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Once upon a time, I waxed poetically about my love for Josei manga (here and here) and how those stories were just what I needed leaving adolescence and into my grown woman years. Josei is still an underrated genre in manga, and I am here to do my part and evangelize some more about one of my favorite genres that I can never read enough.
Here’s a list that includes Josei titles for you manga readers, and the only guidelines here are that these all are just one single volume and that they are messy as hell for your enjoyment! Up the ante here! From sleeping with around with the guy your stepmother is cheating on your father with to tearfully being unable to wear the cute but expensive maternity underwear, Josei has it all!
Note: As Josei is geared for older audiences as Senien as to Shonen, please note that an age rating of older teen, 16+ years is recommended for the titles on this list.
Pink
Publisher: Vertical (Kodansha)
Creator: Kyoko Okazaki
Availability: Print only
Love, lust, capitalism, and desire for more all converge in Pink which follows Yumiko, a young woman who is working two jobs. Her nine-to-five job at an office bores her to tears and her side hustle as a call girl at night is just enough to feed her pet Croc. Life is a bit dull until she does a little snooping and finds her stepmother’s sugar baby is the much younger Haruo, a college student and aspiring writer–things liven up for once. Yumi’s never been a kept woman, or someone’s pet, so will she consider a different kind of life with Haruo around? A whole lot of drinking, blackmail, dramatics, and threatening with her pet crocodile means revenge is a dish best served cold and good times are had until they aren’t.
Created by legendary mangaka artist Kyoko Okazaki, Pink is an unapologetic manga about a young woman wanting to color her world and find new thrills to experience. Sure, there’s musing on being young and having thoughts about relationships, but there is so much to love about the complexities of family and finding ways to cherish the good times in this narrative. Yumi’s apartment becomes a home away from home not just for Haruo, but her precocious younger half-sister. Yumi goes through the book musing and pondering about her body, the female body in different places, and the work she has to complete to get the things she needs and wants.
This is a volume of Josei that I will recommend every time because Yumi’s story is so fun and cringeworthy to read. I loved the weirdly endearing dynamic of the relationship that she has with her school-aged half-sister who initially reveals the sugar-baby relationship between the mother and the much younger man. Noted, I haven’t read much manga centering sex workers, so this work was a nuanced manga that thankfully doesn’t villainize her but instead explores her motivations and some of her inner desires in life. Pink is a brilliant, contained volume of manga of a young woman searching for her happiness and of all the many ways to color her life that still feels fresh and relevant even though this work was published at the tail end of the 1980s.
Recommended for: For fans of Unusual Pairings, Stories about Sex Workers, Works with Criticism about Capitalism and Art
Haru’s Curse
Publisher: Kodansha
Mangaka: Asuka Konishi
Translator: Hannah Airriess
Availability: Digital & Print
Natsumi’s younger sister Haru was her whole world and now she’s gone. After the funeral ceremony, Natsumi reluctantly agrees to date her sister’s fiancé Togo at his request. As time passes, they both come to learn so much about each other and the complicated relationship that they both shared with the now-dead Haru who died young. Haru’s Curse complicates a generous story about falling in love and all the untold expectations we have of ourselves and those we love.
Reading the synopsis alone could turn you away from this manga based on how very soap opera-like the story could venture out to be. Instead, Haru’s Curse turned out to be this haunting but beautiful tale of grief, sisterhood, and the messiness of love, both familial and romantic. Featuring a narrative that centers on two sisters who loved each other the most and two young adults who find themselves navigating murky emotional waters, this English-language debut by mangaka, Asuka Konishi is a searing, heartbreaking read.
Through Natsumi and Togo, there are some intricate narrative threads masterfully sewed together about growing up, finding agency, and standing on your own two feet that are so well executed on the page that I return to reread Haru’s Curse again and again even when I know it will break my heart each time. This is a volume of Josei that I will recommend every time because, on this list, this manga best illustrates that love and the act of loving someone is never always rainbows and sunshine. As romanticized as falling in love is, this manga is a reminder that loving people can be painful, but it can also be the catalyst to taking ownership of your life and what and who you desire to hold dear. I believe that this manga also reminds us of the fragility of life and how suffocating it can be when the people we love leave us behind.
Recommended if you like: Complex Family Situations, Grieving Characters, Love Triangles
I Don’t Know How to Give Birth!
