Line #38 Manga/Homunculus


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8	''Homunculus'' is a {{seinen}} manga by Hideo Yamamoto, who also authored ''Manga/IchiTheKiller.''
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10	So imagine that, like in Franchise/{{the Matrix}}, you have a subconscious self-image. It represents your deepest desires and fears. And no one can see it but you. You, and a homeless man named Susumu Nakoshi, who agreed to let [[MadScientist medical student]] Manabu Itoh drill a hole in his skull for a total of 700,000 yen. Itoh is interested in studying human minds, ESP, ghosts and the occult, and he thinks that he can potentially unleash the hidden psychic potential of Nakoshi's brain.
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12	Nothing seems to be happening, until a few nights after the operation, Nakoshi briefly closes his right eye, and starts seeing nightmare-shapes and monsters everywhere with his left. And then things get ''weird.''
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14	Not to be confused with [[MobileSuitHuman the little people who live in your brain]], or with [[OurHomunculiAreDifferent other uses of the word]].
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16	A live action adaptation of the manga was released in April 2021.
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18	----
19	!!This manga provides examples of:
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21	* AccentAdaptation: The scanlators translated Nakoshi's backwater Tohoku accent as something akin to [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel's]] bumpkin accent.
22	* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: Although there is not as much sexual imagery (ignoring all the outright sex) as usually is associated with Freud, all the focus on repression and subconsciousness and the unconscious is enough to make any psychology student cry.
23	* AntiHero: Nakoshi can be seen as a deconstruction of the SamaritanSyndrome-inflicted hero. He goes around helping various people with their issues [[spoiler:so he can better understand himself and face his own]]. Not to mention that his method of "helping" is not always well thought-out or clear. When you try to save a girl [[spoiler:by raping her]], you know you're not quiiiite balanced in the head. [[spoiler:Trepanning Nanako helped her and Nakoshi to see each other's homunculi, but there may have been dire consequences.]]
24	* AttractiveBentGender: [[spoiler:Itoh]] is constantly called "pretty" when dressed as a woman.
25	* BaitAndSwitch: Itoh sets off a ''lot'' of red flags at the start of the manga, and initially comes off as an antagonist, though this turns out not to be the case. Itoh ends up being one, if not the only person in Nakoshi's life trying to stop his self destructive path. [[spoiler: Itoh even vehemently refuses to drill another hole into Nakoshi's skull once the latter stops seeing the Homunculi, not that it stops [[GoneHorriblyWrong Nakoshi who decides to drill a new hole]] in order to see the Homunculi again.]]
26	* TheBlank: Nanako's homunculus in its true form is a completely blank face, with comparisons to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noppera-bo noppera-bo]]. [[spoiler:Eventually, it morphs into a bowl-like shape in which Nakoshi's original face is mirrored.]]
27	* BlobMonster: Yukari's homunculus is that she turns into sand which breaks and reforms in disturbing ways to move and has a nasty habit of taking unsettling forms and seeming to infect what it touches.
28	* TheCasanova: Nakoshi [[spoiler:after getting plastic surgery]], before he decided to throw it all away because none of the women could make him feel anything.
29	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Nakoshi possibly accidentally kills Nanako by treppaning her. He abandons her and goes insane, seeing his own face on everyone he meets. A year later, he is still a hobo living in his car alone, and we see he's treppaned himself two more times. Itoh has fully transitioned into a woman it seems, but she is horrified and heartbroken over what her experiments have done to Nakoshi. The story ends with some cops approaching Nakoshi, possibly because of Nanako with Nakoshi too far gone into his delusions to realize who they are.]]
30	* DysfunctionJunction: Justified in that Nakoshi only associates with people whose homunculi he can see, meaning [[spoiler:he can only see the homunculi of people who have the same issues he does]].
31	* EasySexChange: Averted by [[spoiler:Itoh, who takes a year to fully transition]].
