JAINTIUOS ANIME REVIEWS – CHAINSAW MAN – EPISODIO V – CÓMO ME SENTI CON EL EPISODIO

Hola mis amigos, Bienvenidos a otra entrada de mi blog.

Y hoy les traigo mi opinión sobre el Episodio número V del anime favorito de todos de la actualidad… Chainsaw Man.

De nuevo, les pido perdón de antemano, porque sigo preparando mi reflexión sobre el Episodio III, sigo trabajando en él, pero hasta entonces, llevaré a cabo mis pensamientos sobre el Episodio V, y la verdad es que me gustó bastante, aunque sí de ver ser sincero, debido a que me leí el manga, yo esperaba que no fuera a ser frenético como los otros dos, pero esa sólo es mi opinión, lo que voy a compartir ahora, podrán leerla y después sacar sus propias conclusiones.

Pero antes de dar comienzo a mi entrada, les debo hacer a todos la típica pregunta.

¿Se encuentran bien? ¿Saludables?

Sí la respuesta es sí, entonces yo soy feliz, ahora… A afilar las motosierras con el Episodio V de Chainsaw Man.

EPISODIO V

De nuevo, tenemos a Power recompensando a Denji con ese ansiado sueño suyo, tocar los senos a una chica, pero en este caso, Power le permitirá a Denji tocárselos tres veces – la primera por rescatar a Nyakko, la segunda por matar al Demonio de los Murciélagos, y la tercera por salvarla a ella. Y… se nota que Denji estaba por lanzarse a la carga mientras que Power estaba rendida a sus pies… más o menos.

El caso es que Denji empieza a manosearlos, pero los gemidos iniciales de Power son tan falsos que hasta me dan risa, así como esas caras, aunque no tanto como la revelación de que Power usa almohadillas en sus pechos para hacerlos más grande. Y una cosa que también valoro es el que esta parte se sienta más natural en el ánime. La verdad es que la sentí más cómica en el manga, una muestra del genio de Fujimoto-sensei.

Ahora a Denji le quedan dos manoseos. ¡Esa pose de zombie! ¡Ahora me pregunto quién es el auténtico Demonio Zombie!

A pesar de que Denji toca con inhibiciones los senos de Power, se ve que hay algo fuera de lugar en lo que ocurrió. ¡Y no me refiero a eso! Esa horrible sensación de vacío cuando logras una meta después de que tu corazón es alimentado por ese rico sueño.

Por su parte, Power está recontenta, y se nota que ahora hay una evolución en la amistad de ambos. ¡Level Up! ¡Power Up!

El caso es que por los siguientes días, Denji se la pasa muy abstraído, ni siquiera las divertidas travesuras de Power hacen que vuelva en sí.

¡Y de nuevo debe venir Makima al rescate de nuestro niño motosierra!

Denji le explica a Makima que tocar senos no fue la gran cosa, y se pregunta sobre sí, una vez que tenga otro deseo, lo que realmente vale es el camino en sí y no la meta, cosa que le parece, en términos simples… ¡Una completa mierda! Por lo que Makima le explica a Denji que entre más entiendas a la persona, mejor es el acto sexual, pero entender a la persona es más complicado de lo que parece, por lo que Makima le dice que empiece tocándole la mano, que sepa lo largos que son los dedos, la temperatura de la palma, y las orejas.

Pero lo realmente épico acá es cuando Makima le muerde los dedos a Denji. ¡Y el chico queda más que satisfecho!

¡Wow! Makima sólo necesita una lección para que Denji sepa lo que es el amor. Esto es un gran mérito. Y he de decir que la calidad de las imágenes es muy buena. ¡Kudos a Studio MAPPA! Eso sí es calidad.

Hay una imagen de este mismo segmento que es ésta, que les juro pensé era otra hecha por Studio MAPPA. ¡Y me alegro que no sea el caso! No porque sea mala, sino porque se ve que es muy inferior a lo que MAPPA nos ha estado ofreciendo hasta ahora.

Y luego… ¡Jackpot!

Denji le tocó los senos a Makima. ¡Damas y caballeros! ¡Nuestro Denji se ha vuelto un joven adulto! ¡Sólo le falta graduarse de hombre!

En serio. Esa reacción de Denji simplemente no tiene precio.