Publisher: Yen Press
Creator: Ayami Kazama
Translator: Julie Goniwich
Availability: Digital and Print
I am so glad that in recent years the manga industry has been giving us more and more diverse titles coming into the English language market that includes manga exploring gender and sexuality exploration, autobiographical manga, and–manga about motherhood. I Don’t Know How to Give Birth! is a standout manga as it runs the gauntlet from hilarious to heartwarming to eye-opening on one woman’s journey to motherhood and all the challenges and joys it brings. I love getting to read more autobiographical manga, and this volume caught my eye as it is presented in such a visual and humorous way.
At the end of each chapter, both the mangaka, Kazama, and her husband, Konno Azure, also a manga artist, each have a page where they share a one-panel comic and add commentary from the perspective of the mother’s and father’s experiences. It’s a funny and insightful little piece of commentary that I started to anticipate the pages throughout the book. These endearing pages serve as short bursts of advice, like how to support your pregnant partner’s food cravings and finding ways to best prepare yourself for the challenges of breastfeeding. It will surely ring true for parents at all stages of life: trying, new, and seasoned.
This is a volume of Josei that I will recommend every time because while I was laughing (and cringing) throughout, I loved Kazama’s personal reflections on figuring out why she wanted to be a mother and why this endeavor of childbirth was so important to her. Reading to see her not underestimate herself when it came to the mountain of medical tests and procedures needed to prep her body for not just pregnancy but for birth pulled at my heartstrings. Also noting that while infertility is still very much taboo in some countries and communities, seeing the manga artist move past her embarrassment and shame to get to a place of better understanding and health was super inspiring. Shout out to the mamas and birth givers of the world! I am so much better equipped to understand what hardships y’all go through and what miracle it is to bring another life into this world.
Recommended for: Autobiographical work, Manga about Motherhood, Comedic Manga
My Broken Mariko
Creator: Waka Hirako
Publisher: Yen Press
Translator: Amanda Haley
Availability: Digital & Print
Tomoyo Shiino has been the one constant friend and grounding force in her childhood friend Mariko’s life. From an unhappy childhood with an abusive father to deep-seated depression and self-loathing to cancerous relationships, Mariko has survived it all thanks to Tomoyo by her side. She’s bandaged her up and rescued her. She’s gotten angry at her, for her, and on her behalf. When Tomoyo is utterly blindsided by news of her best friend’s death, she is determined to liberate Mariko’s ashes for one final journey together. My Broken Mariko is a tear-jerking, heavy read on friendships and the circumstances that befall young women who never quite make it back whole from being beaten on by the world for so long.
Of all the manga on the list, this one may carry the most trigger warnings as it does explore suicide, suicidal ideation, and a survivor of several types of abuse present in the narrative. This is a volume of Josei that I will recommend every time because it is a daring manga on closure and the failures of friendships: the ones we imagine and the realistic ones that we have no control over. Tomoyo sets out to redeem her dear friend but also herself as someone who could never truly save her destructive friend who moved from one trauma to the other. My Broken Mariko is a beautiful and saddening tale of the great love between friends in a world where one half of the duo experienced more darkness than light.
This manga effectively defines heartbreak, survivor’s guilt, and closure on the page. My Broken Mariko is forever ingrained in my heart as such a messy and heartfelt offering on the purest form of love through friendship and the incredible journey one friend takes to give another a final sendoff deserving of her.
Recommended for: Fans of Manga About Friendships Between Women, Grieving Characters, Psychological Plots
My Wandering Warrior Existence
Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment
Creator: Nagata Kabi
Translator: Jocelyn
Availability: Digital and Print
Nagata Kabi, the award-winning creator of such works as My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness and My Alcoholic Escape from Reality, brings us the fire once again with her latest manga titled My Wandering Warrior Existence. This work follows the mangaka when she attends a friend’s wedding and suddenly wants one of her own. Upon further evaluation and soul searching, she realizes that the wedding is just superficial for her. What she truly desires, what she truly longs to love and be loved. So, she sets out on a journey to figure out dating apps, learn about modern romance, and most importantly, move past trauma and self-doubt to come to a place of loving herself.
This is a volume of Josei I will recommend every time because Kabi is a powerhouse whose auto-biographical manga is worth reading, period. Her manga is, at times, hard to read through but always profound and manga that I always find myself reaching for the next book. What makes My Wandering Warrior Existence a standout from Kabi’s other works is that this book builds upon lessons from her previous works. This manga builds upon all the insecurities she has faced before in confronting her ideals and fears on her gender expression, her health issues, and navigating her own sexuality at her own pace.
