Reviews for Soil

SOIL Author: Kaneko Atsushi “This person loves me too much” “The insane here is you” “Self consciousness only contradicted her existence, reality, and time broke her” “Why…?” Craziness. Insanity. Mania. There is everything in this damn place, this damn city called Soil, at first glance, is just the city of dreams for many, but even the most beautiful dream can become the most horrible nightmare. The reality we see is just a false plan that hides something beyond the understanding of every living being. People who say they have seen the “strange organisms” are classified as crazy, but they saw something unusual. Maybe this is the origin of their insanity. Ofcourse, no one would believe it, just another madman.

“Humanity's oldest and most intense emotion is fear, and the oldest and most intense fear is fear of the unknown.” — HP Lovecraft

Trust no one. IN NO ONE. Even the most innocent person can be a strange organism, and obviously you would not want to meet one of them, mysteries only create more mysteries, and answers are almost non-existent. Any man or woman would have given up by now, but if they held on a little longer, they would see the truth, and as they say, truths hurt, but this one can even kill.

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” — Plato

A masterpiece of cosmic horror, Kaneko Atsushi must surely be one of the most brilliant manga writers alive. The development is rich, the concepts in just a few pages are brilliantly developed, the characters getting insane as the story progresses combined enough with the text. The art, as usual, being by Kaneko, is sensational, but in Soil, it matched a lot with everything. Soil, it might not please most people, but for me, it's an amazing story that deserved more.

Note: 9.8

Soil is a manga written by Atsushi Kaneko. This is what you would call a weird story, and it's true. This manga is different from any other you have read. Soil is a crime and mystery work, not a classic one... It has some elements that make it a unique piece of art. STORY - 7 This manga has a good story, a clearly defined plot with some main parts and a little background. The main objective in the story is to find out what happened to a missing family and a police officer and where they are. The problem begins when the autor introduce weirdelements such as those called "foreign beings" or "foreign organisms". That wasn't well carried on, since all became to be explained by these and other paranormal phenomena instead of the classic detective method I expected.

I must also take into account that some things end inconclusive and in a confusing way, however, the main plot was well made.

ART - 9

This manga is completely filled with a fantastic artwork. Atsushi Kaneko's style is unique and really beautiful.

The drawing was the main reason I chose to read this work. It was like this: I saw some scenes and then I have a small urge to read this story.

The design of all the characters, not only the main, but also the secondary and stuffing is beautiful, all have their nature.

The scenery and the weird elements have also a wonderful draw art.

CHARACTER - 6

This story has some interesting characters and a few of them are well built. Each character has its own nature and personality that make them react in each own way to the strange stuff that invades their daily and common life.

The development in the characters didn't deepen at all. I expected some of them to end in a different way, but, at the end, there weren't any changes in ther mind or behaviour of the favourite characters.

ENJOYMENT - 7

I really liked this story. It wasn't excessive long nor too short. It had its drama, some mystery and some hilarious moments.

I enjoyed the main story being touched by some delusional elements, and in some way, it was also okay that some of the mysteries ended unsolved.

However, the end of the story didn't please me entirely.

OVERALL - 7

In conclusion, this manga has an awesome artwork and story appropriately long. It's not a marvelous work but it has many good points.

Soil is brilliant but I hated reading it. It's one of those mystery stories that takes two completes to appreciate. The first time you'll be thoroughly confused, and the second time you'll see how consistent and simple everything was, once you understand how its "rules" work. Apt metaphor for a lot of things I suppose. It's also similar to Ergo Proxy in that regard, which I reviewed positively, but Soil has nowhere near the charm for me to want to bear with it. The beauty of Soil lies in how everything goes back to its premise: oddities are sprouted by some original sin, and inturn cause even stranger things to occur if the root problem remains unsolved. The more confused the characters become from inexplicable mysteries, the weirder things get, until they have mental breakdowns and something has to give. The flat, black and white artstyle, devoid of any grayscale shading, was an intentional choice to make readers undergo derealization after immersing in the pages for too long without answers, forcing them into a similar experience.

Being manipulated and made into a part of the manga's thesis is an unpleasant experience regardless of how clever the world building is. It also required the reveals to be postponed for maximum effect. Although I didn't feel it was too slow on the reread, I still wound up feeling a bit annoyed at the author Kaneko Atsushi, for how many panels there were that would only make sense to someone who already knew the story. It was clever, but also quite masturbatory.

