WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS AND A DISCUSSION OF CHILDHOOD TRAUMA.
OMORI is a 2020 horror RPG from OMOCAT that centres around the experiences of a boy named Sunny from Faraway Town and his alter ego, Omori, who resides in a dream world known only as Headspace. In 2024, Kodansha started publishing a manga adaptation of the game with a script from OMOCAT and illustrations by Nui Konoito. An English-translated version is now available from Kodansha Comics.
In execution, OMORI Vol. 1 follows the game’s storyline. However, it’s also written from a perspective that requires readers to already be familiar with the game and its characters. This is most evidenced by the fact that OMOCAT and Konoito throw readers in the middle of an “episode” of Sunny’s life without some form of exposition or backstory to orientate new readers or contextualise any of the story’s events.
At best, OMOCAT and Konoito hint right away that Sunny is hiding a dark secret involving his sister Mari, effectively explaining why he has become a hikikomori. Konoito best captures this by presenting Sunny as anxious when he’s alone and awake, and by juxtaposing his reality with distorted horror-inspired images of that reality. Konoito also further hints at Mari’s fate with distorted shadow versions of her, until one of Sunny’s friends, Aubrey, later confirms Mari has already passed away.
Though only four chapters long, OMORI Vol. 1 alternates between reality and Sunny’s Headspace, where he relives his happier memories alongside his sister and their group of friends, Aubrey, Basil, Hero, and Kel. Whilst this first volume of the manga attempts to meaningfully explore escapism and social isolation as trauma responses (which makes sense), the way OMOCAT and Konoito execute this is rather confusing for new readers who are not already familiar with the source material and characters.
For instance, the transition between reality and Sunny’s dream world isn’t always clear – especially since Sunny isn’t always shown falling asleep before waking up in the dream world known as Headspace. Another thing the manga doesn’t really clarify is the difference between Headspace and White Space. At best, White Space appears to be the transitional space between reality and Headspace where Sunny’s alter ego, Omori, takes the wheel. However, without dialogue to clarify what this place is or what is happening, it’s hard for a new reader to understand its significance.
One thing that OMORI Vol. 1 does well, however, is depicting the real world of Faraway Town vs Headspace. The former is presented as fairly mundane, whereas the latter is presented as a childlike dream. This includes a playground and theme park-related destinations. Headspace also has mascots and characters that kids would normally find in a theme park. This helps convey Sunny’s desire for normalcy. But like an actual dream, his unhealed trauma associated with his sister’s death creeps up as haunted spaces and distorted shadow figures, which is perfectly captured by Konoito’s art.
One thing that isn’t clear in OMORI Vol. 1 is Basil’s role in the story and why his friends are searching for him inside Headspace. At best, it’s established that Basil preserves his friends’ memories by keeping a photo album of their various adventures. At some point he discovers a photo of mysterious origins, which scares him and causes him to disappear into a black void. Whilst this establishes a mystery for Omori and his friends to solve, at the same time, without context, it’s hard to decipher how Basil’s disappearance builds on everything else that’s happening in Sunny’s/Omori’s life.
At best, the prologue and Chapter 4 strongly imply that Basil is also hiding a dark secret in relation to Mari’s death. Fans of the game already know what that secret is, but to audience members reading the manga with no knowledge of the game, Basil’s disappearance comes off as a contextless plot point that’s randomly inserted into the story to induce some kind of conflict. The randomness of this plot point stands out even more when the rest of the story already feels disjointed, with few threads connecting the events of the real world to Headspace.
Aubrey is even shown, at some point, throwing away the real Basil’s photo album in a rubbish bin, but it’s never explained why she does this, or how this relates to what is happening to Basil in Headspace. Even more baffling is the cliffhanger that OMORI Vol. 1 ends on, which, again, doesn’t build on anything taking place between the two worlds. It very much continues the pattern of introducing elements without context.
All in all, OMORI Vol. 1 introduces promising concepts that are ripe for the psychological horror sub-genre. Unfortunately, OMOCAT struggles to execute these ideas into a cohesive storyline that meaningfully connects the events taking place between two different worlds. The saving grace of OMORI Vol. 1 is really Nui Konoito’s artwork, which at least manages to create a haunting atmosphere. Beyond that, however, OMORI Vol. 1 leaves a lot to be desired and feels half-baked at best.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
OMORI Vol. 1 is on sale now and can be purchased in local comic and book shops and digitally on Amazon, Apple Books and Barnes & Noble.