Ibitsu

As an avid comic book reader and beginning horror fan I was delighted to discover Ibitsu, a horror comic centered around a disturbing lolita antagonist.

Ibitsu by author Haruka Ryou is a horror story about the high school boy Kazuki who while taking out the trash sees a girl in a Lolita outfit sitting in a pile of garbage. She’s in pretty bad shape with dirty clothes and seems to have slashed her wrists at some point since she has stitches. She asks Kazuki if he has a sister to which he answers yes. After answering yes this strange girl starts showing up outside his house every day and seems to be stalking him claiming to be his sister. Kazuki learns by chance of an urban legend about this Lolita girl where everyone who answered no to her question died horribly afterwards. Since there are no records of what happened to anyone who answered yes it’s unclear what’s going to happen to Kazuki and if there’s any way to make her go away.

The Lolita girl is obviously mentally unstable and seems to snap at anything someone says to her that she doesn’t like. Kazuki for example has a real sister which the Lolita girl doesn’t approve of as she sees her as an inferior pig of a sister compared to her. For a while it’s not clear if the Lolita is going to turn deathly violent or not, but believe me by the end a lot of people will have died in pretty gruesome ways as they are trapped and hunted down.

Ibitsu is a pretty short series, I was able to finish all thirteen chapters in a little over an hour so it's good if you are looking to read something in one sitting. Personally I found the story entertaining but I didn't find it very scary (to be honest I found the two side stories more frightening). Certain parts were rather unnerving, and there were definitely moments where I cringed, but at the end of the night I was still able to go to sleep with the lights off. Just because I failed to find the plot scary though does not mean that I didn't find it interesting! Throughout the story I found myself rooting for the main character and dreading the appearances of the deranged lolita, if only for his sake. Though the story was short and sweet I became emotionally invested in the main characters and their well being. I even liked the lolita character despite her evil inclinations.  Overall highly recommended for anyone who wants a simple story about high school kids being brutally murdered by a crazy stalker.