DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

MOVIE FantasyBIBLIOMANIA

REVIEWS

• 

  Zazinuz

  100/100
  The Tragedy of Alice, Princess of a Certain Island Country

  
  This analysis contains full spoilers for the entirety of Bibliomania. However, if you have interest in any of these topics, I highly advice you to read this less than 30 minutes long Manga whenever you see it fit and return to this analysis at a later time—
  —How humans consume and interact with media
  —Escapism and different humans indulging in it for different reasons
  —The Fear of Change
  —Achieving happiness in life
  —Human connection
  —Legacy
  —Among other themes I'm unable to mention out of the possibility of spoiling the narrative
  
  Though the world of Bibliomania differs strongly from our world in many aspects—these changes existing either for narrative purposes or to ease the mind of the reader—it remains nonetheless parallel to it.
  In this analysis, I will try to examine the core values of Bibliomania's narrative and once again present its main messages to the reader.
  
  </center>   Escapism that differs and overlaps  <center>
  In the world of Bibliomania, certain concepts revolving around escapism and humanity as a whole differ from what is the case in our world. However, though these differences exist for the sake of an engaging and grand narrative, Bibliomania remains nevertheless mostly true to the world we ourselves inhabit. Despite this, in order to properly proceed with this analysis, a few rules concerning the world presented inside this manga have to be established.
  # The Personification of Escapism
  <img width='220' src='https://i.postimg.cc/t45q7WhZ/53234.jpg'>
  In general, the Personification of Escapism, created due to certain circumstances I will explain later on, is an existence incapable of striving for anything but mere consummation of humans. Unlike in our world, Bibliomania presents Escapism as something that holds both a body and a unique personality, each of them being able to influence certain parts of the world by themselves. It is not merely a concept residing inside the minds of humans.
  Like the Escapism in our world, the Personification of Escapism lures humans into indulging in its possibilities—these possibilities potentially being things incapable of existing in the real world, like accomplishing desired things without having to rely on effort. It does this by presenting a more promising unreal world than the real world currently inhabited by the person meeting the concept of Escapism or, in the world of Bibliomania, the Book of Escapism.
  <img width='220' src='https://i.postimg.cc/jSZTRKby/2342.jpg'>
  # Page 000
  <img width='220' src='https://i.postimg.cc/Y92XhyNs/Page-000.jpg'>
  Naming the exit for the Book of Escapism <Page 000> is another re-affirmation for the Personification of Escapism—or rather, the object it inhabits at first—serving as a representation of a worthless book, or a worthless fantasy.
  In general, Escapism can be defined as _The avoiding of certain influencing parts of the world through indulging in things that do not serve to better yourself or the outer world in any possible way. "Evil entities" are not objective; therefore, if one thinks another commits evil deeds it does not automatically mean they indulge in escapism since the other is able to see these evil deeds as something that serves to better the outer world or their own self._
  This definition of escapism encapsulates what the object the Personification of Escapism was born in and originally inhabits—or the Book of Escapism—serves as. Or rather, what it serves as outside of the moment a person realizes that leading a proper life while continuing to follow what they currently indulge in is not possible—because, at that moment, the Book of Escapism serves as a way to better the person inhabiting it through their realization that their current way of living is wrong. This leads to the possibility of the person currently living inside the Book of Escapism never fully falling into a world of escapism, an escapism-world, again in the future.
  Followingly, they desire to leave the Book of Escapism and once again try to lead a fulfilling life in the real world, or reality.
  However, in the world of Bibliomania, one thing exists that strongly hinders humans from ever reaching Page 000.
  <img width='220' src='https://i.postimg.cc/sfhn1S5y/Desire-Poison-3.jpg'>
  # Desire Poison
  In the world of Bibliomania, if one chooses to abandon their current life in the escapism-world and instead desires to, once again, return to the real world, a body-corrupting curse is inflicted upon them. As soon as one leaves their designated room inside the Book of Escapism, their body begins to rot, first slowly and, the more distant to their designated room, quicker and quicker. Normally, even reaching Page 000 is inherently impossible, due to the corruption of the body being so strong after reaching Room 100 and below that the body crumbles entirely if the inhabitants even choose to visit their neighbours.
  Therefore, in the world of Bibliomania, the Desire Poison is an established rule created by the Personification of Escapism in order to prevent people from leaving its domain.
  The real life equivalent to this Desire Poison is the fear of change that fills the mind of many humans indulging in escapism—the inability to build up enough courage in order to take the first step to once again leading a proper life in society. And, following this, the lingering thought of returning to the escapism-world can remain inside a person's mind for a long time to come, with them potentially getting worn out by the real world they now begin to approach once again. The body rotting and its mind consequently getting corrupted when trying to leave the Book of Escapism is a representation of exactly that anxiety and feeling of getting worn out one can face when trying to re-approach the outer world—the world outside the single mind—of our world.
