DARK METRO, VOL. 1

TOKYOPOP
STORY: Tokyo Calen
ARTIST: Yoshiken
TRANSLATION: Aska Yoshizu
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Kereth Cowe-Spigai
ISBN: 978-1-4278-0740-3; paperback; Horror/Mystery; Rated “OT” for “Teen-Age 16+”
198 pp., B&W, $9.99

Dark Metro, a horror/mystery manga from Tokyo Calen and Yoshiken, reveals the frights that lie below Tokyo’s subway system.  Deep inside the subway system is a boundary between our world and the next world, the land of the dead – known as “Dark World” or “Underworld.”  A young man named Seiya guides humans lost in Underworld to safety, but when a human is found unworthy of being saved…

Dark Metro, Vol. 1 contains five tales of the angry dead hungry for revenge.  In “Ginza Station,” the lead dancer in an upcoming musical discovers that a deceased rival wants her dead.  In “Shibuya Station,” a teen and two of his friends, who consider themselves pimps, attend a party and find revenge instead of a good time.  A train conductor learns that rumors of a haunted subway are true in “Ikebukuro Station.”  A young escort is haunted by the young woman he jilted in “Shinjuki Station.”  Seiya’s origin is the subject of “Meiji-Jingumae Station.”

[This volume includes a sneak preview of the manga, Doors of Chaos.]

THE LOWDOWN:  On the surface, Dark Metro seems to be stuck in a formula familiar to horror fiction, in particular EC Comics and "The Twilight Zone."  However, the twist ending isn’t a bad thing or seem old hat when done well, and Dark Metro keeps doing it and doing it and doing it well.  Dark, dank, and extra creepy, Dark Metro has enough walking and slithering dead to give even George Romero and John Russo bad dreams.  TOKYOPOP has published some twisted goth-inspired horror, but Dark Metro digs a weird grave all its own.  I couldn’t put this terrifying treat down until I finished the last story, and I eagerly await Vol. 2

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  If you like horror/mystery, run to the bookstore as if the dead were after you.

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