One Missed Call 1 + 2

Overall, this was a confusing, rushed mess. It has some interesting ideas, but ultimately, it's too hard to follow and there's no satisfying payoff.

The characters are very similar in design, and rarely get enough attention to develop distinctive voices or personalities, or are introduced so quickly and vaguely that it's tough to keep track of who's who. Dialogue bubbles don't have tails, so you have to figure out who's talking by who the bubble is nearest to, or the style of the bubble, but when the characters look the same or they're not in the panel, it's super confusing. Also, a lot of sound effects often appear in the same kinds of bubbles as dialogue, and even if they don't they're in panels with no backgrounds to give context or a source for the sound.

There's barely any backgrounds in general, so it's difficult to get a sense of place, or if the setting has changed between pages. Coupled with the rushed pacing, it's a lot of work to piece together what's going on. Some panels just make no sense at all or have so little diegetic information in it that they just seem to be floating outside of the narrative.

There are interesting ideas here, by they are introduced so swiftly and then barely engaged with, and sometimes outright discarded for another one. The plot is so fast, that a great idea will be dropped in but you're straight on to the next thing and you're thinking “hey, wait! That was cool! I want to know more about that!”. There are some genuinely creepy panels - the artist is obviously talented - but everything else is so spare and lacking in personality that they stick out for the wrong reasons.

If you've not read manga before, I would steer clear of this one, because it's very much jumping in the deep end in terms of reading right to left and the quirks of the medium. If you are a frequent manga reader, then your standards are probably higher and there are plenty of better, creepier titles out there.