Gin's manga / #bizzare(3)

The story happens in a circus in Paris in the 1970's. (...) Much is made of the romance of the circus atmosphere, of flying through the air on a trapeze, etc etc. Think cirque here, not circus. We're doing Old World riffs on the romance and tawdriness of the ring. There are no elephants in tutus walking on their hind legs; it's slit-eyed jugglers and daring death-loving trapeze artists and sad Pierrot clowns, even if the Pierrot clown - our hero, Torinosu, 'Bird's Nest' - has a false red nose. The tawdriness comes from the circus master pimping out his performers to anyone willing to pay. (...) And there's tanbi decadence - ghosts who wander into the action looking like teenaged girls even if they're the hero's brother, and abandoned neurotic women with a thing for inflicting pain, and buracon and possible murder and unspoken pining and a hero who looks about to perish at any moment from terminal angst.

The first 2 volumes contain thematically linked but self-contained stories concerning Tomie - a beautiful young woman with the power to seduce and dominate any male, from small boys to elderly men. Later, the series leaves these characters behind and focuses on stand-alone gothic horror pieces. Each volume has its own title: 1. Tomie (Scanlated) Included one-shots: Tomie Photograph Kiss Mansion Revenge The Basin of the Waterfall 2. Tomie - Part 2 (Scanlated) Included one-shots: Tomie Part 2 Basement Painter Murder Hair Orphan Girl 3. Flesh Colored Horror (Scanlated) Included one-shots: Long Hair in the Attic Permission/Forgiveness The Bee Hive Dying Young Headless Statues Flesh Coloured Horror 4. The Face Burglar (Scanlated) Included one-shots: The Face Burglar Scarecrows Falling Red String My Dear Ancestors The Hanging Balloons 5. Souichi's Diary of Delights Included one-shots: Fun Summer Vacation (Scanlated) Fun Winter Vacation (Scanlated) Souichi's Diary of Delights (Scanlated) Souichi's Home Tutor (Scanlated) Cloth Teachers Souichi's Birthday (Scanlated) 6. Souichi's Diary of Curses Included one-shots: Souichi's Selfish Curse (Scanlated) The Silent Room The Coffin Rumours Fashion Model 7. Slug Girl Included one-shots: Slug Girl (Scanlated) Out of Its Element / Thing that Drifted Ashore (Scanlated) Mold Coldness (Scanlated) Ryokan The Groaning Drain (Scanlated) Biohouse (Scanlated) 8. Blood-bubble Bushes (Scanlated) Included one-shots: Blood-bubble Bushes Unbearable Labyrinth Sword of the Re-animator The Will The Bridge Demonology The Conversation Room 9. Hallucinations Included one-shots: Hallucinations Bog of the Living Dead Penpal Further Tales of Oshikiri Further Tales of Oshikiri: The Wall 10. House of the Marionettes Included one-shots: Ice Cream Bus (Scanlated) Gang House The Smoking Club Second-hand Record The Sleeping Room The Gift Bearer (Scanlated) House of the Marionettes (Scanlated) 11. The Town Without Streets Included one-shots: The Town Without Streets (Scanlated) Near Miss! (Scanlated) Maptown Village of the Sirens (Scanlated) The Supernatural Transfer Student 12. The Bully (Scanlated) Included one-shots: The Bully House of the Deserter Father's Heart Memory The Back Alley Love by the Book In the Soil 13. The Circus is Here Included one-shots: The Circus is Here Gravetown The Adjacent Window (Scanlated) Sleuth Kids: The Second Daughter's Lover Sleuth Kids: The Assembly of Fallen Ghost 14. The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel Included one-shots: Long Dream (Scanlated) The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel The Bronze Statue Drifting Spores Blood Sickness of the White Sands Village (Scanlated) 15. Lovesick Dead (Scanlated) Included one-shots: The Beautiful Youth of the Intersections The Anxious Woman Shadows Screams in the Night 16. Frankenstein (Scanlated) Included one-shots: Frankenstein A Doll's Hellish Burial Memories of Real Shit Note: Tomie has its own page because of a third volume that isn't part of this collection.

A woman enters a furniture store in search of a chair, but the proprietor is all too eager to reveal its past...