Soil is unique, no doubt about that. It's bold and expands what manga can be, but also off-putting due to the trickery involved. I didn't like it and likely won't reach for it again, but I respect it and wish more manga were as artful as Soil.

I have to say, this is my first time reading something like this... It's what you called DIFFERENT. Story: A FAIR 6 The story is based on your, kinda mystery a bit of detective like genre and starts off with a missing person. It then carries on and gets intense as strange things start to happen to the two detectives that have came to investigate. The unexpected and did i read right that 'aliens' called the 'foreign organisms' have like came to invade this town called 'Soil''? It makes you think... WTH is wrong with this town? I rated this a fair, as the plot does make sensebut some of it don't and is completely random from time to time. Sometimes i wonder. "What is going through this author's mind"

Art:

VERY GOOD 8

I've given the art an 8 a very good since the drawing style of this is very unique. It's kind of like manga.. but then again it gives of the feel of a comic. The lines and textures are very computer like than your average pencil free kind of look. It's hard to explain if you haven't read it or seen it.

It really depends on what you like. Since i've been reading it for a while, i got use to this authors drawing style and honestly it has grown on me.

Characters:

DECENT 4

Well for the characters i have rated a 4... They are decent but none of them really did appeal to me as much. The characters are actually all unique in their own way and i find that very interesting. The way each character has their own special 'aura' given off. The artist really makes each character different and you can tell.

But i have to say for the characters 'personality' for each of them... differ from one to another.

THIS IS A MATURE READ SERIOUSLY.

when you read something that you don't want your parents reading with you then you know that feeling.

From the beginning i didn't really like how the characters interacted with one another, it was like a swearing competition between the two detectives which kind of did but me off but i still read on LOL

Enjoyment:

DECENT 4

Again with another 4. Not very enjoyable but it does keep you on edge sometimes, like when say...

Another 'foreign organism' appears your going to be like 'Oh what's goning to happen now' but too much happens and too fast and it sometimes just leaves you thinking. 'what just happened.. I don't get this at all' it really puzzles me sometimes.

Overall?

MEDIOCRE 5

I would have given it a 5.. and a half

It's something different and 'quite refreshing' in some ways instead of always reading shouji kind of based manga. I would definitely give this a try, some of the contents in it is not suitable for under 15's i'd say because this is a really whacked out supernatural horror manga.

*With a few sexual content but no where near smut*

IN CONCLUSION.

I wouldn't say i like it, nor would i say i hate it, depends on your love for manga and taste in manga. I would recommend this if you love horror, supernatural and twisted stories, this could be the one for you or you would drop it in a puddle of mud and stomp on it because you think it's very disgusting.

Give it a try, if you dare ;)

My first impression about the art while reading the prologue chapter was: Did Zainul Abedin draw this manga? 'Soil' was certainly a hard take on mystery genre from my behalf as I didn't like the art to begin with. The characters have a natural fluidity and the beginning also smelled like supernatural mystery knocking on the door which, at first, I thought could become worthwhile. But at the end, without my sole purpose of finishing this just for 'the finishing', there's no reason to continue this. The story becomes too dense like it's art at some point & at some point it becomes really bothersome to readthis (if you are reading this on phone like me). At the middle of the story, the mystery doesn't even remain as one and you just have to force your way out to the solution. That's all there is to it.

This is approaching Uzumaki in term of quality. The mystery keeps bigger and bigger, and eventually reaches an unorthodox conclusion. There are two issues with this manga, however. First, the beginning of the story (first 10+ chapters or so) is MUCH stronger than the rest of it, as plot starts unfolding, at some point it becomes less coherent and deals less impact, which is why it is 7 and not 9. The second thing is that the art takes some time to get used to as it rather unusual. The manga heavily uses lineart drawing with minimum shading, which is different from many other works. As a result inthe beginning it comes off as simplistic, or even amateurish. You very quickly stop noticing that, though.

Breakdown:

Story: 7/10.

Starts very strong, gets weaker, but still delivers. Over time it becomes less "realisitc" and more "fantastic", but it remains servicable.