Leí en Internet que muchos criticaron la adaptación de esta escena por considerar más “erótica” que cómica, sensación que se percibió en el manga, aunque no de mi parte. Reconozco que tuvo instantes incómodos, pero me pareció muy bien dirigida. Por cierto, aquí está el link a la página donde hicieron las críticas, como muestra de que no me estaba inventando nada.

El caso es que poco después Makima le pide a Denji que mate al infame Demonios de las Pistolas, o Gun Devil, uno de los demonios más poderosos que existe, tanto que todos los Devil Hunters quieren, y tanto que hasta los Demonios menores le “ruegan” por una parte de su fuerza.  

Aw! Miren a nuestro lindo Denji! ¡Está emocionado!

Y como no, porque Makima dijo que si Denji mataba al Demonio de las Pistolas, le concedería cualquier deseo, hasta el sexo.

¡Y si! ¡Espero que no les moleste que le llame el Demonio de las Pistolas! Porque Demonio de las Armas suena un tanto genérico.

Poco después Makima le explica a Denji que debido a un incremento de la venta de pistolas y armas de fuego en el oficio de los Devil Hunters, hubo un aumento en la delincuencia, y en el terror a las armas de fuego. ¡Nada más lejos de la ficción!

Y luego Makima dice que el Demonios de las Pistolas apareció tras un terrible atentado terrorista en Estados Unidos con armas de fuego.Pero… ¡A quién pretenden engañar! ¡Todos sabemos a qué atentado está hablando! No diré más al respecto.

Luego tenemos un flashback del pasado de Aki, el mismo día en que apareció el Demonio de las Pistolas.

Resulta que su hermano, Taiyo, estaba muy enfermo, aun así, éste quería jugar con Aki. Los dos hermanos juegan y se divierten con la nieve. ¡Una escena muy hermosa! Me daba la sensación de que la pasarían muy bien, especialmente cuando Aki le sugiere a Taiyo jugar a la pelota e ir por su guante.

Y todo parecía ir bien, pero como es el mundo insano de Chainsaw Man, no tarda en pasar la tragedia.

No sólo de Aki, sino también 1.2 millones de personas fueron asesinadas brutalmente por el Demonio de las Pistolas.

El caso es que Denji termina aceptando. ¡La verdad es que me parece muy tierno ver a Denji recuperar su entusiasmo! Makima le muestra a Denji una parte del cuerpo del Demonio de las Pistolas, si los demonios comen de él, se volverán más poderosos.

¡Ugh! Vale que son básicamente balas magnéticas, pero esa imagen no deja de ser grotesca, igual que el propio Demonio. ¡Sí! ¡He visto su apariencia! No la revelar aquí, pero creáme… Es desagradable.

Gracias a eso, ahora puedo entender mejor que la amenaza de los Demonios es mucho peor de lo que pensaba.

Y por cierto… ¿Soy yo o ésta es una referencia a Gyo de Junji Ito? ¡Bravo Fujimoto-sensei!

Al poco tiempo, Makima manda a la Sección Especial Cuatro a un motel, para matar a otro Demonio que aparentemente consumió una bala del Demonio de las Pistolas. Y este grupo es conformado por Aki, Denji, Himeno, Hirokazu Arai, Kobeni y Power.

Una vez más, Denji y Power se roban el show. Aki los reprende por ser maleducados, cosa que ya han convertido en hobby, y sólo le bastó a Aki un poco de chicle para calmar a estos perritos callejeros.

Pero eso no es todo. Aparentemente Denji y Power le jugaron una broma muy pesada a Aki, y está tan furioso que los podría matar. ¡Y estaba muerto de la risa! No puedo dejar de preguntarme qué broma le hicieron.

¡De hecho! Me interesa más que la apariencia del Demonio a enfrentar.

Pero al ver la actitud de Arai, yo pensé… ¡Ugh! No voy a extrañar a este tipo.

Incluso Denji y Power parecen estar tranquilos, pero en el fondo, deben de querer comerse a Arai vivo.

Por su parte, Himeno se pone coqueta, lo que basta para motivar tanto a Denji como a Arai. ¡Y sigo sin entender cuál es la obsesión de Himeno con Kobeni! ¿Acaso está enamorada de ella o qué? Sin embargo, Denji no acepta. De nuevo. ¡Qué buena maestra resultó ser Makima!

