhardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty awesome manga, one of the best Psychological manga’s I’ve read! Great/interesting and exciting art and pretty great story😻👌😁

[Jon Ureña · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four and a half. I’m reviewing the volumes 13 to 15, which is the last one.

I’ll add here some panels and pages from the series as a whole, given that otherwise I’d have to somehow cram them in the comments.











For some reason I have a hard time remembering most of what happened in these three volumes, and I can’t draw the exact line connecting the events. I am getting old, after all. In any case, spoilers galore and all that shit. The protagonist starts this last stretch by going to the mysterious woman’s, who might be his beloved ex but after plastic surgery, apartment. There he probes her to figure out whether she’s actually who he believes/wants her to be. He catches the scent of something, and it leads him to a drawing discarded and thrown in the garbage. After further exploring, opening this mostly stranger’s drawers, to her dismay, he finds big bags filled with face lotion and shit like that that she must have bought in bulk on impulse. She has had enough of this probably delusional homeless guy invading her spaces, so she throws him out.

Back “home”, the protagonist gets cozier with the local homeless community, who never properly accepted him for being youngish (my same age, actually), always wearing a suit, and sleeping in a car instead of in a tent. The local government has had enough of these bums. To clean the area they are sending the police to convince/drag out the locals one by one, and then cordoning the vacated area to warn off further occupation. The most prominent character of this homeless group was introduced in one of the first significant symbolic scenes in volume one: it was a closed off homeless guy who made a habit of feeding pigeons, but throwing rocks to the crows who dared eat the food. Once the protagonist had managed to see people’s homunculi, he became fascinated with the one belonging to this homeless guy: it was a metallic egg with a surface that occasionally opened up to give a glimpse of a dark, malicious looking entity hiding inside. Well, this guy is now being accosted by the police. The protagonist, hiding nearby, witnesses this homeless person’s homunculus grow the silhouette of a knife. The protagonist realizes that this guy is going to suicide himself in a last stand, and intercedes to prevent it: he puts some crow shit on the main policeman’s shoulder. He lets him know that if he stands in that area of the park, they’ll end up coming back to the station covered in shit. This annoys them enough for them to warn the homeless guy a last time and then leave. The homeless guy quietly thanks the protagonist.

The punk guy who kickstarted this whole plot, having completed his character arc, keeps coming around now for moral support and to bring food. He starts another argument with the protagonist about the homunculi he sees. When he referred to them as imaginary, I believed he was going to repeat the usual tirade about how the protagonist is just hallucinating, but instead of that he made the most intriguing argument about them so far: the homunculi are real, and the protagonist is able to detect those emanations from the people that harbor those traumas, but the way in which the protagonist’s mind interprets them is what could only be considered imaginary projections, because they can only show what the protagonist knows. So when the protagonist sees in the mysterious woman’s homunculus a cycle of changing faces, it does reveal to him that she’s putting on strangers’ faces to deal with different people, lying about who she truly is (if she still knows herself enough), but the faces the protagonist sees belong to the many women he seduced during his time as a broker, because those are the only appropriate symbols his brain can apply to that sensory stream. The protagonist senses the truth in this, but wonders how will he then figure out what is the objective truth that the homunculi transmit. The punk guy tells the protagonist that he has a single thing left to do: speak to himself. He has been solving other people’s traumas but ignoring his own, while the homunculi he witnesses are composed of pieces of his own ignored traumas.

The mysterious woman, who has been missing a tooth since the protagonist, shortly after drilling a second hole in his skull, sort of passed out from the blood loss and headbutted her in the process, can’t stay away from the protagonist, and attempts to use him as an Uber driver of sorts. The protagonist is glad to drive her somewhere, but says that he won’t take her money. Instead of that, he wants her “consideration”. In any case, he doesn’t drive her to her destination. He kidnaps her to the parking spot in a secluded dock which he regularly visits when he needs a break from the world. We know now that this spot holds a special significance for him, because that was where he first kissed that ex girlfriend he never forgot. He intends to bring out of the nonplussed, somewhat anhedonic woman that she is in fact his old ex girlfriend. He is sure of it now because of the drawing he found in her apartment: that brought up a memory from when he spent a night with her during the time he was working as a broker. As you might recall from my previous review (if you are following all my reviews of this series, who the hell are you?), the woman had resisted the seduction, and although she crashed in his hotel room, they didn’t have sex. After he woke up alone, he found in the garbage a sketch she had made of him: it showed the protagonist sleeping in the fetal position with a thumb in his mouth (as usual), but his face was blackened entirely. That disturbed the protagonist to no end; he had been hiding from his past life as an ugly guy, as well as from the realization that in his present he needed to pretend he was someone else, while failing to achieve the happiness that had led him to throw away his previous life and change his whole face. He dealt entirely in lies.

