Many years after reading the first volume of Setona Mizushiro's manga series After School Nightmare, I have now read the tenth and final volume. After School Nightmare is a dark and intense psychological fantasy with strong horror elements. Despite finding the first few volumes compelling, I also found them to be challenging since many of the themes explored hit fairly close to home for me. However, while After School Nightmare continued to be unsettling, I am glad that I finally made a point to read the entire series. After School Nightmare, Volume 10 was first published in Japan in 2008. A little over a year later the tenth volume was released in English by Go! Comi in 2009. Go! Comi no longer exists as a company and so After School Nightmarish has gone and currently remains out-of-print. Sadly, that also means that the series is becoming more difficult to find with each passing year.

Mashiro has slowly come to terms with his gender identity, but it has been a struggle. His body can't be easily defined as either male or female and although he initially made the decision to live as a man, he has since realized that may not have been the correct choice to make. Although he was always uncomfortable with who he was, in large part Mashiro started to reevaluate his self-identity when he was placed in a special after school class required to graduate. Along with several other students, Mashiro was forced to confront and share his most personal fears, anxieties, and insecurities within a literal nightmare. Mashiro's fellow classmates, each dealing with their own traumas, are also in the position to graduate, but to accomplish that will require active change and desire on their part. Every one of the students in the class must participate in the brutal, violent nightmares if they hope to leave the agony and anguish of their old lives behind.

The final volume of After School Nightmare is almost impossible to discuss without spoiling the entire series—it contains a fair number of plot twists and major revelations which greatly impact the understanding and interpretation of the manga as a whole. The boundaries of birth, life, rebirth, and death are much thinner than one might expect and very closely intertwined. However, while Mizushiro leads readers down multiple dark and twisting paths over the course of the series, the true nature of the nightmares and of the school itself have been hinted at from the very beginning of the series. After School Nightmare, Volume 10 addresses many of the mysteries and answers many of the questions raised by the story and setting of the manga. In the end, there is a reason for the ominous and disquieting atmosphere and a purpose behind everything that the students have been through.

Honestly, After School Nightmare, Volume 10 leaves me feeling conflicted. In concept, I like what Mizushiro was attempting to do with the series, however I ultimately found the execution and much of the resolution to be unsatisfying. Although almost everything is explained by the end of the series, that explanation seems to effectively render meaningless all of the character development, their struggles and triumphs as they grow and overcome personal strife. I think in part After School Nightmare was intended to be uplifting or even empowering as the characters find the strength to survive. That's certainly a legitimate interpretation, but to me it came across as exceptionally depressing as though the manga is needlessly or at least unnecessarily cruel. (And for the most part, I actually really liked the darkness of the series.) Still, I'm glad that I finally finished reading After School Nightmare. Even though I'm still working out my feelings regarding the conclusion of the series, over all I found it to be worthwhile.

Experiments in Manga ( )

A great ending for a series that sadly did not live up to its potential. In hindsight, I feel that this series really could have benefited from a shorter run to make the story more cohesive and tighter. Instead, we ended up with a stretched storyline that gave a feeling of a sophomore slump that made the main story really lose focus and became something more of a 'nightmare of the week' serial.

However, the conclusion does much to answer alot of the questions and also alleviate the perplexity as to why Mashiro needed to 'choose' as to whether to be a boy or a girl. Why not just be who he/she is? Still, one thing I really wish the story did a better job was how Mashiro ended up decided what she wanted to be in the end. As far as I can tell, it was mainly due to the fact that he was living as a boy and decided to 'come out of the closet' to become a girl. If Mashiro had started out with a female upper body and a male lower body, would the scenario have been reversed? Or is it due to the fact that Sou was there that Mashiro came to her decision? Or maybe it was just the target demographic who'd preferred a relationship that was yaoi in all but name.^_^

Oh well, at least we have a satisfying ending. ( )

Five stars! The ending makes all the rest of it way better in retrospect. I will say it was unexpected and pretty cool. And I won't say much else about it, because that would be a spoiler!And now I really want to start over again from the beginning, to reread it knowing all that I know now. But of course I borrowed it through interlibrary loan from multiple libraries. So that is not an easy thing to go and do. Maybe I'll have to buy it now. Hmf!For all the times the translator told us what a bento was, I wish they'd said what baumkuchen is. I'm assuming it's German food of some sort.Um, so, yea. Worth reading, and worth not giving up on. Read to the end. ( )

This last volume starts off with Mashiro's dream within a dream while Sou and Kureha wait anxiously outside the now closed infirmary. When Mashiro finally comes out he is ready to take the last steps towards accepting his true self and head towards graduation.

I've put off reading this last volume of the series for some time because I had grown so increasingly confused with the storyline of the last few volumes. When I finally did decide to read this one I re-read all the preceding volumes (except volume 2 which I don't have) immediately before and I have to say I understood everything from the storyline to the character motivations so much better. However, this couldn't even have come close to preparing me for the actual ending of the manga. This was really a very different and unique resolution than I ever would have imagined. Despite this I can't say I was disappointed. Where we're left makes you wonder about what might have happened but is still satisfying in its own way. This is the kind of story that leaves you thinking about it for some time afterward, about what the final scenes mean, about what the infirmary truly was and about what may happen to Mashiro where she winds up. I also found the bit about the "Kagome" rhyme the manga-ka alludes to at the end to be interesting. I was familiar with it before reading this manga (thanks to "Tactics") but it is interesting to see the way it is applied here.

This is a hugely imaginative manga series with interesting characters that grow and develop over the course of the story and a resolution that will make you think. Highly recommended! ( )

Well, I’m disappointed. I was really intrigued by this manga about a student who defines himself (and then herself) as half a boy, half a girl; I thought it had potential to do interesting things with gender and sexuality. And then, in the last volume, it became uninteresting, and not really about that at all. This is what I get for starting an unfinished series! ( )