Here in this book, she is asking herself more monumental questions and working through more complicated feelings. I truly felt so honored to be back along for the ride to read about this latest leg in her journey. Self-love is probably the overarching theme in this manga. Getting to witness Kabi find that place where she is better equipped to define living life more fully is so thrilling and satisfying. This single volume of the manga is an illustrative reminder that while we all have hang-ups and flaws, having agency in the decisions we make in life–and having support is the ultimate gift. More so a greater gift for those warriors weathering out the tougher chapters in their lives which may also include readers who may pick up this book and find pieces of themselves on the page.
Recommended for: Fans of Autobiographical works, Manga Exploring Gender and Relationships, Manga Exploring Mental Health
Love reading manga? See more on our site!
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The post 5 Messy but Brilliant Josei Manga Titles You Need In Your Life appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
Once upon a time, I waxed poetically about my love for Josei manga (here and here) and how those stories were just what I needed leaving adolescence and into my grown woman years. Josei is still an underrated genre in manga, and I am here to do my part and evangelize some more about one of my favorite genres that I can never read enough.
Here’s a list that includes Josei titles for you manga readers, and the only guidelines here are that these all are just one single volume and that they are messy as hell for your enjoyment! Up the ante here! From sleeping with around with the guy your stepmother is cheating on your father with to tearfully being unable to wear the cute but expensive maternity underwear, Josei has it all!
Note: As Josei is geared for older audiences as Senien as to Shonen, please note that an age rating of older teen, 16+ years is recommended for the titles on this list.
Pink
Publisher: Vertical (Kodansha)
Creator: Kyoko Okazaki
Availability: Print only
Love, lust, capitalism, and desire for more all converge in Pink which follows Yumiko, a young woman who is working two jobs. Her nine-to-five job at an office bores her to tears and her side hustle as a call girl at night is just enough to feed her pet Croc. Life is a bit dull until she does a little snooping and finds her stepmother’s sugar baby is the much younger Haruo, a college student and aspiring writer–things liven up for once. Yumi’s never been a kept woman, or someone’s pet, so will she consider a different kind of life with Haruo around? A whole lot of drinking, blackmail, dramatics, and threatening with her pet crocodile means revenge is a dish best served cold and good times are had until they aren’t.
Created by legendary mangaka artist Kyoko Okazaki, Pink is an unapologetic manga about a young woman wanting to color her world and find new thrills to experience. Sure, there’s musing on being young and having thoughts about relationships, but there is so much to love about the complexities of family and finding ways to cherish the good times in this narrative. Yumi’s apartment becomes a home away from home not just for Haruo, but her precocious younger half-sister. Yumi goes through the book musing and pondering about her body, the female body in different places, and the work she has to complete to get the things she needs and wants.
This is a volume of Josei that I will recommend every time because Yumi’s story is so fun and cringeworthy to read. I loved the weirdly endearing dynamic of the relationship that she has with her school-aged half-sister who initially reveals the sugar-baby relationship between the mother and the much younger man. Noted, I haven’t read much manga centering sex workers, so this work was a nuanced manga that thankfully doesn’t villainize her but instead explores her motivations and some of her inner desires in life. Pink is a brilliant, contained volume of manga of a young woman searching for her happiness and of all the many ways to color her life that still feels fresh and relevant even though this work was published at the tail end of the 1980s.
Recommended for: For fans of Unusual Pairings, Stories about Sex Workers, Works with Criticism about Capitalism and Art
Haru’s Curse
Publisher: Kodansha
Mangaka: Asuka Konishi
Translator: Hannah Airriess
Availability: Digital & Print
Natsumi’s younger sister Haru was her whole world and now she’s gone. After the funeral ceremony, Natsumi reluctantly agrees to date her sister’s fiancé Togo at his request. As time passes, they both come to learn so much about each other and the complicated relationship that they both shared with the now-dead Haru who died young. Haru’s Curse complicates a generous story about falling in love and all the untold expectations we have of ourselves and those we love.
Reading the synopsis alone could turn you away from this manga based on how very soap opera-like the story could venture out to be. Instead, Haru’s Curse turned out to be this haunting but beautiful tale of grief, sisterhood, and the messiness of love, both familial and romantic. Featuring a narrative that centers on two sisters who loved each other the most and two young adults who find themselves navigating murky emotional waters, this English-language debut by mangaka, Asuka Konishi is a searing, heartbreaking read.
