[Review] Manga - Omori, Chapter 1(not spoiler free)

 

 

 

I read the first chapter of Omori and uh...

I have some notes...

I wanted a gif of a guy plopping a huge stack of papers down on a desk 

but I couldn't find one, so here's the next best thing.

 

Yeah I know it's been a while, I made sure this was done before the second chapter came out but I was busy playing Touhou Mystia's Izakaya and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

 

 

Before we get into it my criticisms, there's something outside of it, surrounding it that we have to talk about. Well, I guess we don't have to, but I'm going to.

 

Perhaps apt for Omori, there's a SHOCKING TRUTH about the author of the manga! WOAH! It's something no one could have possibly foreseen, and once you find out you'll be TRULY SHOCKED. Get this. The author, of the Omori manga, previously drew...

 

Shota BL comics!!!

 

THERE WAS NO WAY OF TELLING THIS, CERTAINLY NOT FROM HER ARTSTYLE! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

 

And boy do I not care. So don't think that, like many of Omori's fans, am only harshly judging this chapter because I'm righteously indignant at the author for drawing the same kind of shit like 70% of female mangaka have drawn before making normal manga. I'm not gonna go into it too much but yeah, sorry, my stance on this is it's harmless and potentially even fun, until you have evidence one of these people have done anything or are planning on doing anything wrong to/with a minor in real life I don't care. But they do.

And I'd like to say that I'm going to take the centrist cuck stance as usual and say "both sides are bad" because while the kind of people assblasted about this are usually obnoxious trans/gay headcanoners who do things like say Aubrey is definitely a lesbian because she and Kim have a picture of each other together in their rooms, or twist Omocat's words in the behind the scenes video she did for pixiv to create evidence their Sunny/Kel gay pairing is canon, and generally feel like they played a different game, so do the other side of this half the time. I've seen them compare this situation to these same kinds of kids/adult kids being fans of Black Butler and claiming to like it for "normal" reasons. Yeah no sorry buddy, what game did you play? Point me to the explicit shota fanservice scene in Omori. Omori has the Sunny, Basil, ship-teasing between them, and the time Sunny put on his cute little pizza delivery boy outfit. That's what it has, it's all just little bonus shit for people into that sort of thing, Black Butler's chock full of that stuff, constantly. It feels like you actually think the story and characters aren't that good but are under the impression that's because it was really a vehicle for fetish fuel. What a shocker that I don't like people who's takeaway was "This game was about how Sunny, Basil, Kel, and Hero should have a hot sweaty gay orgy." any more than people who's takeaway was "This game was actually about being gay and trans, somehow."

That said, I do have to wonder how much the fujo-shotacon fans are right, not all the way but maybe a little, considering Omocat probably chose to hire Konoito-san based on her ability to draw cute gay boys fucking and not her storytelling capabilities, making me question her priorities and intent with the game. Well, the game was a collaborative effort, so if she did want it to be what they think it is, it didn't end up that way. I had assumed she reigned herself in, but now I'm not so sure. Or really, I'm jumping the gun here, the first chapter has issues but it could improve. However, there are some worrying portents here. For one I'm actually worried that she will forego important scenes like the swingset scene between Sunny & Aubrey because it's optional and she has a bias towards black haired boy x blond haired girly boy judging from her past work, despite the fact it's important for her development and arc. I'll be pissed if that gets skipped but she adds or exaggerates the already existing Sunny-Basil shipteasing. 

Before we get into the meat of this, I'd also like to say I think the artwork is pretty good. A lot of people are shitting on the art and it's clear it's because of her previous artwork, because there's not that much wrong with it. It's not fantastic but it's pretty good, though I do have some issues. I'll point some out when they're relevant but for now I wanna say, some of it definitely displays what I think might be the general issue. Which is that this feels like the work of someone who's main experience depicting intense emotion and drama is dark fetish porn comics. You'll see what I mean, and I think it explains much of my issue.

So, finally, let's get into the actual manga. BE ADVISED: I'm gonna avoid as many spoilers as possible if I can, but I can't for a lot of things, basically don't read this if you haven't played the game and plan to.

CHAPTER ONE: I'M SCARED, AND NOT IN THE HORROR WAY.

 

Well, the first thing I say right off the bat is that they shouldn't have wasted the title of "Dear Little Brother" on the very first chapter. I don't think it really describes anything in the first chapter at all, Mari shows up briefly in two scenes. Nothing that really fits that phrase. It should have been used for a much later chapter, near the end, just like the song of the same name in the game. I think that'd improve the experience right, find a good time in the narrative to drop that kind of chapter title on the reader is part of books as a medium, comic or otherwise. Right, now for the actual chapter.

 

So, the manga starts off with a flashback to the Christmas scene from the game. This is already an issue. See, in the game, this scene came close to the end. It felt like a very deliberate placement, but even if it wasn't, it's more impactful when it comes up. This happens during the "final dungeon" of the game, it happens after Sunny has recovered his repressed memory, confronted Basil, and become knocked out for one final dream. It's part of the climax, it's where everything is coming together narratively. However, this scene shows the not just the violin that started everything, but the broken violin. Neither of these are meant to be a known element yet, but especially not the latter. True, you do see a brief flash of it at the end of the prologue, but it's brief as I mentioned, a blink and you'll miss it thing. Only in retrospect do you realize that's what it was, on a second playthrough you anticipate the moment and look closely, seeing it and realizing "oh, that's what it is!" This really feels like overplaying your hand, you're showing me too much, a reader can stare at this and theorize about it's significance and potentially figure out too much of what happened. I guessed the twist from the staircase nightmare sequence but I didn't know tons of the accompanying details because it had yet to feed me them. Doing this so early will take some of the bite out of later things, it's just superior in the game. This is overall a smaller issue though, I have a lot more going forward.

 

However I'd like to point out another issue, which is that our character introduction, which will be all we get before knowing who these guys are is important, is one fucking panel for each of them. The main four characters aside from Omori/Sunny are introduced with one panel, one or 2 lines each. Even Mari is given basically one page. This is going to be a problem later in the chapter.

 

 That's it. That's all you get.

