ハピネス 4

ハピネス [Happiness] #4

by Shuzo Oshimi, 押見修造

母親を襲い、病院から姿を消した勇樹。一方、岡崎は、彼の“秘密”を知る謎の男たちに連れ去られてしまう。間一髪で、勇樹に救い出された岡崎。２人は助けを求め、ノラのもとへと向かう。しかし、ノラは勇樹を拒否し、突如襲いかかり…！？

Genres: Manga, Horror, Vampires, Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Drama

192 pages, Paperback

First published October 7, 2016

About the author

Shuzo Oshimi (押見修造, Oshimi Shūzō) is a Japanese manga creator.
Drawn in a realistic art style, his comics tend to be psychological dramas exploring the difficulties in human relationships and often touching on disturbing situations and perversions.
Oshimi debuted in 2001 with the manga series Avant-Garde Yumeko, appeared in Kodansha's 'Monthly Shōnen Magazine.' Most of his works since then have been published by Kodansha and Futabasha.
Among his first successes the single volume manga Sweet Poolside (2004), later adapted into a live-action film, and the series Drifting Net Café (2008–2011), also adapted for TV.
Oshimi reached international acclaims with The Flowers of Evil (2009–2014) and Inside Mari (2012–2016), both adapted into successful anime. Other notable works are Blood on the Tracks (2017–2023) and Welcome Back, Alice (2020-2023) .

Reviews

[Gabby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahhhh, this is what I’ve been waiting for! The story definitely picks up in this volume! There were so many good intense scenes and lots of gore. I can’t wait to read the next one!

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

The intensity ramps up in this character-driven vampire manga. Makoto begs Nora to undo the horrific change she has wrought upon his body; he wants out, but Nora wants him to continue on the path she has taken him thus far. Former bully and now friend Yuuki takes an opposite path, increasingly consumed by his own thirst. Out of control. Yuuki’s girlfriend Nao wants to tame him with her sweet love, but this doesn’t seem to be working.

Features of this volume? We see the series’s first death of a major character, and we add another new character, Masami Sakurane, who seems to want to help Nao to save Yuuki? This volume gets its first M rating (for adults only) because of a couple scenes with intense sexual content. I have the fifth volume, have also just read it, so will review that right away, but this volume is good, great art, advancing the story. It’s good, not great, right now. Maybe 3.5.

[Rod Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

All out vampire action! The slow burn of previous volumes pays off here as the horror comes hard, heavy and creepy as hell. I'm excited to see where things go from here.

[Sarah ♡ (let’s interact!) · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like vampires and disturbing, graphic, horror imagery.. then Happiness is the series for you!
🧛🏻‍♀️🧛🏻‍♂️🩸💀

This volume displays exactly what not to do when meeting a significant other’s parents for the first time! 😅

[The Artisan Geek · Rating 5 out of 5]

11/1/20
My favourite volume so far and it ended at such a huge cliffhanger, can't wait to continue this manga!! :D

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[Victoria ✮⋆˙ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't really know why I'm enjoying this series so much, probably because it's just so fast to read but it's so weird and I just have to keep reading!

I told myself I wouldn't read it all really quick and have to wait for it...but it's sure looking that way right now! 17 chapters and I'm caught up...

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t know how it’s possible but this is even darker than the previous volume!

[Jordaline Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omg omg omg I can't with how good this is

[Jan Agaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

lots of blood, breathing, and sex in this one lol

[Keiko, the manga enthusiast ♒︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gone is the artistry, we're diving in gory fest

Losing all hopes for Yuuki. He's definitely going to be the biggest villain in the series. He has no self-control and he's full of rage... poor boy. And this is taking a gory turn! I was not ready for that but what do I expect in a vampire series. But this has been so artistic so far and it's the detail that I love about this series.

I don't know what to make out of the new character with the vampirism knowledge though, he seemed suspicious to me. But let's see.