Through Natsumi and Togo, there are some intricate narrative threads masterfully sewed together about growing up, finding agency, and standing on your own two feet that are so well executed on the page that I return to reread Haru’s Curse again and again even when I know it will break my heart each time. This is a volume of Josei that I will recommend every time because, on this list, this manga best illustrates that love and the act of loving someone is never always rainbows and sunshine. As romanticized as falling in love is, this manga is a reminder that loving people can be painful, but it can also be the catalyst to taking ownership of your life and what and who you desire to hold dear. I believe that this manga also reminds us of the fragility of life and how suffocating it can be when the people we love leave us behind.
Recommended if you like: Complex Family Situations, Grieving Characters, Love Triangles
I Don’t Know How to Give Birth!
Publisher: Yen Press
Creator: Ayami Kazama
Translator: Julie Goniwich
Availability: Digital and Print
I am so glad that in recent years the manga industry has been giving us more and more diverse titles coming into the English language market that includes manga exploring gender and sexuality exploration, autobiographical manga, and–manga about motherhood. I Don’t Know How to Give Birth! is a standout manga as it runs the gauntlet from hilarious to heartwarming to eye-opening on one woman’s journey to motherhood and all the challenges and joys it brings. I love getting to read more autobiographical manga, and this volume caught my eye as it is presented in such a visual and humorous way.
At the end of each chapter, both the mangaka, Kazama, and her husband, Konno Azure, also a manga artist, each have a page where they share a one-panel comic and add commentary from the perspective of the mother’s and father’s experiences. It’s a funny and insightful little piece of commentary that I started to anticipate the pages throughout the book. These endearing pages serve as short bursts of advice, like how to support your pregnant partner’s food cravings and finding ways to best prepare yourself for the challenges of breastfeeding. It will surely ring true for parents at all stages of life: trying, new, and seasoned.
This is a volume of Josei that I will recommend every time because while I was laughing (and cringing) throughout, I loved Kazama’s personal reflections on figuring out why she wanted to be a mother and why this endeavor of childbirth was so important to her. Reading to see her not underestimate herself when it came to the mountain of medical tests and procedures needed to prep her body for not just pregnancy but for birth pulled at my heartstrings. Also noting that while infertility is still very much taboo in some countries and communities, seeing the manga artist move past her embarrassment and shame to get to a place of better understanding and health was super inspiring. Shout out to the mamas and birth givers of the world! I am so much better equipped to understand what hardships y’all go through and what miracle it is to bring another life into this world.
Recommended for: Autobiographical work, Manga about Motherhood, Comedic Manga
My Broken Mariko
Creator: Waka Hirako
Publisher: Yen Press
Translator: Amanda Haley
Availability: Digital & Print
Tomoyo Shiino has been the one constant friend and grounding force in her childhood friend Mariko’s life. From an unhappy childhood with an abusive father to deep-seated depression and self-loathing to cancerous relationships, Mariko has survived it all thanks to Tomoyo by her side. She’s bandaged her up and rescued her. She’s gotten angry at her, for her, and on her behalf. When Tomoyo is utterly blindsided by news of her best friend’s death, she is determined to liberate Mariko’s ashes for one final journey together. My Broken Mariko is a tear-jerking, heavy read on friendships and the circumstances that befall young women who never quite make it back whole from being beaten on by the world for so long.
Of all the manga on the list, this one may carry the most trigger warnings as it does explore suicide, suicidal ideation, and a survivor of several types of abuse present in the narrative. This is a volume of Josei that I will recommend every time because it is a daring manga on closure and the failures of friendships: the ones we imagine and the realistic ones that we have no control over. Tomoyo sets out to redeem her dear friend but also herself as someone who could never truly save her destructive friend who moved from one trauma to the other. My Broken Mariko is a beautiful and saddening tale of the great love between friends in a world where one half of the duo experienced more darkness than light.
This manga effectively defines heartbreak, survivor’s guilt, and closure on the page. My Broken Mariko is forever ingrained in my heart as such a messy and heartfelt offering on the purest form of love through friendship and the incredible journey one friend takes to give another a final sendoff deserving of her.
Recommended for: Fans of Manga About Friendships Between Women, Grieving Characters, Psychological Plots
My Wandering Warrior Existence
Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment
Creator: Nagata Kabi
Translator: Jocelyn
Availability: Digital and Print
Nagata Kabi, the award-winning creator of such works as My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness and My Alcoholic Escape from Reality, brings us the fire once again with her latest manga titled My Wandering Warrior Existence. This work follows the mangaka when she attends a friend’s wedding and suddenly wants one of her own. Upon further evaluation and soul searching, she realizes that the wedding is just superficial for her. What she truly desires, what she truly longs to love and be loved. So, she sets out on a journey to figure out dating apps, learn about modern romance, and most importantly, move past trauma and self-doubt to come to a place of loving herself.