Pero Himeno tiene más cartas por jugar.

¡Cuidado! ¡No le vayas a ser infiel a Makima!

¡Y Arai, chupámelo!

Luego pasamos a ver dos cosas que realmente disfruté ver. La Primera es el icónico cementerio de los Devil Hunters….

y la segunda la introducción de Kishibe, uno de mis personajes favoritos. 1. Su icónica frase – Los demonios temen a los cazadores con un par de tornillos sueltos. 2. Su interpretación. Hecha por Kenjiro Tsuda, quien es también es The Beholder en To Your Eternity, es impecable.

Kishibe introduce a Himeno su nuevo compañero, quien no es otro que Aki. Y tras revelarse que es su sexto compañero, le pide que no vaya a morir.

Poco después encuentran a un demonio grotesco con G mayúscula, que Power puede matar con facilidad.

O al menos eso parece, porque resulta que el demonio se quedó flotando ante Himeno, y ésta nos revela que hizo un contrato con el Demonio de los Fantasmas, que a cambio de darle su fuerza a Himeno, consumió el ojo derecho de ésta. Pero a cambio, Himeno puede usar la mano derecha del Demonio, cosa que resulta muy práctica para calmar a Power, a la que le costó un poco caro una broma pesada sobre matar a Kobeni.

De nuevo, las reacciones de Denji y Power se roban el show.

Pero… pronto mi risa se transformó en pavor, cuando, tras una serie de observaciones, Arai se da cuenta de que están atrapados en ese cuarto. ¿Cómo lo supo? Simple, porque si baja o sube las escaleras, llegará al piso al que estaban, o sea… el ocho.

Y con la cara de terror de Kobeni, terminaremos este capítulo.

CONCLUSION

Wow! Más pode decir de lo que pensaba. ¿Y qué más debo decir? Otro genial capítulo de Chainsaw Man. Vemos mejor el pasado de Aki, el desarrollo de Denji, la genialidad de Power y el gran carisma de Makima. Aunque he de decir que Kobeni no me terminó de convencer, a lo mejor ella evoluciona luego, pero tampoco es que me parezca el super personaje. Y en cuanto a Arai… ¡Quedé con deseos de que le den una patada en la entrepierna! Se la ganó.

Sin embargo, Himeno brilló bastante bien, y a pesar de los pocos segundos en que parece Kishibe, verlo en pantalla fue delicioso.  Prueba de que son dos de los más grandes personajes de Chainsaw Man.

El ending estuvo bien, pero me sigo quedando con Chainsaw Blood, de Vaundy. ¡Pero qué buenas estaban las referencias de M.C. Escher! Desde luego muestra de lo que vamos a ver en el Episodio VI Pero… ¿Soy yo o también hay referencias a Enter the Matrix?

Pero bueno… ¡Aquí termino yo! Espero que les haya gustado mi review, tanto como a mí me gustó escribirlos. ¡Nos vemos en la próxima!

IT’S JUNJI ITO TIME – SPLATTER FILM

Hey!! What time is it?

It’s Junji Ito Time.

Hello my friends. It has been one year since I wrote my last entry of It’s Junji Ito Time, and, personally, I want to thank all of you who have read my entries, because they have proved to be extremely popular. And, to be honest, I absolutely enjoyed writing about Junji Ito. And since it is Halloween month, it is a good opportunity to go back to this wonderful feeling.

Now, let’s go with Splatter Film

STORY

Splatter Film is the seventh and final story of the one-shot series of Junji Ito, New Voice in the Dark, a sequel of the 2002 series of stories, Voices in the Dark.

Splatter film starts with two stoners, Ogi and Sugio. Turns out that Ogi has returned from a trip from South America, and he has recollected some «special» honey and place it in a jar. Ogi revealed that the Natives worshipped the tree that produced that honey, to the point that they will risk their lives to get it.

Shortly afterwards, Ogi offers Sugio a lick, but warns him «not to get caught eating it.», some kind of warning from the place he got the honey. Sugio has his lick, and he finds the honey the most delicious thing he has ever tasted, much to Ogi’s surprise and horror, because Sugio asks for another bite in a pretty obsessed way, however Ogi denies it.

