Homunculus (manga)

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Homunculus
Homunculus Manga.jpg
Manga volume 1 cover
ホムンクルス
(Homunkurusu)
GenrePsychological horror[1]
Manga
Written byHideo Yamamoto
Published byShogakukan
MagazineWeekly Big Comic Spirits
DemographicSeinen
Original runMarch 17, 2003 – February 21, 2011
Volumes15 (List of volumes)
Live-action film
Directed byTakashi Shimizu
Licensed byNetflix
ReleasedApril 2, 2021 (2021-04-02)
Wikipe-tan face.svg Anime and manga portal

Homunculus (Japanese: ホムンクルス, Hepburn: Homunkurusu) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hideo Yamamoto. It was serialized in Shogakukan's seinen manga magazine Weekly Big Comic Spirits from March 2003 to February 2011, with its chapters collected in fifteen tankōbon volumes. A live-action film adaptation, directed by Takashi Shimzu and starring Gō Ayano premiered in April 2021.

Plot[]

Trepanation is the procedure of drilling holes in a person's head, supposedly increasing the circulation of blood and helping to improve the pressure inside one's skull, bringing out a person's sixth sense and causing them to gain superhuman powers such as ESP, being able to see ghosts, and controlling objects remotely with one's mind. This is speculative fiction based on the concept of trepanation.

Susumu Nakoshi is a 34-year-old homeless man living out of his car. For two weeks, he's declined his fellow homeless men's invitations to set up a tent with them, preferring to sleep in his car. However, one day, he's accosted by a strange-looking man searching for participants to subject themselves to trepanation. Nakoshi tells the man to leave, and discards the flier he'd placed on his windshield. However, when his car is towed, he agrees to let medical student Manabu Itoh drill a hole in his skull in exchange for 700,000 yen. Itoh claims to be interested in trepanation for the sake of science; he is interested in humans, fascinated with ESP and the sixth sense, and wants to disprove the existence of the occult. Itoh's father owns a lab facility, as his father is a rich hospital director. Itoh performs the trepanation surgery on Nakoshi and does a variety of ESP tests. When Nakoshi reveals that he sees distorted humans when using only the left side of his body, Itoh researches and discovers that Nakoshi can see homunculi.

Itoh explains psychoanalytic theory to Nakoshi after the yakuza incident.

Characters[]

Susumu Nakoshi (名越 進, Nakoshi Susumu)
Portrayed by: Gō Ayano[2]
A 34-year-old man. At the beginning of the series, he is shown to be recently homeless and living out of his car. He is living between two worlds, that of the upper class and that of the homeless. He is a former employee of a foreign bank, and a pathological liar. After the trepanation procedure, he gains the ability to see peoples homunculi or "distortions".
Manabu Ito (伊藤 学, Itō Manabu)
Portrayed by: Ryu Ito[3]
A 22-year-old medical student who proposes the trepanation experiment and investigates material relevant to Nakoshi's reports. He dresses in an overtly flamboyant manner, but hides this fact from his ailing father, a high-ranking doctor at a hospital whom he has a strained relationship.
Yukari (ユカリ)/1775
A 17-year-old girl working in a burusera salon and one of the first homunculi Nakoshi interacts with.

Media[]

Manga[]

Homunculus is written and illustrated by Hideo Yamamoto. It was serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Big Comic Spirits from March 17, 2003, to February 21, 2011.[4][5][6] Shogakukan collected its chapters in fifteen tankōbon volumes, released from July 30, 2003 to April 28, 2011.[7][8]

Volume list[]

No. Release date ISBN
1 July 30, 2003[7]978-4-09-187071-1
2 April 30, 2004[9]978-4-09-187072-8
3 July 30, 2004[10]978-4-09-187073-5
4 December 24, 2004[11]978-4-09-187074-2
5 February 28, 2005[12]978-4-09-187075-9
6 August 30, 2005[13]978-4-09-187076-6
7 November 30, 2006[14]978-4-09-180772-4
8 June 29, 2007[15]978-4-09-181068-7
9 February 29, 2008[16]978-4-09-181747-1
10 August 28, 2009[17]978-4-09-182129-4
11 December 26, 2009[18]978-4-09-182250-5
12 February 27, 2010[19]978-4-09-183018-0
13 July 30, 2010[20]978-4-09-183353-2
14 December 25, 2010[21]978-4-09-183535-2
15 April 28, 2011[8]978-4-09-183790-5

Live-action film[]

In September 2020, it was announced that Homunculus would receive a live-action film adaptation.[22] The film is directed by Takashi Shimizu and stars Gō Ayano. It premiered in Japan on April 2, 2021, and premiered exclusively on Netflix worldwide on April 22.[2][23]

Reception[]

As of September 2020, the Homunculus manga had over 4 million copies in circulation.[22]

References[]

  1. ^ Loo, Egan (July 13, 2009). "Hideo Yamamoto's Homunculus Manga Returns from 1-Year Break". Anime News Network. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Pineda, Rafael Antonio (December 2, 2020). "Live-Action Homunculus Film Reveals Cast, Director, April 2 Debut, Netflix Global Streaming". Anime News Network. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  3. ^ Pineda, Rafael Antonio (December 14, 2020). "Live-Action Homunculus Film Unveils Teaser Trailer, 4 More Cast Members". Anime News Network. Retrieved December 14, 2020.
  4. ^ ビッグコミックスピリッツ 2003年16号. spi-net.jp (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Archived from the original on July 24, 2003. Retrieved July 25, 2021.
  5. ^ Loo, Egan (February 14, 2011). "Hideo Yamamoto Ends Homunculus Horror Manga Next Week". Anime News Network. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  6. ^ 山本英夫の問題作「ホムンクルス」完結、最終巻は4月. Natalie (in Japanese). February 21, 2011. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b ホムンクルス / 1 (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b ホムンクルス / 15 (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Archived from the original on July 22, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  9. ^ ホムンクルス / 2 (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  10. ^ ホムンクルス / 3 (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Archived from the original on July 16, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  11. ^ ホムンクルス / 4 (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Archived from the original on July 21, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  12. ^ ホムンクルス / 5 (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Archived from the original on July 20, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  13. ^ ホムンクルス / 6 (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Archived from the original on July 18, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  14. ^ ホムンクルス / 7 (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  15. ^ ホムンクルス / 8 (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  16. ^ ホムンクルス / 9 (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  17. ^ ホムンクルス / 10 (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  18. ^ ホムンクルス / 11 (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  19. ^ ホムンクルス / 12 (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  20. ^ ホムンクルス / 13 (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  21. ^ ホムンクルス / 14 (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  22. ^ Jump up to: a b Sherman, Jennifer (September 10, 2020). "Hideo Yamamoto's Homunculus Manga Gets Live-Action Film in 2021". Anime News Network. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  23. ^ Pineda, Rafael (April 11, 2021). "Live-Action Homunculus Film Debuts Globally on Netflix on April 22". Anime News Network. Retrieved April 11, 2021.

External links[]

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