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When it comes to manga series that involve a ghost or two, you never know how serious it is going to get, and Ako and Bambi is one of those special cases that feels like a more casual, slice of life approach to a haunting. But, at the same time, it’s this unexpected mystery that makes you want to know exactly what is going on with Ako.
Bambi is a young man who dropped out of school after getting a chance to work as an author. He’s not popular, mind you. He’s working his first job and living in an apartment he got cheap because someone committed suicide there. As his first serialization is about to end and he’s discussing a possible follow up with his editor, he realizes there’s someone in the room with him. Mistakenly, Bambi believes it is the ghost of the woman who died in his apartment, but instead, the other star of the manga is an amnesiac young woman named Ako who also happens to be a ghost and wanted to see if he could help her.
It’s in that moment that Bambi gets a new motivation both to move forward creatively. His editor requested a ghost story. He’s now living with a ghost. So, he goes about chronicling her existence and using that as a basis to figure out what’s going on with her. At the same time, it’s helping provide another reason to pull in the player.
Initially, it seems like presenting “truths” about what a ghost is really like. Ako has feet, for example, and in some cultures they don’t. Bambi realizes other people don’t seem to see her, but she’s very present and not at all translucent to him. He can even grab her and feel her touch, though she’s quite cold.
What really gets interesting is the reveal 28 pages into the Ako and Bambi manga. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, because it adds an unexpected twist with the introduction of a new character. But the presence of her, and the suggestions that come up throughout the book, feel like they start to offer some sort of hint as to Ako’s lingering and haunting. So much so that it feels like part of the purpose is not just exploring relationships between characters and life with a possible ghost, but like the manga is trying to get people interested in supernatural phenomena and solving the mystery.
Also, as an aside, I love the presentation of the Ako and Bambi manga. It feels like it has this otherworldly, dreamlike nature due to the colors used for the panels and characters. The use of shading and muted elements is both soothing and surreal. It really suits the atmosphere and story, and I found myself even trying to figure out if certain colors or shading was intended to provide hints about the situation.
The fact that there is this otherworldly element to Ako and Bambi besides it just involving a “ghost” really helps in the build up in the first volume of the manga. Especially since it is such a leisurely, slow burn. It takes its time and isn’t afraid of the quieter moments that might otherwise by awkward, all while playing what we’d expect from a supernatural story.
Volume 1 of Ako and Bambi is available now, and Yen Press will release the second volume of the manga on June 18, 2024.