32	* EvilDetectingDog: A suitably weird twist. Yukari's family's dog barks furiously when [[spoiler:the homunculi of Yukari and her mother manifest as a symptom of their tension]].
33	* FanDisservice:
34	** There's like two volumes straight of various characters masturbating and having sex. It's ''not'' played up to be hot.
35	** The sex scene in the final volume. [[spoiler:[[ScrewYourself Screw you, indeed.]]]]
36	* ForScience: Itoh's justification for doing the experiments.
37	* {{Foreshadowing}}: In the beginning, Itoh explains that many trepanation patients can come out of the experience better, but some may show poor mental side effects later on, such as being DrivenToSuicide or going insane. [[spoiler:Nakoshi seems to have cracked similarly in the endgame, especially with how many holes he's drilled in his head.]]
38	* FreudianExcuse: Ties into AllPsychologyIsFreudian. Basically all Homunculi exist as a result of previous traumatic or otherwise depressing events or circumstances.
39	* GainaxEnding: That's to be expected in such a MindScrew series. But this is made even more unsettling by the fact that for a moment it ''seems'' like we're heading towards a HappyEnding with Nakoshi realizing Nanako's role in his life and freeing himself from the Homunculi. [[spoiler:[[DownerEnding The exact opposite happens]]: he throws Nanako aside (after ''trepanning her''), stays prisoner of this world and totally loses it, [[GoneHorriblyWrong even trepanning himself two more times]]. Additionally, given Nanako's final scenes and the people Nakoshi is running toward in his final scenes being dressed like cops, it's possible that she died from blood loss.]] [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Itoh is utterly horrified and guilt ridden by how Nakoshi's experience from the experiment turned that sour.]]
40	* GirlyRun: Nanako regularly runs like this. Turns out she actually knows how to run, and does so whenever she's in a tight pinch or nervous.
41	* {{Gonk}}: [[spoiler:Nakoshi and Nanako in their youth.]] And that's pretty much the cause of everything happening in the series if you think about it.
42	* HeelRealization: Nakoshi has one while he was still working. [[spoiler:After ignoring the plight of the people he was screwing over with his work, he comes across a former employee who became a taxi driver after being laid off. The state of his poverty, his deteriorating relationship with his son, and his good nature despite it made Nakoshi realize just how ignorant he's been, and he resigns.]]
43	%% * UsefulNotes/{{Homelessness}}: The homeless play a huge part in the story, given that they give our protagonist a place to come back to and talk to him frequently. [[spoiler:We later learn that Nakoshi may have put some of them out of work back when he had a high paying job.]]
44	* HomelessHero: Literally with Nakoshi. Technically he still has a "home" of sorts with his car, but he doesn't have a permanent place of residence. His resolving the matters of different people carrying Homunculi aren't well-intentioned at first, but he eventually develops an honest desire to learn more about people and get to the hearts of their problems.
45	* HopeSpot: Ita's conversation with Nakoshi made him realize that despite all the hardship he's been through, he still has a home to come back to through his daughter. The scene is portrayed as cathartic and uplifting, giving him closure on his life. [[spoiler:The next time we see him, he's [[DrivenToSuicide hanged himself]] feeling like he's thrown everything away, especially since he abandoned his daughter in the first place.]]
46	* {{Hypocrite}}: At least for Nakoshi, his condemning of the materialistic society he became disillusioned with and people who don't look at the "real" person within, [[spoiler:when he changed his face and became richer to chase after that exact crowd and happily ignores the feelings of the people he's been with, including the person he claimed was the only one who cared about his true self]]. Nanako ends up calling him out on it.
47	* IJustWantToBeBeautiful: [[spoiler:Itoh, Nakoshi, and Nanako]] had this as their central conflicts for a while; the former because [[spoiler:Itoh was denied the chance to fully express themselves as a child]] and the latter two because [[spoiler:they believed that beauty may be their key to finally becoming satisfied with themselves]].