  Desire Poison—the desire of fleeing the real world again once failure is met there, which is a poison, this poison being escapism. Excessive escapism that can potentially scar a person for the rest of their life through its after-effects.
  In Bibliomania, this Desire Poison is something that everyone, no matter who, is forced to endure in order to leave the Book of Escapism. Even though, in our world, these feelings lingering inside a person's mind once they try to re-approach the outer world can potentially not be the case. In our world, one isn't forced to go through body-and mind-corrupting Poison when trying to re-approach the outer world.
  # Mutilated bodies
  <img width='220' src='https://i.postimg.cc/Nf22yJMy/353.jpg'>
  Numerous times throughout the story, the humans living inside the Book of Escapism are shown to have their bodies either being mutilated or rotting. However, this differs from the Desire Poison in that it occurs inside their own rooms—the rooms they occupy inside the Book of Escapism. Serving as another metaphor for escapism, it presents how, the more time one spends inside a state of escapism, the harder it will be to re-establish a proper existence in the real world.
  At its core, escapism, though at first potentially seeming enjoyable, is unable to fill its user with lasting happiness. This, consequently, inherently corrupts; a state is born where the user of escapism is unable to re-approach the real world—for certain reasons I will elaborate on later—but is also unable to find genuine happiness through their current way of existing, ever striving for either courage for the real world or momentary pleasure inside the escapism-world. Or, alternatively, not doing anything—neither inside the escapism-world, nor in the real world.
  Following this, through excessive use of escapism, a person can acquire a state of being beyond repair, this being apparent even once they re-approach the real world. Thereby, a re-establishment of what was once the case becomes impossible.
  However, though it is impossible to perfectly regain what they lost, it is still possible to, once again, find meaning and happiness inside the real world.
  But, this only applies to our world. The re-approach of the real world not necessarily possible in the world of Bibliomania.
  # 666 Guests
  <img width='220' src='https://i.postimg.cc/dV876hGw/666-Guests.jpg'>
  In fiction, the number 666 is oftentimes connotated with the Devil or his residence, Hell. This likewise applies to the narrative of Bibliomania.
  The requirement of 666 Guests for the Personification of Escapism to break through the shackles of the Book of Escapism and materialize its physical form in the real world is a representation of what apathy means.
  Apathy, or inaction, is death.
  Therefore, Hell, a place typically only reachable for humans once they die, is used as a metaphor for apathy. As soon as the 666th room is occupied, the Personification of Escapism swallows the humans residing in its book, making them an irreversible part of its existence. It thereby prohibits any kind of struggle against escapism after future realizations the residents could possibly have—these realizations making them see escapism as something undesirable. Especially considering that now, with the Personification of Escapism merely consuming what it comes across, it doesn't fulfill the former residents' wishes anymore.
  <img width='220' src='https://i.postimg.cc/jjLvkMmb/Now-it-doesn-t-fulfill-the-residents-wishes-anymore.jpg'>
  This leads to the residents residing in a place where they cannot even momentarily, inside their single mind, achieve what they desire, consequently erasing everything that appeals to humans about escapism. Though, in actuality, it is not implied that humans are even capable of carrying individual thoughts once wholly becoming a part of the Personification of Escapism, or becoming part of another being.
  And so a state is born—a state where the Personification of Escapism swallows all humans it comes across, and where humans are unable to fight against the Personification of Escapism, merely becoming a part of it without being able to choose, without being able to struggle.
  This is, of course, is not a representation of a certain part of our world; it merely serves for narrative purposes, making the story of Bibliomania seem grand and epic.
  However, outside of what is written in the previous segment, another interpretation of 666 Guests is possible—666 and the Personification of Escapism serving as a representation of the Antichrist.
  In general, the Antichrist is a being created from religious text and its preachers that serves as a wrong Messiah, expressing wrong teachings about God and the rules he bestowed upon the earth. As plainly seen, the Personification of Escapism fits the superficial role of an Antichrist flawlessly—as someone who leads desperate people filled with unpleasant feelings to an, at first, more promising place—that place being the Book of Escapism—and its teachings followingly turning out to be, in the long run, only a negative infliction upon the person who uses them.
  And so, particularly in Bibliomania's narrative, it leads humans into a greater demise than dealing with reality right from the beginning could have ever led to.
  Following this, once the required number of 666 Guests is fulfilled, the Personification of Escapism is able to materialize in the real world and wholly consume the humans inhabiting it. Or so it thought.
  </center>Alice<center>
  Since the birth of Alice, Princess of a certain island country, she was in a terrible state of illness, while, simultaneously, possessing a mind that is unable to forget. According to these two factors, she spent her days processing information about the outside world and the people inhabiting it, ever stronger wishing for the ability to enter this outside world, but never having her wishes fulfilled. At least, not until a certain event occurs. An event I will examine later on in this analysis.
  
