A (murder) mystery manga I've been following for some time, came to an end. It was beautiful all the way through.
It's called Yuureitou (The Ghost Tower) and it's about two young Japanese men in the 1950s who try to solve the mysteries surrounding a clock tower and the murderer who dwells within, to find the enormous treasure hidden deep inside, behind a labyrinth of deadly traps.
Quite an adventure and it deals a fair bit with building the trust and friendship between the two protagonists and character development has a front seat. It features gender bending very prominently, in a good way too, and not as a gag or gimmick, but as an integral part of characters and for advancing the story.
It might have beaten Berserk as my number one manga of all time, only this being of the mystery genre, it doesn't lend itself to repeated readings that much since the mystery is gone, while I've lost count on how many times I've re-read Berserk, partially and in its entirety, for the atmosphere, art and action.
I give it 10 out of 10. There's nothing about it that I would have wanted to see done differently in terms of tone, twists, the mysteries and riddles, plot and characters, and even the art and pacing is spot on.
