Kiri no Mori Hotel (The Hotel in the Forest of Mist) is a horror/mystery Josei manga created in 2007 by Chie Shinohara.
Nobody knows exactly where it is located, but there is a place that offers shelter to those who hate their lives or are trapped in a labyrinth of their own heart... A mysterious hotel. Even now, those who are tired of their lives come to stay in the Kiri no Mori hotel...
The guests of the hotel are often brought along in a state of confusion, trying to figure things out about their lives or working out things they still regret from their past. The hotel helps them deal with their problems and to see things more clearly with varying degrees of success.
Each story follows a different protagonist, or multiple protagonists, and focus on their relationships with their family and friends. Other times, the hotel itself is more in focus and it is explained more to the reader.
Yet, it still remains mysterious.
Kiri No Mori Hotel Contains Examples Of
- Abusive Parents: Mariko had a physically abusive mother, who put cigarettes out on her body and Ryota had a physically abusive father, who beat him so badly that it left him with a permanently limping leg.
- Anatomy of the Soul: According to the receptionist of the hotel, guests who stay in the hotel leave their emotions behind. These can take over another guest's psyche, if the room isn't properly cleaned in-between usages, which is a difficult thing to do. Misono is the cleaner of the hotel and locks himself into the recently-used rooms, absorbs the previous guest's emotions and memories, creates a novel out of them and then leaves, with the room now properly cleaned for the next guest.
- Animal Motif: Cats. The hotel has several cats living in it and they tend to lead guests to the hotel or cause circumstances to work in a guest's favor.
- Chekhov's Gun: Several in the various chapters. The sleeping pills Shouko gets and eventually uses on her ex-boyfriend to kill 'her' Kouki, the diamond necklace Riyako buys her daughter Mariko and which the adult Mariko is still wearing and the door that Yui initially walks through is the door for dead people to go through.
- Disabled Means Helpless: Subverted. Ryota has a limping leg, which came from a bad fracture his abusive father gave him as a child, but never appeared helpless because of it, even joining an NPO to work as a doctor in needed areas.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The employees of the hotel have no names and only get identified by their occupation, if they are mentioned at all.
- Foreshadowing: The receptionist telling Yano that Miss Hidaka did not drink a drop of alcohol, despite Riyako having been seen drinking several martini. It hints at the fact that Riyako is not really there and the Hidaka in question is Mariko, now an adult, and confronting her abusive past.
- Harmful to Minors: Some of the pasts that the child characters had. Mariko and Ryota were physically abused by their mother and father, respectively.
- Love Triangle: Between Yui, Akira and Makio lies a Type 7. Both love Yui and she loves both men, but needs to decide which one she loves more.
- No Name Given: The employees of the Kiri no Mori hotel never have their name mentioned. They are merely known by their occupation.
- Starts with a Suicide: The series starts with Shouko Shimura attempting to commit suicide, before being led to the Kiri no Mori hotel.