  During Alice's life as a human, the only thing driving her forward and the only thing she was able to do, so she thought, was consume information about the outer world--the world outside the single mind. This consummation happening inside her room, shut off from the unabridged outer world.
  She wasn't able to form emotional connections with other people and merely existed inside her own mind, never presenting her true feelings and thoughts to another living being. The only thing she did was learn about the outer world and the humans inhabiting through writing—writing which is heavily edited and consequently strongly differs from the whole truth. Writing which is merely a second-hand tool for learning about certain parts of the world and other people. It is a second-hand tool for learning about something, not meant to be a replace for it.
  And so Alice suffers. Suffers because she is unable to fulfill her wish of experiencing the outer world first-hand, nor is she able to achieve genuine happiness by merely gathering information about all she cannot reach. 
  
  Despite Alice's situation strongly differing in many aspects, this serves as a metaphor for people who are too scared and—or—unknowing about what fills the outer world and how to properly interact with it in order to engage with the humans inhabiting it.
  Consequently, these people are unable to form strong emotional bonds with others. Because of their lack of interaction with other humans, and—or—because of their inability to properly express themselves about who they are and what they desire. Instead, they consume media as a substitute for their desire to connect with other humans and—or—to, so they tell themselves, learn more about the outer world in order to consequently interact with it more properly in the future.
  <img width='220' src='https://i.postimg.cc/mDnzDwgT/Alice-is-hurting-1.jpg'> <img width='220' src='https://i.postimg.cc/sftmHP4F/Alice-is-hurting-2.jpg'>
  However, after a certain amount of time, this consummation is not able to fulfill these people anymore—because it merely serves as second-hand knowledge of the outside world and the people inhabiting it, allowing the single mind to be filled with information surrounding these things. But gaining this knowledge never directly allows these people to actually influence the outer world; because this consumed media merely serves to inform the reader of certain things inhabiting the world and how to properly interact with the outer world in order to achieve greater happiness, so experiencing these parts of media alone but never acting upon the information gathered inside the single mind by them does not bring these people lasting happiness. Followingly, they start desiring the outer world more and more; however, anxiety and potential low self-esteem leads these people to being possibly unable to begin their deep, lasting interaction with the outer world anew even now. Their possible anxiety, self-hatred and—or—low self-esteem is oftentimes created out of their lack of interaction with the outer world for a certain amount of time, which led these people to wrong or exaggerated assumptions about both themselves and particular parts of the outer world. Because they are unable to calculate and envision exactly how the outer world works merely inside their single mind. Similarly, feelings that hinder these people's interaction with the outer world can be caused by certain events they lived through prior in their individual lives.
  
  This leads to a state of strong suffering where these people are stuck between two options—to either return to mere consummation of media to fill the single mind, knowing that they will most likely never gain lasting happiness from it, or to build up enough courage to take the first step in interacting with the outer world once again. The suffering is induced by the knowledge that they are unable to gain lasting happiness through the former and that they will have to deal with an extreme amount of anxiety and possible self-hatred through inevitable failure in front of others—something that could potentially hurt other humans—which, in certain people, can consequently create the desire for death inside their single mind. This death being something that can lift the continuous suffering from themselves, or something that can relief the outer world from a, so they think, worthless existence and—or—a existence incapable of bringing any improvement to the outer world, merely worsening its state. Alternatively, they can choose to follow neither of these two paths—doing absolutely nothing as a result. Both in the real world, and the escapism-world.
  