What follows is amongst my favorite sequences of the entire series, one of the high points of the protagonist’s character arc. As the mysterious woman’s face cycles through those belonging to gold diggers of the protagonist’s past, the protagonist ceases to provoke distortions in the woman’s homunculus, but instead addresses the people the homunculus displays as if they were present; if the components of the homunculi are indeed expressions of his own traumas, he was then speaking to himself. The faces change into people from further back in his past. He sees the face of a classmate back when he himself was a child: by mistake he had taken the gym clothes of that female classmate, only for her to yell at him, push him against a locker and call him ugly. That insult hurt him deeply, as he already had the feeling that he was inadequate and would never find love. To make matters worse, when his own father dragged him to the girl’s house to demand an apology, the girl’s father argued that there was nothing wrong in calling an ugly person ugly. The protagonist’s father then said, “yeah, he’s hideous. So what?”. The protagonist was appalled. As the girl, half-hiding behind her father’s legs, smiled at the protagonist maliciously, our guy realizes that he’s a category of human being apart: someone whose physical form makes him unworthy of any respect. He won’t find love, happiness, nor a place in the world. It wasn’t that long after that he closed himself off, didn’t lift his gaze from his own feet, and focused on studying. He failed to get friends nor a girlfriend, and he grew increasingly hostile towards society: how did all those vacuous people who only had their looks going for them end up leading society? Why didn’t anyone look at him beyond his inadequate appearance?

As he grew older and more set in his ways, he started lifting weights and studying harder to get into a good college. He harbored the delusion, common in alienated young people, that once he got into college he would find like minded people and form a solid group of friends. Naturally, the only thing one finds for the remainder of his life is the same pieces of shit, who then vote for other pieces of shit, and as a result society remains a stinking wasteland of shit. As the protagonist was figuring out how to live with this realization, he ended up meeting this mythical young woman who ended up becoming his beloved ex girlfriend. He again describes her as ugly, and yet a caring, understanding person who loved to draw, and who proceeded to draw the protagonist’s true form as a clear clump of white clouds. The protagonist, touched by having been compared to a visible mass of condensed watery vapour floating in the atmosphere, kisses his girlfriend. But then he fucked up. He fails to tell us yet how he managed to fuck up that relationship, but we know, as the faces cycle on the mysterious woman’s homunculus, that he worked for a while as a gas station attendant, and he noted that the more expensive the client’s car was, the more beautiful the woman sitting next to the driver. An old, ugly guy driving a Porsche fondled carelessly the juicy thigh of the supermodel sitting next to him. The protagonist fully understood how the world worked: having been born as a lowly, ugly male, he needed to mine enough resources from society so women would want to be associated with him, and more importantly open their moist treasure coves to receive his unworthy genetic seed. And that’s what he dedicated his life to. Still, he had failed to achieve the happiness he needed. The only thing he missed was the person who dealt in truth, and who had seen the truth inside of him, a truth apparently best represented by a cloud.

The protagonist turns to the woman’s plight, claiming to understand her. “You can only see lies [around you], which means you can only tell them. If you can only hear lies, then you have no choice but to say them. On that face of yours that’s nothing but a false mouth, a pair of false ears, and a set of false eyes. All that changing your face got you was a bunch of lies.” The mysterious woman, who keeps denying being his ex girlfriend, has had enough of this guy’s pathetic display of pain. She yells at him saying that someone like him who only deals in lies doesn’t deserve for anyone to look beyond his skin. What had he been looking for in other people except for a beautiful face, a nice set of tits, shapely legs and a tight pussy? Had he ever cared enough to look inside other people to find their truths? To his dismay, he admits that is the case. He had only looked at women because he wanted to fuck the attractive ones, and he never paid any attention to the trolls. Except for his ex girlfriend, lead troll herself. And it’s only in the present, now that he can see other people’s traumas as psychedelic representations that hijack their real forms, that he has cared enough to extinguish others’ pains.

[As an extended aside, I understand him all too well, in a strange, somewhat unique way. One of the surprisingly numerous issues my life came burdened with was a health condition that destroyed my testosterone production. They discovered this curse in my mid twenties. Until then I had very little interest in sex. I considered it mostly a waste of effort for little reward. Although I wasn’t comfortable dealing with females and their often puzzling behaviors, particularly for someone with built-in social blindness, it was mostly due to my general reluctance to interact with people than because I wanted to extract some pleasure out of rubbing myself on or in them. For a time I considered myself asexual, a somewhat trendy term then. When my health condition was treated and my body produced the normal amount of testosterone, I suddenly understood. I found myself believing that women nearby were casting sideways glances at ugly old me, and wished for me to approach them and break through their natural defenses. I had no objective reason for this certainty. All females mildly attractive and above looked like delicious desserts I needed to gobble up. Few things could brighten an hour like stealing a glance at a bouncy, full ass or a pair of breasts. Given that I’m a reclusive autistic guy with no natural inclination towards interacting with people in person, and I have to wear masks when I do, my only proclivity towards the women I shared physical spaces with depended on whether or not I could imagine myself fucking them. I despise the chemically induced lie, this goofy dance between the two sexes. From then on, masturbating to increasingly depraved porn, or whatever I could pass for porn, from ghostly, imagined presences to 3D virt-a-mates, became my only guaranteed break from the shitstorm of my life, each discharge of viscous waste a push away from the sweet promises of suicide. Testosterone is our intra-species version of toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that drives men to constrain their focus on whatever could end up with them fulfilling their obliged duty of producing the next generation, a mindless self-replication which is, as one should always remember, the only drive of life.]

