Hoshino Terumichi has had some scary recurring dreams: being choked to death in likely Shōwa era Japan by someone he called sensei. He doesn’t understand why it happens, but his dream begins to turn more into reality the more he interacts with Yamada Omihiko, who he likes a lot. His love for Omihiko ends up colliding with a seemingly random young boy, who ends up stabbing Omihiko to death.
Then maybe some minutes later, Omihiko wakes up, walks away, and says with blood drying at the side of his face, “Two more to go…”
Syundei’s Total Eclipse of the Eternal Heart mixes mild boys love with supernatural and horror elements to bring forth a fascinating read. The story is set in the present, but the past — and in this case, the past is feudal Japan — plays a major role in the manga in a creative way. There’s a twist that I won’t spoil you in this revolving around most of the characters (even that seemingly random young boy), but for the most part it’s worked in pretty well. The only thing I can say at this point is we get the usual reincarnated manga and light novels and anime, so this is by far a decidedly different spin on that, which lends it to be pretty refreshing.
Also refreshing is the art. If you’ve seen or read Syundei’s Go for it, Nakamura!, this is a very old school type of feel which sets it apart from most manga in the market, but it sure looks great. The very first splash page is terrifically detailed, colorful, and also foreboding as well, which certainly will set you up for what to expect from this work. It’s also pretty gay, but as mentioned earlier, it’s fairly mild/or at least nothing is shown like it’s a hentai or something from SuBLime. It’s really about a young boy who, from the little background info we get, feels disconnected from his family and is back talked by some of his classmates at school for liking guys. But things change when he meets Omihiko, and that ends up saving him.
The “little background info” is some of the problems with Total Eclipse of the Eternal Heart — it’s a one-shot manga. This usually means certain things will get cut out or won’t be developed, so in this manga, we maybe get a few pages where he spends time with his family. At best only the mother, who has a few lines, speaks to him, whereas his dad and sister don’t have much a role at all. This isn’t a major problem, but I think some extra pages going over Terumichi’s family might have been nice.
The other problem is the ending for me. From a narrative standpoint, it probably fits due to Terumichi and Omihiko’s true backstories, but once it got to the part with Terumichi’s mother holding those cookies she just baked, I wasn’t too happy. Maybe I was hoping it would end in a different manner than that, but it just didn’t sit well with me.
Total Eclipse of the Eternal Heart is a title that interested me once Seven Seas announced it because of its mix of genres. And while I’m ambivalent on how it ended, I certainly was not disappointed in reading this — from the pacing to the mix of reality and the past, this was a thoroughly great read, and is worth checking out for not only those who like boys love, but also those who enjoy horror stories.