Art: 6/10:

We have unusual style here, focusing on lineart and with minimum shading. Side effect is that this style makes smiling faces a bit ugly. It is not horrible, and you quickly get used to it, however.

Characters: 7/10:

Very life-like characters, especially in the beginning. No textbook cliches here, as far as I can tell. Feel like real people for a good portion of the manga.

Enjoyment: 7/10.

Liked it.

Overall: 7/10.

Worth a read. I think if you read Uzumaki by Junji Ito and liked it, you should enjoy this title. It doesn't quite feel Ito's level, but gets close enough to be enjoyable.

That's the rough idea of it.

It was fun to unearth SOIL, but I wouldn't blame anyone who wants to leave it in the dirt. Trigger warnings on SA and spoilers to follow SOIL struggles but often succeeds in replicating the magic found in similar "odd town with odder happenings" type stories that is worth applauding, yet it never quite recaptures its own peak after the end of the first main arc. The more it tries to find answers within its own lunacy, the more the magic wanes; but this is arguably the core point of the narrative. Rather, it shines in the moment by moment magical thinking and surreality it crafts andthe endless intrigue one strange event has leading to the next, but in so doing becomes far too lost in its own navel to ever really be more than an exciting page turner without much substance beneath (even if it wants you to think otherwise.) Lucky for anyone reading it then, because as far as I'm concerned this is one of the most bizarre and charming escalations in narrative one can find, rivaled only by its own contemporaries in the art of burying the lede.

Plot points established in chapter 1 will be relevant all the way to the end, and its own narrative providing in universe excuses for any baffled arguments your mind may conjure, urging the reader onward with a frenzied, "Just go with it!" that allows you to get caught up in the controlled chaos of it all. It's a great shame then, that the first and arguably best executed arc is brought down by some truly sickening depictions of rape and sexual assault of pretty much every major character, casting a pall over the rest of the narrative that follows in a way that even the story itself shies away from by the end.

Aside from the main two detectives--a creepy pervert with shades of something akin to depth and a skittish aspirant who gets severely sidelined by the end--the story is focused on the growing derangement of a seemingly perfect town when a seemingly perfect family disappears during a blackout. In this first part, actual detective work and characterization is explored within a rather subtle supernatural bend that compliments the growing mystery within a town that won't talk, that has a cult-like fear of outsiders and a dentist community leader that seems way too interested in keeping the police away--while a group of hooligans harass and beat up people without anyone seemingly noticing. The tension and strangeness is built up expertly as for a long time no one is talking and the detectives and picking up scraps. That is, until the dentist guy is stabbed to death by a mother; turns out her son had been repeatedly preyed on by this guy, and had been using his dentist office to drug and sexually assault just about every single child in the town and record it all on tape. Awful! This doesn't solve the disappearance, but immediately after this big reveal the weird hooligans then rape a local girl, where the targeted son of the molesting dentist had been hiding out for weeks. It's then revealed that before the one family's disappearance, the molested kid might have had debatably consensual sex with the girl from that family. In spite of all the fun mystery that had been built up, we get an unfortunately predictable, highly edgy and ultimately unnecessary trauma fest that taints everything that comes after. I forgot to mention the particularly heinous (and similarly abandoned) depictions of a possible Okama/crossdressing character who is made out to be essential for the story and is constantly hiding their face, with the art accentuating the most unsettling angles while having them say some truly repugnant things--and then no doubt from pressure by editors, was never mentioned again.

To make matters worse, nearly none of this is relevant by the end, and the parts that are are handled with about the same amount of tact of a brick to the head. That poor girl who was kidnapped and assaulted by the hooligans? She ends up filling the role of antagonist by the end. The hooligans? They were apparently molested by the dentist too, and then they are taken out of the narrative. The dentist and the mom who killed him? Also wiped from the story. Once this arc is resolved, the story spirals into a Lord of the Flies by way of HP Lovecraft direction that either mutates or leaves behind any sense of cohesive narrative that introduces aliens and ghosts and what have you, and then becomes an unabashedly fun rollercoaster of crazy, zany shit that makes no sense and will never make any sense. A chaos anyone would enjoy if the author had a single bone of self awareness in their body to realize they didn't have the grace or skill to write about sexual assault to the extreme that they did, in a story that embraces silliness by the end. They wanted to believe themselves on the level of David Lynch, but all they were able to produce was closer to an exceptionally long, exceptionally unhinged episode of the X Files.