  This is what the Tragedy of Alice, Princess of a Certain Island Country is supposed to be a metaphor for.
  However, because of Bibliomania's exaggerated narrative, Alice does not simply live her entire life inside her own room, forever consuming more media, forever learning more through second-hand knowledge.
  <img width='220' src='https://i.postimg.cc/9frqjKcL/The-Book-of-Truth.jpg'>
  Due to certain happenings possible due to the laws of Bibliomania's world, Alice becomes a being able to not merely consume media, but humans inhabiting the outer world themselves. This, of course, can be seen as merely a metaphor for her continued consumption of more and more media, once again exaggerated to enhance the narrative. This interpretation does not contradict anything that chronologically follows after Alice's fusion with the Book of Truth. However, another interpretation is possible. An interpretation that sees this as a metaphor for someone who continuously one-sidedly learns about other humans, without ever showing them their own self—a Lurker.
  In general, in Internet culture, a lurker is typically a member of an online community who observes, but does not participate. These kinds of users make out a large number of Internet-communities.
  Going the next step, we can use this definition to describe Alice's actions—she literally consumes the people inhabiting the outer world, consequently learning everything about them, but never presenting them anything but a superficial side of hers. This, followingly, makes her unable to form deep emotional connections with another human being—because, in other to form a proper emotional connection, mutual understanding is required.
  However, assumed by Alice, by the time Alice realizes this is the only way for her to find happiness and meaning in life, it is far too late.
  <img width='220' src='https://i.postimg.cc/QN2gJppF/3-2.jpg'>
  Because of Alice's insatiable consummation while simultaneously never forming deep emotional bonds with other humans, after a certain while, nothing else fills her mind except to further consume.
  And so she begins to feel that this is her only purpose in life—her happiness—because she has long forgotten any other way of living.
  She even mocks her own way of living when talking to the Personification of Escapism, and generally during the time she spends inside the Book of Escapism—telling herself and others that, in fact, it is worth experiencing the outer world first-hand, even with the pain accompanying it.
  <img width='220' src='https://i.postimg.cc/2587L0rW/Mocks-herself.jpg'>
  Or, alternatively, she wishes for no one else to end up she same way she did, encouraging them to go out and live despite the already experienced and yet to experience pain.
  In contrast, the copies of the Book of Truth—the, so she calls them, siblings of Alice—were, since the very beginning of their existence, merely created in order to consume.
  <img width='220' src='https://i.postimg.cc/QCJpMzVv/Copies.jpg'>
  This serves as yet another negative criticism of excessive escapism throughout one's life—because the humans remaining on earth merely remembered Alice as, at first, the existence who consumes people inhabiting the world, and secondly, as the existence who once threw the world into chaos by consuming the lives of people.
  Through this, Bibliomania states that, unless one chooses to present other people—people outside of one's single mind—their true, genuine self, they will not ever be remembered for who they really were, nor will they be genuinely understood.
  For, truly, this is exactly what befell Alice after she was sealed by the humans.
  
  To explain a certain part of the narrative, the reason Alice allowed her so-called _brother_ to, at first, do as he desires and manifest his physical body in the real world is because she was seeking a new experience. It is because something like this has never truly happened before—so she allowing him to enter the real world and, followingly, see his reaction on what happened to the world because of her is something Alice wanted to experience first-hand. It is something she hasn't truly seen yet—maybe inside a story, but never through her own eyes, in the real world.
  So, if she had allowed herself to immediately consume all the Book of Escapism's information, she could have never witnessed an event yet to ever truly happen.
  
  At the end of the story, Alice looks upon the world, now devoid of all meaning. Sadness fills her heart, for now she is forever unable to create emotional bonds with others, something she always desired but was never able to fulfill.
  Though she is now the only living being on the planet, it's as if she herself has reached death too, now that there is nothing left to achieve, and nothing left to experience.
  <img width='220' src='https://i.postimg.cc/L6Q9MXhM/4.jpg'>
  