48	* InSeriesNickname: The homeless in the park call Nakoshi "Car Guy" since he lives in his car.
49	* LovesMeNot: A variant - Itoh plucks petals off a flower, with the options [[spoiler:"man"]] and [[spoiler:"woman"]].
50	* LuminescentBlush: Adorably, Itoh frequently does this later in the series.
51	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: It's apparent that Nakoshi's ability to see Homunculi is directly related to his trepanation, but it's never made clear if the trepanation itself somehow heightened his senses, somehow supernaturally allowed him to breach another level of reality, or frankly made him go completely insane. [[spoiler:Regardless, his mental state by the end is not at all sound.]]
52	* MindRape: Nakoshi accuses Yukari of this.
53	* MadScientist: Itoh seems to be one at first, but turns out to be pretty mentally sound [[spoiler:aside from her repressed gender issues]] and comes to regret what they've done.
54	* MindScrew: For both the reader and Nakoshi.
55	* MirrorMonologue:
56	** Nakoshi looks in the water and says that isn't his face - apt enough, considering [[spoiler:he had plastic surgery]].
57	** He has another one when he has a serious talk with Ita. He ''is'' talking to the man, but by nature of how the Homunculi work he's also doing a lot of talking to himself.
58	* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: Itoh again.
59	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Usually, if a person Nakoshi talks to has a realization while with him, they'll devolve into this:
60	** The Yakuza boss, after realizing where his habit of taking pinkies comes from ([[spoiler:misplaced guilt for accidentally cutting off his childhood friend's pinky]]), decides to cut his own pinky off in penance and quits the gang life.
61	** Ita finally accepts the consequences of his running from his responsibilities and abandoning his daughter. [[spoiler:The guilt of doing this became too much and he hanged himself shortly afterwards.]]
62	** At the end of it all, [[spoiler:Itoh shows a lot of regret for starting the experiment in the first place, now that Nakoshi has gone off the rails]].
63	* NominalHero: At the end of the day, Nakoshi's this. He helps people, but does so largely out of a need to find himself, and in the hopes that [[spoiler:someone could see him for who he really is]]. Some may see this cause as innocent at the very least, [[spoiler:until the ending happens, and all the emotional turmoil he's endured throughout the story as a result of excessively empathizing with others drives him totally insane]].
64	* NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization: An extremely weird example. The sex scene in the car between Nakoshi and the schoolgirl Yukari goes from semi-rape to consensual to violent rape and back to consensual again. It's intended to be unsettling [[spoiler:especially since the final shift is Yukari throwing her sexuality in her mother's face]]. Also subverted in the semi-rape in so far as that Yukari says she felt nothing.
65	* OfCourseImNotAVirgin: Itoh.
66	* OurHomunculiAreDifferent: Averted, they really ''are'' different.
67	* PsychologicalProjection: [[spoiler:A possible reason Nakoshi views Homunculi the way he does is because while his trepanned brain is able to intuitively pick up on people's insecurities in an extremely detailed fashion, he is only able to view the Homunculi in forms that his brain can comprehend. As such, he projects his own fears and flaws onto others, which translates into their Homunculi's forms. As the situation gets weirder and weirder, even Itoh, who had proposed that the Homunculi were ''just'' projections of Nakoshi in the first place, believes there's more to it than that.]]
68	* ReasonYouSuckSpeech: Nanako lays into Nakoshi for his speech about wanting people to see the real him, citing his own shallowness towards others and [[spoiler:his getting plastic surgery to make himself more attractive]], ultimately calling him a huge hypocrite.
69	* TheReveal: After getting the hang of his new ability, Nakoshi begins to wonder what ''his'' homunculus looks like, and searches for a way to see it. Once he finds another person who can see homunculi, we see that his homunculus is[[spoiler: an ''oni'', not just an abstract representation of trauma, like the others are. She's horrified, but]] Nakoshi himself [[TheUnreveal doesn't notice]] and keeps searching for his true face.
