There’s always going to be place for absurdly twisted manga to be published. There are probably people that would welcome the challenge of reading such material, mainly to see either how grotesque it can get or if they can handle it. Starving Anonymous is one such title that should prove to be a worthy one in that regard. But there’s one issue that ultimately is a problem aside from its artwork, and it doesn’t appear that the story will be executed in a way to fix it.
I’e and Kazu’s having a “normal” day in what isn’t normal times. The heat’s risen to mostly abnormal levels in March in Japan; there’s the declining birth rate; and a few other issues that are of concern that the two can only discuss briefly. And by brief it’s about maybe 9-10 pages in before they find themselves gassed on their bus ride. When I’e wakes up, he finds himself the only one awake in a storage building with naked humans.
Not too long after that, he witnesses them being butchered like meat.
About the only fascinating thing to me about Starving Anonymous is the who and the why. Who in the world built this place? Who is abducting humans across Japan and fattening them up like pigs? Why are they even doing this? Well, with monsters teeming throughout the building, something crazy, possibly supernatural is happening behind the scenes, and I can’t help but wonder what it is. Like who are these despicable people? All of these questions, however, will take a while to get answered. So it would help if the main characters that appear can be interesting as it gets to that point.
Unfortunately, they’re the weakest link.
I’e personality and interest is sandwiched between the creepy, ugly designs of the humans and monsters that show up and the humans he meets aside from Kazu. Yamabiki is a gay, maybe college-age man whose friends with Natsune, a man featuring an aggressive attitude. However, the only interesting character within this group is Kazu, who went from being a jokester and aiming to be a climatologist to getting fattened up and losing his personality. Thanks to I’e, he’s able to survive. Where he goes might be fine, but everyone else is far too one-note to be interesting.
It doesn’t help that it feels like the creators are rushing to show off the next crazy creature or thing this place is doing to humans. For example, after they look to escape, the four get caught by two people who work there. The reason they’re fine is Yamabiki and Natsune stole the uniform of two workers. This leads one worker, who is convinced I’e and Kazu (who aren’t wearing uniforms) are going to be disposed, to a section of the place. This section features horny men and women drugged in awful ways locked in cages. Some are having sex, while others are masturbating.
Oh, right, how can I forget that those two workers were dragging dudes bound and gagged to that area!
The designs of the creatures are actually super creepy. Like I wouldn’t want to actually show it to anyone with the lights off. The human designs manage to play it safe, using paneling and certain angles to obscure some things. Well, except when they get ripped apart by creatures or by the workers. All of this is done terrifying well in some ways, not so much in others. But all of this mostly distracts from the story, and it hinders the characters. Now, it does make sense that they have to react to an unfamiliar situation, so little growth could be expected.
But I think of something like Dragon Head and feel like that just sets its dark tone a lot better. This has a ways to go before it hits its sweet spot, but volume 1 doesn’t really feel like the creators aim to get there just yet.