Print Review- Dark Metro
Rating: 
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Every major city has its own collection of unique urban legends; often these myths involve the city’s rarely-seen nether regions. Alligators and giant rats inhabit New York’s sewers; cults meet in the catacombs of Rome and Paris. And in Tokyo’s labyrinthine subway system, ghosts cross the border between our world and the next. All the linked short stories in Dark Metro are focused around the Tokyo subway and its dead residents, and are connected by the presence of the mysterious character Seiya.
The first story involves a young actress who notices her co-star hasn’t come to work in days. A late-night rush to catch the last subway train reveals why: her fellow has killed herself by jumping in front of a train (a popular method of suicide in Japan) because she thinks the actress stole a lead role from her. Now she’s out for revenge in an eerily deserted subway station, and only quick intervention from Seiya saves her life.
The second tale explores a dark facet of teen life in Japan. A teen boy meets up with two acquaintances who invite him to an exclusive club. Unknown to him, his pals run a side ‘business’ where they introduce teenage girls to older men- in short, they’re pimps. And one of their ‘clients’ was murdered by the man to whom they introduced her. The club turns out to be located in a room beneath a subway station…and once again only a warning from Seiya saves the innocent boy’s life. Story three introduces a newbie subway driver who laughs at his co-workers’ tales of ghost haunting the tunnels, until, of course, an encounter convinces him drastically otherwise.
The final tale in volume one concerns a teen girl whose life was saved when a mysterious man rescued her from a burning subway car. When she thinks she glimpses him in a subway station, the hunt is on to find out who he is.
Volume two gets ever-so-slightly weirder. A maid café employee goes missing, and three of her regular customers go to find her…in a video game. After that comes a touching story with an unsettling ending. A young amusement park worker finds the mother of a lost child, and soon wishes she hadn’t. Only the power of love can calm the spirits of children killed in anger.
The volume’s final story is about the link between all the tales: Seiya, who saves the living again and again from the wrath of the dead. Volume two also contains a collection of goofy four-panel comics involving the characters.
Horror often works best in a short-story format, since it’s difficult to sustain an atmosphere of dread over a longer work. But this also presents horror writers with a unique challenge: in a relatively short period of time, they have to engage the reader and make them believe what is happening. This can be done with a unique storyline, or with extensive development that makes the reader actually care what happens to these people. While Dark Metro has an interesting concept, it’s hardly unique and the stories are so short there’s really no place to develop the characters. Most of the intended victims are shallow and stereotypical. Even Seiya, the only recurring character, is the usual sort of bishonen with a sad, sad past (and when his tragic past is revealed, it’s so overwrought as to be unintentionally funny).We’ve met all these people before, and they’re still no interesting, even in the subway.
Dark Metro has some nicely creepy moments. It tales a well-worn premise- ghosts seeking vengeance on the living- and lands it in an interesting setting that has plenty of shivery atmosphere on its own. Some of the stories are engaging: the train driver driven to madness by an apparition, the abused boy seeking a friend. But on the whole Dark Metro is neither creepy nor interesting.
The artwork of Dark Metro is likewise pretty average, though Yoshiken excels at drawing decaying corpses and some of them are truly gross.
Tokyopop gives Dark Metro the standard presentation; the cover of volume one shows the actress in a dark subway tunnel, while volume two shows the maid café employee, apparently in the exact same subway tunnel. Unusually, volume one features a short excerpt from another manga series, Doors of Chaos.
If you’re really bored, the first couple volumes of Dark Metro aren’t a bad way to waste an hour. But true fans of horror manga won’t find anything here to impress
Details
Publisher: Tokyopop
Author: Tokyo Calen
Pages: 192
Format: manga
MSRP: $9.99
Date of Publication: 02/12/2008
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