Let’s take a look at the wildest manga I’ve ever read, featuring a supernatural yandere, Hachigatsu Kokonoka: Boku wa Kimi ni Kuwareru.
Hachigatsu Kokonoka and Yandere
Yandere.
People (typically girls) who are handy with a knife, especially when their senpai won’t notice them. They want the attention and affection of your average-Joe generic-kun but sometimes violence is the only way to get him to notice their unrequited love.
No better way to beat out the competition than to take them all out one by one til they’re the only one left for senpai to notice and give affection to.
If there’s such a thing as yandere (yan-durr-ay), why isn’t there a yander-B and yander-C?
Jokes aside-
What’s the deal with yokai (in Hachigatsu Kokonoka)
Yokai; Eastern-based urban legends, myths, and typically spirits of the dead that have unique stories surrounding them that’ve been passed down for generations. Many of them offer morals, and feature strange conditions on how to deal with such said spirit, like taking a specific action in order to avoid death.
Hachigatsu Kokonoka is one manga featuring both yandere and yokai that flew so far over the radar that it landed in the cosmos of space. The manga that began in February 2020 deserves wayyy more attention than its already been given.
Why the hype about Hachigatsu Kokonoka?
It takes two concepts, the supernatural and the psychotic, and blends them together in a blender, all the while cranking the absurdity up to 1000.
Only around 24 chapters are out as of January 2023, but what has been released by author Tomomi has been nothing but wild.
It may be sitting at a score of 6.66 on MAL, but that number is oddly unnerving like the manga. It’s quite appropriate in that matter, but has nothing to do with the quality of this underrated piece of fiction.
Well then what the hell is Hachigatsu Kokonoka, Ryan? (spoilers first couple chapters)
Hachigatsu Kokonoka is the story of Ao Sakurai, a moody high schooler who finds himself being stalked…
By girls. A lot.
We’re talking like a lot of girls here.
So many stalkers, and creepy at that. And even the school isn’t sure what to do about it. So what do you do in a situation like that?
Just ignore it. Yep, Sakurai goes and gets a popsicle with his childhood friend (because of course he has a childhood friend) and, well… things get creepy real fast. Being led into an abandoned building, his friend transforms into a giant centipede monster ready to devour him whole; ya know… typical teenage shenanigans.
But there is one particular stalker of Sakurai that stands out far above the rest, and is perhaps the most –
fearsome,
beautiful,
terrifying,
and most of all…
a yandere to top all yandere, with all the fix-ins that accompany such a nightmarish personality.
Her name is Miyako
You see, Miyako is a werewolf… well no actually she’s a peculiar kind of yokai, an “encounter wolf”, as it’s been translated in the manga, the “Okuri Okami”. Basically, imagine those giant lycans from FromSoftware‘s Bloodborne (God-tier game, by the way).
Did you imagine it? That’s kinda like her true form, and it is gnarly as f*ck.
URBAN Legends (in Hachigatsu Kokonoka…)
I did a lil search on the real thing, this Okuri Okami (based on a true story! If you believe in Eastern urban folklore that is) and yea it’s basically a wolf that follows people, typically on mountain passes and from a distance, and sometimes even helps the person find their way. Awe that ain’t so bad!
But hold up, there’s more….
If the person happens to trip & stumble… the wolf pounces and tears their flesh apart….
Oh dear lord, that’s graphic. Bad dog is bad.
People speculate that the victim can get out of being eaten alive by tricking the wolf into thinking they tripped on purpose…
Okay then? Who even comes up with this stuff? I mean, everything. What’s the moral here, ‘watch your step’? Seems most logical to me.
WOLF AT THE DOOR
As Sakurai is about to become a bug’s next meal, Miyako shows up and tears the centipede a new one. We also get to see part of what Miyako really looks like; a gargantuan white wolf with a jaw the size of a bus and arms that stretch for days (slight exaggeration… maybe). This of course invokes fear in Sakurai, despite being rescued by her.
We’re in the same seat at Sakurai; terrified of the stalker monsters that are out there. And despite being attracted to the big bosom wolf-woman, we really don’t know her true intentions. Like the real world legend, she appears friendly (a bit much too friendly), but one slip up and perhaps she’ll devour us whole.
