The House of Fata Morgana Volume 1: The Veil Over Your Eyes Review

The House of Fata Morgana: The Veil Over Your Eyes is a horror manga based off the original visual novel source, The House of Fata Morgana. As a warning, I have not played the visual novel adaptation nor have any familiarity with the series in general. Halfway through, I debated if I should stop and play the game to maybe have a better understanding of the story and background behind the series in general. Despite not going through the source material, I was already engrossed into the story.

The story starts off with a woman informing you (yes, you) that you are now the master of a mansion and she will be your maid. Despite this, you have lost your memories and aren’t even certain if you are still alive. The Maid then invites you along on an adventure to see the past residents of the mansion and exclaims that you might see yourself along the way. Four doors, four different stories, four different times, four different places, will you choose to end your story or keep going? Only you can decide.
 
STORY
The story revolves around you and a maid taking you on a journey through the mansions history. What hooked me in the most is how it keeps elements of visual novels in the story. The fact that YOU are placed into the manga, just like a visual novel set-up, brings home that VN feel and stays true to the original source’s genre of game. I’ve read VN adaptations before and they end up sticking an actual character in place of you. I really commend the writers for this aspect as it was my favorite thing to come out of the story.
 
This particular volume covered one and a half of the four doors. The First Door takes us to 1603 and begins with the siblings of the Rhodes Family, Mell and Nellie, playing a card game. They were soon interrupted by a white hair girl (maid?) as she announced that it was Mell’s, the older brother, study time. Nellie, the younger sister, scoffs off at the white hair girl complaining “She cannot handle her.” Mell defends the white hair girl as Nellie begins to shout her dislike for the girl. With the tone set in place, it only goes downhill from here.
 
Without giving too many spoilers, there are MAJOR twist and turns throughout this First Door. I typically am not a fan of plot twists, let alone multiple ones, since they are easily foreshadowed. This, however, was nothing I never even imagined happening. The First Door has left an amazing impression on me and I was excited to get through to the Second Door.
 
The Maid accompanying you on the journey informs you that she is involved in this next story. The Second Door takes place in 1707 after the remaining members of the Rhodes Family dies out. The mansion is now worn down and the rose garden that once flourished is now weeds and dead branches. A beast was found living in the mansion by the maid. Instead of kicking him out, she offers to house and feed him in the efforts she can help him turn back to a normal human. The beast soon loses control and gains the taste for human flesh after consuming a lost man brought in by the Maid. Now, the maid serves him and goes out into the public to find the next meal for the beast.
 
I can already tell I’m going to be in for a treat with this Beauty and the Beast-esque story with a horror twist. I couldn’t ask for more! Of course, I believe that only half the Second Door was covered in this volume but I’m excited to continue it!
 
Overall, the story brings elements of classical fairy tale elements together with horror and psychological thriller. I sometimes found myself re-reading parts for the sake of not understanding

ART
The art of the manga was detailed from start to finish. I looked up pictures of the visual novel for comparison and while it isn’t as detailed as the visual novel, it still brings in the creepy vibes. To avoid the risk of spoilers and releasing unapproved pages, I will not show any page examples but will critique the cover and the overall art style used in the manga.

The cover of the volume had showed the Maid and white hair girl on the cover surrounded by roses and petals. While a very different and simplified from the visual novel’s art, it has its own unique taste but still keeps the creepy welcoming to an adventure around the mysterious mansion’s history. I found a common theme throughout the manga was clusters of different items like the flower petals, butterflies, etc. Symbolism for something more to come? Also, Can I also mention that the girl in the white hair is on the cover and should I be looking at that as if she is going to be important to the whole story?? Only the next volume will tell… (or you can play the visual novel)

The style of the pages varied from detailed to not-so detailed. One example I can bring up that’s constant is the hair details of some characters. The Maid leading you is drawn with detailed hair as if showing all the strands while Nellie and the white hair girl always have simplified, outlined hair not showing so much detail. This kind of issue can be pointed out by other features of the manga’s art. While I don’t see it as much of an issue, for those who look at manga for the artistic aspect, this will be something to keep in mind
 
OVERALL
The overall manga was something I never expected to get myself so invested into. I’m a fan of the horror genre and seeing a gory and psychological twist on fairy tale inspired stories really made me eager to continue reading. After reading this manga, it has also inspired me to check out the visual novel source of the series and look forward to play it! Hopefully, I can get a better understanding of the whole series after playing the source. I would recommend The House of Fata Moraga Volume 1 to those who want a true visual novel manga adaptation, a plot twisting story, and those who are fan of The House of Fata Morgana series.

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Overall Rating: A-
 
Pros:
+Beautiful art style
+Amazing plot twists
+Concept of story is unique
+YOU are in the story

Cons:
- Not for all ages and people sensitive to gore
- Hard to follow at times
- Possibly need to play visual novel to understand some things

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The House of Fata Morgana:
https://fata.sekaiproject.com/

Have you read or played The House of Fata Morgana series? Tell us your thoughts below!
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~Alana (Milky Kitty)

Note: This item was provided to us by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This fact does not affect the outcome of the review in any way.