Hen na Ie
The Strange House

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Can you create a creepy story only based around a map?

Turns out, proven by Volume 1 of "The Strange House", you can.

Upon getting my hands on this manga (thanks, German Manga Day) and turning the first pages, you are greeted by the core element of this book, which is already teased to you on the cover: A Floor Plan. A floor plan of a 2 story-house the protagonist girl and her husband want to move in, a house where the previous family suddenly moved out, without any explanation.

You, the reader, are then invited to look at the plan. Is there something… weird? An ... unusual detail coming into your eye?
If your eye is as unschooled (or maybe naive) as mine, you will not glimpse anything too suspicious. At least there is nothing to write home about.

Or is it?

What then unfolds over the ~172 pages is a suspenseful mix of a detective story and a conspiracy theory rabbit hole the two main characters descent into further and further. The theories built around what could have happened in the house become more and more disturbing - all while the whole theory construct stays (largely) plausible.

There is a probability that you will end up feeling really uncomfortable whenever you look at that floor plan, imagining the fked-up things the main characters continue to theorize over the book's length.*

And all this without any action! No ghosts or criminals appear at the girl's home at night in an artificial attempt to scare the reader. The vast majority of the plot really only origins from the two main character analyzing that creepy floor plan. Remarkable writing. (To be fair though, I have to admit that my experience with this genre is extremely limited.)

Unfortunately, the mystery will not be solved by the end of the first volume… so the suspense will keep you in its claws and you will have to hope for the next volumes to find out the truth. Personally, I immediately preordered the next part upon finishing - something I rarely do - and pray that the following chapters are as good as volume 1 was.


*Note: There is no need to keep turning the pages back to the plan and back, as the story will provide re-prints of important plan pieces whenever necessary.

The first two volumes of The Strange House are perfect. The concept of a horror mystery based off a house plan is really unique, which was then paired up with excellent use of panels to do the storytelling and nice art. It was scary, creepy, whole mystery plot was intriguing and made you wonder what the fuck is actually happening? Why and who came up with this method of murder?
However, the reveal at the end of volume 4 about plan being executed because of some ritual that was done in the past was really underwhelming. All my curiosity about "how does someone come ... up with his house plan method? What are the circumstances of the child? Who are the people behind it?" was not satisfied at all and it left a bad taste. The characters are also not that good, they just feel like a way for reader to get to know whats happening.

EDIT (as 01/18/26): Review now adds the other 3 volumes i read in recent times, with the 21 chapters i read slightly covered without too much spoilers (i hope). If i change my mind during the manga realization, i'll edit this as i do today.

I was curious about this manga when i firstly saw It advertised in the comic store i always go some months ago, then found It again on a comic fair at the end of October and purchased it, by the name i was expecting a story in the style of "House of Leaves" even if not THAT cryptic, instead is ... this interesting (so far) mystery story about the titular "weird house" planimetry send to this journalist (simply named... "I"? What kind of name is this? Is this a self-insert from the author? This can't be used as a reader avatar because is a totally new charatcher) that writes about weird, mysterious stories and with the help of his friend the secrets about this house starts to be revealed faster with a very disturbing theory that this is a place for murdering! (That's not really a huge spoiler of the story, It happens in the second chapter of first volume actually)

The more they digging, the more creepy weird stuff happens around the two main charatchers, a mysterious girl joins the two helping revealing more about the mysteries of the "weird house(s)", that takes slowly a classic family curse story typical of japanese (and not only horror novels and folkklore

The art is well done and it's functional to the type of story presented, despite the author known works is only this manga. Is this a Josei? From the way the charatchers are presented to be more attractive to a female (jeez, even male!) audience...

Talking about the charatchers, they are ok and decently written, despite a quirk i saw in the second volume from the architect friend of the protagonist make my eyes roll and think "WTF is this dude doing?", enforcing my Josei manga theory. But they overall just works for the roles assigned.

Overall, from what i read so far it's a good mystery story, even if still follows the classic creepypasta/horror story from the original video from the writer of this manga/novelI don't think this manga will be too long in the future, maybe 8/9 volumes? I never read the original novel so i don't know how it's really long....

WARNING: Spoiler from the end of Chapter 21 ahead, read at your own risk!

Even if looks like this manga add new stories from the original novel?