Some time after, Sugio does not enjoy the food as much as the honey. Then he brings his friends into Ogi’s house to get a bit of the honey. However, despite not finding Ogi, Sugio and his friends taste the honey; they also find some stench, and after inspecting the house, they find some «weird decoration» inside the house.

The decoration is a twisted mixture between fluids, fabric and bones. And after a close inspection, Sugio and his friends recognise that it may be Ogi; so after some debate, they leave his house along with the jar.

Sugio and his friends divide the honey in equal parts, but suddenly, one of them, a boy called Yasmin, literally splatters after eating the honey. Only that this time, everyone is witness of what happened.

Despite these tow horrific events, Sugio and group continue to eat the honey, until another of them, a girl called Riruko, «splatters», leaving the others in evident horror; after the third splat, Sugio deduces that it is, without a doubt, the honey. Sugio suggests that this could be some kind of «wrath of God», so he suggests stop eating th honey, or «the God with splattter them», but Kameda, one of the boys, discard that as a superstition.

Some days after, only three of the kids survived, Yue, Sugio And Kameda, but they are unable to eat other food, and quickly develop withdrawn symptoms due to stopping eating the honey; because of this, all of them start losing weight. Sugio reveals that the bodies of Riruko, Yasmin and Ogi were in the news, labelling them as the «pancake murders». Immediately Yue and Sugio meet Kameda, who lost weight too and had two friends «splattered» after they found his stash. Three friends can’t take it anymore, in both not eating the honey and not knowing what «not getting caught» means, so they start eating the honey again, which causes Sugio to splatter in front of them.

After that, Yue loses her sanity, and throws into the river, believing that «the thing» will not get her there. Unfortunately she is wrong, because something comes from the sky and crashes her.

Shortly afterwards, Kameda travels to South America, to get more of the honey, and after following the map left by Ogi in his wallet, he discovers that it comes from a monstrous tree with branches long enough to reach anywhere in the world, like something of World Tree. Despite this, Kameda makes the huge mistake of eating honey from the tree, which resulted in his death, and ending the story.

SYMBOLISM

Ok. Here comes the hard part, because many of Junji Ito fans, myself included, theorised that the author was making a reference to the work of H.P. Lovecraft, and that the infamous tree is actually Shub-Niggurath, or a reference of her, as well as her terrible, destructive influence on humans. Nonetheless I want to add something up. I personally believe that Junji Ito was using body horror to making a social commentary about the dangers of drugs, as well as the dangers of «looking for new thrills» without reflecting on the consequences that they have on us, especially on the youth people, who are the most vulnerable toward this kind of toxic activities.

Furthermore, this reminds me more of the Hounds of Tindalos, from Frank Belknap Long, who, after summoning them, they will always haunt you, appearing on the corners of your home, and butchering you in the worst ways possible.

Tell me what you think on the comments.

CONCLUSION

Splatter Film is another great story from the genius that is Junji ito. Highly recommended if you love his stories.

And let me pass you the links of this story.

https://junjiitomanga.fandom.com/wiki/Splatter_Film

https://imgur.com/gallery/fFrO0

Have a good one, and enjoy the rest of the day.

IT’S JUNJI ITO TIME – SHIVERS/COLDNESS/THE CHILL

Hey! What time is it?

It’s Junji Ito Time.

SHIVERS/COLDNESS/THE CHILL

Shivers, a.k.a. The Chill, a.k.a. Coldness is the fourth chapter from the volume seven of the Horror World of Junji Ito, Slug Girl, along with The Thing that Drifted Ashore, and Slug Girl. No need to repeat that, but I do it anyways.

Furthermore, it is the episode 4A of Studio Deen’s Junji Ito Collection

And please forgive me about the three titles. The English name of this story varies from translator to translator, much to my frustration, so, at the end, I decided to put all of the three, as an evidence of that existence.

For the sake of this entry, I will simply call it Shivers.

STORY

Shivers starts in a simple neighbourhood, and we got our protagonist, Yuuji, who has a really beautiful neighbour, called Rina, three years younger than him. Rina rarely goes outside, but sometimes she gets the visit from a doctor. One morning, Rina goes outside, and giggles when we points to her garden, despite being overgrown. There, Yuuji notices that her skin is full of holes.

That sight brings him a memory, where Yuuji was younger and his grandfather passed away; when we went to see him, he notices that his body was full of holes. But when he asked that to his family, they just said that «it was just one of his dreams.»

