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scarycave posted:I don't have any essays, but some of the things I find scary about it is the little-to know explanation why this is happening. I completely agree. So many horror narratives are denatured by this bizarre need for satisfaction and resolution (how many horror movies have you seen where the sense of dread is killed in the final reel by a tacked-on "because... INDIAN BURIAL GROUND!" or "because... DEVIL WORSHIP!"?) when, transparently, the things that frighten us most are those which have no rational explanation. Most of Junji Ito's work is the epitome of the "uncaring universe" trope - terrible poo poo just happens without cause or solution, and often only the protagonists and the reader notice that anything is amiss. Although I love Gyo, I think it's one of his weaker stories, purely because of the lengthy explanations of the mechanics and history of the death robots. Whereas, say, The Town Without Streets makes an inexplicable but relatively tiny tweak to basic cultural norms - what we consider to be rational behaviour - and shows just how transient and fragile human society is, and how little it has to change to become horrifying and unrecognisable. Although it's about as far from Junji Ito's methodology as you can get, I'd nonetheless like to recommend Nakayama Masaaki's Fuan no Tane (Seeds of Anxiety). It's the manga equivalent of creepypasta: a three-volume collection of extremely short, simplistic, and formulaic stories that typically consists of 2-3 pages of setup, followed by... ...A SCARY THING   Seriously, it's about as subtle and nuanced as loving Insidious or something, but it's still fun and pretty drat creepy in places.
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Mar 19, 2013 20:42
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Dr. Hurt posted:I think it really works that a lot of the stories feel like randomly compiled illustrated urban legends. I legitimately thought that some of them were! Especially the Ear-Slashing Monk... brrr.
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Mar 19, 2013 21:44
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Green Intern posted:I read Glyceride the other day, and that whole story is just a series of the protagonist accepting her awful situation, even when her dad wakes her up while force-feeding her a bottle of cooking oil. A all-pervading, dreamlike lack of agency is a key part of Junji Ito's oeuvre. When characters take action to improve their situations, it's often arbitrary and ineffective. See also: the protagonist in I Am A Hero.
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Oct 31, 2013 21:10
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FactsAreUseless posted:I appreciate that the horror of that comic is "dead bodies continue to decompose." At no point does it say explicitly that the girl is dead.
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Aug 19, 2014 19:35
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