That scene ends with the woman’s face turning inwards, showing the concave outline of a man’s face the protagonist doesn’t recognize. An ugly mug that he somehow knows produced the woman’s homunculus. Hearing the description of the face, the woman freaks out and bolts out of the car, running disturbingly like a man. I think we were supposed to take out of that that maybe she was a formerly very ugly guy who had transitioned into a female.

(continues on the comments)

[Saurabh Kadam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, this one ended. It is slow but it built a lot of tension with that slowness. Manga raises this question about what it really means by humans? our protagonist Nakoshi lives as a homeless and he is pathological liar. He always ranks everyone less than him. He is selfish. He plays with people's emotions. He met with this Ito who tells him about this procedure about drilling hole in head so he can use more percentage of this brain which also include a heavy monetary offer. He undergoes this procedure. He sees no improvement for few days. He came to know that if he sees the world with his left eye, he will see a person's true self without any social pressure.
The various event happens he met Yakuza's boss with a mech suit which he helps. He met the girl who is about to complete her high school who is having a sand-like appearance. Her mother is shown as a spider who collapses that sand structure which supposed to be her daughter. She wants to create a daughter from her own version where she should be perfect. She recreates her with the same sand with her many arms. Nakoshi made this thing permanent as he sewed shut his right eye so he doesn't deal with people's fake self.
Manga has many disturbing elements. This Manga raises an important questions like what it meant to be a human? Social self should be hidden or not. He helped many people like Ito but he ruined many lives in this process including his own. He took his procedure to a new level. Where he sees himself in other people. Where one line keeps repeating in entire managa I am you and you are me . Social construct for him has been destroyed a long time ago. So the idea of self is to keep reappearing again and again.
So there was an open question in the manga. Was he brain damage in this whole manga?

[martina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ho delle opinioni un po’ contrastanti per quanto riguarda questo manga, ci sono cose che mi sono piaciute e che ho trovato fatte bene sia per lo sviluppo della storia che per il modo di rappresentarla graficamente (i volumi concentrati su Ito e il finale in particolar modo) ma il resto mi lascia perplessa. Il concept della trapanazione e degli homunculi é di per sé molto interessante e infatti la storia parte bene ed è coinvolgente ma lo sviluppo credo sia un po’ banale, anche l’analisi interiore di Nakoshi è scritta in modo intrigante ma di base rimane una storia già vista e rivista (un uomo che è accecato da cose effimere, come soldi e donne, e che poi alla fine capisce che non gli hanno mai dato niente di concreto e che la sua vita ha continuato ad essere vuota anche dopo aver ottenuto tutto quel successo… non proprio rivoluzionario). Insomma in generale credo mi aspettassi qualcosa di più innovativo; anche le storie dei vari homunculi, a parte Ito (specialmente per gli anni in cui è uscita l’opera), non sono nulla di speciale.

[Sergio S · Rating 4 out of 5]

He acabado con más dudas que respuestas, es una especie de reflexión de la humanidad, el querer sentirse entendido por otros y el quiénes somos (identidad)?
El último tomo te vuela la cabeza en todos los sentidos y es bastante sorprendente e impredecible.

A niveles Generales del manga, tiene un arte increíble y muy detallado, la historia es compleja, reflexiva y es normal que no guste a todo el mundo. A veces se hace algo incoherente (o no llegue a entender del todo) y en otras partes aburridas o innecesarias.
Nota Final: 7

[v · Rating 5 out of 5]

yes, I finished all fifteen volumes in a day and no, I didn't review any one of them properly because I wanted to do one single review at the end.

I went into this pretty blind, except for knowing about the hole in the head, homeless guy and sixth sense.

And I was actually fooled at first— I thought this man, this pathetic but nice man would help people with their souls (homunculi) and just... be on his way, you know?

Least to say, it was not that. It was dark, gross and awful. 100% recommended if you love mindfucks because I certainly do.

[Queer Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Llegué a esta obra por casualidad y por casualidad la continué pero no sé por qué la leí hasta el final.
Sea como fuese, agradezco el impacto que tiene y va a seguir teniendo en mi vida.
Que asquerosamente cruda y real.

[Oriana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gli Homunculus rappresentano l'osservatore.
Non sono mostri...
Nè illusioni...
Nè cose reali.
Sono solo Homunculus, cioè la verità.

[Kawal · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many mixed emotions about this series. I don't know how to feel about it all. But I think the ending made sense to all the madness this series caused.

[Jacobine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jawaddedadde

[444M · Rating 5 out of 5]

gros coup de cœur, j'ai l'impression que ma vie est une illusion mais c'était exceptionnel