To make matters infinitely worse, the author fumbled the ending by commiting the ultimate act of cruelty to the main girl rape victim by making her out as the true mastermind who somehow knew everything that was going on (this is never explained), who ultimately succeeds in her goals of resurrecting a person that never existed by getting herself killed by the TRUE antagonist that caused EVERYTHING (save for the fact that they had nothing to do with the dentist who's abhorrent actions were the root cause for everything that harmed her and eveyone.) Keep in mind that this poor girl has spoken about two lines in the entire series, with all of this being revealed by way of exposition from a man buriednupntonhus neck in trash wearing a woman's wig. Somehow her death, somehow her own design, caused the town of Soil to implode, which if handled better may have been cathartic, but feels completely devoid of impact like much of the second half as the narrative has broken down to nothing but surreal visuals and incomprehensible babble between characters explaining what's happening.

In spite of my endless string of harsh words, I'm still conflicted on my feelings. The majority of the story is just a series of increasingly zany scenarios brought to gorgeous life by the stellar art decorating each page, and the manic energy of "just go with it" being the effective mantra by the end was truly infectious to the point that I initially considered giving this an 8: but like the story itself, once I began to examine my feelings on the experience as a whole I came away vaguely uncomfortable with the end result. It is at its best when characters are acting as goofy as the story is, and that's a lot of the time! But it fails so miserably at being serious and making serious points that I don't know what they thought they had to prove in the first place. By the end the author was leaning into their strengths, but too little, too late.

This is a cautious recommendation, but only just: if you are unfazed by distasteful elements being handled poorly and are all for the wacky supernatural nonsense, its absolutely worth it. For everyone else however, might be best to avoid. I went into this blind and don't regret it, but reading some of the other reviews on here I'm shocked to see it being compared favorably to Junji Ito's UZUMAKI. This is a poor imitator to UZUMAKI and its similarities are only skin deep; in tone, in tale, in intent, they share little in common. I wish it were, but for me the comparison only makes me think less of SOIL, and I've already kicked at it enough. There is still a lot of fun to be had with it if you're going in with the right mindset, so good luck to you those who do.

This is one of those works where the author believes existence is something’s everything and anything is nothing. Look, I’m not a writer, but I think I can write something better. Anyways, spoilers ahead. You get glimpses of bizarreness in “Soil” from the beginning. The art is pretty limited yet somewhat detailed. The characters, even the main ones, seem normal and yet they have shticks that make them seem unreliable. The setting takes place in a normal-looking town yet the place feels quite ominous and fake. And the story just seems to be going on without ever having a predictable aura. Seems like a nice foundationfor an enjoyable and mysterious piece of fiction. But in actuality, once you have finished “Soil”, you realize it was all a facade and a deceiving disguise of the true nature of this manga: a convoluted mess with random oxymorons. And that’s not me giving a negative opinion - the manga tells you from the beginning that some mysteries were never meant to be solved. And that’s true, this piece does contain a mystery that might as well be a dream. But the bigger question at hand is if you could actually justify an implementation of this type of mystery in your story. That sounds somewhat contradictory considering the mystery is supposedly unsolvable and illogical, and so the answer to that question is inherently “no”. And yet, this manga actually tries to give reasons and explains its mysteries. Okay, then let’s try and view this rationally.

The final chapter contains the big reveal or confirmation that we’ve all been waiting for - the root of the Suzushiros’ existence. But is that reveal actually satisfying? Well, that amount of satisfaction equals the amount of rationality in the connection between the cause and effect - none. And that’s the whole manga. X happens, totally inconsequential Y happens. Why? Well, because X doesn’t make sense, a portal that is connected to the realm of Santa Claus is created and by nature gives birth to Y which also doesn’t make sense - 10/10 what more can I say. The mystery doesn’t follow a consistent and reasonable narrative. An idea like this is inevitably bound to be executed terribly no matter its complexities and that is this manga’s greatest sin.

