"The mysterious killer arrives during the night! The five of them are all alone... with the killer who wants to make them his prey! Let's begin! A classic from the golden age of slasher horror..."
Final Girl (ファイナルガール) is a 40-page Ecchi Horror Comedy one-shot manga by Kokikuji You, published in print by Shōnen Magazine in 2019, later released online on the author's Pixiv account in 2020.
While out on a snack run, an ordinary, overworked office worker finds himself suddenly blacking out in front of a movie theatre showing an old Slasher Movie, 18th Day Sacrifice. When he regains consciousness, not only does he find himself within the movie that was being shown, he also finds himself having become its resident blonde, promiscuous "slutty girl", who by all genre convention is going to be the first to die. His only ticket to survival is his savviness over horror genre tropes, trying to defy as many slasher clichés as possible in order to avoid his grizzly, deeply predictable end.
Not to be confused with the Final Girl trope that the one-shot is named after. Also not to be confused with the defunct 2013 interactive horror story, the 2015 action horror film, nor the 2015 horror-parody film of similar names.
This work contains examples of the following tropes:
- Affectionate Parody: An extremely meta take on Slasher Movies, with the protagonist being thrust into the most stock example possible and doing his best to survive it by defying as many genre tropes as he can, to varied success.
- And the Adventure Continues: "Summer" and Lucy survive past the end of the film and drive off into the sunrise, with "Summer" seeing the credits scroll by and resting, relieved that this slasher story is finally over... but she remains where she is. Then their driver reveals that he overheard "her" and Lucy's conversation about wanting to be singers, revealing that he's a talent agent, resulting in a booming narrator introducing the story to another film, this one being about Lucy and Summer entering showbiz, titled Final Girls. "Summer" at this point finds herself resigned to the bit."Summer": Ahh, fine! I'll just have to survive everything showbiz can throw at me! Damn iiiiiiit!
- Cat Scare: While exploring the basement with Lucy, fully expecting to find the killer somewhere, "Summer" gets pricked by a rusty nail sticking out of the wall. Shortly afterwards, a kitchen knife inexplicably falls from the ceiling and glances her chest.
- Credits Gag:
- After surviving the night, Summer notices credits scrolling across the sky, signaling that she's finally made it to the end of the film and that her horror story is finally over.
- The "credits" to 18th Day Sacrifice itself list various tongue-in-cheek references to horror icons: Lucy is played by "Alice Strode", Wayne by "William Craven", Summer by "Sarah Ripley", P.J. by "John Dante", etc.
- Clothing Damage: As if exploring the lodge's Creepy Basement and getting Cat Scared for no particular reason isn't annoying enough, "Summer" finds the nail in the wall tearing her shorts and further revealing her cleavage, making her already-skimpy outfit even more revealing.
- Deadly Prank: Defied with prejudice: P.J. confides with Summer his plans to scare the other kids by pretending to be a masked killer (shortly after she and Ricky claim to have seen an actual masked killer, to boot). "Summer" grabs him by the face and tells him straight-up: no pranks. When she gets him to swear on it, she snaps his fake mask in half for good measure.
- Fanservice: In addition to "Summer" being very voluptuous and wearing generously skimpy clothing, there's a Shower Scene of her and Lucy both in the nude, only covered by Censor Steam or the art style simply avoiding depictions of naughty bits.
- Final Girl: The titular character within this role is Lucy, a demure, average university student with no noteworthy personality traits, with "Summer" deducing that if he stays with her, he'll be able to survive to the end along with her. He's right — after one last near-death encounter with the killer, Lucy is able to land the final blow on him, allowing everyone else's survival.
- Gender Bender: The protagonist starts off as male, but then ends up becoming the very generously female Summer of 18th Day Sacrifice.
- Genre Savvy: The crux of the manga heavily revolves around the protagonist being fully aware that he's in a Slasher Movie and doing his best to defy all the tropes that will result in death.
- Horror Comedy: Leaning more on the comedy side as an Affectionate Parody of slasher tropes, though the flashes of graphic violence and the threat of being genuinely killed are played seriously.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How the killer meets his demise; after charging onto Summer for the kill, as she parries his axe, Lucy uses Summer's bike-seat staff from earlier to push the both of them towards the wall, sending the killer in particular into a log spike that pierces his chest.
- Improvised Clothes: When the killer attacks "Summer" and Lucy while in the shower, "Summer" is left running out with the shower curtain, and having no time to put her clothes on simply ties it around her as a makeshift dress (Lucy, meanwhile, somehow manages to become fully changed while being chased). When the two get picked up by a rescue driver after surviving the night, his first question is asking what Summer is even wearing.
- Improvised Weapon: "Summer" constructs a makeshift weapon out of some junk in the basement, effectively a pole with a bike seat at the end of it. Justified by her reasoning that if she were to get an actual weapon like a knife or an axe, chances are likely that it'd be taken from her and used on her instead, or she'll possibly just hurt herself with it. While this tool is far less lethal, she figures it'll be good enough to at least knock the killer away and give a chance for her to break for it. Lucy ends up using it to shove the killer into a spiked log, killing him.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: Proposed by Wayne, the purported "smart guy" of the group, no less. Upon realizing there's a possible killer running around and the lodge isn't safe, he proposes they split up to inspect the surroundings. "Summer" instantly realizes how idiotic of a plan this is and pleas against it, but their form of compromise is by having Summer be accompanied by Lucy to inspect the basement as the guys split up. Fortunately, no one dies as a result of this, with Summer sticking with Lucy and making it out alive.