Shortly afterwards, Yuuji receives a visit from his friend, Hideo. Hideo’s mother was a nurse, and she was present during the birth of Rina. Yuuji explains that his mother and the doctors notice that Rina didn’t breathe when she was born, yet, she was alive; however, after two or three days, small holes started forming around her body, and that Rina started breathing through those holes, at least according to Hideo’s mother.

Hideo also states that his mom was joking. Immediately, Hideo starts checking on the books from Yuuji’s grandfather. On one of the entries, his grandfather reveals that a friend of his paid him a visit, Yonezu, an old comrade from the war, and that he was unwell and wrapped in a big coat. Yonezu showed some… relic. A statue of an insect made of light green jade. According to the diary, the statues was found by a fellow troop member, Yoshimura, on the mountains of Java, and that Yonezu bought, leaving the question – Why did we wanted to get rid of it?

The diary reveals that Yoshimura developed a serious chill and died. Curiously, Yuuji’ grandfather developed the same chill, and a doctor paid him a visit, and gave him an injection.

Soon afterwards, large swarms of insects start crawling toward the holes of his body, and his health was rapidly declining. He gives this a name – the curse of the jade, stating that everyone that owns it will be infected too, so he threw the statue again, falling into Rina’s garden. Hideo starts to feel a big chill and decides to go home.

Meanwhile, Yuuji starts looking for the jade, meeting almost face-to-face to the doctor that has been visiting Rina all these years, but, Rina screams when he sees the doctor and slams the door. That night, Yuuji has the feeling that the doctor who visits Rina is the same one who visited his grandfather before dying. He also wonders if he wants the jade for himself.

Shortly Yuuji decides to tell that to Rina’s parents, when he meets Hideo, who suggests him to keep quiet. Yet, Yuuji is determined to tell them the truth. When he leaves the house, though, he encounters Rina again, with her skin completely recovered, happy and enjoying the garden.

One night, Hideo sneaks into Yuuji’s window, but, as soon as we opens the curtains…

…he sees Hideo completely full of holes.

Hideo reveals that, the day they read the diary, he went looking for the jade, finding it exactly where Rina was pointing on the garden. Mesmerised at first, the holes started appearing, and he tried to throw the statue away… countless times, but he couldn’t. But suddenly, the doctor appears next to Hideo, and he starts screaming and flees, not before called the doctor – the messenger of the curse.

The next day, Yuuji finds Hideo’s body on the riverbank. But the jade is nowhere to be found.

SYMBOLISM

I must accept that, personally, I do not think Junji Ito has some criticism toward Japanese society in this case, but have more the purpose of telling a textbook horror story with supernatural elements. On the other hand, pretty much like The Woman Next Door, or The Neighbour’s Window, Shivers is mostly based on Japanese urban legends.

However, I have a personal theory of my own.

And that is that, the curse was provoked by an onryou, in other words, a vengeful ghost who causes damages to the living beings, and also created natural disasters, such as earthquakes and typhoon. Similar to Sadako and Kayako from Ringu and Ju-On respectively.

And the fact that the night Hideo was found, a typhoon was taking place, probably adds evidence to my theory. Regarding the doctor, I will probably put him as a messenger… a messenger of the onryou rather than of the curse. In this case, the doctor reminds the victims of the jade that they stole it, and now he will claim them, their bodies and their souls.

Secondly. I must repeat that Rina was healthy, and Hideo was cursed. In other words, she got rid of the chill when Hideo got it, similar to The Ring (2002), where showing the tape to someone else might free you from the curse. And I saw MIGHT, because perhaps Rina will suffer the curse again.

With Junji Ito, you will never know.

CONCLUSION

Shivers was a really good horror story, probably not as profound as The Enigma of the Amigara Fault, or Army of One, but it is a nice manga that is worth the reading.

Hopefully The Junji Ito Collection will honour its essence.

Thanks my friends, for stepping by, and I hope you have enjoyed It’s Junji Ito Time.

The best is about to come… two more times before wrapping up this Halloween 2021.

References:

<https://junjiitomanga.fandom.com/wiki/Shivers&gt;

<https://mangadex.org/title/3f7b7736-84c5-4f38-bf73-7266021f355a/itou-junji-kyoufu-manga-collection&gt;

IT’S JUNJI ITO TIME – ARMY OF ONE

Hey. What time is it?