 

But forgetting that for right now, I already have another, much bigger issue:

Sunny is having a nightmare. This isn't a flashback, actually, it's a dream. Now, sure, it was a dream in the game I'm not mad because it's supposed to be a flashback. The problem is when he had that dream, him actually having a normal dream made sense. Why is Sunny, at the beginning of the story, having actual nightmares? That's not how this works. At this stage, Sunny has essentially repressed all of this, everything to do with the violin, that Christmas, and especially it being broken should be repressed. In the prologue, the broken violin shows up at the end, but that's not supposed to be able to happen. The dream world, Headspace(as I'll be calling it from now on), shuts the fuck down to deal with it and shove it back down. It's bits of the reality that Omori is meant to contain getting out, and it sets off the chain of events. In fact I just now realized, how are we going to get Basil missing from Headspace thus setting off on our journey? That's going to end up being redundant if it's a photo of the broken violin. Not to mention Sunny's going to need to wake up, but with how this chapter ends, I'm assuming this is launching into the Spaceboy story? If not, I guess Spaceboy will start after 3 Days Left ends? Geez. Regardless though, this is simply not how Sunny's dreams have worked for the past 4 years. He doesn't have dreams like this, he doesn't have nightmares when he's asleep except when things start to go wrong, and then that's Headspace taking on nightmarish elements hinting at the truth. He doesn't simply have normal dreams that become nightmares. What the fuck is Omori doing? Because it's his job. Sunny dreams and becomes Omori, this has been the cycle for the last 4 years. It makes it clear that this is what the cycle is, not even in an optional thing in mandatory exposition. Sure I know from an optional thing that he didn't always use Omori as an avatar and that Headspace wasn't always like this, but it didn't work like it did in the manga ever. I mean maybe it did at one point, but not by the time the story starts. I just don't know why it would work this way? Maybe there's some explanation, maybe for some reason Omori's power is weaker or weakening faster than it did in the game, but I bet it isn't that at all actually. It could be, I could accept this, trying to just make it more obvious that's what's going on recently, that his ability to keep Sunny from the truth is weakened so much he has these normal nightmares and not the waking ones or ones that happen when he falls unconscious when something triggers his memories. But there's another explanation, one that I hope isn't it: It's entirely possible that White Space and Headspace have been re-written as where Sunny goes when he has a panic attack, which is what happens at the end of this chapter(I'll get back to that) it still being a dream world but one he only goes to as a coping mechanism. Okay yeah, it was a coping mechanism before anyway, but I mean actively. When he's too freaked out by something happening that he can't handle, he goes there, and just has normal dreams when he goes to sleep at night. Now, I hope that's not the case because that shoots down a big appeal of the game not just for me but other fans as well, that's like a big part of it's premise. But if it isn't, then I'm not happy about it either because this is a plot hole! Why the FUCK is he having a normal dream?! That's the long and short of it, he shouldn't be having a dream like this at this stage because he doesn't in the game and it doesn't work that way in the game, you've changed how it works and I don't like it.

Okay, well, I've talked about that for too long. Hopefully you see why I think this is an issue. This is simply not how it works in the game, and I don't think that's an improvement or even a neutral change, it's inferior. I liked how it worked in the game, it's a core component of the narrative and even the themes that Sunny simply goes to sleep and has these adventure dreams. To make it so he also just randomly sometimes has these nightmares weakens that so much, and is just not how it's supposed to work. I'll need some explanation, not just something hinted at, if things work normally going forward.

I also think that seeing the real world version of the friends before the Headspace versions of the friends is less too. Not a big deal but it's better if you see their dream forms, then the real ones, so you can go "ohh, they're based on real people." But we're going to soon be having bigger problems than that.

I immediately started to get scared when the next scene started, because it says "3 Days Left" in the first panel. I thought that they'd combined the initial nightmare sequence after the prologue with the first day in the real world, aka Faraway Town as I'll call it from now on, because "3 Days Left" is what that's called. But I contained myself, I said "No, no, I'm sure they're just doing that to be ominous, it technically is 3 Days Left because it's probably after midnight anyway, 3 days before the move."

Then we get the phone message scene, where Sunny's mom tells him when they're moving and that he should see his old friends, and even that Kel has been trying to get ahold of him. This is already inferior, in the game you'd have known Headspace Kel and would be wondering what exactly is going on. You're now in a much different location playing as a character with a different name so you wouldn't necessarily even think there was a Kel here. It's an interesting thing, you'd definitely put it together that what you were just experiencing was a dream if you didn't already know, but that's why it's cool. There being a character with the same name subtly lets you understand some of what's going on and that these people in your dreams are probably based on real people, something to keep in the back of your mind when you get sent back to Headspace. I don't mind too much starting with this scene to immediately let people know hey, there's a real world and this is the real main character, because knowing that is what got me interested in the game, but even this makes it a lesser experience.

 

During the phone scene we also have the steak scene played over it, however this cuts out the part where she says that she made steak for him and even him reheating it in the microwave, which makes it seem like he just made himself a whole ass steak in the dark in the middle of the night. It's not a huge issue you can reasonably come to the conclusion it was in the fridge or something, but still. Why cut out the bit that explains it? I dunno lol it's just an odd choice.

 

Next we have another issue though. I don't care for how tiny Sunny is. Yeah I know, I get who drew this of course he's gonna look like this, but he's still a bit too tiny. Even compared to everyone else. Yeah in the game Sunny's not much bigger, he didn't grow much and he's still a tiny guy, probably about 5'5"? I guess accounting for the proportions of the art style he's still about that big, but the issue is he doesn't look much bigger than Omori. While he didn't grow much he is still bigger than he was when he was 12, here they both look about the same size.  Not a big issue but I don't really like it, even as he is in-game he's still very shota-y, you didn't need to up that. You could say she... over-shota it. Haha, that's not even how you pronounce that.

 

You see what I mean, right? It's a bit better when you see other

characters for scale, but he's just a little too small.

 

Next we have another, much bigger issue. The phone message plays over the steak scene, but if you've played the game you may recall that in between those scenes there was one of the nightmare sequences and a Fear boss. That's cut out entirely. This is an issue because there's no point at which Sunny has any issues going down the stairs. In the game, obviously, at first he has a freak out and a very symbolic waking nightmare and boss fight, and it makes perfect sense in retrospect why this scene happens where it does. Why cut that out? For one thing, not having it lessens the experience already because it was cool. For another, not ever showing him having an issue going down the stairs, something closely tied to his trauma and repressed memories, like why? I know that in the game you have to make some tenuous connections/theories to explain why he would be having this freak out now without assuming he just hasn't tried to go down the stairs for 4 years, but you could still do that and it never seems to bother anyone. Never seen anyone try to pick that apart. I know the answer to "why cut it out?" which is "for time" but cut something less significant thanks. This would be whatever on it's own, but combined with the other issues it becomes a problem.

