I should have a word with the Editors here.
Why? Because according to National Public Radio (the NPR) we’ve been mis-labeling titles like The Ring!
Yes, it’s horror, of course… but did you know it also has a sub-genre?
Yes! It’s a very popular sub-genre, movies like The Ring, The Grudge and the recent Dark Water! And while the sub-genre is out of step now in Japan it’s still big here! So without further ado from now on whenever we review things like The Ring/Ringu it should be listed thusly!

Birthday (The Ring GN 4)
Genre - Horror/Dead Wet Girl

….no I’m not making that up…
Apparently in an act that doesn’t entirely seem all too bright and/or intelligent, a recent discussion of movies like Ringu coming to America (being remade by Hollywood) prompted an NPR reporter to coin the phrase “Dead wet girl” genre to describe these movies’ “nitche”…. yeah, thanks NPR for dumbing down one of horror’s biggest draws, thank you very much. Thankfully NPR doesn’t do the morning traffic report on their own since that’ll probably consist of reporters playing in traffic while making observations.

“Dead wet girl” sub-genre. Yeah. Almost makes me want to run out and petition CAPCOM for that soon to be popular Resident Evil Beach Volleyball game since, well, “Dead wet girl” stuff is popular now! I’d like to buy the people at NPR a brain please. One that actually works and will not come up with “witty” catchphrases and terms a cable/radio news personality might coin in a vain attempt at humor.

Ok. Nuff said about the… ahem… “Dead wet girl” thing.
American remakes of Japanese horror movies are all the rage these days, though, no denying that.
With the recent release of Dark Water, a remake of a Japanese horror movie by the Stephen King of Japanese horror (Koji Suzuki), being only the latest to catch people’s attentions. Next is going to be the Hollywood remake of The Pulse, in which the gates of the afterlife are shut after the afterlife becomes overpopulated (as if), forcing spirits of the dead to inhabit… the internet. Yes. Cyberspace.
There they wander chat rooms, camp out on porn sites and begin to shill for prescription drugs and impotency pills like Viagra to earn their “keep” online! Yeah, now that‘s scary… eh? Anyway I’m sure it’ll actually be really scary when it actually comes out. Really. Though I’m just having a hard time visualizing it. Maybe Dark Horse will print any possibly manga version of that in the near future since I probably won’t see the movie, per se, but I will read any manga adaptation that comes out way.

But as “dead wet girl” manga in general? We have The Ring (Ringu) to talk about, with the latest “Birthday” to have words over. Birthday. This time out it’s not one story but an anthology of three stories, each focusing around or connected to Sadako, of course. So buy the party candles and pick up a cake, cause we’re celebrating a birthday of sorts…. You’ll see.

In “The Casket Floating In The Sky”, we watch as one who seemingly survived the curse, Mai Takano, is slowly consumed by it to give “birth” to the next Sadako. Loss of self, loss of her individuality as she is “rewritten” from the inside out to become Sadako. Yeah, like the back of the book says Sadako’s EVIL!
But wait! What drove Sadako to do this in the first place? Maybe the next two stories will shed some light on that as we look back at a living breathing Sadako, and see that maybe she wasn’t entirely evil… until she died, and then went over the edge and was consumed by the dark side.

In “Lemon Heart” we find that she had a young love once, as this concerns a man falling in love with her. Of course it’s not all about the past, as we’ll also see what happens at present to this man who has never forgotten Sadako, even though he didn’t know her well enough.

Then in the aptly named “Sadako” we see Sadako’s life right up to her final days, and her death when the truth about her condition is known, especially that she’s a -- yes I know it’s a really rude word but she IS -- uh, you know what? I won’t say it… go watch Stainless Nights and you’ll figure out what Sadako is (if I remember my crossreference titles correctly).

Ok. That’s that. Three stories, each revolving about the one and only Sadako, and sometimes looking back at times when she wasn’t a homicidal othersider planning her rebirth from the great beyond. Anyway it shows you a Sadako you never knew, the one that was still alive and had her own dreams. That Sadako.
Ok. Nuff said so now it’s breakdown time.

The Ring Breakdown the 4th
What’s Hot? - Yeah, yeah, as I always say I am a terrible detractor of the horror genre. It’s not really my thing. I didn’t see George Romero’s Land of the Dead, I didn’t run out to watch Dark Water, and I don’t plan on seeing The Pulse either. Still, sometimes a horror title does speak to me and I listen.
The Ring, at least in manga format, is one of those titles in question.
I don’t know what it is, especially since I know there’s no way in heck that I’m going to watch the live action stuff of The Ring, but I like the manga a bit better than the live stuff. Maybe it’s just me.
Bottom line is that this is a good read. Horror fans will find something about Birthday (one of the latest of The Ring trilogy coming out from Dark Horse) to keep them reading.
Anyway it IS from one of the Japanese masters of horror so it must be good, right?

What’s Not? - Yeah. I know. Only getting half of the experience by no embracing the films.
Still that’s my thing and I feel more comfortable with the mangas only, so that’s my thing.

Moments to Remember? - Somehow the origins of Sadako are going to stick to you, if they haven’t already. You don’t believe me? Try it out, see for yourself, I’ll be something of it sticks.

What to Ignore? - Why is The Ring, The Grudge and Dark Water so popular? Dead wet girls!
By golly I’ve been labeling all my reviews wrong! I should go back and have them properly labeled! Horror slash Dead Wet Girl! Yeah…. why if it wasn’t for NPR (National Public Radio) suggesting we have a “Dead Wet Girl” sub genre for movies like this? Well then I wouldn’t know how the heck we would celebrate the “Dead Wet Girl” genre, and all the movies connected to it!
Sigh… “Dead wet girls”… damn! Just what the heck were they thinking anyway!

Overall
“Dead Wet Girl” humor aside, it is still a good read.
Delving into the origins of Sadako we learn abit about her, and her drive to do what she did.
If you ever wanted to know more about the strange girl who died, and how her “vengeance” on VHS fits into her dreams? Here’s the place to start learning. So go pick up a copy today, and start your reading! And while your at it don’t forget to e-mail CAPCOM about that Resident Evil Beach Volleyball game! After all if you thought live wet girls was hot, then you haven’t experienced the rage NPR calls the “Dead Wet Girl” syndrome! So splash away, you Raccoon City undead swimsuit models! Splash away!