This is a volume of Josei I will recommend every time because Kabi is a powerhouse whose auto-biographical manga is worth reading, period. Her manga is, at times, hard to read through but always profound and manga that I always find myself reaching for the next book. What makes My Wandering Warrior Existence a standout from Kabi’s other works is that this book builds upon lessons from her previous works. This manga builds upon all the insecurities she has faced before in confronting her ideals and fears on her gender expression, her health issues, and navigating her own sexuality at her own pace.
Here in this book, she is asking herself more monumental questions and working through more complicated feelings. I truly felt so honored to be back along for the ride to read about this latest leg in her journey. Self-love is probably the overarching theme in this manga. Getting to witness Kabi find that place where she is better equipped to define living life more fully is so thrilling and satisfying. This single volume of the manga is an illustrative reminder that while we all have hang-ups and flaws, having agency in the decisions we make in life–and having support is the ultimate gift. More so a greater gift for those warriors weathering out the tougher chapters in their lives which may also include readers who may pick up this book and find pieces of themselves on the page.
Recommended for: Fans of Autobiographical works, Manga Exploring Gender and Relationships, Manga Exploring Mental Health
Love reading manga? See more on our site!
Want to get Black Nerd Problems updates sent directly to you? Sign up here! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram!
The post 5 Messy but Brilliant Josei Manga Titles You Need In Your Life appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
We’re all eagerly anticipating Netflix’s Wednesday, director Tim Burton’s modern take on the iconic The Addams Family characters. Sadly, Wednesday won’t make her debut in time for Halloween this year. (You know those Addams folk, always fashionably late). Instead, Netflix will drop the Jenna Ortega-starring series on November 23. Which, of course, falls on a Wednesday.
But to give us something creepy and kooky during this spooky season, Netflix has released another trailer for Wednesday, and it gives us our first look at one of the major members of the Addams clan: Uncle Fester. None other than Fred Armisen plays the character. We can’t think of anyone to better fill Christopher Lloyd’s heavy black boots. You can watch the new trailer for Wednesday below.
The trailer gives us more glimpses of Wednesday’s iconic parents, Gomez and Morticia. Not to mention a deeper look into Wednesday’s new home, the Nevermore Academy. The footage previews even more of the freakishly weird students who populate the school grounds. We already knew from the previous trailer that the school has students who are vampires and gorgons. But it looks like there’s a werewolf pack too. We’re not sure what the kids with no faces are supposed to be, but they sure freak us out.
Aside from our first look at Armisen as Fester Addams, the other important trailer reveal is our first look at Christina Ricci, who plays Marilyn Thornhill. Ricci, of course, played Wednesday Addams in the two Addams Family moves from the early ’90s. Despite what many people still assume, Tim Burton didn’t direct either of those movies, even though they really seem like early Burton films. But, Ricci has a history with the Beetlejuice director, having starred in Sleepy Hollow in 1999. She was the best part of the ’90s films, so we’re glad she’s still part of the Addams Family family.
Wednesday‘s 10-episode first season arrives on November 23.
The post The WEDNESDAY Trailer Reveals Fred Armisen as Uncle Fester appeared first on Nerdist.
Happy Mike Flanagan season!
Yes, it’s that magical time of year when we get another entry into the Mike Flanagan Cinematic Universe.
This month the Flanaverse expands with the writer-director’s Netflix series, The Midnight Club, adapted from the 1994 YA novel of the same name by prolific author Christopher Pike, who also serves as executive producer. Co-created by writer-producer Leah Fong (The Haunting of Bly Manor), the series follows a diverse group of terminally ill teenagers and their nightly meet-ups to scare each other with thrilling tales of ghosts, witches, and serial killers. But how do you scare someone whose reality is already terrifying?
Set in 1994, we begin the series with Ilonka (Iman Benson), an ambitious and intelligent high school senior and future student of Stanford University. A thyroid cancer diagnosis gets in the way of her ivy league dreams, forcing her to change course. But as a generally optimistic young woman with a penchant for planning, she does her own research and finds Brightcliffe, a place where young people have more agency over how they spend the rest of their time. Decades ago, one cancer patient was miraculously cured on hospice grounds, and Ilonka hopes the same can happen to her.
