 * Your list is public by default. Alternative TitlesSynonyms: Hellstar Remina, Okuman Bocchi, Army of OneJapanese: 地獄星レミナMore titlesInformation Volumes: 1 Chapters: 7 Status: Finished Published: Aug 16, 2004 to Jun 24, 2005 Demographic: Seinen Seinen StatisticsScore: 7.181 (scored by 2152921,529 users) Ranked: #621322 based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.Popularity: #484 Members: 37,512 Favorites: 559 |
Details Characters Stats Reviews Recommendations Interest Stacks News Forum Clubs Pictures More Info Ranked #6213Popularity #484Members 37,512SynopsisIn a futuristic Japan, astrologist Tsuneo Ooguro has made a monumental achievement: he has discovered a new planet from another universe. The discovery propels the professor into the public eye, where he is met with accolades, acclaim, and the rights to name the planet. Deciding to let his daughter Remina serve as the namesake, the shy girl quickly finds herself thrust into an uneasy life of stardom.Unlike its human counterpart, planet Remina shows nothing but odd behavior. Its movements are unpredictable and show no clear orbital patterns. Even more mysterious, any star it nears soon disappears. The enigma heightens when Professor Ooguro's assistant claims that planet Remina has stopped moving and looked him directly in the eye. Before going mad, the assistant announces one final thing: the planet is now heading toward Earth.Soon enough, planet Remina enters the solar system, leaving a trail of emptiness and causing worldwide panic. In an instant, popular adoration transforms into hostility; the populace have declared that the Ooguros have orchestrated this disaster and must be destroyed to avert it. Now deemed Public Enemy No. 1, Remina must escape a rabid population, all while the looming threat of the hellstar approaches.[Written by MAL Rewrite] Included one-shot: Okuman BocchiBackground_Jigokusei Remina_ was published in English as Remina by VIZ media on December 15, 2020. The series was also published in Spanish by ECC Comics on August 26, 2015, and in Polish as Remina: Gwiazda Piekieł by Japonica Polonica Fantastica in July 2014 as part of "Mega Manga" series. MALxJapan -More than just anime- Characters Reviews  Aug 23, 2015 well, this is one of manga will always be my reminder, to be cautious when press random when searching manga, as i thought nothing could be any better than this, this is pure nightmare, mate.so the story is kinda random stuff, well what can you expect , this story is mixing whatever human will be,if they're in the face of great unknown, because of that, it led to despair, that always occuring in this plot, until the end, that certainly nightmare. Cthulu monster certainly interesting stuff.character is kinda your usual , but the art to symbolize the nightmare, well,..But overall, it's worth to read. Reviewer’s Rating: 8 What did you think of this review? Nice 0 Love it 0 Funny 0 Confusing 0 Informative 0 Well-written 0 Creative 0Show all  Mar 28, 2022 Mixed FeelingsWell-written What a bizarre book. And not in the horrific way.The one thing I've learned in reading more of Junji Ito is that he is sincerely not a very strong storyteller. He is an artist first and foremost, one who absolute nails horror in a way that basically no other creative person on the planet quite can. The visuals and the concept of Remina is unparalleled. Evil planet comes into existence, seemingly in tandem with the birth of a young and now budding pop-idol who is boosted to fame due to the planet being named after her. When the planet decides to destroy all of existence... though, things don't go well for anyone involved.Sounds awesome right? Here's the rub. Similar to Uzumaki, while Remina excels in concept and artistic representation, it completely flops in execution of its narrative. A lot of criticism I have seen of the novel is that there seems to be no purpose to any of the central premises of the story. The planet just exists, and it's doing all these terrible things? And why? No reason is given. I believe this is the strongest part of the story, however. Because it catches this intangible, Lovecraftian, nihilistic view of the world: sometimes horrific things happen for no reason, and there are no happy endings. That's the part I love about Remina.The part I hate about Remina is literally all of the rest. Why does the entire global society suddenly become insane? Because plot! How does an evil cabal of witch hunters who seek Remina's death suddenly gain instant power over all humanity? Because someone needs to be the antagonist! Why do these people think that killing Remina will somehow stop the advance of the planet, with no evidence? Because it gives the main cast something to do! Why is Remina caught in a love triangle between the people trying to save her? Well, the story would be a lot shorter without that, and it gives a reason for people to betray her. So plot!This is the issue: a concept is only good until the story gets rolling. If the concept is great, but the narrative is mediocre, then the entire story suffers. The most interesting parts - learning about the evil death planet, watching society