Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
When the sun goes down, a young vampire girl watches over the street of a quiet Japanese neighbourhood, perched on an electric pole, waiting to swoop down on unsuspecting victims for their blood. One late evening, when high-school student Makoto steps out of his house simply to return a DVD, he is viciously attacked by the girl. However, in a twist, she spares his life, but forever changes the course of not just his future, but also those close to him.
The ten-volume manga series “Happiness” by Shuzo Oshimi is a dark, vampire-themed tale that deceptively begins with the tone of a slice-of-life high school drama, only to slowly metamorphose into a blood-soaked story of violence, betrayal, trauma, and melancholy. How a group of high school students find themselves trapped in a cycle of grisly violence and death forms the crux of the story.
High-school student Makoto Okazaki is one of the primary protagonists of the manga, a nerdy introvert, who’s bullied by popular guy Yuki at school. However, the power equations between Makoto and Yuki change after the former becomes a vampire, gaining super-human strength and the power to fight back his bullies. The ever-changing dynamic between Makoto and Yuki, which shifts from a victim-aggressor relationship to one of friend-protector, is one of the most interesting aspects of the manga. You don’t often see the “hot, popular guy” becoming friends with the weird, dorky kid in class—it’s like imagining Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy hanging out as regular friends with no beef between them. However, Makoto and Yuki soon find themselves targeted, first by vicious goons and then by other aggressors looking to exploit them.
Shuzo Oshimi’s artwork through the series is fantastic, as Okazaki’s journey becomes increasing chaotic and bloody, “Happiness” features more frenzied strokes to convey the turbulent events he and other characters go through. The black-and-white artwork is exceptional in the more violent scenes, especially when the characters in survival or fight mode. All the character illustrations are distinctly different from each other and Okazaki looks like a Japanese Harry Potter (which is why I made the Harry-Draco comparison earlier), with a simply hairstyle, and nerdy glasses. He becomes close with a girl called Shojo, who looks like a typical ‘innocent’ Manga girl, with big eyes, and a cute short bob.
I like how Shuzo Oshimi often draws the sky in various scenes like it’s from Vincent van Gogh‘s famous painting “Starry Night.” While van Gogh intended to capture the “sunrise in all its glory,” his oil-on-canvas painting exuding the dreamy, surreal beauty he intended to portray, in Oshimi’s black-and-white horror manga, the multiple spiral strokes make the sky look nightmarish, disturbing, and often in sync with the story’s violent scenes. Although horror-manga fans are likely to think of Uzumaki by Junji Ito when they see some of the eerie spiral panels in “Happiness”.
The mystery vampire who bites Okazaki is called Nora, but neither her character illustration nor her personality stands out much, even though she starts out as the most intriguing person in Happiness. Instead, a minor character named Saku, introduced in Happiness Volume 2 – who looks like a deranged serial killer – turns out to be more intense and layered character. One of the biggest antagonists in the tale is introduced much later in the manga: a psychotic villain named Sakurane, who is obsessed with vampires.
Shady organizations, shocking deaths, weird experiments, creepy cults, and unlikely relationships—Happiness is filled with unexpected turns, including surprise time jumps. Every time you think the story might be heading in a particular direction, Shuzo Oshimi completely changes the plot’s course. One entire volume doesn’t even feature Okazaki at all, instead focusing on the rather ordinary life of Shojo and how violence upends her mental health.
In terms of themes, Shuzo Oshimi, through Happiness, explores how each character is essentially pursuing their own “happiness,” even though the emotion constantly eludes them. For instance, instead of reveling in his newfound vampiric powers, Okazaki simply wants to become human again and live a normal life with his family and friends. Ironically, while the vampires are miserable in their existence, some humans desperately aspire for their eternal youth and seeming immortality. Like the evergreen saying, “the grass appears to be greener on the other side,” although some of Shuzo Oshimi’s characters truly experience painful horrors and traumatizing terrors.
Low on romance, high on drama, Happiness is a bumpy but entertaining horror manga series that should thrill fans who enjoy violent vampire fantasies with a sprinkle of existential realism.
Rating: 3.5 on 5. The first few volumes of “Happiness” are available on Kindle Unlimited.
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