It’s Junji Ito Time

ARMY OF ONE

Army of One is the bonus story that concludes one of the most popular words of Junji Ito – Hellstar Remina, published in 2005, which also consists in seven chapters. Army Of One is similar to The Enigma of the Amigara Fault, in which both are one-shot that concludes more well-known and complex storylines (Gyo in the case of Amigara Fault).

Many Junji Ito Fans consider Army of One one of his best stories, including myself.

Yes. I just recently ended reading Army of One, and concluded that indeed it deserves an entry on my blog.

STORY

The story starts on an unnamed city from Japan. A young couple went missing, but recently a civilian who was taking his dog for a walk in the park suddenly finds both of them dead. Nonetheless, that is not the awful truth. The worst part is that they were sewn together with what is like a fishing wire. The discovery becomes known nationwide.

Meanwhile, we jump to the protagonist of our story, Michio, who has been a hikikimori for the last seven years. (For those who do not know, a hikikimori refers to a person in Japan who has voluntarily shut himself or herself from the outside world), and has recently turn twenty. Michio gets invited to a high school reunion by his classmate and former crush, Natsuko Horie. At first Michio refuses to attend, but Natsuko successfully persuades him to go.

During his shut-in time, Michio has been listening to a really weird song, that goes like this:

«NOBODY LIKES A LONELY ONLY, EVERYONE’S YOUR FRIEND, EVERYONE’S YOUR FRIEND WHEN YOU JOIN YOUR HEARTS AND SING… ARMY OF ONE, WE ARE THE ARMY OF ONE.»

During the meeting, Michio meets his former classmates – Noriyuki Sakai and Keisuke Sakagi, but turns that all of them, including Natsuko, have standard jobs with standard bosses, something does not seem to impress Michio at all. But soon the great news are revealed – Natsuko and Noriyuki will marry the next year. Upon hearing this, Michio leaves straight away. Keisuke invites him to a singles party, but Michio refuses to attend.

On his way home, Michio discovers six bodies of some people who recently got missing.

Shortly, a plane passes by, spreading fliers of the so-called «Army of One», with the same song that appeared on the radio.

Michio investigates on the Internet, hearing rumours that blamed this called Army of One for the multiple «stitch-murders». Shortly afterwards, Natsuko calls Michio, and informs him that Keisuke was murdered and has his body sewn together… with the rest of the guests of the singles party he organised.

The news labels the Army of One as a criminal organisation, and firmly advise to avoid huge crowds. Upon hearing this, Michio calls Natsuko and suggests to postpone the class reunion, something that she immediately refuses, called what people sees in the news as a bluff, and encourages Michio to attend one more time. He tells her that he will think about.

Christmas Day arrives, and Michio wonders how is Natsuko doing. But then, the news reveal that hundreds of bodies were found in a plaza full of Christmas trees in the most horrific way possible. All sewn together and almost naked.

Krampus and Billy Chapman would be proud

The news began speculating about the Army of One, even claiming that they are some kind of alien force, especially because none of the bodies have shown signs of struggles or previous injury. The city councils, all over the city, cancel meetings and coming-of-age ceremonies everywhere. However, the one planned by Natsuko and Noriyuki continue as planned.

Michio sneaks in despite the huge security, just to check on Natsuko. A quarrel between Michio and police takes place, until Natsuko comes and reveals that they are friends. Police releases Michio and both go to the coming-of-age ceremony, just to find out that all the five hundred guests, including Noriyuki have disappeared without leaving a trace.

Natsuko goes hysterical, and days later, all the guests are found dead, sewn together, including Noriyuki.

After that incident, people officially avoid crowds, shutting themselves at home. Meanwhile, Michio calls Natsuko to check on her. Natsuko is obviously depressed, she practically has lost any desire of living. Michio decides to check on her, and her mental stability. On his way to see Natsuko, Michio sees again the same planes dropping fliers of the Army of One, and then, there are some Japanese Self-Defense Forces airplanes, willing to take them down.

That image alone is enough to motivate Michio.

Immediately Michio rushes off to Natsuko’s house to confess his feelings for her. And when he gets there, he finds a very disturbing image. Turns out that Natsuko murdered her parents and her dog and is sewing their bodies together, while singing the jingle of Army of One, much to his horror.

