Title: OMORI Vol. 1
Author: OMOCAT (Author), Nui Konoito (Manga)
Publisher: Kodansha
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
Genre: Horror, Supernatural
Publication Date: March 17, 2026
The Story
A boy named Sunny has become a shut-in after a tragedy occurred four years ago. Depressed, he receives a phone call from his mother stating that they are going to move away and start fresh; however, he doesn’t care. In fact, he’s about to commit an unspeakable act when there is a knock at the front door. His old friend Kel has come, and looks a bit surprised that he actually answered. She asks if he wants to take a tour of the town one last time, but everything looks completely different! While out, they run into their old friend Basil, who wasn’t all too thrilled to see Sunny. Even worse, he was having an issue with another former friend named Aubrey. Sunny has seen enough of Aubrey’s bullying and slashes at her with a knife!
Suddenly, Sunny blacks out and returns to “white space,” where he is confronted with someone who just likes him. Then, we are taken into the past where everyone is there together as friends, but mysteriously, everyone has black hair. In this time period, Sunny is known as Omori, and things are a bit weirder than they were in the present time because everything is structured like a video game. A large round monster known as “Boss” shows up to try and ruin their picnic, and just like in video game fashion, they beat on him to do damage until he runs off.
Shortly after, Omori disappears, and Sunny reawakens back in the present time. We learn from Basil that she took his precious picture book, so they do their best to hunt her down. We get a bit of backstory on Aubrey, but before we can see if they find the picture book, we rejoin Omori in the opposite time period, where they are looking for Basil… and do so… by climbing a ladder to the moon!?
Characters
It’s pretty obvious that Sunny/Omori is the same person, but there are two completely different worlds at play here. In both worlds, he is completely mute, and doesn’t say much; however, he does have a good heart and is always trying to do the right thing… such as giving money to a girl who had her taffy stolen by Aubrey’s hooligan friends, or helping to put Basil’s pictures back into a photo album when there was a disagreement, and they all got scattered. While not spoiling why he became a shut-in, it seems quite natural based on what happened, but it seems a bit rough that nobody understands the gravity of the situation and why it affected him the most.
Kel is Sunny/Omori’s best friend. The best way that I can describe her is an energetic tomboy who cares deeply about him, but there is a moment in this volume that raises a question. When they confront Aubrey, she mentions that Kel stayed away for those four years, only to suddenly reappear and act as if she cares about Sunny. She tries to deny that she never cared, but there seems to be something more going on that we just don’t know yet. It’s always the super-friendly ones that have the most to hide, so it’ll be interesting to see why she returned now (outside of seeing the for-sale sign outside of Sunny’s house) Until then, she’s a fun character with a lot of energy and positivity… almost to a sickening level… but she does seem like someone who could be an amazing friend (and that raises a flag!)
Basil is a bit on the timid side, but he loves spending time with his friends and making memories. He loves taking photographs and storing them in an album, which is something that he notes that Sunny always loved. In the opposite world, Basil has a bit of a green thumb, as he loves plants and flowers, and is excited to show everyone the newest ones he recently planted. There is still that aspect of loving photographs in the other world, too. Pretty decent character… and one of those that is designed in a way that makes you want to care about them.
Hero is kind of the voice of reason for the group. In both worlds, he always tries to get in the middle of arguments to calm everyone down. He’s a little boisterous in the other world when he stands up and proclaims that he won’t let Boss get his way… and yet… he seems the least athletic because after climbing the ladder to space, he was the only one who was left nearly breathless, which adds a subtle bit of humor to his character, especially given his name.
Aubrey is set up to be one of the antagonists… at least in the primary world. We learn a bit about her father leaving and how that changed her for the worse. Now a delinquent, she’s not interested in rekindling her friendship with anyone. In fact, because she stole Basil’s photo album, she seems more interested in destroying any memories of the times they shared, and she seems to be blaming it all on Sunny for shutting himself in. In the other world, she just seems like one of their friends… happy and normal.
There is one other character, Mari, but it contains spoilers, but I will just say that she is Sunny/Omori’s sister and leave it at that!
Final Thoughts
I know that OMORI is an RPG game that came out six years ago; however, I just never had the time to pick up and play it. Despite that, I thought that the concept of the game was very interesting, so when I saw that it was getting a manga adaptation, I decided to take that route to enjoy the story of the game. Of course, without having played the game, I don’t know if the manga is a 1:1 adaptation or if the lore is accurate, but what I did read did seem to line up with the game’s description of Sunny existing in the real world and Omori existing in Sunny’s dream world.
I will say that the story, so far, is quite interesting. Obviously, what happened to Sunny four years ago was something that would negatively affect anyone who went through the same thing, so it’s reasonable that he became a shut-in. After all, we’ve seen this in Japanese culture so often that it almost seems cliché. Through it all, it seems as if we have a 3-day timer before Sunny moves away, but nothing is explained about the dream world just yet. Right now, it’s all left up to interpretation, and that’s just fine. As with any first volume, you want to build the world and leave a lot of questions unanswered. That builds intrigue, and that’s exactly what OMORI does here.
Sunny/Omori being mute can be a challenge, but through the actions and dialogue of others, you get a perfect sense of him as a character, which is quite difficult to do. Plus, there are moments where his actions add to his personality, which helps. I am not sure if there is any point during the game when Sunny/Omori would begin talking, but in a way, I don’t want that to happen. I want him to remain mute forever just to see how much he can develop without saying a single word.
So far, I’m really enjoying this story, and if this quality keeps up, I might just have to break down, buy the game, and find some time to play it!
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This item was purchased for review.