Ilonka’s foster dad Tim (Matt Biedel), one of the sweetest on-screen parents I’ve ever seen, reluctantly drives her to the hospice run by the mysterious Dr. Georgina Stanton, played by horror royalty Heather Langenkamp. She’s joined by Midnight Mass alums Zach Gilford as Mark, a kind nurse practitioner, Samantha Sloyan as Shasta, Brightcliffe’s naturopathic neighbor, and Rahul Kohli in a guest role that I won’t spoil.
Ilonka meets her new family away from family and fellow terminally ill teens — Kevin (Igby Rigney), Anya (Ruth Codd), Spencer (William Chris Sumpter), Natsuki (Aya Furukawa), Sandra (Annarah Cymone), Amesh (Sauriyan Sapkota), and Cheri (Adia). On her first night, Ilonka finds them in the hospice’s gorgeous and well-stocked library. This is where the titular Midnight Club gathers and tells stories, or as Natsuki commands, “Make ghosts.” Each story is personal to the storyteller, stories that reflect their own anxieties, adding in supernatural elements to heighten each tale. Executive producer Trevor Macy tells Netflix, “We’re all just stories in the end. When you live on in the heart of someone else, you live on. And that’s something that’s really resonant for these kids.”
Similar to how Bly Manor incorporated other stories by Henry James, The Midnight Club also includes other Pike works like The Wicked Heart, Road to Nowhere, and Witch. With all the stories within the main story, the series can go into different genres from black-and-white noir mysteries to science fiction thrillers with cyborgs. These mini movie-like sequences are crafted by a slew of talented directors with backgrounds in the YA and horror genres, including Michael Fimognari (To All the Boys: Always and Forever), Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour (Black Box), Axelle Carolyn (American Horror Story), Viet Nguyen (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), and Morgan Beggs (Once Upon a Time).
But there’s more to the club than exchanging stories. The members have a pact that if/when one of them dies, that person will make contact from the other side. Flanagan tells Vanity Fair, “The engine of the first season for us is these kids really want some kind of reassurance that their lives aren’t really over.” (There will be more than one season!) Along with reconciling with their mortality, the group goes through typical teenage issues. Being young is confusing and painful enough without imminent death looming over you, but they have to juggle it all.
As with his previous projects, Flanagan expertly balances humor with tragedy and scares. Bly Manor’s Dani Clayton (Victoria Pedretti) is one of the funniest, most relatable (and adorable), heartbreaking characters he’s created so far. And this new group of rich, unique characters has similar qualities. Given the heavy subject matter, the story is naturally bleak, but there are still moments of levity. A sense of humor helps when facing certain death, especially of the dark and morbid variety.
The beautiful Vancouver setting has a similar feel to it as Midnight Mass. Brightcliffe is surrounded by lovely greenery and crashing waves. Its interior is perfectly eerie, with its dim lighting and detailed set design. And let’s talk about the music. As soon as I heard the ominous version of “Possum Kingdom” by Toadies in the trailer I knew this series would have an excellent ’90s soundtrack. The Newton Brothers (Midnight Mass) use ’90s grunge classics to set the overall tone for a series about dying teenagers who have reasonably intense emotions that go beyond regular angst, with each teen’s stories having their own atmospheric sounds.
Each character’s personal journeys are handled with such care by the creators and actors, not just for cancer patients but for queer, disabled, and BIPOC. The majority of the cast is made up of exciting young talent. Some we’ve seen before, like Annarah Cymone and Igby Rigney from Midnight Mass, but for many, this is their debut. The brilliance of The Midnight Club is owed to the diversity in front of and behind the camera. Adult me loves seeing so many Black and Brown faces leading a horror series, but young me would’ve been over the moon. Representation matters.
The Midnight Club is a beautiful, haunting story about loss, life, faith, fear, love, sadness, and hope. In addition to a stellar ensemble cast of emerging actors alongside Flanaverse mainstays and an iconic scream queen, the writer-director’s signature blend of spine-chilling horror and dramatic character study makes The Midnight Club an absolute must-see for horror aficionados, Flanagan admirers, Pike fans, and just anyone who loves exceptional storytelling. Mike Flanagan doesn’t miss.
Hopefully, this time next year, I’ll be gushing about his next project, The Fall of the House of Usher!
All 10 episodes of The Midnight Club are currently streaming on Netflix.