For now, I need to sleep! I have a freaken dental appointment tomorrow morning geez what time is it already!

[daph pink ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, I admit that this volume was a bit much. First off, I want to thank Sakurane for the insight, but I already categorised these characters as vampires. Now that Sakurane and Gosho are working together to heal Okazaki, though, MF is making out with Nora on the dolls' bed. I apologise for saying that I was eager to learn more about her, but I suppose I am no longer.

Yuki My child, I understand that you experience inner darkness and certain trauma, but it is not how you should introduce yourself to your girlfriend's parents. In the opposite direction, we can also comment, "Gosh, that must have been one unpleasant scenario." However, because they are all dead, it doesn't really matter.

I believe it is still moderately complex.

[Alec Costa · Rating 5 out of 5]

pELO AMOR D DEUS O Q TÁ ROLANDOOOOOOO

[Artemy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, this series took a turn for the worse really fast. The story got absolutely insane and so ridiculous that it actually became quite funny at times. Unfortunately, this is probably not what the author was going for in this dark tale of teenage vampires having sex and jumping on top of buildings. Oh, and at some point there was this image for all the Milo Manara Spider-Woman cover fans:



Yeah, thanks, I'm done with this series.

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jesus christ...

This volume goes real dark as one of the vampires can't control any of their urges. THe start is brutal, the middle is disgusting, the ending is sad and disturbing. What will happen when we lose control of yourself and give into the urges while the other fights to stay good? I'm really digging this series even if you can read them in 10 minutes. A 4 out of 5.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, damn.

You do not want to be a girl in this series.

[Tayjah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well damn

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me está encantado como se va desarrollando la situación que están enfrentando los personajes y el final!!! Woow... Necesito el siguiente.

Muy bueno, y el dibujo, lo amo.

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book via Kindle Unlimited.

Firstly, can I just say the art in this series? Out of this world. Rest in peace Van Gogh, you would have loved Happiness by Shuzo Oshimi. The Starry Night references and other art references throughout this series are top tier, genuinely.

Okay so in this book, Makato begs Nora to help him become a human again while Yuki strays further and further into his vampirism. Nao believes that she can help Yuki with her love, and well, let's just say after Yuki has just killed his own mother, I don't believe that's going to go very well. Makato goes home where a bunch of people in suits barge in and try to take him away, much to his mother's protests, pretending to be police. Yukito has to get to the bottom of the mystery to help both Makato and Yuki in the way she could never help her younger brother Tomo before he died.

The vampires get more backstory in this book, the never-ending thirst gets more context, we meet some new characters (one of whom I particularly don't trust) and honestly, Yukito is such a badass. Quiet but determined. I like her character a lot. I hope she doesn't die. I also feel so bad for Makato's mum in this book, she just wants to protect her son and it's so sad she can't.

[Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an intense volume! By far the most horror it's ever been; the whole second half had me on the edge of my seat. Oshimi is great at slowly raising tensions into amazing climaxes. Sure, he follows some similar beats to Flowers of Evil and he isn't exactly doing anything new with vampires, but the mixture works even if it's a bit diluted. I just love how Oshimi relishes in making his stories explode and let the pieces fall where they may. Getting better.

[Ophilia Adler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intense!

[Urbon Adamsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Happiness continues to be awesome.

I don't think this series will have a bad volume.

[João Pedro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Até o momento esse foi o melhor volume.
Fluidez de um bom filme de ação e uma arte belíssima e bastante características que destoa o artista dos demais.
O clímax da série alcança seu ápice com cenas chocantes e algumas mortes inesperadas.
A angústia de alguns personagens é tão bem representada que me deixou sufocado em alguns momentos.
Curtindo bastante até agora.

[Krissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got pretty interesting towards the end.