The next issue is a lot bigger than that. Sunny goes to the bathroom but encounters Something in the door way when he opens the door. Why is that a problem? Wasn't that where it was then? Well, in the game it appears as just a shadow on the wall. You don't get to see Something until way later. Further, Sunny's reaction to it is unlike any he had to it in the game, he gets freaked the fuck out by it and goes and huddles in the corner of the kitchen. In the game, he never reacts to it like that. In the game he gets scared during the fear bosses, but has a completely deadpan expression when he sees Something or even a fucking twisted image of his dead sister in the mirror. It can be assumed that at those points, he was dissociating from the event, while when he has his freak outs it's over something he simply can't do that for or because he hasn't slipped into a dissociative state yet. Aha! you say, but here since he didn't have the stairs scene, he hasn't yet! Well he also doesn't, he doesn't stop being freaked out until he sees Kel, which happens after this scene but I'm getting ahead of myself. In fact, Sunny never seems to have a totally deadpan expression on his face like he does in the game, but again we're not to that yet. It really just feels like no no, we have to have him react like a normal person would, even though the point is his psychological state's all fucked up. 

But there's another issue which is that Something appears right in fucking front of him. 

In front of him. Ah yeah, can't forget that classic recurring line from the hit indie game Omori(2020) by OMOCAT Studios: "You see it too, don't you? Something, in front of you?"

IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE BEHIND HIM, ALWAYS, FOREVER, IT'S NEVER IN FRONT OF HIM.

That's it's WHOLE THING, it's behind him. Literally every time! Only in Headspace do you see it not behind him. And it's relevant thematically, it's symbolic, because of what it represents. Only when he's "self-reflecting"(looking in the mirror) can he see it, but it's actually always there, hence why Basil says he sees it even when the player can't. Sunny shouldn't be able to open a fucking door and have it be standing there. They combined the Hell Mari jumpscare with the optional Something in the corner of the room in the mirror. And it makes no sense! Forget the symbolism, just as a horror thing, that was it's function! To be behind him and be spooky! Not show up right in his fucking face! What the hell?!

Next I have an issue with the conveyance. Generally I think the artwork is good for wordlessly conveying things in these scenes where Sunny is alone and not having any inner monologue(side note, I'd hoped he would have some but it's okay that he doesn't. It does kind of make sense since it would take a lot of skill to have him give his thoughts on various things happening and still keep some details and twists hidden until they're meant to be known), but there's one part where I get confused.

 

Obviously, he went back to the kitchen and got a knife, presumably to defend himself. Like I said, he's overreacting compared to his video game counterpart, I just don't think it's a superior change. But forget that, what is he doing here? He looks at the knife, sees his reflection, and then starts cleaning it? It does look a little dirty, but for one it looks cloudy and not like it's covered in the meat juice it would be from cutting a steak, but for another why is he doing that? Oh man I gotta wipe this off! Who cares? Aren't you thinking something, literally, is going to attack you? Oh better stop to clean off this knife! I don't understand why the knife needs to be clean, I wouldn't have wondered why it was when he used it later like I didn't in the game. Maybe this is just to show Sunny is a good boy who was just compelled to do it? I do believe he's a good boy, as far as I'm concerned the Universally Loved variant of the ending is the canon one, but I don't know if he'd just make sure to clean the cutlery when he's scared for his life. It's just odd, it feels like a contrived thing for the sake of something else but I dunno what, and I feel like Konoito-san could have conveyed what was meant to be happening and why here better. It feels like it's having attention called to it but I'm not sure of it's significance on any level. 

But there's a bit bigger of an issue than that, though it's not that big of a problem either, but I'm just more confused about the layout of Sunny's house than I was in the game. You might not have noticed it, but I did. If you take a close look at the details of the inside and outside of his house and then compare the two, the structure starts to not make much sense. There would be just a big empty space above the living room with a window you couldn't reach because the outside is just flat two stories with the only slope being for the dining room which comes out a bit. The rooms under the second floor aren't big enough and would result in there being nothing below the second floor rooms, which would be fine if there weren't a window in one of them. There's also a window on the second floor between the bathrooms and Sunny's bedroom, think about how the fuck that would look on the outside. Taking it all in, the bedrooms and bathroom would be jutting out from the house! It's all very confusing if you think about how it would work in non-top down 2D space. Aubrey's house has a similar issue where her room should be jutting off the corner of the house due to where the ladder to the attic is. An adaptation is a chance to fix this! It doesn't have to of course

but it shouldn't make it more confusing! It does. I only just now realized this, initially my complaint was going to be that I wasn't sure where the fuck the living room was because as you can see, the staircase that was originally in the hallway behind the living room is now right in front of the entrance door.

This is as close as we get to Sunny being scared about going down the stairs,

he is but it's because of the knocking at the door, which he's only hesitant about cuz he's generally on edge and not because he opened it only to have an apparition assail him last night.

That is the front door, and it does make sense for the stairs to be in front of the front door in a house, but they weren't in the game. I was thinking maybe the living room was off somewhere else, though you can see the piano room is still under the second floor like in the game so I'm not sure where it is. I was going to say I'd reserve judgement until I see more of the house. 

But then I realized the kitchen is on the second floor. 

Look at those 2 pages again. He doesn't leave the second floor until he goes to open the door. So THAT'S why we didn't get the fear boss sequence, he didn't even need to leave the second floor to go to the kitchen!

...

WHAT THE FUCK!?

 

Who's fucking kitchen is on the second god damn floor? Nobody's kitchen is on the second floor. Why is the kitchen on the second floor? And wait a second, there are multiple panels that imply the kitchen is to the right. When he goes to open the bathroom door he approaches from the right, when he goes to look at the front door he approaches from the right. The right side is where Sunny's bedroom is supposed to be. I have no fucking clue where anything is in this house anymore, aside from the kitchen obviously wow. Maybe this is actually a bigger deal than I was saying? What the hell is up with this house? I'm still hung up on that, why is the kitchen on the second floor. You cut out him being scared of the stairs so there's no reason to contrive a reason he can be in the kitchen before going down the stairs! Just make the damn kitchen on the first floor!