By establishing that things like diseases, deaths and general non-conformity actions are things that could be considered “inexplicable” and make “rifts”, you make these random supernatural cases general and somewhat common, and so the “Suzushiros’ disappearance” becomes an unremarkable case out of many in the world. And I get it, the leakage of the “inexplicable beings” has to start somewhere. But that just goes to show that there is a fundamental flaw in the portrayal and progression of the main mystery. By the time we reach the truth of the Suzushiros’ case, we’ve come to learn about several abnormal cases which undermine its impact. It doesn’t really feel like a mystery being unfolded, but rather a nonsensical and messy concept being unraveled. Somewhere in the middle it seems to have lost its initial point. We also learn that reality always tries to fix itself; any “inexplicable being” is destined to disappear. But it׳s not clear whether it disappears because a density of “inexplicable beings” surrounds it or because it gets too immersed in materialism. It is most likely the former, but the Suzushitos disappearance suggests otherwise. Either way, this idea is way too general to be consistent (what is the minimum requirement for it to disappear?), so it relies on randomness and convenience. This intricacy leads to an irredeemable, terrible, abrupt and nonsensical ending which destroys almost everything the story has built.

And it’s a shame really considering the first 30-40 chapters are actually pretty solid. The story is quite captivating in that span of chapters (though shows signs of being illegitimate by the end). I especially like the beginning when Onoda and Yokoi are slowly getting a grasp on the town and its residents’ true nature. The atmosphere is quite eerie and ominous, especially when it involves the Suzushrios, which adds to the intensity and yet repulsiveness of the plot’s development. Those chapters contain some familiar themes that are presented in a chaotic and unsettling way like escapism and hopelessness that stem from a numb environment and damaging circumstances. It’s manifested fairly well within Kento who tries to seek fake happiness (Accordingly, Mizuki represents “fake happiness” which matches with the perceived idealistic happiness her fake family embodies), while he is encompassed in his rough mental state derived from a reality full of sorrow. The problem though is that his ordeal is left inconclusive by the end and the later chapters ruin it by having characters suggesting that the kids are just insane; nothing really comes out of it in the end because by then, no one cares, including myself.

And so the characters are not good overall.

Some characters seem to exist for either comic relief or just to witness the plot. The prime example is Onoda, which for the most part, is an extremely passive character (ironically she keeps spouting her resolve but does almost nothing) with no character depth whatsoever. Her “logical” approach to the case is inherently wrong and makes her static. Not even a backstory; she’s basically nothing.

Yokoi’s character is a mess. At the start, it seemed like the author wanted to give him some depth with him meeting his child and the story indicating he’s divorced. Unfortunately, nothing whatsoever is tackling it afterwards. Seems like something the author has abandoned midway as it makes it awkward. And eventually he’s absorbed both mentally and physically in the “inexplicable realm” and becomes a character who is hurt by the plot immensely. He does random abstract things in order to reach the truth of a specific abstract case - just an example of the stupidity of the plot and naturally Yokoi’s character becomes stupid.

Kosaka’s son is a messy character with wasted potential as nothing is really revealed about his “inexplicable” nature. Is it his mental state? If so, why is he like that? I would probably take “well, it IS inexplicable” as an answer if I was wearing socks on my shoes. It would’ve been nice if the story had been consistent in its reasoning with this major factor. We get a random character indicating in an absolutely random way that Kosaka’s child is destined to be an “inexplicable being” before he’s born. Not very convincing if you ask me. Anyway, his character ends abruptly and incohesively.

Some characters have unclear purpose or motivation like the two inspectors that confront Yokoi who are a mess. There is not one mention about who they are or what they’re trying to accomplish. You have to assume they’re some “inexplicable beings” that try to make the story reach a climactic end. And Tamura - is he relevant or not? Surely his betrayal must hold some significance. I think it’s pretty obvious how terrible of a character he is.

Something went wrong with the writing of these characters, and the notion that some of them stick out not for any good reason is hilarious.

If you look at this manga and can’t draw any meaning out of it, I definitely wouldn’t blame you. Considering how this manga likes to shove its chaotic nonsense down your throat, there might as well be no meaning. The “mystery” here - is it even mystery or just nonsense? Is it mysterious nonsense? Maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t meant to be taken seriously. Yeah… that would explain the naked guy with a sock on his penis.