After getting a little too comfortable with Sakurai during the rescue (with kisses and confessing her undying love), Miyako brings him to his house and makes herself right at home, role-playing mother/ obsessed girlfriend. His anxiety hasn’t gone anywhere, and his attempt to escape only reassures him that she’s his only hope to stay alive. And thus a twisted relationship forms between a terrifying yokai and an angsty teenager.
Emotion-locomotion
I won’t go further into the manga without spoilers, but there is one thing I’d like to bring up, and that’s emotion.
When you think about what to look for in a quality anime or manga, typically art-style, plot, and animation (etc etc…) are things looked at. But what about simply the emotions and facial reactions of the characters? A poor ani-manga would feature characters with little to no reaction in interaction or personality in general; basically Planky from Ed, Edd, and Eddy.
In Hachigatsu Kokonoka, So much emotion is placed in each character. Fear is a prevalent emotion, along with its friends anguish and despair. Sakurai appears as a bratty boy, but throughout the plot he finds himself in horrifying situations that put him in a state of fear and despair. And we know he’s in agony because we see his reactions to the horrors before him, trying to claw towards him for reasons unknown, and this unknown drives our interest in his truth.
The Wolf who cried “boy!”
On the total opposite spectrum of emotion-driven personality is Miyako. Despite experiencing fear like Sakurai has, it’s a different kind altogether. At times when Sakurai’s life is in danger, Miyako gets stricken with fear for his safety, and that’s the only emotion the two share. It’s very much a “predator” and “prey” kind of twisted relationship.
It’s difficult to describe one emotion that best describes the big bad wolf that is Miyako. Hunger, lust, possessiveness; a little bit of everything that makes up a yandere Archetype? Euphoric? Eccentric? Perverse? Her terrifying smile says it all, and sends chills up my spine.
And not just once. Right when we think Okuri Kuri (Miyako) might be more normal and innocent than first thought, the author quickly shoots that down again and again reminding us with that creepy smile that best reminds me personally of Jim Carrey’s The Grinch (that scene we first see his smiling face).
A Mystery in Hachigatsu Kokonoka, Indeed
While it remains unknown for a while why the deranged yokai are after our helpless boy Sakurai, it’s remarkable the lengths that these monstrosities will go to reach him; staring at him through a window, hands reaching through the mail slot in the front door, lurking in the shadow of an alleyway, or blending in at school are just a few of the ideas these crazed spirits have.
What’s even more intriguing is Miyako and the lengths she will go to claim the boy for herself. While she appears by far the strongest and most vicious of them all, her self-control towards the boy is remarkable and that’s ironic despite what she represents. Her apex predator instincts towards others hides underneath a gentle persona she caters for Sakurai.
She protect.
She attack.
But most of all, she crazy as f@ck!
There are other mysteries to uncover, but spoilers would be inbound, so let’s hold off.
Yet another battle royale?
While the concept of battle royale has been used ever more frequently these days in movies and especially video games and even manga, it feels really unique here. While Hachigatsu Kokonoka doesn’t flat-out tell the audience this is a battle royale, it certainly feels like one, a crazy one at that.
Imagine.
The prize here isn’t money, fame, a “holy grail”, becoming God, or unimaginable power.
No.
The prize here being some moody teenage boy, who’s not even that likable.
And who are the contestants and what is their objective? Not people selected to participate in a death game. Definitely not mages who summoned heroes from history and legend to fight.
The author was probably like: what about… a bunch of batsh#t crazy (yandere) women who also happen to be spirits of Eastern myth and urban legend (yokai) who kill each other over the love and affection of some kid? What if the boy isn’t interested in any of them and instead is scared sh%tless and just wants to survive? Yes.
Perfection.
I’m a sucker for the absolute strange and absurd in fiction throughout the media. Don’t give me that boring everyday situational crap that can happen to anyone any-day. Give me some explosions and laser beams, aliens and cosmic wonders, wizards and dragons. Show me something that defies all the odds of expectation, and breaks the laws of our world we’ve come to know. I indulge in anime and manga, video games and movies, books and music to escape from reality….
Not that reality is all that bad. But face it, we all need a break sometimes, and many of the things we desire in our real life are unobtainable and unachievable. We have to find a balance in these things. Hachigatsu Kokonoka is a hidden gem I think some (definitely not all) otaku should check out.
Perhaps I’ll make another post about the strange and unusual characters that make up Hachigatsu Kokonoka. Until then, thanks for reading!
Bonus Frames:
#1: Protect that smile
#2: Relatable