Next, I have a slight issue before we get to who's behind the door.

The entire house is dark like it's in the middle of the night, but then when Sunny opens it it's daytime. 

I can buy Sunny stayed up all night without noticing, but why is the house so dark? It's about the same the whole time, and while it could have actually been morning, that still begs the question. There are plenty of windows in this place, in the game it's bright during the day even when the lights aren't on. Why would it be so dark in a house in the middle of the day, even if all the curtains were drawn? And why would they be anyway? This whole thing feels confusing, and is probably the result of trying to surprise the audience.

Alright, so you're probably sitting there thinking "who cares", so let's get on to issues that might actually matter to someone else. I realize most people probably don't even if they should, but yeah, let's get on with it.

 

Kel's behind the door. This is a problem.

 

So in the game, though they make you spend a bit too long to get to Faraway, you spend enough time with the Headspace versions of Sunny's friends for this to matter. You've seen Kel, you've seen Aubrey, you've seen Hero, Basil, and Mari. You know basically who they are, the characters even point out that "Omori"(Sunny) has a good memory, so it's likely that these characters are fairly accurate to their real selves, obviously maybe simplified with some embellishments(I ship Sunny & Aubrey and even I immediately assumed Aubrey wasn't so strongly into him IRL like she was in Headspace) but still representative of them in reality. And in fact, you find out as time goes on how much of it was based on real things that happened to them or that they said. There's no contrast, like I mentioned; you don't see Aubrey and Basil getting along in Headspace and then her treating him poorly in Faraway. You don't get her and Kel getting into playful arguments in Headspace and then see them having way worse of a fight in Faraway. You see Mari once before learning she died. You see Basil once before seeing that he's in trouble. You only see all of them once! You don't get to see at all how things were before seeing how they've fallen apart, and sure you don't get the full extent of it until you see the real photo album, but you get quite a bit of it. But then there's the problem of not knowing who these people are. In the game you'd have spent time with them, attachment would have formed, you'd get to learn things about them, like things about them, dislike things about them. They're your party! And you realize by thinking with your brain that they're Sunny's friends! So you know who they are! I saw someone saying "of course the manga would do this" with part of the reason being you'd spend a bunch of time not knowing who the characters are, but that's not true. You did not spend that much time in the game not knowing who the characters are, you didn't know who the real characters are, but the early parts of Headspace lay the groundwork for who those are. It's necessary. Without either of these aspects, the drama scenes to follow lack weight and significance. I don't care as much that Aubrey is bullying Basil because I don't know who they are or what their relationship is, I don't know who Aubrey was to Sunny, Kel to Aubrey, Aubrey to Kel, Aubrey to Sunny, Aubrey to Basil, Basil to Sunny even. And that last one's extra important! In the game you'd have gotten an idea of who Sunny & Basil are to each other, you get the significance. Now sure, I could as a new reader still care some about what's happening and who it's happening to, I'm good at that I go "I know this character knows that character and cares about them so I will too", but there's greater investment and narrative weight to what's happening in the game. You even see why Sunny might prefer Headspace to this. And yes, Sunny does still end up going to Headspace and doing the game's intro by the end of this, and reversing the order still keeps that aspect intact, it's not as good in this order. The rest is lessened way more by that. I do not like it. Sure, we're going back to Headspace now, but one of the first big hooks has already been beefed. Like yeah, I wanted this manga to improve the pacing and get to this part faster too, the game takes too long to get there. But it's making me appreciate it doing that way more now, I'd rather it take too long than not take long enough. And look, I get why this happened, if you did it like in the game even if you cut down the Otherworld storyline as much as possible you still wouldn't get to this stuff by the end of the first chapter. In a game a player can just keep playing until they get to this part, but for a monthly manga, you want people to get to the good stuff that the game is actually about. I really get that! I think one of the game's biggest failings in terms of keeping everyone invested is that it takes too long to get there, a lot of people don't even get there before they get bored. They'd get bored again with Sweetheart's Castle, but you don't have to worry about that with a manga adaptation since a quicker paced run down would probably work better. So fix that mistake and get to it ASAP, right? Well no. I think that the game should be cut down, the Otherworld storyline should be truncated as much as possible so that you can get to Faraway as soon as you can, and don't even get me started on Sweetheart's Castle. The game absolutely drags those things out, but it'd be easier not to in a manga. That's what I think should have been done, because I do think spending time with the characters before this happens is necessary. At the very least we should see the fucking intro and prologue part first, have it cut right to Kel knocking at the door the nightmare sequence instead, sure, but let us see the god damn Headspace characters for a bit first, jesus! I wanted to get to the good stuff faster, not get to it right away! This is similar to that Trigun Stampede show, which immediately gets into Vash and Knives's tragic alien sci-fi backstory, whereas the original slowly doled that out, it wasn't even totally obvious how much it was a sci-fi western until later. It doesn't mess up the story quite as much, but it's that same "we gotta show them the juicy bits right away and I mean fuck it everyone already knows right?" Konoito-san thanked two Kodansha editors who helped her and I'd like to say no, please don't, I blame them.

This absolutely seems like something an editor would dictate. They don't care about art or a narrative, they care about viewership and sales and the plebs need their dopamine NOW. FUCK set up, FUCK build up, now now now! And editor would absolutely tell you to start the story there to absolutely ensure people keep reading it, because yeah most people probably wouldn't continue to read it if you, at best, got to see Sunny quaking in his boots before going right back to sleep. But like I said, please at least show the intro. But no, we can't that might bore someone too. I get it, I do, I understand. You want people to read it, fuck it Konoito-san wants people to read it, it coulda been her idea. Omocat made her game this way because 1 she probably did have an artistic vision and wanted it that way, and 2 just wanted to fulfill her obligation to the kickstarter backers. Does it matter if anyone else kept playing? They did of course, but it was risky in business sense to do it like this. I respect that, even if I think the first day of Headspace could be cut down to get there faster since it's just not as interesting. And regardless of how much I can understand the decision, I don't have to like it. I would take too long over not long enough, I'd respect it more if it followed the game's structure closer for the same reasons, and again you could have at least shown the original intro. Different in the adaptation is fine but you've impacted the storytelling in a negative way, this structural change has had a bad effect. I think this can be made up for, but it doesn't change the fact it really hurts this chapter. I've been talking like someone who doesn't know the story, and I know most people who don't actually don't care, but even as someone who does know I'm still getting a story that's being told less well than the original game. It doesn't matter if I know who these people are, the story is supposed to tell me. I'm here for storytelling. And artwork, but we'll get back to that.

