Spoilers in this page are all unmarked!
"By the time I realised I messed up I wasn't able to tell where our house was anymore. And I became all alone again."
—Yep, this is apparently classed as a Slice of Life manga.
It gets scarier when you think that this is a Disguised Horror Story with a Slice of Life as a coat of paint.
Shimeji Simulation is anything but a slice-of-life story. It's known for it being a Slice of Life story in disguise and it is known for its true nature as an Existential Horror. Take a good look on the image on the right to make sense of it.- The town, while a seemingly idyllic Arcadia, is suspiciously empty to the point that it is a Thriving Ghost Town. It gets a nightmarish feeling when all of a sudden the emergence of bizarre, alien objects happen a lot in this supposed arcadia since the entire world is Surreal and bizarre.
- Shijima's trip to the Dream World, which started as a dandy but bizarre walk in the park, quickly turns into a life-and-death nightmare when a giant crab was pursuing her in an empty world without help. If that was not enough she stepped onto a glass shard, leading her to be immobilised with her foot bleeding before the crab catches up to her, almost causing her near death had it not for Majime saving her.
- Chapter 43 is this in spades when we see a heartwarming, wholesome romantic scene between Shijima and Majime in their house. Until Shijima starts to scream a lot of gibberish about being merged as one by Majime, followed by a frightening thought of disappearing.
- After that disastrous getup from above, Shijima is sent to a black, empty world that represents her wish to cast Majime out. It's especially creepy when all that is seen is a black, featureless and distorted void in front of Shijima who is virtually alone by herself.
- Chapter 47 takes this to a whole different level where a bait-and-switch dream sequence happens where Shijima is supposedly reunited with her old friends including Majime. Until it is revealed that Shijima is alone in her world where all around her is a black void. And to top it all off, she's been in this world for 1400 years, repeating the same thing of dreaming about Majime over and over again every single day with loneliness increasing further. Nothing Is Scarier when Shijima is just trapped in her own fate as The Hermit with no one but herself.