  But, in reality, most readers aren't like the princess—they are able to interact with the outer world, form deep emotional bonds with the people inhabiting it, and consequently find meaning and happiness.
  In reality, there is no such thing as the Personification of Escapism deliberately making it impossible to approach the outer world.
  Therefore, for people struggling with the outside world and themselves, all it truly takes is enough courage in order to take the first step. Enough courage to accept both the good and bad coming from the outer world.
  # The Doll
  <img width='220' src='https://i.postimg.cc/HkHMf0YV/The-Doll.jpg'>
  Now, we arrive at the last segment of the analysis, dedicated to writing about the vaguest part of the entire Bibliomania manga.
  The black Butterfly on top of the doll's head—a representation of escapism befalling a person.
  The lost Arm—the escapism scaring the person for a long time to come once the escapism is abandoned.
  The lost Arm belonging to a Doll—the arm will never be the same anymore; however, it can be sewn back—not the exact same way it was before, but a proper life in the outer world and happiness can be re-established. 
  </center>Butterfly, butterfly
  Stop on the leaf
  If you get bored with the leaves, play with the cherry blossoms,
  On the blossoms of the cherry blossoms,
  Stop and play and play and stop.~~~

  Continue on AniList
• 

  TheGruesomeGoblin

  90/100
  A wonderfully illustrated dark tale about a girl meeting a talking serpent.

  *It should be noted that this manga is actually meant to be read left to right.*

  Bibliomania is a horror manga by Obaru (story) and Macchiro (art) that is about a girl waking up in a strange manor and proceeding to try and find her way out of the manor by trapaising through the 431 rooms to make it room 000 which is where the entrance lies.

  I wasn't sure really what to expect from this manga. Despite the strange beginning of the manga prior to Alice waking up in the manor, it didn't seem a terribly unique premise for a manga.

  

  I've always had a negative gut reaction to anything that looks to get by on weirdness alone. A character waking up in a literal white void and then being accosted by this wacky looking serpent when they tried to leave... I just had a bad feeling it was going to be one of those. Something that's weird just to be weird.

  But I was off the mark. Though don't get me wrong, Bibliomania's very weird.

  

  But there is a story here. One that I don't necessarily want to spoil. At least, not outside of a spoiler tag anyways. What really sells it though is definitely the art. I mean what got me to read the series in the first place was that cover image of Alice's face rotting.

  As the serpent explained, if an occupant of their room leaves it, their body will start to rot. The more rooms Alice makes it through, the worse her rotting gets. And later on, she's rotted so badly that she barely even resembles a human and it is just wonderful.

  

  I'm a huge fan of body horror and all those pages of monster Alice were just absolutely great. The rooms themselves and stories of the occupants are pretty good too, but the main thing I like about this manga is definitely Alice and the Serpent.

  The Serpent especially grew on me. As it acts as a Virgil to Alice's Dante as she proceeds throughout the rooms and provides commentary on the various occupants she encounters. It was no twist that the Serpent was hiding something big from Alice. After all, who would ever trust a talking Serpent in a suit? Especially after mentioning that the amount of guests he needs to have to start the “party” just happens to be 666.

  

  But that's not to say there isn't anything unsettling about Alice as well. There's just something off about her and the way she acts. That's without even mentioning that we also keep cutting to before when Alice entered the book and it's her wandering the world which seems to be already completely destroyed.

  

  WARNING: MASSIVE SERIES RUINING SPOILERS AHEAD. DO NOT CLICK IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE MANGA.

  ~!I think it's pretty obvious pretty even early on that there was going to be a twist. Nevertheless, I really didn't predict that Alice was going to turn out to be the serpent that destroyed the entire world at the very start of the manga. And that THE Serpent was simply a knock-off product developed and based off of Alice's Book of Truth.

  But then I reread the whole thing from start to finish and in one sitting and realized it's not even an outrageous twist that came out of nowhere. Explains why there's something unsettling about Alice even before she seems completely impervious to the desire poison of the Serpent's book, explains why she's wandering the ruined world alone, and of course, it gives a hell of a lot more weight to that moment of her finding that doll.

  

  I fucking absolutely love details like that.

  And then when Alice and the Serpent both make it out of the book and you have that whole excellent chunk of Serpent realizing that oh shit, I'm not the true monster here. I absolutely fucking love the concept of a monster being confronted with a greater monster, and good god they nailed it with this manga. Because it's not just that Alice has beaten the Serpent to destroying the world in sating her ravenous Bibliomania, but we get a clear comparison of their size and the Serpent is just so much smaller than Alice.

  

  I said it earlier in the review, and I'll say it again, I love Monster Alice so much.!~

  ---

  Conclusion

  

  What a nice surprise this manga ended up being. Really was just in it for the art. My primary recommendation with this manga is if you do read it, maybe read it a second time. I wasn't able to read it in one sitting the first time through, but even then there were a whole bunch of more details I just completely overlooked because I was just gawking at the art in general.