This also has some other minor issues it spawns, which makes me feel like this originally wasn't going to be the order it was presented in.

On these pages, you can see a flash to the Headspace version of the character... that we haven't seen yet. Who the fuck is this supposed to be to me? I don't know that guy. This comes off like you're meant to see it flash to that and realize it's because Kel mentioned the name of the character, in fact I do realize that. I know that it's Hero and Basil from Headspace, that Sunny is flashing to that because he's come to associate those names with those versions of the people. If that had happened in the game, you as a player could have done that as well, because you would have seen them. In fact, in the game, you probably did the same thing since you hadn't seen how they looked IRL yet. But we haven't seen how they looked in Headspace yet here. He's flashing to someone we haven't seen. Yeah maybe that's supposed to be the point, maybe it's meant as foreshadowing, but it feels like trying to adapt reactions the player would be having, or otherwise call back to something you should have seen. You see that because you're meant to say "oh yeah, Hero" and maybe even think "oh so he's real too" but not know what he looks like. I dunno, I don't think it's great regardless of it's meant to be foreshadowing and intriguing for new readers, and would have worked better if you'd seen them already.

So with the biggest issue out of the way, let's talk about the rest, and it's lesser issues, before we talk about what I actually liked.

I don't have that many left, the rest plays out perfectly fine. Not great but I don't have any issues until we get to halfway through the scene with Aubrey.

During it, she reveals that Mari is dead. I'm okay with that, or at least I would be, if they didn't find a way to do it worse than in the game. Revealing Mari's dead early is fine, in the game I would have figured it out even if I hadn't seen a review up until the end of 3 Days Left and got that "spoiled." It's pretty obvious, so getting it out of the way is okay. However, how Aubrey says it is worse. She says "Life moved on without you, even after we failed to save Mari." which is a really forced and contrived way of saying it. Why would she say it that way? To make it unclear how exactly she died and what happened to her, it's just vague enough someone could have a bunch of ideas in their heads. Could it have been an accident? Did she get killed by some ax murderer? But why would Aubrey say it like that? In the game she just says "Mari's dead." which is blunt and to the point, which is in character for her, while this kind of isn't. It's just so obvious with it's intent, it's not a natural line. I could let that slide as I've let it slide in many things, but there was a better alternative in the game, if you had simply had it revealed when it was revealed. But again, we gotta get everything into that first chapter or readers might not be MAXIMALLY ENTERTAINED. Normally we could blame the localizers, but apparently the localizer is Omocat? If she's not the one translating this and we can find out what it is in Japanese and it's better, I'll rescind this. As it stands, this is apparently the original creator approved translation. In fact, it credits Konoito-san as well, so it sounds like they even worked together for it, which makes it sound like yeah this is what the line is meant to be.

I actually have an issue with Sunny's reaction here, but I will wait until the end of this section before I get into that. More "nitpicks."

 

 

Obviously parts of this scene lose some of their significance, I already explained how so much of this lacks weight. No understanding who Aubrey is to Sunny, or her to him. He also hasn't fought a single enemy so there isn't that element of him mindlessly attacking with his knife like he does in Headspace, only to get snapped back into reality when she reacts like a real person. The whole scene plays out differently and now, when he goes to attack her, instead it's like... Omori, takes over? I guess? Like he has DID? On the next page he even has thoughts of yelling out not to do it. That's certainly not how it went in the game. I suppose you can interpret Omori as an "alter" rather than as his "shadow", though I feel like he's more of the latter and only ever takes control of his body in the bad ending. It's a specific circumstance. I suppose this isn't that bad but I dunno, I just don't really like that. I'm glad they tried to keep the "oh no what have I done" element with that but yeah I just dunno. Though really, as I'll discuss later, there's already a work-around for both of those things so I don't know why this whole like going stone-faced mode and not seeming to be in control of his actions part exists.

The pose Sunny does when he's about to cut Aubrey looks weird, it looks like he's about to do a downward thrust stab and not a slash. Also, her face here's a little odd. This feels like the result of your only real experience conveying drama and intense emotion being dark fetish stories. I told you that you'd see what I meant.

Aubrey's face is like "When she sees the D." 

 Sunny is about to thrust and penetrate her soft flesh with his long blade, so she's reacting accordingly. 

 

I dunno maybe I have a dirty mind but again, if Konoito-san drew the shit they're saying she drew, so does she so who the hell knows. The latter bit isn't a big deal it's just something I noticed upon closer inspection, it does feel a tad "erotic doujinshi"-y, though not that much and it could be a "me" issue. The fact he's making this pose is a bigger issue. Cuz he doesn't downward stab, he downward slices.

Then there's the problem of how the photos in her jacket pocket spill out onto the ground after she collapses to it.

Getting ahead of myself but I like this page otherwise, her being all slumped over looks good

and is a good creative choice, better than the simple kneeling and "augh you cut me Sunny, you snake, how could you give your own childhood crush the old slice 'n dice" it was in the game.

Like how did they do that? Did gravity reverse function just then so we could make sure they fell out of her pocket? Why wouldn't they fall further in from something like that? Further, why does she even have them on her person? In the game, these photos are on a corkboard in here bedroom. You know, where they'd be safe from falling on the ground. She wants them safe because they're like, her only pictures of her dead friend and sister figure? Her not carrying them around makes a lot of sense for the game. It's possible they were actually still in the Photo Album before she threw it away in the game too, so they're in neither place they'd sensibly be in the game, and in her pocket instead. You're not even really supposed to know she has them, you're supposed to discover there are missing photos when you get the album back, and then they say oh... it's all the ones of Mari that are missing. You then realize how much Mari mattered to her after seeing her act the way she had all day long, you then realize why she might be acting this way and saying the things she is. Omori loves to recontextualize things like this. That's gone here too, and it just doesn't make much sense in general. All this so that we could toss the pictures of Mari in the reader's face for more drama. 

 

Finally, where is Kim in all this? She and the other Hooligans are cut out of this scene entirely, I hope that doesn't mean they've been cut out of the story altogether. They were minor supporting characters but they're still important to the overall story, so they'd better not be. No really, they better fucking not be, or this manga's gonna end up with a low score.

 

Now, we gotta address how this adaptation is handling the main character. 

