Pumpkin Night has followed you
Pumpkin Night is a horror manga by Masaya Hokazono and Seima Taniguchi.
The manga follows a deranged girl who adopts the name "Pumpkin Night" when she escapes from a mental hospital by killing all the nurses and patients. She goes out in the world, seeking bloody vengeance against a group of teenagers who played a prank on her and ruined her life back in middle school.
Tropes
- Aborted Arc: The prequel series, Pumpkin Night Gaiden, got cancelled after chapter 6.
- Aerosol Flamethrower: Made an improvised flamethrower using bug spray and a lighter in order to fend off the Yakuza hired by Naruto's dad.
- Alone with the Psycho: After the episode in the hospital, Katsuya ends up finding Naoko and being with her in the elevator, the two converse with each other briefly before she goes away, saying she intends to save him for last.
- Alas, Poor Villain: The death of the two female bullies is treated with some degree of sympathy.
- Arc Villain: Part 1 had Naruto Kuroki. In Part 2, the big bad is his mother, Sae. Part 3 has the CEO of Farms.
- Asshole Victim: Naoko's bullies, Completely averted with the rest of the victims, who only had the bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
- Back from the Dead: Volume 4, billed as the end of part 1, ends with Naoko rising from her grave.
- Barbaric Bully: The main characters turned out to be Naoko's bullies and they actually took part in the prank that destroyed Naoko's face and served to cause her to become deranged.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: When she was in the sanatorium, Naoko got along nicely with Ayumi and saw her as a mother figure. However, it may have been possible that Naoko manipulated her into helping her escape at the cost of Ayumi’s mental health.
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Naoko's constant bullying and finally her disfigurement were what drove her over the edge and made her Ax-Crazy.
- Bully Hunter: Naoko whose goal is to get revenge on the people who bullied her. By the end of part 1 they're all dead and she's seemingly returned from the dead to hunt all bullies.
- Brainwashedand Crazy: Well already crazy but brainwashed as in manipulating Kazuya into thinking Naoko is still his enemy in spite of him killing Naruto and Tatsuo.
- The Cameo:Kaoru,Mari,and Yosikazu from Kichikujima appear in cameos alongside Morph from Killing Morph.
- Cop Killer: In one panel of a chapter
, Mayor Tatsuo Kuroki hastily backs up his van in an attempt to run over Kazuya and rams into the policewoman friend of Kazuya's which appears to kill her instantly if her lying on the pavement with rolled-up Dull Eyes of Unhappiness as she Dies Wide Open is any indication. Subverted as the next couple of chapters revealed she's still alive and en route to the hospital. - Corrupt Politician: Mayor Tatsuo Kuroki used his criminal connections to advance his political career.
- Cowboy Cop: A policewoman who briefly impersonates Naoko seeks to bring justice outside of the law to avenge her politician father's death at Mayor Kuroki's hands and take in Naoko's bullies.
- Deadly Prank: Naoko won a contest at school, and was meant to have a pumpkin put on her head as "crowning", as is the school's tradition. The bullies decided to play a prank on her by setting off firecrackers inside the pumpkin. Even worse, the bullies went above and beyond and put sulphuric acid in the pumpkin to melt her face off, it's a miracle she survived.
- Dramatic Irony: During the hospital part of the story, Naoko changes place with Saki, pretending to be the one in the bed. While the reader knows this, the characters are unaware.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Averted with Nomizu's Attempted Rape on Naruto. It isn't Played for Laughs, nor is it kinky. It's as revolting as it looks due to her intentions of blackmailing him into being her boyfriend with her knowledge of his crimes against Naoko.
- Evil Versus Evil: Although the bullies are horrible people, Naoko is far from being a hero, since her victims are not limited to bullies, but also to dozens of innocent people.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Many chapter covers make Naoko look this way, depicting her as a cute girl covered in blood, wielding knives, sporting a Slasher Smile, etc. However, in the manga itself she isn't actually like this at all, being a kindhearted and innocent person before the destruction of her face drove her murderously insane, even though later on, she gets her face restored, twice. Played straight by Naruto, a handsome Long-Haired Pretty Boy who is the worst of Naoko's bullies, the one who burned her face for no reason other than sadistic spite, and the true Big Bad of part 1.
- Fan Disservice: The reader will often be handed an eyeful of Naoko's panties, with the many, many scars on her arms and thighs framing the sight.
- For the Evulz: After Naruto admits in the streaming that he was responsible for what happened to Naoko, Katsuya questions Arata why they bullied Naoko. He simply replies that there was never any reason other than to amuse themselves.
- Gorn: Any death in the show is at least extremely bloody and at most a spectacle of blood and internal organs messed up to the point of being a horror-inducing masterpiece.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Mayor Kuroki, Naruto's father. He used his position to help cover up what actually happened to Naoko and had her locked away in a mental hospital. Later on, he squashes Detective Matsui's investigation into the killings and their connection to the incident with Naoko and gets all evidence of Naruto's confession scrubbed. In Part 2, a multinational corporation called Farms is this when it was revealed that they secretly own the Hirayama Clinic via Sae, and when the inmates were freed, they sent a PMC unit to kill them all along with the staff members to cover up the incident.
