Ghost Talker's Daydream · review
This is not a manga for everybody as it contains very explicit material and covers many heavy topics. Throughout the whole series it features many instances of suicide, rape, pedophilia, nudity, and gore. So if you are off put by any of those you probably won't like this series. The story follows Misaki Saiki, a dominatrix who can communicate with ghosts, and through the Livelihood Protection Agency she performs exorcisms to help troubled spirits. The story forces on each of these exorcisms Misaki performs while an overarching plot slowly builds. A major part in what this manga excels in is in its horror. It doesa great job of building up the creepiness and uncertainty and in navigating each of the ghosts lingering troubles and regrets. Their designs also do a great job of fitting into that alien/otherworldly vibe despite being mostly human in appearance. These are also the parts where the artwork looks its best along with some creative composition choices in the paneling. While this aspect of the manga doesn't offer anything never seen before it does provide a solid horror experience.
What this manga falls short on is its inconsistency in both its artwork, characters, and how it handles its nudity/perverted scenes. At times scenes look really good and flow well from page to page while other times its very jumpy in its pacing coupled with panels that have a noticeable drop in quality. For the characters many of them are enjoyable and interesting like Misaki or Yuo, though I felt like they could have dived into some of these characters a little more deeply. However there are also some that really missed out on what they could've been. Souichiro is the prime example of this as early on he seemed like a cool character who would throw hands yet be afraid of ghosts while providing a nice dynamic with Misaki. Though as the manga progresses he gets more and more depraved and used as joke in reaction to lewd stuff (shitty bloody nose gag) which took a lot out of the character he initially had. Also concerning the large amount of nudity and sex in this manga it is also very inconsistent. Sometimes it adds to the scene in terms of characterization for some lesbian or trans characters, and it helps add to the ghosts eeriness while tying into their situation. Though the other half the time it just seems like its there just to be there or played as a cheap joke. This I feel hurts the manga because other than that it doesn't really add anything to the story. It also hurts the focus on hypersexuality which can be seen as present in a couple characters namely Mitsuru which is a theme that doesn't get touched upon much and could provide for very interesting plot points.
Overall if you are able to stomach the heavy themes of this manga and are into horror/mystery I would recommend this as it can be an enjoyable read. Though I feel most general readers would have a hard time getting through it as while it has interesting and unique ideas it fails to use them to their fullest potential.