He's too expressive.

I've seen someone countering this complaint by showing it's not like Sunny is inexpressive in canon, showing screencaps and images from the calendar that show him with expressions other than stone-faced. But yeah, I know. The problem is that he is still supposed to be fairly muted in his expressions when he isn't feeling strong enough emotions. Yeah sometimes he'll have a bit of a subtler expression, but a lot of the time he's blank faced. Here, there are almost no panels where he has a neutral expression on his face. It's also more about when, why, and how he's being expressive. For one thing, in the game, during the present at least, he can clearly be seen with a totally dead expression on his face and a thousand-yard stare in his eyes. His friends should have noticed what's up, but due to combination of remembering he's extremely quiet and muted and it being 4 years so they don't remember the more subtle parts, they don't is how I read it. Not that he was secretly making way more faces you just couldn't see. I feel like that dead expression was intentional, because Sunny's dead inside. Like think about James Sunderland, and his intentionally cold expression and muted emotions, because he's meant to be feeling nothing as a better alternative to feeling awful. Same with Sunny I think. It's true he does have outbursts like, for example, the flies angering him when you do the bug swatting job at Othermart, he has a very intense angry face. I think that's it, right, typically Sunny doesn't express himself that much except when he's feeling more intense emotions, it's how you know it's serious when you can overtly tell what he's feeling. The problem is he's constantly having very overt, obvious, anime ass reactions to everything and he's not supposed to. 

 

You see what I mean, right? Like yeah I do like anime partly because of their

exaggerated depiction of emotion. It's not about being "real" it's about conveying real 

feelings in a stylized way. But some anime/manga are more subtle and

I think that approach is more fitting for Sunny. And it's not like Kuudere don't exist.

 

But okay sure, that's the adaptation, you know what, whatever! I think it's important for the story, in the game you can potentially get the wrong idea and think maybe this kid is actually a psychopath. Blank-faced, will cut a bitch he used to be friends with, explodes with anger, yeah he's a dangerous psycho! Just like Aubrey says in the church scene! But you come to find out that's not true, it's not that Sunny is some emotionless robot or crazy or that he doesn't care about his friends. In fact, Sunny cares about his friends immensely, incredibly even. Sunny seems to have a lot of empathy, especially if you do all the side quests. It's something that slowly unfolds as you play the game and is honestly really important for the good ending of the game. It's about how even if it might not always seem like it, it is true. Sunny feels his emotions deeply, and deeply cares about others, despite his appearance and personality. I think that's important, I think that's powerful. Sure that's been done before, but how it's done here is incredibly well due to how it's built up and executed. I'm not ashamed to say that, I think it's a big draw of the story. But sure, you know what, there are other draws, and I never expected this manga to be as impactful or as good of an experience as the game. It's also a more subtle aspect, I can see Konoito-san just not picking up on it.

So I could let that all slide. However, it factors into something else that's a bigger problem: How and why he's having these big expressions. The freakout he's having after Aubrey mentions Mari is dead is the kind of big expression he would have, as he had something like that during the nightmare sequence and would continue to have them and worse later, but it isn't what he would do. Sunny does not have any reaction to hearing his sister is dead in the game. Kel has a whole ass monologue to him about what happened to Hero after she died in front of her grave and Sunny doesn't have a freak out. "This is a different take on the character." and it's worse. It was interesting that he didn't, there's clearly a reason, it's related to him repressing memories. He's compartmentalizing here, he's keeping himself subdued, Omori is keeping him subdued, he's probably not even properly registering that she's dead. Or you know what, maybe it's not even that, maybe it's that now that he's acclimated to reality after that incident with Aubrey, he's just remembered she's dead and has gone back into a "dead inside" state and doesn't feel anything about it. Ah, that explains why he had the freakout here! But that still doesn't make it not an inferior creative choice. It's a really complicated situation and I don't really want to give away the big twist of the game right here which it kind of will require doing to properly explain it, but suffice it to say the way it's done in the game is just better. Sunny never properly acknowledges Mari is dead or has any strong reaction in relation to it until the end, and it's all the better for it. He's simply not supposed to freak out about it as if it's something he just didn't know, I can at least say it was thought out enough that having the reveal happen here instead of the church might actually change his reaction, but this just means again it should have been in the church like in the game. I don't care when you reveal Mari is dead as long as it doesn't change anything else, if it does, oops. Don't do it then.

In general Sunny's reaction to this stuff is just way worse than in the game, and I don't think it improves the story at all. Like you haven't really spent any time with him so launching right into him having a panic attack over his old friend bullying him is a little bit presumptuous, what if I just think he seems pathetic? I dunno, it's just not a good look to start with that and act like you're supposed to care that much when you've just met the character. You can start getting into a character being pathetic once the audience has formed an investment with them but it's not as good to do it too early. In the game you have him have a panic attack after an hour of gameplay as the much more stoic Omori and it's because he hallucinates a fucking demon face in the darkness of his stairs with hands coming out of it and also a bunch of other hands and the staircase has become endless. I'd freak the fuck out too! My childhood friend is bullying me is more a depressing thing and I think I could handle without going into "OH GOD" mode. You get what I mean? I think it's just better the way it's done in the game, it's not bad for Sunny to do this and it's more dramatic but it's just not as good. 

I think part of this ties into the whole "gotta be more dramatic for the intro hook people in come on come on" nature of it. To quote Jeff Gerstman though, "Don't start the show with a showstopper.", I feel like in general it has this issue is really it. You gotta ease into that, all of this stuff, and make sure I care first. Once again more issues with not starting where the game starts, I think I wouldn't mind him having this reaction to the situation quite as much, though I still think it's better how it was done in the game. I think the other part of it ties into what the artist is into. I wanna stress I'm not doing this because of the same motivation as the twitter kids, but my method is the same. I'm picking apart this artwork cuz I know the artist is a shotacon. I could give you some other examples but I want to show you one that makes my point clear:

After Sunny goes to Headspace, and yeah I'll get to that, there's this panel of Basil making these bedroom eyes at Omori. No really, what is this face he's making? This isn't just my dirty mind, it really makes it look like he wants sum fuck. I recently watched the first episode of The Elusive Samurai and it features a scene where the young boy main character falls into an adult male's arms and makes a similar bedroom eyes expression at him. And it was totally out of context too, like he was actually mad at him for tossing him off a cliff into a bunch of bloodthirsty samurai to awaken his high level dodging abilities. But because the author is obviously a shotacon, and probably a fujoshi, he makes that face because she(I assume) wants to see a cute boy make that face at an adult man. Which I understand! But maybe now isn't the time? A village has just been raped and pillaged! At least here, nothing serious is happening, but it also seems like Basil is just making this face for no real reason aside the author is a shotacon and a fujoshi and wants to see him make that face at Omori. 

