History Manga / NijigaharaHolograph

* {{Gonk}}: Takahama is a chubby kid with round, slightly bulging eyes and almost simian facial features that make him look distinctly different from his classmates.

** [[spoiler:Takahama]] ends up going insane. As an adult, he's shown wandering the halls of the school and sitting in an empty classroom, and is later revealed to have stabbed a student and screams to the police about the prophecy when he's arrested.

''Nijigahara Holograph'' is a PsychologicalHorror {{manga}} by Creator/InioAsano. It ran for 13 chapters from 2003 to 2005; Fantagraphics released its English translation in 2018.

* ArtReflectsPersonality: At the start of ch. 4 Maki is chided by her college art teacher, who calls her work "nothing but technical skill" and boring, wishing to see her emotion and passion. She sulls up over this, but the teacher's comments prove to be on point as the story goes on and her {{Vamp}}ish nature becomes more and more clear.

* DirtyCoward: Amahiko sees Takahama as this after learning that he snitched about Hayato and his other bullies taking his money rather than doing something proactive like confronting them. It doesn't help that when he confronts Takahama about it and it turns into a larger confrontation between the two of them, Sakaki, and Takahama's mother, Takahama hides behind his mother and taunts Amahiko by quietly calling him an idiot after his mother says it.

** "Nijigahara" can be written as "the plain of the rainbow" or "the plain of two children". When Sakaki notices the latter on a sign at the embankment, her husband relates an old legend about [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudan_(yōkai) kudan]] (a {{youkai}} in the form of a cow with a human face that was a PortentOfDoom before its death) and how, whenever the former inhabitants sent a dead kudan down the river at that spot, twin kudans would be found there later. [[spoiler:Take note of how many scenes of physical violence or emotional pain take place throughout the story at that spot, especially when two children are present, and how both touch Amahiko and Arié near the end, especially with the reveal about them in the last chapter. Also, take note of how the prophecy mentions the woman's head being cut off by the villagers, and how both Arié's mother and another woman kill themselves there by cutting their throats.]]

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* ArtReflectsPersonality: At the start of ch. 4 Maki is chided by her college art teacher, who calls her work "nothing but technical skill" and boring, wishing to see her emotion and passion. She sulls up over this, but as the story goes on the teacher's comments prove to be on point as her {{Vamp}}ish nature becomes more and more clear.

* ByTheHair: As Makato and Narumi are walking home, he asks if she's been reading his diary. When she denies it, he grabs her by the hair on top of her head and asks if she's lying. She says she is, although [[spoiler:since Amahiko read a bit of a diary when he was over at their house a few chapters earlier, she may have been covering for him]].

* DirtyCoward: Amahiko sees Takahama as this after learning that he snitched about Hayato and his other bullies taking his money rather than confronting them or doing anything else more proactive. It doesn't help that when he confronts Takahama about it and it turns into a larger confrontation between the two of them, Sakaki, and Takahama's mother, Takahama hides behind his mother and taunts Amahiko by quietly calling him an idiot after his mother says it.

* EyeScream: Sakaki lost her left eye as a result of the blow to her face, and wears bandages (and later, an eyepatch) that keep her left eye covered. She eventually gets plastic surgery which apparently included a fake eye of some sort, as it doesn't move with her good eye.

* DrivenToSuicide: Arié's mother slit her throat in the Nijigahara tunnel at some point after she left her husband. Near the end of the story, another woman is found dead in the tunnel with her throat cut. [[spoiler:Given the last time Sakaki is seen is at the embankment, covered in butterflies and in deep emotional pain, the implication that it's her is very strong.]]

** Near the end of the story, when [[spoiler:Arié and Amahiko meet]], he opens her robe, but when he sees [[spoiler:the butterfly pendant between her breasts that is the mate to his]], he first tries to rape her, and then beats her bloody and strangles her when she calls him [[spoiler:"brother"]].