70	* SanitySlippage: It is implied that the reason [[spoiler:Nakoshi goes completely mad by the end of the series]] is because [[spoiler:his excessive abilities to empathize with others, his recklessness in dredging up his own traumatic memories, and his general desire to have his own Homunculus seen by ''someone'' drove him insane]]. When he ends up [[spoiler:trepanning Nanako and seeing a reflection of himself as her Homunculus, he leaves her behind (possibly to die), and begins seeing ''everyone'' as a reflection of himself]].
71	* SelfHarm:
72	** The Yakuza boss' Homunculus is portrayed as a little boy who tearfully cuts his pinky with a sickle every time his real self commits ''yubitsume'' on his men.
73	** Yukari habitually cuts the back of her left shin to cope with her mother's controlling, prying nature. [[spoiler:When her mother finds her and Nakoshi having sex in his car, she slams her foot against the window, essentially slapping her mother in the face with the bleeding wound.]]
74	* SingleIssuePsychology: More often than not, the Homunculi are largely a result of singularly traumatic incidents or circumstances. [[spoiler:This is possibly justified by the fact that they're also pretty much psychological projections by Nakoshi onto others; his mind interprets the trauma in ways he can comprehend. [[MindScrew Maybe]].]]
75	* SnowMeansLove: Snow finally begins to fall after Ita and Nakoshi have a heart to heart about how they abandoned their old lives, by remembering the loved ones who tried to stand by them in their times of need.
76	* SparklingStreamOfTears: Itoh, [[spoiler:at the very end]].
77	* TomatoInTheMirror: When Nakoshi realizes that the homunculi he sees are [[spoiler:manifestations of his own inner distortions, which he projects on other people around him]].
78	* TheUnreveal: Nakoshi finally finds [[spoiler:a photo of his pre-surgery face]] after quite some buildup and vague glimpses. It's variously covered up by the panel angles, a leaf, and even a dialogue bubble. The same treatment is given when Itoh later gets a look. [[spoiler:It is eventually revealed in the final volume.]]
79	* WellDoneSonGuy: [[spoiler:Itoh]]'s entire motivation stems from a need to be acknowledged by her father. [[spoiler: Except not really because they're actually a closeted trans woman.]]
80	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Nakoshi writes a kind word in the hotel room for Nanako saying he will be right back. He won't. In the epilogue he just says that Nanako was useless to him in the end and we never know what she became. And considering what he did to her, [[spoiler:and that she may have died or at least suffered brain damage from the trepanation, judging by the blood seeping through her bandages and the police at the very end]], [[YouDoNotWantToKnow maybe it's better we don't]].
81	* WhichRestroomDilemma: [[spoiler:Itoh is shown deliberating over this when she excuses herself while dressed as a woman.]]
82	* {{Yakuza}}: They show up prominently twice. The first is a boss who Nakoshi sees as a blocky mecha [[spoiler:which is hiding himself as a young boy, a manifestation of his grief over a childhood accident where he maimed a friend]]. The second is one of Nanako's sugar daddies, who confronts her and Nakoshi over money Nanako stole [[spoiler:but leaves them be when Nakoshi helps him express his repressed grief over putting out one of his sister's eyes as a child]].
83	* YouCanAlwaysTellALiar: The manga makes a good point of emphasizing tells when the time comes to try and break the characters out of their comfort zones. Nakoshi usually moves his mouth to the left, Itoh pulls her nose or looks right, and Yukari looks left, for example.
84	* {{Yubitsume}}: The Yakuza boss Nakoshi encounters with the mecha homunculus has taken ''many'' of his subordinates' pinkies. [[spoiler:This drive is a side effect of his repressed grief over cutting off his friend's pinky with a sickle as a child, and he finally exorcises it by performing ''yubitsume'' on himself.]]
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Context Manga / Homunculus