Obviously that's a minor issue, but it's part of a larger issue with the art, which I think is just that so much of this issue with Sunny's expression is due to the author being a shotacon. I mean for one, a lot of the art is just a bit too shotacon catering for me. I really do insist that the game isn't pandering very much, it's just a bonus element, here yeah Sunny's drawn just a bit too shotacon-cute in too many panels. That on it's own is just kind of distracting, I don't really want this while I'm trying to care about character drama and the weight of guilt and sin. But also I think a lot of Sunny's expressions are actually due to this, like the author likes to see the shotas in distress so we gotta get in lots of shots of him in distress. I think Omocat does too, and that is at least partly why those scenes exist in the game, but it's not overdone at all, whatever the reason may be. Here, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if she was just doing it because she wanted to see him like that more and thought fans would want to as well. I don't know, with how everything else is, it could be. Alternatively, a lot of this inaccurate reaction from Sunny and such is simply a result of her not having experience depicting intense emotion and drama in anything but her dark fetish stories, like I said before, and like with the off part of Aubrey's expression in that one panel. If that's the case, it could continue happening as well. We'll see how things go from here, there may be more stuff like Basil's face there and I won't like it if there is, or she might keep having the issue where the drama faces feel a bit like dark porn faces. The game might not be "for shotacons" but the manga may end up being if it does this too much, and regardless it might end up just impacting the presentation because she wants to pack in too much of her interests. 

 

But okay, maybe I'm off base, so let's move on. Though before I do I want to point out something if it's not obvious, I'm not mad at Konoito-san or anything for this, I'm not saying "Oh what a shitty shit, shittily shitting her shit in the manga" or something. This is criticism but it's her manga, I simply don't have to like it. There's a lot of things I do actually like about it and I respect that she put a lot of hard work into it, and I hope she at least is satisfied with her work. I don't have to like or be satisfied with it, though.

A more concrete issue is just that after Sunny has his panic attack is when he goes to White Space, when they introduce Omori, and then when they introduce the Headspace crew. I really just don't like that. I get that he passed out so he's now asleep and is thus dreaming but it really does feel like it's maybe been re-written as what happens when he's under too much stress. I dunno, but either way, I just don't care for it happening now. Once again, I just think it was better in the game, and that this is done for maximum drama.

I have no more issues aside Basil's "hey baby" face there, so I think now it's time to move on to what I actually like about this chapter.

CHAPTER 2: I am no longer scared, this is nice.

So I had some issues with the art, yeah? Well for the most part I actually quite like it. It's good!

I really liked this panel of Mari with her hollow eyes and fake smile, this is a great rendition of a nigthmarish Mari. While Sunny wouldn't have this nightmare, if he did this is how she might appear if his mind was taunting him with it. Very nice. I also like how the panel borders were straight and then got all wiggly when the nightmare started, nice touch. Something you can only really do in comic form to convey the story, it's something a lot of people wouldn't even really notice but would subconsciously. Good attention to detail there.

This "Hell Mari" is also pretty good too, pretty freaky looking! 

 

Though I don't like why the phone message can play over the steak scene, I actually do like that it does, no reason to just show him standing there while it plays when you can be more efficient.

 

I also like that shot of Something being reflected in Sunny's iris, even if I don't like that it's in FRONT of him.

 

Generally, I think the scenes it's adapting straight are pretty well done, it's speeding through it a bit, I don't care for that, but otherwise Sunny and Kel going to Hobbeez works pretty well.

 

 

This page here is particularly good. I think the chibi faces are good and I like Sunny lamenting his now empty wallet after Kel, who has 20 bucks at home, bummed 20 bucks off of him. This is an accurate and good Sunny.

Aubrey looks cool as shit. 

I like how visceral the slash looks!

There's a bunch of different examples but you got an idea, I like it quite a bit. Though I have seen a few people defending her from people clearly only harshly criticizing her because she's a shotacon by acting like she's a master and there's no issue with her art. Well she's no master, this is very good Omori fanart level really. She's definitely a newbie. I dunno maybe it's because I've read Berserk, and recently read some Junji Ito and Rumiko Takahashi. I've seen some masters at work, it's definitely a lot better. Also, though I dunno you'll have to take my word for it since I'm bad at putting this stuff into words, I don't think the presentation and conveyance of actions and such is great in this. I've seen it done better in manga, and I haven't read that many. Like I said, I don't have the words for it, I'm bad at explaining that and don't really know the terms or where to apply them. But I can think visually and recognize visual storytelling in manga when it's done well, and I don't think it's done all that well here. Sometimes sure, but not only level of someone more experienced. Though who knows, by the end of this she may be, a lot of mangaka improve during the course of their early work and you can chart their progress. She is definitely still new though. But it's good! I don't have much issue with the proportions, it's obvious why they have them but I don't mind it. People re-drew them to have smaller heads and seemed to take particular issue with how Aubrey is drawn which is odd, because that's the one I have the least issue with how she looks? Her expressions are also fine, it feels like a perfectly acceptable take on the character, she definitely has mannerisms that are more yanki girl like than Aubrey already was and I think that works, it's what she is, this is a good manga interpretation of the character. Sunny not so much.

Speaking of, yeah, that's another thing I like. Generally I think Aubrey is better done here. I think the game kinda oversold her, and underdid it. Like yeah, she was being a huge bitch and treating her friends like shit, but the story kind of treats what she did as worse than what it was. Not to mention, it tries to make it seem like she might be a lost cause, that's the tragic element of these scenes with her, culminating in her throwing away the photo album. Maybe this is it? Gameplay wise this is all an incentive to maybe abandon the True Route for the Neutral Route, the two pulls there; do you give up on this and go back to where everyone is friends, giving in to temptation? Or do you accept this reality and maybe even try to fix it, though it might be difficult? That aspect is lessened when yeah I mean, it's kinda obvious Aubrey's just mad and will come around with time, and that she doesn't really mean the things she's saying.