- Genre Shift: Mildly so in Part 1 with a change to action-packed battles sometimes but more so in Part 2 with battles involving gunplay and less slasher killings.
- He Knows Too Much:
- Naruto suffocates one of his last remaining friends with a Vorpal Pillow to silence him when he desires to confess their crimes to the authorities in chapter 25. Not to mention how earlier Mayor Kuroki pulled the strings to cover up his son's bullying of Naoko to the point of having her and Katsuya dumped and left for dead at a construction site.
- Later, Sae does in the staff and some of the inmates of the clinic to cover up Farm's activities.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Arata is given a Vorpal Pillow when confessing to Naruto that they should turn themselves in and thus be spared from Pumpkin Night's wrath in chapter 25.
- Heel Realization: When being pursued by Kazuya the new Pumpkin Night and onlookers not lifting a hand to save him as they were thinking it's All Part of the Show, Naruto realizes the situation he's in is the receiving end of his bullying of Naoko.
- Interplay of Sex and Violence: Naoko attacks a topless (but still wearing a black lingerie bra) Nomizu by shoving a hook through her boob right after she was removing her shirt in a fanservice-y scene.
- Kill and Replace: At one point, Naoko kills Saki and takes her place in the hospital bed, in order to approach her other victims.
- Leave No Witnesses: Sae orders her PMC unit to do this to the inmates and staff of the Hirayama Clinic, to cover up the activities there in an act of desperation, of which fails thanks to the efforts of Kazuya and Shingo.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: As of chapter 20. Has Naoko's vengeful spirit really possessed Kazuya to continue her Roaring Rampage of Revenge or Kazuya has decided to Go Mad from the Revelation after Naoko's death and take up the mantle of Pumpkin Night to avenge her? In Part 2, were the sightings and communications with the ghosts (including that of Naruto) all in the heads of Naoko, Kazuya, Shingo, and even Sae, all of them having mental issues to a degree, or were they real somehow?
- In Part 1, Naoko displays feats of great strength, skill, and speed, far in excess of what a girl of her age should be capable of but still largely within the bounds of human capability. In Part 2, Naoko is explicitly super-human being capable of, among other things, dodging multiple laser beams. Whether this is due to Naoko being empowered by some supernatural force or due to the scientific experiments done on her is left ambiguous.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Mayor Kuroki is visually modeled after a certain 45th president of the United States.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Naoko herself is so badly damaged she acts as a gleefully deranged killer, while also almost using baby talk to talk with her victims and not even pronouncing their names properly.
- Public Execution: Naoko streams Naruto's and Nomizu's punishment online, though Naruto managed to get rescued.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: A constant theme throughout the story, starting with Naoko’s against the bullies, then Kazuya’s against the surviving bullies and Tatsuo (shared with Hayakawa) over the supposed death of Naoko, and then Naoko against Sae over her abuse at the clinic.
- Serial Escalation: The series starts with a simple Slasher Movie premise, an enigmatic Serial Killer is hunting down horny teenagers. As her main target happens to have ties to a Greater-Scope Villain, Naoko happens to get involved with the target's father being the corrupt mayor of the city with Yakuza ties, his wife trying to use her for Private Military Contractors, and once the Government Conspiracy gets leaked, "World War III" against Farms.
- Shout-Out:
- The brutal killing of a pretty girl alone in her house as the opening of the manga seems to mirror Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore's character) in the iconic opening of the movie Scream
- One extra image of the manga shows Naoko's mask in the place of Michael Myers' mask in the original poster for Halloween.
- During the titular Pumpkin Night that started everything many pop culture characters can be seen in the crowd like Batman, Jason, Freddy among others. The scene is also reminiscent of the climax of Carrie.
- Speaking of Freddy, when Naoko is attempting to get Naruto to confess to what he did on live stream she says one of his most iconic lines "Welcome to prime time, bitch!!"
- Two people dressed as Kaoru and Mary from Freak Island aka Kichikujima show up in Volume 4 among a crowd of costumed bystanders oblivious to Naruto's plight someone dress as Their father Yoshikazu also appears.
- Slasher Movie: This manga follows lots of tropes from this. A brutal, strange killer follows a group of teenagers to try to kill them.
- Smug Snake: Both Kuroki father and son believe themselves to be above everything and everyone.
- Take That!: Farms logo is a mix of Facebook and Amazon.
- Take Up My Sword: As of chapter 20, Kazuya appeared to taken up the mantle of Pumpkin Night to avenge Naoko.
- Token Good Teammate: Kazuya is the only member of the group who didn’t partake in the bullying to Naoko. This eventually leads to him turning on his friends to save Naoko and confess his love for her.
- Villain Protagonist: Naoko and later Kazuya.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Naoko was once a kind girl who was bullied because of her slight oddball behavior. Then the bullies horribly burned her face, and when she tried to tell adults, they turned a blind eye to her and threw her in a mental hospital, completely breaking her mind and turning her into the psychopath she is now.
- Wham Episode: Chapter 19 in which Naoko dies.
- Chapter 33 ends with what seems to be Naoko's resurrection and new goal: to kill all bullies.
