Ship of Theseus is a manga written and drawn by Toshiya Higashimoto. He is a Japanese manga author born in Hokkaido, Japan in 1981. Ship of Theseus was first published in Japan in 2017 by publisher Kodansha Ltd., Tokyo. This manga is set in 1989 in a small village called Otousu, Hokkaido, Japan. It tell a story of Shin Tamura, a son of murderer who unlived twenty one people in Otousu village where sixteen of his victims are children. We got to see a glimpse of the protagonist as he and his family continuing their life while being branded as a murderer’s son, daughter, and wife. In Shin Tamura’s dream his mother admonish him that they can’t laugh, cry, or showing any emotional reaction in front of others. Ship of Theseus is divided in two part and told from Shin Tamura’s point of view and the (real) murderer’s point of view. The story focus on Shin’s time travel to the past while he investigating his father’s murder case. Like other manga with time travel theme before, the protagonist time travel isn’t fix. Meaning, he can’t know when will he go back to the present time vice versa on top of that, he still need to worried if whatever he is doing will affect the future where he and his family currently lives. The first part started from the ‘present time’ after his wife passed away and his daughter was taken away from him. This event stimulated Shin to continuing his investigation oh his father’s murder case.
The first trigger that make him go back to the past is when he come to Otousu village ruins and got attacked by unidentified person, while Shin lying down dying his body and consciousness suddenly wake up to Otousu village 20 years ago where the murder case hasn’t happened yet. Coincidentally, Shin were accepted and live in his father’s house. Here, he can see his father with his own eyes and he decided that he will observed his own father up close. Shin’s idea is very simple, to stop the murder case before someone dies. But, it wasn’t easy. The author write a very thorough background for each character in this manga. Each one of them are suspicious, the character’s complex personality, and complete background. Toshiya Higashimoto succesfully made everyone in Otousu village has a motive to actually commit murder. When you read Ship of Theseus, you will find yourself doubting everyone. Even the characters that on the same camp as the protagonist, Shin Tamura also appear suspicious. At some point in the manga, the author even made the protagonist Shin Tamura’s narrative unreliable. The storyline goes back and forth so it might be a little bit confusing for some. But as the story progress, everything seem to clear up in the end. If you enjoy mystery and thriller genre, I suggest you give Ship of Theseus a try. From 1–10 point i give this manga 8.5/10.