She's way more nasty and aggressive than she is in the game, while it's missing that cool wild smile she gives where she says "I'll take you both on!" from the game, or that line in general, it makes up for it with her generally being more violent and vindictive about this. Which I think is an improvement! You could argue that she has less reason to be on this level, but I do think you can say that she's just stewed with this the whole time, and it makes even more sense if she isn't friends with The Hooligans in this. This makes it less obvious she's going to come around, and if they can do the parts where they get through to her better than in the game(which to be fair is just a bit too easy), they can make that work even better. Further, she has more to answer for, more reason to be so repentant and apologetic when she does, and would also make the swingset scene all the more meaningful. Generally I just think this is for the best. It's not like the game did this bad, it just could have been done better, and this is an improvement. That's the kind of thing I want out of this adaptation!

Like I said I think the slice is very visceral, and while it leads to something contrived, I like her reaction to it better, crumpling onto the ground because she's been wounded. In the game she just kind of kneels and goes "augh ow oh no my arm." and it's not a big deal, which takes a bit of bite out of the whole metanarrative aspect of you having done this just like he did because you weren't thinking about it, especially because she had an equally deadly weapon and you were defending yourself. It makes up for the lack of that metanarrative aspect and her weapon by making it worse of an attack, yeah it does kinda feel like Sunny is in the wrong here when you see it like that.

I also like that Kel asks if Sunny is doing okay unlike in the game. I feel like maybe it's intentional, like everyone is bad at dealing with this stuff and Kel's idea is "let's just ignore it, I'll make sure he is by just having some fun with my bro!" and it's well meaning but Sunny really does actually need to talk about this. Hero's gonna do that too, Basil's a little preoccupied, Aubrey's being too much of a bitch to do it but eventually does, I don't mind it at all and I think it makes sense. But there's no reason for Kel to not at least just ask if he's doing okay, cuz even with what it was going for I think he would actually ask that.

Though I've seen it, I like the way Sunny fading into his subconscious looks, I like the ink effect, very manga-y way of having him fade.

The introduction of the Headspace characters is good and I like inclusion of the "My Thoughts Will Follow You Into Your Dreams" line at the very end, though there's no context for that yet. 

And uhhh, that's it.

CHAPTER 3: The End.

 

So, what have we learned? That I have a lot of problems with this adaptation so far.

Now, this is only the first chapter, and I think a lot of it will be a first chapter only problem, but at the end of the day I still don't like the first chapter. Some of the fears I had expressed in this post ended up true(lol at me calling Konoito-san a man, we had only see one piece of her artwork yet, but once we saw more I clued into the likelihood it's a woman and what she's into), and some of the expectations I had did too. Overall though, yeah I just don't like it, and I really hope it improves. I'm quite worried that Sunny X Basil ship teasing will end up being a bigger focus and overshadow the rest of the narrative aspects, and especially that important scenes between him and Aubrey will be cut, due to some signs. I'm worried continued misunderstandings and inferior changes to the source material will be made. I'm worried there will be more shotacon money shots and that will distract from the very heavy and meaningful storytelling. I'm also worried if that happens it will embolden idiots to claim that Omori is about making you wanna see the boys fuck each other even more. I'm worried that the missteps here won't be able to be corrected. However, I also do have hope, as there were plenty of good things, there were some things done better than in the game, and in general I am at least interested in seeing more of these scenes drawn. I don't know how things will go but I feel like at the very least it should be interesting, I have issues with this manga because of my love for the game but if that wasn't here, it's not like it would be bad. As it's own story, it's doing it less well than the game, but without that attachment? It'd probably be a 7/10 chapter? Like this, I really have to give it about a 5/10. Yeah, it's not bad, but it's not good either. Regardless, I do definitely wanna read more, because it is interesting, and even if it's bad that will be true and I kind of have to read it to the end. I dunno, maybe I'm over reacting. Like I'm playing FF7 Rebirth and it has a lot of these issues honestly, like they changed how the whole Dyne subplot worked and I don't think it's as good as the original game. Like for one they just show you Barret didn't do it and that it was Dyne who shot up the Battle Arena at the Gold Saucer, but the game still has the whole "Woah could this have been Barret?" and them going "No way it couldn't have been, he wouldn't do this!" and it's like yeah I already know. In the original there's that element of, damn, did Barret do this? He was pretty pissed, and he really hates Shinra... it was not only a moment where you, the player, questioned your own good pal Barret instead of just believing in him, but it also highlights him and Dyne's similarities. You believe Barret might have because they're both so angry about what happened and so vengeful, this is what inevitably makes Barret start to rethink things at Cosmo Canyon, and realize "The Planet" was just a lofty goal he wanted to attach to his quest for revenge, making it a higher purpose than just because he was pissed and about his own mistakes more than at Shinra. And after all that, I still really like this take on FF7's story beats so far. It's less than the original, but not bad. But, FF7 Rebirth is a remake, and a sequel kinda, and a different timeline? I dunno, either way, Omori manga is an adaptation. I don't really approve of changes that aren't necessary to put it in another medium or make sure to fit within the time frame, and most of these aren't that. This isn't cutting out Tom Bombadil because I mean fuck that's just not gonna work in a 3-4 hour movie. Yeah, I dunno, I don't really like this chapter.

But it's still better than the Yume Nikki manga! Man, that thing SUCKED. I'm sure it'll be better than that lol. My standards for "Good game-to-manga adaptation." is the Higurashi manga, though to be fair I've never read the original sound novels and just think it's better than the anime. However, I have at least compared all 3 versions of the scene from Tsumihorobosh-hen where Keiichi recalls the other timelines; in the anime the emotional weight isn't as strong, in the original it kinda goes on too long, and in the manga it kinda doesn't go on long enough but the weight is conveyed a lot better. So I can at least say that the manga's version is a good take on that scene even if it's not perfect. So far, I wouldn't say the Omori manga is on that level, but maybe if I'd read the original sound novels I'd not like the Higurashi manga either. Might be sitting here saying "They cut down the slice of life fucking around so much, which is awful because it's important, you need to spend that much mundane time with them for shit breaking down to have as much impact as it's supposed to."

Anyway, yeah, don't like it. This is just what I have to say for the first chapter, if it continues on like this, just imagine how much I'd have to say about the whole manga. So I don't think I'm ever gonna review it, not in this much depth at least. 

Okay, that's done, now to get back to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Bye!