The world has become such that plants can no longer survive. The only option is a voluntary procedure, transformation, that turns humans into the perfect "flower bed". They must have a fatal disease. They get a lot of money. They get one to two years left of life.
When choices of survival clash with morals and ethics, what do you do? Everyone has their reasons for their part in transfloration.
VERDICT: Great unique addition to teen and adult libraries that have manga readers. Especially needed for readers wanting something different and an opportunity to explore biomedicine and ethics.

This was unlike anything I've ever read and I found it so interesting. It's dark, kind of twisted, creepy, and sad; but I couldn't manage to put it down. Can't wait for the next volume! I hope there will be more of this series.

In this world, thick clouds blotted out the sun's light for over a century, causing the earth's oxygen to be scarce. To combat this, humanity created a technology named "Transfloration". It's a procedure that imbeds seeds into the body. Over time, it turns the patient into a plant-like entity called a "Soulflora." Due to the nature of the procedure, only a select few can undergo it. If chosen, they get a ten million yen (no strings attached). Which, for some, is life-changing money. We're introduced to our protagonist, Kamiya. A high school dropout struggling to make ends meet and afford his mother's medication.


Things take a turn after Kamya loses his job and runs low on his mom's medication. With these in mind, he chooses to undergo the "transfloration" procedure. When he recovers, he discovers that he is able to hear the sounds a "Soulflora" makes. He is able to decipher them into tangible words. With this newly found ability, Kamiya takes on the role of a government worker to help solve "Soulflora"-realized cases. However, after taking on a case in which he's tasked with locating a missing person's "Soulflora," Kamiya finds himself uncovering a grand scheme that pushes beyond what's currently known about "Transfloration" and his own abilities to decipher a "Soulflora's" feelings and emotions.

Fool Night's narrative carries a lot of "emotional" weight from the moment you open the page. Witnessing Kamiya's life go from "barely scraping by" to "rock bottom" in a matter of seconds sets the tone for what's to come. Everything that's shown feels grounded and authentic, from Kamiya's reasoning to take on "Transfloration" to the side characters that are introduced later on, like his childhood friend Yomiko Hourai. Compared to Kamiya, Yomiko is more "well-off," but they still have their own reservations regarding the transfloration procedure and those who partake in it. To Kamiya, Yomiko is the 'older sibling' role model, but not everything Yomiko says Kamiya takes to heart and dismisses their concerns for his own benefit. Everyone involved is doing what they can to survive in an oxygen-deprived world, and sometimes those decisions aren't the "morally correct" ones. For example, even though Kamiya's "reasoning" for wanting transfloration makes sense, he lied about his symptoms to get to the top of the list.


What helps add to the emotional weight felt in this story is Fool Night's art style. It's a dystopian version of oxygen-deprived Japan. It immediately caught my attention on the first page. It's paneling at times felt like I was watching a movie unfold through manga format. When the story showcases the end result of a completed "transfloration," each design feels crafted with intention as everyone blooms into a different flower that still has some human resemblance. Coupled with how expressive the characters are during dialogue moments, this helps maintain the "seriousness" tone of the manga. The best example of everything working together to create this emotional narrative can be found when we're thrown into Kamiya's first case.


Kamiya is asked to help pianist Sumi Matsuno locate her father's spiriflor, as it helped pay for Sumi's tuition. However, after he left to get the procedure, Sumi never saw her father again. Yomiko shows empathy and wants to help Sumi locate her father, while Kamiya dismisses Sumi's request as a "Rich Kid's Problem." As Kamiya walks out of the station, he catches Sumi on the staircase, and the two talk. It starts off with the two bantering back and forth, but then later it's revealed that Sumi wanted to locate her father's spiriflor to burn it due to her father's abusive behavior throughout her childhood. Kamiya agrees, and the two find the location of her father. As Sumi pulls out her lighter to start burning the spiriflor, Kamiya stops her and asks to speak with her father with his ability. From here, we see Kamiya act as the middle man as Sumi and her father exchange their feelings and emotions. At first, Sumi's father didn't understand where Sumi was coming from and stood his ground on his methods. He comes to realize the errors of his ways and apologizes to Sumi. And while Sumi was not willing to accept her father's apology, she came to forgive him and decided not to burn her father's spirit, thus wrapping up the case. At every moment throughout this case, everything felt like it was carefully crafted to evoke an engaging emotional tale from start to finish. The pacing was solid, and nothing felt out of place.


After finishing volume 1, I immediately went to the Viz App (Which you can read up to chapter 35 before it has a gap in chapters) to continue reading Fool Night as I genuinely was hooked into this narrative world and I want to see what else is instore for Kamiya if each case is going to have the same display of strong emotions as Sumi's did. Which I can say without going into spoilers that they do.



Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed Fool Night, it's oxygen deprived dystopian hooked me into the world and it's strong emotional narrative kept me interested as Kamiya navigates through this with the limited time he has left. This felt like reading a movie and I highly recommend this one to anyone looking for a story with striking visuals and narrative to complement it.


Verdict: Buy It

Full review for Booklist magazine

In a dystopian future where dark clouds block out the sun and it's perpetually winter, all plant life has been destroyed, and there is very little oxygen left on the planet. This has caused humans to research new ways to grow plants, including converting those who are near death into plant-life by undergoing a medical procedure. Kamiya desperately wants to undergo this procedure, mostly for the money it will bring him, but he never expects what else will come when he surrenders his humanity to morph into a plant. This story is dark and brings about some existential questions about duty to society, what makes someone human, and quality of life. The illustrations are downright creepy at times.

Sara's Rating: 9/10
Suitability Level: Grades 10-12

This is an interesting bit of sci-fi!! I really like the world building present in this volume. The take on a more "eco friendly" death, is a great story point in a society that is futuristic and also all too realistic at times. The stories behind the plants are interesting as well as the lives of the human cast. In some ways it's a little hard to describe without spoiling, but I encourage people to give this title a shot! If you like a "what makes a human?" story, this one is really good!

This was such a surprise. The concept of this manga is so cool! In a world where there is no light and trees, humans that are dying have seeds planted into them to become trees to give the world oxygen.
I really like the main character as well. He reminds me of a serious Denji, just doing his best to survive.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for the review.

This is a dark story! The world has been in a state of constant darkness for a century. All the plants have died out and the only way to renew oxygen is by using the bodies of dying individuals and turning them into plants. So cool and complex. I can't wait to read more!

I really loved this. I think the art and written word work together to create such an amazing story. I loved reading and and exploring the world that was created

I really loved this!
I haven't personally read a manga that I could say has a particularly similar plot to it, it seems so original, thought provoking and makes you question morality a little.
I really enjoyed the art style, rather than neat, pretty designs you usually get with attractive MC's, it's rough, sketchy almost, with detailed backgrounds and the flora in it is beautiful.
I likes that the story doesn't just focus on the MC's journey to becoming spiriflora, and there's a few side characters introduced that make it more compelling, you want to know what happens to them, the choices they make or are going to make ect
Can't wait to read the next one!

4.5 stars

Life will find a way; even when the sky goes black, and all hope of oxygen and survival seems hopeless, it will find a way.
Fool Night Volume 1 shows us that. We discover a world where people near death have been converted into plant-like beings to provide oxygen and keep the world alive.
Just like any world nearing its end, the mental health of many suffers, and humanity is called into question.
We follow one man at the end of his rope and applying to become a plant-like being, and the program discovers he can hear those who have been fully transformed.

I love the strangely horrifying beauty of this apocalyptic world.