  It just barely misses the level of being a new favorite for me. Bibliomania's a 9 out of 10.

  
  Continue on AniList
• 

  LizardWizard0

  100/100
  Bibliomania -a hidden Gem

  Bibliomania

  

  Bibliomania is a weird yet well written short story about Escapism which intrigues through it´s horror-esque art.
  Bibliomania dives into topics such as:
  -The Fear of Change
  -Escapism
  -Desire and Greed

  Disclaimer:This is my first Review and english is not my first language, so please excuse any mistakes ,bad formating or structural problems.
  Probably a lot of uppercase and lowercase Problems too and punctuation.Sorry!

  The following Review contains Spoilers.

  _

  Alice had woken up in Room 431 of a mysterious manor. "You must not leave this room," warned the Serpent, but she paid it no heed and her body began to rot... Will she be able to escape the cursed manor?

  Note: Nominated for the 2019 Japan Media Arts Festival Awards in the Manga category.`

  Chapter Count:12
  Obaru (story) and Macchiro (art)
  _

  __Art__

  i would like to talk about the Art first, because it was the initial reason why i was drawn to this manga.
  The Cover was really intriguing.
  After all im a sucker for reimagining of fairy tails and books , in this case Alice in Wonderland although it only takes the premise, to a more horror genre.
  Bibliomania has a unique Art which can be beautiful and yet grotesque at other times.
  Every Room offers a new experience and is well designed and the occupants differ drastly and fits nicely with the story it wishes to convey.
  It also contains a lot of Body Horror, because of the rot, which i find to be amazingly executed but probably not for everybody, as Alice progresses through the Rooms.

  __Story__

  While there are a lot of fantasy elements revolving around Alice ,the book and the Serpent the rest of the World remains similar to ours.
  In the first panels we are met with some kind of Snake entity that broke free from a weird huge eggshell.

  

  After that we meet Alice who wakes up in a white void inside of a book which is later on revealed. Here she meets a weird looking Serpent which tells her that all her desires can come true as long as she stays in her Room.This Mansion is in reality a book which we find out in the course of the story. Alice finds herself in the room 431 and the Serpent mentions that when all Rooms are occupied ,666 in total, the "party" starts.Alice however is not interested in staying and ask to go home.
  However for all those who try to leave from their room the rot awaits. It gets worse the further you are from your room and the closer you get to Room 000.Alice decides to leave.
  We follow Alice through a lot of rooms with occupants ,each with their own storys and desires.This desire is their poison yet in some cruel way their blessing .

  Characters and Inhabitants:

  Bibliomanias Alice and Alice in Wonderland

  She is obviously ment to be a parrallel from the book Alice in Wonderland by Charles Dodgson.The core premise is the same:
  Alice falls down Wonderland ,in Bibliomania beeing the book. She has to find a way to escape while meeting the inhabitants of this fantasy World.This is however where the comparising stops and Bibliomania writes its own Story.

  The Serpent
  There is obviously the biblically reference of the Serpent. A Snake convincing a girl to do something, in this case stay in her room.
  666 Guest ist also another Indicator that the Serpent may not be as friendly as he appears to be.That is further enhanced by his suspicious looking Appearance. He resembles a Serpent yet has Teeth and almost has Eyes on the side.
  He has no facial Expressions at all so you can´t read any emotions.
  In the Story he acts as a weird,creepy yet comedious Guide.

  

  The Judge
  The First Guest we meet is the Judge .He almost looks like a godlike being judging over Sinners.

  

  However he only punishes oney Person repeatedly in this fantasy Room from his past. We learn that he only punishes , this one person who used to bully him and used him as a chair even shouting at him at anger even if it´s only a illusion. We also only meet mannequin Dolls who carry out his Instruction showing his inability to trust humans.He himself also barely resembles a Human anymore.

  "First we think them the Ruler then the victim then a sad petulant child controlled by desire with oneself entirely obscurred" -Hiding in public(source at the end)

  This Person probably has been repeating the same "punishment" for years. In a world where everything can come true , where the future is filled with endless possibllity, it is tragic that he is hung up on the past , refusing to move on and spending the rest of his existence on his same sad meaningless fantasy of revenge over and over and over again.

