Hacking Ghost: Karada ni shika Kachi no Nai Gakuen

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

A genuine sleeper hit.

The story starts off with the main character, Takigami Hiroto being threatened by his older step-sister that she'll kill him once he graduates with him not understanding why. The setting of the world is then explained, where 1 in 20 people have gained a special ability. Though the powers males gain are significantly weaker than the powers females gain thus shifting society's view on gender roles. Those with powers are required to attend 'The Academy' and Hiroto's step-sister is touted to be the strongest.

Hiroto's ability is 'Hacking Ghost' where he can see and talk to spirits. However, he meets a Spirit who ... once had his ability and reveals that it can do more than just talk to spirits. At the moment of climax through consensual (maybe) sex, Hiroto can grab a nearby spirit and have them possess his target. Through this, he gains allies that could help him stand up to his step-sister and avoid dying and possibly uncover a deeper conspiracy regarding the school, his step-sister, and his step-mother.

The art and artstyle wasn't my thing at first but I've grown to like it. It's very expressive even if body proportions are a bit bland.

I thought this was gonna be another simple, trash, reverse-gender roles harem manga but as the story continues with Hiroto recruiting more and more allies, I become more and more invested. The humor, the personalities, the recruitment plans, it's all very entertaining and I hope the manga keeps up its momentum.

6.8/10


It's alright... I honestly had my hopes up past the fifth chapter since the manga didn't shove forced sex scenes down the readers' throats, but this manga failed to create anything interesting.

Don't get me wrong, this manga tries to have a serious take on a storyline, but it utterly fails for some apparent and not-so-apparent reasons. First off, this manga never "clicked" due to how it failed to set up its characters.

No, I'm not talking about their personalities -- a lot of the personalities, especially the ghosts, are unique and are pretty funny. However, they are just that -- surface level. The manga fails to ... create anything interesting about the MC himself, and if you replaced him with your every other awkward protagonist, the story would be no different. With that, the antagonists are incredibly annoyingly bad. I mean, it gets to a certain point where sheer discrimination doesn't justify the hate crimes the MC experiences. The author never delves deeper into the reason, except for a shallow flashback that raises more questions than it answers.

This issue is largely apparent with the sister, as I expected by at least chapter 24, we would get more screen time or more details about her, but none of her personality makes sense. And this isn't even setting up the "oh, she's so mysterious" storyline, since the author doesn't even bother tying her into the story beyond her having broken abilities that the MC can only overcome eventually with plot armor.

This also goes hand-in-hand with my largest gripe with this manga -- it moves incredibly slowly. If I didn't have 24 chapters to binge, then I would have either forgotten entirely about the story or lost interest since nothing interesting happens for the most part. There are tons of explanations, and some fight/sex scenes, but all the developments are drawn out.

I wanted to like this manga (you can tell with me reading 24 chapters) since it seemed different from every other forced fan service erotica with an overpowered protagonist, but I was never interested in the story itself. There were some funny moments with the ghosts, but the story and writing utterly failed this manga.


Reading Rankings (Portnoy inspired + A Huang-Teizan Original)
10 - God’s penmanship
9 - Must-read. Drop everything else.
8 - Instant bookmark
7 - Entertaining
6 - Good to pass time
5 - Why are you reading this?
4 - Bad.
3 - Typical garbage.
2 - My head hurts.
1 - Retirement is a thought.
0 - “Did they even give you a story?!”

What would you do if a friend recommends you a hotel and all of a sudden its a brothel?! I at least would stare for a moment and then get the f*ck out.

Thats kinda what happened to me with this manga. When i got 'Hacking Ghost' recommended it was described as follows: The protagonist lives in a world where everyone has special abilities, but his one is really weak. This is one of the reasons, why everyone bullies him, the other reason is the fact that his sister, the most powerful ability user, hates him and promised to kill him after he graduates. How will ... he survive with his 'shitty' ability, that only allows him to talk with ghosts?

So i actually didn't expect hacking ghost to be about the protagonist having the ability to rip out the souls of every woman that reaches climax in consesual sex with him to replace it with a soul of his female ghost companions. I was kinda shocked.
To be honest, the idea has a shit ton of holes - like for example, why it needs to be him that smashes the girls, why its only girls, how the ghost that explained the ability had the same per chance - but it was kinda interesting. Interesting enough to keep me at the manga for around 10 chapters.
Afterwards i just got fed up by all the bs a reader needs to accept to actually enjoy this story. As there weren't any good characters, ideas or anything else to enjoy except the smash scenes i didn't want to read and a few actually funny jokes to distract from these plot holes, they piled up in the front of the manga until i couldn't read it anymore.

Would i recommend this to anybody? The shock factor was kinda great but you won't have it after reading this review, so i kinda don't know. The idea certainly has charm and can hook somebody to at least give it a try, but i just don't think its anywhere near enough.