Genre Horror
Age Rating Mature
Price $9.99

Asami's best friend Chiharu has stopped coming to school and isn't answering her phone. It seems she's found something that's a little more addictive than the school art club. But when Chiharu mysteriously commits suicide, all Asami finds in her room is a strange video game called Portus. With the help of two of her teachers, Asami hopes to solve the mystery behind her friend's macabre death and the bizarre game itself. But is she prepared for the horrors of entering the twisted world of Portus, a game where, if you lose, there is no option to continue? A frightening vision of modern manga horror, Jun Abe's Portus might put you off video games for the rest of your life

Portus is easily a easily a title that will give contradictory reactions depending on who you are. On one hand, Abe manages to tell us a chilling horror story in the vein of many J-Horror films. On the other hand, while the manga stands well on its own, it's too derivative of the genre it's paying homage to and is very much a mass-market title.

Having said that, one of the strengths of Abe is his artwork and there are a lot of visually gruesome scenes as well as lots of carefully illustrated details that gives this title an extra layer of depth that serves to highlight the terrifying atmosphere it's attempting to simulate. There are lots of things going on in the page and one can appreciate the effort Abe puts into it. The story, which revolves around a computer game that has a "lost level" as an urban legend and draws in unwitting victims.  Honestly, it isn't bad but astute readers will notice that it is too faithful to the formula of most J-Horror films.  So much so that it can become quite predictable. Of course if you haven't seen Ring or Ju-On or Dark Water, or don't mind seeing more of the same thing, this could easily be a welcome read for you.

Overall, Portus is actually a terrifying manga and is a good example of the horror comic genre albeit an unoriginal one in terms of execution. Still, all eleven chapters in this volume tell an entire narrative so one is hooked from start to finish in one sitting. If you can borrow Portus, I recommend it. Otherwise, you might want to look into other horror titles if you're bent on spending $10.00 on a comic: there are better titles out there that's less formualic and more original.

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