Finally, even JSDF planes are dropping fliers of the Army of One.

SYMBOLISM

First, I will discuss some of the themes that Junji Ito analyses on Army of One, and then I will give my own interpretation of what happened throughout the story, and who caused the «murders».

According to Junji Ito Fandom, Army of One makes a resemblance of the planes dropping fliers with the Allied airplanes, who threw propaganda to the bombed towns in Japan during World War II. Now, this is my interpretation, but Army of One might be some allegory to how impotent we, as humans, can feel toward the power of our own government, especially in a country where the mass media is state-controlled, such as North Korea, where people is constantly manipulated by the propaganda.

Too much manipulation would lead to fanaticism and ultimately to chaos.

And since Junji Ito is also known for this constant criticism toward modern Japanese society, that might be the case, especially since Hellstar Remina, he volume Army of One belongs to, was published in 2005, sixty years after Japanese surrender. I admit that I am going too far, but I wanted to mention this.

Furthermore, Junji Ito might be warning us about having an unbalance between We as individuals and We as a community. We need to keep in mind that most of the individuals that died in Army of One were in crowns, or in couples, even Natsuko, Noriyuki and Keisuke were always insisting about gathering together despite national warnings. We, as human beings, are social creatures, we need to be in contact with others, but too much dependence on that can be dangerous, because there are dangers that we cannot always foresee, so we need to look after ourselves as individuals too. But on the other hand, too much isolation is dangerous, leading us to decisions that will destroy our lives, or do things we will regret.

In this case, if Michio didn’t become a shut-in, we might spend more years, and create beautiful memories with Natsuko, and protect her. Now… he can only regret losing her forever. Everything is a big irony, because his isolation saved him… and filled his life with more regret and loneliness. Not solitude, loneliness.

A very appropriate allegory to what we as humans are suffering nowadays with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Again. Junji Ito criticises these two sides of the unbalance of Japanese society.

Now… Who has behind the stitch-murders?

From one perspective, Army of One is also a social commentary of how modern society can be vulnerable and impotent toward massive hysteria, along the elements that I previously mentioned. However, I have a theory of my own, and is that all the citizens were manipulated by a malevolent force with a strong influence on them, and making them kill each other, being sewn together as some kind of twist ritual of adoration.

Something similar to H.P. Lovecraft’s Nyarlathotep.

In the Cthulhu Mythos, Nyarlathotep, unlike many Outer Gods, lives on Earth, assumes multiples appearances, can talk to humans, has thousands of followers and a very powerful madness induction, being very manipulative and incurring to propaganda to achieve his goals,, similar to the fliers of Army of One.

Or perhaps something like Stephen King’s Randall Flagg, who is very also powerful, very manipulative and very diabolical.

CONCLUSION

Army of One is absolutely one of the best stories of Junji Ito, being as entertaining as anything related to Tomie, Souchi and Uzumaki. Also one of my personal favourites, along with The Enigma of the Amigara Fault, The Woman Next Door, and Slug Girl.

These three are very scary. And have the best stories and narratives, along with Army of One.

Many will be disappointed that there is no present monster, but I don’t think it needs one. A great story is scary enough if it is well-written, and that is the case with Army of One.

Thanks my friends, for stepping by, and I hope you have enjoyed It’s Junji Ito Time.

The best is about to come.

References:

<https://junjiitomanga.fandom.com/wiki/Army_of_One&gt;

<https://imgur.com/gallery/MWDjT#&gt;

IT’S JUNJI ITO TIME – HELL’O DOLLIES – or a doll’s hellish burial

Hey. What time is it?

It’s Junji Ito Time.

HELL’O DOLLIES

Hell’o Dollies, a.k.a. A Doll’s Hellish Burial, is one of the stories of the sixteenth volume of The Horror World of Junji Ito, called Frankenstein, published, according to the Fandom page, from 1994 to 1997. And just like Slug Girl, this series of stories was never published in the United States, so mostly, you will find fan translations of theses stories, but very good.

Hell’o Dollies is one of the best, but remember, just like Slug Girl, this story is pretty graphic.

Finally, Hell’o Dollies is part of the Junji Ito Collection. More precisely, episode 1B.