- Ms. Fanservice: Summer has a very shapely, "sexy" design, bright blonde hair, an outfit consisting of a midriff-barring tank top and short shorts, a reportedly hearty sexual appetite — all stuff that makes her incredibly likely to be a slasher's first victim. Along with the fact she's being "played" by a male salaryman entirely out of his element, it's unsurprising that "she" isn't exactly enthused about looking so attractive.
- My Car Hates Me: When the killer strikes for the second time and "Summer" is left blitzing out of the lodge, she discovers that their van is on fire, leaving them with no escape.
- Narrator: A mysterious, unseen narrator booms the intro of 18th Day Sacrifice, which the protagonist can hear loud and clear even before he properly wakes up in it. A similar narrator shows up at the very end to kick off the new movie she and Lucy have just begun.
- No Name Given:
- The protagonist isn't given a name as his original salaryman self — with him becoming Summer in 18th Day Sacrifice, everyone identifies him as such, and he plays along.
- Subverted with the killer — he isn't given a name by any of the characters, but the in-universe credits list a character played by "Jason Myers", simply named "Stephen", which one can easily guess is meant to be him.
- Really Gets Around: Upon first waking up in the film and in his new role, "Summer" learns that his character has slept with 32 guys, a definite signifier of the "slutty character" archetype that paints a target on his head. He briefly asides to wonder how the hell she managed to achieve all that at the age of 18.
- Screw Destiny: The overall plot of the story: a man ends up in the position of the most vulnerable target of a Slasher Movie, and tries to do everything in his power to avoid getting the axe.
- Sex Signals Death: Parodied; "Summer" quickly learns his character has had 32 sexual partners, his first red flag that he's going to be targeted by the slasher. The second red flag comes immediately afterwards when Summer's boyfriend, Ricky, comes into her room for love-making, which she refuses. This hesitation instead leads to them realizing that the killer has been hiding under their bed with his weapon all this time, leading to him bolting out the window.
- Shout-Out:
- While the Slasher Movie pastiche is based off of genre tropes in general, the title (18th Day Sacrifice) and basic setup (a group of young adults schmoozing around a lakeside cabin) draw to mind Friday the 13th in specific.
- The in-universe credits to 18th Day Sacrifice lists various actors and crew members, all of the latter category being spoofs of various horror characters, creators, and actors: Alice Strode, William Craven, Tom Hooper, John Dante, Sarah Ripley, Jason Myers, Joel Carpenter, Samuel Raimi, James Landis, Dan O'Bannon
, Norman Bates, Charles Lee Ray, Sadako Yamashita, Annie Wilkes, Jackie Torrance, Carrie White, and Darryl Revok.
- Shower Scene: "Summer" gets advised to take a shower after they finish their search in the lodge, but she ends up inviting Lucy to join her out of fear that it's the perfect place for her to be alone and slashed off, resulting in them awkwardly sharing the same stall, all while "Summer" is holding onto her makeshift pushing weapon. Then the killer attacks the two anyway.
- Slashers Prefer Blondes: Summer has bright blonde hair, a feature among others that make her the most obvious target for the slasher villain's first blood. It also appears that her boyfriend, Ricky, is also blonde, and appropriately, the killer tries to jump the both of them when it appears they're about to have sex.
- Special Person, Normal Name: Implied; the in-universe credits of 18th Day Sacrifice lists the names of the main cast, and one of the unaccounted-for names is "Stephen" (played by an actor named "Jason Myers"), strongly implying that it's the name of the killer.
- Stock Slasher: The killer that Summer and the cast encounters fits the "stock" description of a slasher villain to a tee: very tall, muscular, silent, wears a blank white mask, and wields a sinister-looking machete. He doesn't appear to have any backstory or deep motivations — he's just here to kill these university students hanging around the lakeside lodge.
- Title Drop: The trope name "Final Girl" is not only used in its proper context to describe Lucy, it also appears at the very end, with the new film that Summer and Lucy are becoming a part of also being titled Final Girls.
- Token Wholesome: Granted, there are only two girls total in the story, but the gentle, innocent, and supportive Lucy is a stark contrast to the incredibly fanservice-y and promiscuous Summer, which "Summer" reasonably deduces will mean that she will make it out alive no matter what. Even when they end up showering nude together, once the killer busts in to try and kill them and they run for their lives, "Summer" is stuck covering herself with her shower curtain, while Lucy has inexplicably become fully dressed again, presumably because the movie simply won't allow her to show any saucy bits off.
- Tragic Dream: Discussed — when Lucy begins privately confiding with Summer about her secret dream to become a popular singer, "Summer" fears that she may have set off another death flag. Subverted in that while the slasher does immediately appear to attack the two, both of them survive, and they make it all the way to the end of the movie. In fact, if the ending is of any indication, both of them are on the path to becoming huge stars.
- Trapped in TV Land: The main plot involves a random office worker suddenly waking up within the plot of a slasher film, and within the role of its most killable character. After managing to survive all the way past the ending of the film, she ends up finding herself in yet another flick.
- Two Girls to a Team: The central cast of 18th Day Sacrifice consists of three guys (a jock, a smart guy, and a prankster) and two girls (a sexy cheerleader and the "normal" university student).
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The three male members of the group are last shown seeing Summer and Lucy run out of the lodge as the killer chases the two into the barn, where they proceed to defend themselves and kill the slasher for good. It's all but stated that the boys survived, but they otherwise go unmentioned in the resolution as Summer and Lucy hitch a ride to town and call the police.
