Manga Review: Ibitsu

Ibitsu, literally means 'Twisted' in Japanese is a psychological-horror manga in all it's truth. It's based on a (fictional) urban legend in Japan that goes like this:

There's a legend that goes around in Japan. It involves a girl dressed in Loli outfit sitting near dump sites holding an umbrella and a plush toy. She would have a dirty appearence as if she hadn't bathed in days. If you find her sitting near dump sites when you are about to throw your trash at night...by all means DO NOT SPEAK TO HER. She would often target young men and ask them a question 'Do you have a sister?'. If you answered yes, she will become your sister against your will. If you said no, she will still become your sister*. So the trick is...DONT SPEAK WITH HER. Ignore her competely and in time she will leave to find someone else.

*In Japanese 'watashi imouto iru kara' means I have a sister. It can be read as both ways: one, I have a sister. Two, I need a sister. If you answered 'watashi imouto inai yo' which mean I dont have a sister. So she will become your sister too because SHE decides you needs a sister. So whatever you asnwer is, you're still fucked.

By the way, this is her:

 

  It must be a Monday.

This is the apparition you would see in dump sites should you decide to throw the trash at night. Alone. Any other normal person would turn back and decide to throw it the next morning during their routine morning jog. But no...characters in this manga would still throw their trash in the night with a creepy girl in white Loli clothes asking you if you have a sister. Meanwhile in Japan.

So her cycle is pretty much consistent. She finds a guy regardless of whether or not he has a sister. She stalkes you and behaves like a 'sister'. She cleans your room, she visits you at night for 'sibling' chat and if you dont entertain her...BE QUICK TO RUN THE HELL OUT. Dont forget your little dog. Nothing happens really, she just kills you in the most horrifyingway possible.

As the manga progresses, you get a glimpse of a hypothetical past of her. She is shown to be in a mental hospital where a kind psychiatrist had taken her under his wing. She was freshly taken away from her 'family' where her brother had supposedly killed the whole family and she was the sole survivor. Only then we remember she might have a name.
As the compassionate shrink tries his best to treat her, he manage to dig out the truth about her and became insane in the process.

You see, you will notice in the manga that she cuts herself regularly and intentionally bleeds herself. She also eats inedible food like makeup creams, lipsticks, lotions and paper and pukes a putrid black stuff.

Extremely violent and cruel, unpredictable psychopath, everything about her is beyond the normal human comprehension. Nobody knows how a living creature can be so fucked up. Perhaps, she is not alive at all, she's a vengeful ghost going a killing spree until she's satisfied.

To say she's alive is debatable, to say she's dead is also plausible.

A) Why it would make sense if she's dead

     No normal human being would survive after eating garbage their whole life. No normal human being would still survive after so much of blood loss. No normal human being can carry a 100kg hammer/chainsaw at a small frame of 40kg. She also cuts up her victims into pieces when they are alive and awake like beef steaks.
She drove her shrink to insanity and he ended up killing everyone in the hospital because he couldn't take up the guilt. It can be assumed that he managed to kill her as well.

B) Why it would make sense if said she was still alive

      Others can see her. If you're a ghost, people can see you only if you let them. Even random people in the road can see her. She leaves a bloody mess after her murder episodes and she leaves trails behind as the 'missing person'. Enough people have seen her for her to be an urban legend. The cuts and bruises can be explained. People with severe mental illness have high pain threshold. No matter how much they are hurt physically, they wont feel pain that much. Bipolar people report feeling numb when they inflict self-injury. They dont feel the pain. She is severely depressed, suffering from severe apathy that she perhaps cut herself to make herself feel 'alive'. Am I making any sense to you?

What happened to this fucked up bitch, really? Why is she doing this?

There is only ONE explanation I found after much thought.

She was abused by her brother. She was made to eat garbage when she 'misbehaves'. She was burned with an iron box when her brother is in his 'moods'. She was forced to dress up like a Lolitha maybe to satiate her brothers own perverted fantasy(ever heard if loli-con fetish and younger sister fetish? Google it). She was also shut in her home-particularly in her closet. Her brother 'trained' her though this abuse so she could become the 'ideal' sister. She did keep it secret from her family until she couldnt take it anymore and snapped.  She has since been living in that 'snapped' mode.

I strongly suggest to read this manga. So far, this is the only manga I read that made me check my bedside to see if anyone is standing there. I also occasionally looked back to see if she was standing there with a hammer asking me if I have a sister. Good God I would die right then and there without her having to kill me.

Rating: 10\10