Nightmare Inspector Volume 9 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Rated “T” for “Teen”

When people come to the Silver Star Tea House, they order more than just a cup of Darjeeling. They also come looking for Hiruko, who is a “Baku,” or dream eater.  Like a special private investigator, Hiruko will discover the mysteries behind his customers’ worst nightmares.  His asking price is that he gets to eat those nightmares.

Yumekui Kenbun: Nightmare Inspector, Vol. 9 is the final volume of the series, and it offers a different perspective on Hiruko’s past.  Azusa, Hiruko’s predecessor, reappears as a Baku, but his return coincides with the appearance of a dream so horrible that it corrupts all other dreams and also threatens the very existence of Tokyo.  Meanwhile, Hiruko’s rival, Tsukishiro, a Baku who is greedy for dreams, invades the Delirium and threatens the existence of its owner, Kairi, and his assistant, Shima.  In the final dream, all is laid bare; the truth about Hiruko and Azusa emerges, but only one Baku will survive this dream.

THE LOWDOWN:  It is not farfetched to describe Yumekui Kenbun: Nightmare Inspector as a manga version of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman (Vertigo/DC Comics) for teen readers.  Almost every chapter of this series is a stand alone story in which readers follow Hiruko into the dreams of an anxious customer who came to the Baku for relief from a terrifying or troubling dream.  The art by creator Shin Mashiba (with excellent inking from the staffers) is a mad kaleidoscope of fevered dreams and a complex tapestry of creepy, gloomy and shadowy dreamscapes.  It’s a pity that readers unfamiliar with this series will likely find this final volume incomprehensible.  Volume 9 is like someone’s idea of one long acid trip, but this doesn’t reflect on how good this series of haunting and visually inventive stories is.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Fans of imaginative fantasies that take readers to mysterious realms will enjoy Yumekui Kenbun: Nightmare Inspector.

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