[Alice4170 🌙 · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 ⭐️

[Caahpinotti ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚ · Rating 4 out of 5]

if i had to define this volume in one word, it would be: gruesome (i mean, a lil tip: killing your girlfriend’s parent [and then her {especially after having sex}] is a bad move)

[kaatyane · Rating 4 out of 5]

04/10

Estou perplexa com os últimos acontecimentos.

Não esperava que Yuki fosse assassinar Nao e seus pais.
Senti compaixão pela mãe de Okazaki.
Queria entender a relação entre o irmão de Gosho e Okazaki.

Nora, você não pode morrer!!!!

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

CW: blood, violence, death, sexual content depicting children, child death, alcohol/alcoholism, implications of child abuse

I WISH my horror book club could read this manga. I need more people to talk to about it!!

[MollyIsabella19 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is so dark. I can’t stop reading. I’m enjoying it but it’s also not really my kind of book. The art is insane.
I’ll finish this series I think.

[Jon Ureña · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars. This is a review of volumes 2-4.

When your story features vampires, you risk it becoming generic and unsurprising. However, I think the author has given his version a particular identity. I hate how the West tends to romanticize monsters: even zombies end up as romantic interests, of course not looking as terrible as they should. In Oshimi's story, vampires are a mix of drug addicts and zombies: only the strongest amongst them, with the most screwed on head on their shoulders, can avoid jumping from neck to neck tearing apart strangers, friends, family and lovers. The protagonist had turned into a vampire in the first volume and has been navigating that subworld, which isn't the kind of community you would have expected from something like "Tokyo Ghoul", but a "vampire eat vampire" world in which leaving a competitor alive means fewer blood sources for you. You also cannot pull off the kind of adaptation to human society common in many, or most, vampire stories, in which the leeches, at least the attractive ones, keep willing necks to feed from and leave alive. In this world, you get bit and you either turn or die.

In the middle of all that, as I predicted, the protagonist does meet with the teenage vampire female who turned him (who is actually ancient, and has fallen for a teenage boy, as it tends to happen. It ain't cradle robbing if you also look underage, baby). She's a very interesting character despite (or because?) having gotten her fashion sense waist down from "Konosuba"'s Aqua. You get the sense, partially explicit, that she despises herself and what she's done as an abomination, but now that she's found someone she cares about, she's going to hang on to him to retain a sense of what being a human was about. She reacts tiredly to the nasty stuff happening around her, and to her, as if she's gone through so many chapters in her existence that she can barely care about this new one. She also looks very much like the vampire in "Let the Right One In".

The fourth volume ends with a very effective shock the author built against: you had learned that some special people, those the vampires really cared about, could return them from their feral state even when they were about to tear their necks. The shock came when the demise of a special character showed that it wasn't always, or most of the time, going to be the case.

There are a few details of the worldbuilding that don't make sense. Vampirism has been around at least as long as the old vampires we've met, who have claimed to be very old, without going into specifics. Given that since this narrative started, the protagonist and at least another main character have turned, and many others have been killed, how come half the world aren't already vampires? The rate of contagion would suggest that would be the case. Also, the puncture wounds on the protagonist back in the first volume would lead anyone to think of vampires, even jokingly, yet nobody mentioned them. I thought that this was a world where vampires have never become popular knowledge. Except that in the last few chapters we've met an investigator who names them by that term. So if the worldbuilding was more realistic, the world would have severely changed and adapted to a constant fight of attrition against predators in its midst. The worldbuilding comes close to "Parasyte"'s (link is for the "meeting Migi" scene from the first episode, unfortunately with French subtitles), but in that series it made sense because the parasites had just come into existence, and the government and the population adapts dramatically to them around ten episodes in. This is mostly nitpicking that doesn't particularly bother me.

I'm not entirely on board with this story just because I'm not into vampires and I prefer mangas about psychologically disturbed characters, but I'm enjoying it nonetheless. It seems to be his most commercially successful on its ongoing serialization (correction: it ended on March of last year), despite its pointless title. You might as well have called it anything else.

[Irene ➰ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally some action!