* SenseiChan: {{Subverted|Trope}} by Sakaki. She's young, pretty, and physically affectionate toward Amahiko, treating him better than his own stepmother. However, she begins to hate Arié after getting hurt saving her from [[spoiler:Makoto]], and this turns into a complete apathy toward what eventually happens to her and toward the bullying of Takahama, and that bitterness poisons her all the way into adulthood.
* StockShoujoBullyingTactics: After his blowup toward Takahama, Amahiko gets a note tossed onto his desk saying "Starting today, we're going to ignore you." Later, he snaps when he finds a vase of flowers on his desk as if he were dead, and trashes the classroom in a rage.

* TheVamp: Maki has grown up to be cold, emotionally distant, and rather manipulative. She seems to try to seduce Makoto, and by the end of the story [[spoiler:is effectively keeping Kohta prisoner in his apartment, taking advantage of his mental lapses to establish herself as his girlfriend, which she's apparently been doing for a while]].

** In a strange twist which is pretty strongly indicated to be the prophecy about the monster at work, Arié seems to be a magnet for people who would hurt her. She’s implied to have been sexually assaulted by her father, is raped by [[spoiler:Makoto]], and is pushed down the well by her classmates, causing injuries that leave her comatose.

Eleven years in the past, Arié Kimura's classmates pushed her down a well into the tunnel system in the Nijigahara embankment. In the current day, those same classmates must now deal with their lives and how the psychological and emotional ripple effect of what they did has affected them, while a strange prophecy first spoken by Arié about a monster that will bring about the end of the world hovers over them and eerie butterflies are seen more and more frequently.

** "Nijigahara" can be written as "the plain of the rainbow" or "the plain of two children". When Sakaki notices the latter on a sign at the embankment, her husband relates an old legend about [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudan_(y%C5%8Dkai) kudan]] (a {{youkai}} in the form of a cow with a human face that was a PortentOfDoom before its death) and how, whenever the former inhabitants sent a dead kudan down the river at that spot, twin kudans would be found there later. [[spoiler:Take note of how many scenes of physical violence or emotional pain take place throughout the story at that spot, especially when two children are present, and how both touch Amahiko and Arié near the end, especially with the reveal about them in the last chapter. Also, take note of how the prophecy mentions the woman's head being cut off by the villagers, and how both Arié's mother and another woman kill themselves there by cutting their throats.]]

* TraumaticHaircut: When [[spoiler:Makoto]] attacks Maki, the first thing he does is snip off part of her hair with scissors.

* TheVamp: Maki has grown up to be cold, emotionally distant, and rather manipulative. She seems to try to seduce Makoto, and by the end of the story [[spoiler:is effectively keeping Kohta prisoner in hia apartment, taking advantage of his mental lapses to establish herself as his girlfriend, which she's apparently been doing for a while]].

* MyGreatestFailure: Kohta is guilt-ridden over his failure to protect Arié from what happened to her, and channels his frustration and anger first into his bullying of Takahama, and then into the incident with the knife that led to his head injury and being thrown into the well. As an adult, he still harbors violent anger and takes it out on people involved with harming Arié. He kills [[spoiler:his supervisor at his job, who had made a veiled threat toward Arié's father, and then non-fatally cuts Arié' father's neck, possibly out of frustration for his failure to be a good parent]]. Later on, [[spoiler:he saves Maki from Makoto]], possibly out of a genuine desire to help but more likely because [[spoiler:as a kid, he saw Makoto running away after raping Arié and injuring Sakaki]].
* OhCrap: Near the end of the story, Hayato starts to have a meltdown in the police headquarters as [[spoiler:the news reports that the swarms of butterflies are increasing to truly alarming numbers and his superior tells him that a woman has committed suicide in the Nijigahara tunnel, just like 10 years ago]].

** "Nijigahara" can be written as "the plain of the rainbow" or "the plain of two children". When Sakaki notices the latter on a sign at the embankment, her husband relates an old legend about [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudan_(y%C5%8Dkai) kudan]] (a cow with a human face that was a PortentOfDoom before its death) and how, whenever the former inhabitants sent a dead kudan down the river at that spot, twin kudans would be found there later. [[spoiler:Take note of how many scenes of physical violence or emotional pain take place throughout the story at that spot, especially when two children are present, and how both touch Amahiko and Arié near the end, especially with the reveal about them in the last chapter. Also, take note of how the prophecy mentions the woman's head being cut off by the villagers, and how both Arié's mother and another woman kill themselves there by cutting their throats.]]