collapse, empathizing with the protagonists - that falls to the wayside by brutalist depictions of random violence and basically people just acting kinda loopy. This is compounded by the characterization of the central cast. The "damsel in distress" trope that many Ito stories rely on is back in full force. Remina is the main character, but lacks any agency in the story. She is thrust into pop-stardom against her will, even actively expressing she doesn't want this; she is targeted by literally the entire world for death; and for the majority of the plot, she is literally pulled around by the men in her life. At no point does Remina DO anything herself. She never has a heroic moment, she never fights back against the forces that intend to harm her; she's just kinda there, as the central protagonist, getting yanked around by literally everyone around her.In a story about loss of control and agency, maybe you could rationalize that style of protagonist. Unfortunately, all the other characters are one-dimensional. Guess what the cowardly fanboy does? He acts cowardly and is a fanboy. Guess what the mature and brave guy does? He acts bravely and maturely. Guess what the defensive and obsessive guy does? Acts defensively and obsessively. If there were more nuance to the people surrounding Remina, maybe you could say that Remina lacking agency is fine. But the reality is that all the central characters in the story have no change throughout the story, and are little more than vehicles for Remina to get from one plot point to the next.In short, man, Junji Ito is a very messy author. I can still sort of recommend this book, because at least it's short and to the point, rather than meandering and long such as Uzumaki. But I wish the story about an evil death planet had more to do with the evil death planet, rather than gratuitous violence of a helpless protagonist I can't relate to or empathize with. Reviewer’s Rating: 6 What did you think of this review? Nice0 Love it0 Funny0 Confusing0 Informative0 Well-written0 Creative0Show all  Oct 12, 2013 Minor spoilers ahead.I used to be a huge fan of Junji Ito's work - I sang his praises constantly on Tumblr and recommended him to many of my friends. Now, I see the fault in my actions.Jigokusei Remina - Hellstar Remina - is a work that feels ultimately pointless.Hellstar fits quite nicely into the Junji Ito mold - the female heroine watches the world collapse around her, and nearly everyone in the story dies. The work is so full of violence and death that I nearly felt sick reading it - not because I can't stand violence or death (hell, one of my favorite movies... is End of Evangelion) - but because everything in it feels pointless.There is virtually no explanation for WHY the things in the story happen. They just happen, seemingly without any sort of reason. At least in Ito's other works - Uzumaki, for example - there is a REASON for what happens and the death that it entails. This reason is nowhere to be found in Hellstar. The planet Remina just comes and destroys everything for no reason. Millions, if not billions, of innocent people die for no reason. You watch them die - not only die, but struggle to live by doing everything they can, and then still die. The death in the story is dealt with so objectively that it is not fun to read. You feel nothing towards these people killed en masse; they are simply plot devices. Not only is it uncomfortable, but it is flat-out boring.This kind of voyeurism can be enjoyable sometimes, sure, but in this work I found it totally off-putting and uncomfortable. Like I said, I felt that it was handled in a miserable way compared to usual Ito.The main characters don't have enough time for real development - Remina stays the absolute same throughout the story, and every other twist can be seen from a mile away. The story feels so forced through these characters, your level of psychic distance from the fiction is astronomical.The work is just boring, with its only redeeming qualities coming from Ito's art. The man has a real talent for drawing grotesque landscapes, may they be on Earth or on foreign locales, and his characters are expressive physically if not emotionally.Pass on this and read Uzumaki instead, or some of his shorter-form collections. They have much more impact and depth than this misfire. Reviewer’s Rating: 4 What did you think of this review? Nice0 Love it0 Funny0 Confusing0 Informative0 Well-written0 Creative0Show all Interest Stacks   27 Entries · 252 Restacks     50 Entries · 259 Restacks Recommendations Recent News Recent Forum Discussion Poll: Hellstar Remina Chapter 7 Discussion magelet - Jul 14, 2010 42 repliesby yveltalkyogre »»Sep 30, 1:31 PM Poll: Jigokusei Remina Chapter 6 Discussion SwimminglyDone - Apr 4, 2015 14 repliesby TitanInsane »»May 5, 2:36 AM Poll: Jigokusei Remina Chapter 5 Discussion SwimminglyDone - Apr 4, 2015 12 repliesby Surana »»Jul 16, 2023 8:21 PM Poll: Jigokusei Remina Chapter 4 Discussion SwimminglyDone - Apr 4, 2015 6 repliesby Surana »»Jul 16, 2023 8:11 PM Poll: Jigokusei Remina Chapter 3 Discussion SwimminglyDone - Apr 4, 2015 7 repliesby Surana »»Jul 16, 2023 8:03 PM |