  The Bird

  

  In a flipped World this occupant has transformed into a bird.The Guest only wants to be free from the pain of War and Conflict and to soar above these Problems ,viewing them as nothing more but meaningless and unsightly. We can see a clear border between the beautiful star filled sky and a city beeing bombed.Tired of the Borders between people seperated only by the need for more space and ownership of such compared to the free sky the Bird happily escapes in this fantasy world while slowly forgetting that she once was human.Alice however doesn´t like fake Worlds ,thus crossing the Border.

  

  The Hero
  A lot of people probably pictured themselves atleast once as Superheros similar to Superman.
  In this Room we can meet someone who indulges in this fantasy because he roleplays as the hero in his galaxy calling himself "Space mobile prince Eraqra", in the world of Bibliomania a popular comic series. We see the Guest saving Alice from a Monster, beeing swarmed by Women and facing off against a huge monster with no fear.Yet when Alice sees him and calls him "not exactly young", aswell as when she didnt know of the comic series,we can see him beeing insecure .We further get a glimpse of his past life resembling the typical stereotype of Hikikomoris( Social Isolation a common problem in japan, once again a sign of escapism) and otakus. He is overweight,locked up in his rooms, with his Computer and his figurine collections in the background,all while the manga draws a parallel between his parents and the monsters ,who push him to get married and work.

  

  It is obvious that he only wants to be in his idealized form withouth any responsibilities, yet it shatters when he screams "not to look at him" and to "accept him" which were probably his past lifes thoughts, when he shortly remembers his past life.
  His desire to reject reality and just immersif yourself in a Video Game World is a common Problem, which I ,to a degree ,experienced.

  Collection of Inhabitants
  We further meet a Guest who turned himself into an Instrument,one who indulges in Drugs and Gambling,on who has become a Tree to get closer to Nature ,and a lot more .All with their own Desires to escape from their past Reality.

  The perfect Family
  The first seemingly normal Room, where we simply meet a family of three sitting together at the table for dinner.
  While the guest is confused at first when confronted if he wants to leave he visibly turns angry and shouts at alice to leave.
  We get an Explanation that he was a Teacher and wanted everybody to strive according to his doctrine and Ideal.
  When his family didn´t meet this idealconflict grew between them.
  As a result his family left them and he suffered. We see pictures of Alcohol and a broken man.
  He lost his family to time, thus escaping inside this mansion by creating a fake perfect family. Between his harsh Doctrines and the inescapable Death he forged himself a fantasy where he can life his ideal life.

  

  The Beautiful Girl
  The next Guest is a naked Girl surrounded by flowers who hates her past life and describes it as such:

  

  She was an ill ugly girl only knowing the hospital and her family which only looked at her with contempt.She hated her own
  life.
  We see her attempting suicide but finding this Book world before that. Here she can escape from her former self remaining a beatiful girl for a long time.The beatiful flower bed turns into blood and Roses with thorns and when she says she will live forever, we can see her face turning into a skull. Ironic and foreshadowing for whats to come.

  

  The Scientist
  Here we meet a Scientist and a lot of Clones of himself all working to find out about the book they´re trapped in .
  They tell Alice that if all 666 Guest arrive ,the serpent will consume all Guests and turn into an powerful entity.Thats why there is the rot to prevent the Residents from escaping which gets increasingly worse the closer you get to Room 000.While the Scientist primarily plays a Role to give us more informations, he still serves for a short question about identity and problems of greed for Knowledge.The second point especially will be very important later on ,but in this case because there was so much data, the scientist cloned himself and now nobody knows who the original is. This Conflicts probably draws a parallel and "This Is Why You´ll Never Be Acknowledged By The Scientific Community" is probably one hint to the explanation to his problem.He may have forgotten to write his name on his research paper and it got plagiarized and stolen, thus he never had the proof of his work in the very same way he has forgotten to write a paper or proof who the original one is. Plagiruizing or Stealing work in Science is famiously a conflict claim between Tesla and Thomas Edison for example.