* OhCrap: Near the end of the story, Hayato starts to have a meltdown in the police headquarters as [[spoiler:the news reports that the swarms of butterflies are increasing and his superior tells him that a woman has committed suicide in the Nijigahara tunnel, just like 10 years ago]].

* TheVamp: Maki has grown up to be cold, emotionally distant, and rather manipulative. She seems to try to seduce Makoto, and by the end of the story [[spoiler:is effectively keeping Kohta prisoner in her apartment, taking advantage of his mental lapses to establish herself as his girlfriend, which she's apparently been doing for a while]].

** In a strange twist which is pretty strongly indicated to be the prophecy about the monster at work, Arié seems to be a magnet for people who would hurt her. She’s implied to have been sexually assaulted by her father, is raped by [[spoiler:Makoto]], and is dropped down the well by her classmates, causing injuries that leave her comatose.
** [[spoiler:Takahama]] ends up going insane; as an adult, he's shown wandering the halls of the school and sitting in an empty classroom, and is later revealed to have stabbed a student and screams to the police about the prophecy when he's arrested.

* SchrodingersButterfly: The story of Creator/{{Zhuangzi|Sakaki}} and his dream of the butterfly is taught by Sakaki in ch. 9. Beyond this, several characters at one point or another question how much of what has happened to them is something they've dreamed, and the story is set up in a way that makes it possible that parts of it are actually Arié's dreams while she lies comatose.

* AxCrazy: [[spoiler:Makoto]] is a psychopath who is a figure of violence throughout the story. He raped Arié, and struck Sakaki in the face with a cinderblock when she intervened. Later, he tells Amahiko that he’s burned his own house down, with the implication that he killed his family before doing so. As an adult, he assaults Maki and probably would have killed her [[spoiler:if Kohta hadn't speared him with an umbrella]].

** "Nijigahara" can be written as "the plain of the rainbow" or "the plain of two children". When Sakaki notices the latter on a sign at the embankment, her husband relates an old legend about "kudan" (a cow with a human face that was a PortentOfDoom before its death) and how, whenever the former inhabitants sent a dead kudan down the river at that spot, twin kudans would be found there later. [[spoiler:Take note of how many scenes of physical violence or emotional pain take place throughout the story at that spot, especially when two children are present, and how both touch Amahiko and Arié near the end, especially with the reveal about them in the last chapter. Also, take note of how the prophecy mentions the woman's head being cut off by the villagers, and how both Arié's mother and another woman kill themselves there by cutting their throats.]]

* MyGreatestFailure: Kohta is guilt-ridden over his failure to protect Arié from what happened to her, and channels his frustration and anger first into his bullying of Takahama, and then into the incident with the knife that led to his head injury and being thrown into the well.

* TheVamp: Maki has grown up to be cold, emotionally distant, and rather manipulative. She seems to try to seduce Makoto, and by the end of the story [[spoiler:is effectively keeping Kohta prisoner in her apartment, taking advantage of his mental lapses to establish herself as his girlfriend]].

** [[spoiler:Takahama]] ends up going insane and stabs a child at their school.

* SchrodingersButterfly: The story of Creator/{{ZhuangziSakaki}} and his dream of the butterfly is taught by Sakaki in ch. 9.

* MeaningfulName: "Nijigahara" can be written as "the plain of the rainbow" or "the plain of two children". When Sakaki notices the latter on a sign at the embankment, her husband relates an old legend about "kudan" (a cow with a human face that was a PortentOfDoom before its death) and how, whenever the former inhabitants sent a dead kudan down the river at that spot, twin kudans would be found there later. [[spoiler:Take note of how many scenes of physical violence or emotional pain take place throughout the story at that spot, especially when two children are present, and how both touch Amahiko and Arié near the end, especially with the reveal about them in the last chapter.]]

--->'''Hatori''': When are you moving out?\\\