I'm so hyped for the Omori Manga

Written by Rei Caldombra 12/27/2023 Video version: https://youtu.be/bBaF1fQPBuE

This contains no serious direct story spoilers.

I absolutely love Omori. It’s one of my favorite games. Few games have gotten me as emotional as Omori has. There are certain scenes that can still get me to tear up on rewatch. I would not call it perfect but it’s pretty much as close as you can get. I love the characters (all these crazy kids are great, but Hero is my favorite.). I love the visual style, it’s very unique and charming. The contrast between Headspace and the real world is great, along with the horror elements being genuinely scary and impactful. I was late to get into it (as I often am with video games that get popular) and first learned about it in 2022. This is one of those cases of a random meme video about the game showing up in my feed getting me into something I get super into. It was Ban.mp4 by Osulan on YouTube. I thought the video was cute and funny, so I looked into what game it was from. I am very happy to have gotten into the deep, dark hole that is Omori!

I was not able to find much info on Nui Konoito, the illustrator for the manga, but I am very happy with how the promotional art we have looks. Dreamer’s design is great and spot on to the game and I like the look they went for with Sunny. I like the differences between them and think the style fits. It’s a bit different than Sunny in the game but I take no issue with this change. Speaking on the visual standpoint I do wonder how the manga largely being black and white will affect how Omori is portrayed. There is some importance to color in the game which will likely harder to portray. Such as Omori being all black and white in Headspace while everything else is colored. Not sure how to go about making this distinct in black and white, perhaps the other members of the group with be stylized a bit differently like Omori vs Sunny. It should also be very clear for the viewer whether you are currently seeing Headpsace or the Real World. But I am more interested in seeing how this will be tackled rather than truly concerned right now. With some creativity this can likely be remedied. We are already shown multiple styles in the promo art, so I feel positive about this not being an issue.

It will be interesting to experience it without the soundtrack. Now the soundtrack I would truly call flawless. The music, sound effects, everything. Catchy, beautiful, goofy, sad, freaky, dramatic- it hits everything sound can elicit. Just hearing some of the tracks and sound effects makes me feel emotional (It Means Everything hits me the most, it so perfectly portrays the scene and feelings in the moment. The sound effect for you-know-what instantly hits you with a little anxiety). That part of the sensory experience missing from the manga is a shame but that’s how the medium is. I generally prefer anime to manga as I highly value the animation and auditory experience, but at least I can at least use my imagination based on the game’s soundtrack. I can still enjoy manga even if it’s not my preferred medium and especially so if I am already very attached to the property from other pieces of media. 

The story is very good, though not perfect. Some parts can be a little confusing and I do think the main event that spurred the story goes a bit further than it needs to, but the emotions we get out of this story is just fantastic. The interpretation of mental illness is great. The character interactions feel down to earth and real. You very quickly grow very attached to this group of characters.

I have no serious reservations going into this. The one visual we have is great, so I have no concerns with the style and art quality. The game and original material the game is based on give it a strong foundation to work with. Omocat has given me no reasons to doubt them too so I’ll have faith they put their baby in the right hands. 

Only fears I can think of are ones I’d consider towards any adaptation of a longer video game- bad pacing and loss of critical details that bring down the experience (cough cough Danganronpa 1 anime adaptation). The characters are the main focus of the story so it would be a serious blow if we lose a lot of the dialogue and interactions that make us get so attached to them, especially for first time viewers. To me that attachment is critical to your enjoyment of the story. The official tweet says it will be for both new and old fans so hopefully that’ll be true. 

I’m happy with any more Omori content I can get, but I do hope we get some original stuff rather than it being a one-to-one retelling. I prefer adaptations doing something new outside of just the visual medium, so I am hoping we can get content like new character interactions and some new enemies at least. I wouldn’t want the story significantly changed but I would love to see original details that complement and enhance the original story and expand the worlds. 

I’m feeling very optimistic towards this adaptation and hope you are as hype as I am! I’ll follow along with the manga as it releases and will post about it (hopefully gushing over it) so stay tuned for that! Please check out Omori if you found and read this without playing or watching the game (highly recommend playing it yourself, it's worth it.) Thank you for reading!

My Patreon: patreon.com/ReiCaldombra

First chapter of the manga: https://www.blogunderalog.com/blog-collection/omori-manga-chapter-1-review