  Alice
  Alice was a princess of an Island who was very ill but had something similar to a Photographic memory. Due to these aspects she lived secluded and learning about the outside World. Day in day out she was only consuming Information through writing, which can be heavily biased and edited.Because of a lack of interaction and only learning about humans through books, which is obviously inferior to actually experiencing it, she suffered.She shows similarity to people in real life who lack the ability to attain something and/ or are able to express their desires thus they suffer. Therefore they consume media as a substitute to connect with the real World. It is however only a secondary way of obtaining these experience, which can also falsely affect your view on certain things as they´re often not the whole truth.In our World, for example ,Social Media and the news often created a wrong picture of things or exaggerate , such as Beauty standards,the Pandemic and a lot of other things.
  While the consumation of such Media might satisfy at first, it leds to greed for more but it never creates a lasting happiness because it will only be a secondary experience compared to the real World.
  However due to anxiety low self esteem and lack of interaction ,due to the isolation and exaggerated view of the World , it leads to two options.
  Live in your old self without lasting happiness, to continue to consume media or muster up enough courage to take the first steps.For some there is only one Option.
  Bibliomania beeing a fantasy story after all takes the first route to the extreme and magnifies this concept to unrealistic proportions to enhance the narrative experience.
  Due to events which are not properly explained , i would assume some failed experiment, she is able to turn Humans into more media to consume.Following the trend she still consumes and consumes without actually interacting with the People or forming bonds with them ,instead just destroying it and turning it into more media or rather Words.Thus she too is affected by escapism by turning the entire world into a void existence except for herself. Never beeing able to properly interact or really experience the Outside World.
  She cannot however stop consuming:

  

  Alice and The Serpent
  Alice only "hatched" her little brother due to curiosity and once more to consume .
  The twist that Alice is the real Serpent and The Serpent is only a copy is in not actually coming out of nowhere .There were a lot of hints that something is wrong with Alice ,why she was going alone through the ruins,why she was immune to the rot and why the book was beeing filled so fast when alice left. It was however also well teased as if the Serpent is the snake that is mentioned at the beginging even looking quite similar. I also assumed on my first read through that the people who were tied down were maybe people who tried to escape before or sacrifices to fill the room later on by the Serpent.That beeing said i liked the Twist, especially the concept that for the Serpent his whole existence revolved around beeing finally free and basically becoming the god of the world only to find a desolated space and a much much stronger existence, was fun. Especially how how the confrentation is depiccted is amazing. Just look at the difference in size

  

  The Rot
  While in the book the rot acts more as a anti escape mechanism in the real world it very much exist as the fear of Change.
  The more you indulge in your escape in the real life the more you fall down that "Rabbit hole".
  Consider it similar to drugs and alcohol.The more you use it the more you get addicted ,the more dependent you get to it. Sometimes drugs and alcohol also serve as a tool to escape from reality ,from the problem that plagues us everyday.The longer it goes on ther harder it is to get out of this hole and take the first step to return to proper Life in Society.This Body rotting represents the anxiety and getting worn out when trying to return. And similar the closer you get to Room 000, the longer you go without alcohol or drugs ,the more setbacks and failures you receive when you try to get back into society, the worse the Desire to return to your old life of indulgent it gets.

  __

  Escapism__

  “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”-George Bernard Shaw

  All Human desire something they cannot obtain and are as result unhappy with their life.Escapism plays a major part in this story as all the inhabitants are driven by desire to escape their old life.Inside of the Room all of their Regrets, Desires and Boredom can be changed.It is ,however only a fantasy created by the book. Besides Alice we only fine one other personr who tried to leave. Of course there is also the rot to consider, once again however there is little mention of any desire to escaoe from the inhabitants.On the Contrary many express their wish to stay and questions Alice. They fear to change their curent life they grown used to.They fear to lose their comfort and return to the old one they hated.Why run away if your current life is so much better than your old one, even if it is fake?
  Afterall Ignorance is Bliss.

  Conclusion:
  With a good Story and plot twist and one of the best artworks i have seen it captured my heart as one of my favorite mangas to this day.
  While i wasn´t too impressed, altough entertained, in my first read you notice a lot more details and foreshadowing on your second one.
  I´m not even sure where i found this manga as there is very little information where it was released and from who.
  (Apparently by Obaru (story) and Macchiro (art))
  It however is certainly the best hidden gem i have found yet with a lot of different topic where i´m sure that i missed a lot.
  Thank you for your patience and i hope you enjoyed my review on Bibliomania.
  Here is my favorite Art page from the manga

  

  Also alice step on m..

  

  Some Inspiration/Sources
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je7R17ojKqw&ab_channel=HidinginPublic
  https://anilist.co/review/13056 Review byZazinuz
  https://anilist.co/review/13056 Review by TheGruesomeGoblin
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miQXuOgu4xo&t=603s&ab_channel=Keysmash
  ~~

  Continue on AniList

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