STORY

The story begins with a middle-aged man, looking horrified at the window of his house, claiming that his worst fear came true. That is that his daughter, Maria, became victim… of the illness.

Turns out that, according to an organisation (possibly the WHO) revealed to the world that 30% of the children world population became victim of what is called Early Onset Doll’s Disease, in which the arms, legs, hands, and face of the kids deformed to look identical to a doll, and the skin eventually becomes wooden, their joints become hairline cracks, their eyes have a blank staring position, and their face have absolutely no expression at all.

What caused this disease is unknown, but what it is less known is what kind of children can be infected.

The point is that his wife, Maria’s mother, finds out too, and… well… let’s just said that feeling devastated for the outcome is an understatement.

Furthermore, it is also revealed that the parents all over the world were unable to bear such a pain, and decided to burn their kids. The father does not understand the reason of that. However, both of Maria’s parents have some solace over the fact that Maria will always be together with them, and that she will always smile.

However, as time passes by…

…Maria is suffering a more grotesque transformation. Her skin begins to crack, her mouth deforms, she has now sharp teeth, her limbs become thinner and larger, as well as her fingers, and some tentacles start appearing all over her neck, like a gigantic centipede.

Both of the parents finally understood why children are being thrown away. And now, it is their turn.

Their poor, lovely Maria.

SYMBOLISM

Indeed, this is one of the shortest stories I have ever read from Junji Ito. In fact, I am almost leaving the story for you guys to read it. However, Hell’o Dollies just left me with a lot to think about.

Firstly, it is very clear what in this story Junji Ito uses one of his best themes, Body Horror, to illustrate the pain, suffering and tragedy of one element modern society can relate to – Deteriorating diseases, either cancer, Alzheimer, diabetes, Dementia or any other. It is all about taking and sharing the pain, from both perspectives.

On one hand, we got the patient, who, in the case of the Alzheimer, is really calm, aloof, reserved, totally unaware that he/she is suffering the disease, but trapped on a body that has become a prison, and on the other hand, the relatives of the person, who shares with the patient all what they can, fully accepting that he/she will never be same.

It reminds me that 2014 movie starring Julianne Moore, Still Alice.

Where Alice, a linguistics professor played by Moore, is diagnosed with Alzheimer, and she shares their last moments with her family.

However, from the way Junji Ito narrates the story, I truly do not know who is suffering the most, Maria or her parents. I believe that both have the same pain, with two big differences – The first one is Maria’s pain is physical, and her parents is psychological. The second one is that Maria, most likely, has a terrible barrier that isolates herself to her parents, and what these are forced to hurt her daughter, either by leaving her alive, or throwing her away.

Also, the ending is similar to Slug Girl, Maria’s parents are forced to let Maria go.

Overall, the thematics are very similar to Slug Girl; a girl that is infected with a very severe disease and they must let her go. But while Yuuko’s parents are basically on denial, Maria’s parents are with acceptance. It is like Junji Ito wanted to expose two of the five stages of grief.

At the end, it is the same on the stories of Junji Ito. A constant loss of the humanity for an unknown force.

Personally, I am still debating what is exactly what cause the disease, either a virus or a malevolent force. I prefer to think that it is both.

CONCLUSION

Hell’o Dollies is a really good story, a very short one, but as grotesque, unnerving and chilling as Slug Girl or The Thing that Drifted Ashore. I honestly recommend it, especially if you liked to think a lot about what is going on with the COVID-19 pandemic, or have a good scare.

See it by yourself.

Thanks my friends, for stepping by, and I hope you have enjoyed It’s Junji Ito Time.

The best is about to come.

References:

<https://junjiitomanga.fandom.com/wiki/Frankenstein&gt;

<https://imgur.com/gallery/bL7qQ&gt;

IT’S JUNJI ITO TIME – SLUG GIRL

Hey! What time is it?

It’s Junji Ito Time.

SLUG GIRL

As I previously mentioned on my entry of The Thing that Drifted Ashore, Slug Girl was published in 1997 as well, and it is the introductory short story of Slug Girl, volume seven of the Horror World of Junji Ito. It was also adapted in the Junji Ito Collection, episode Three, part 2, released on January 19, 2018. According to Junji Ito Fandom, it was never released in English. But I am not sure about that. If anyone can clarify that, I will deeply appreciate it.

However, I must warn you… That picture from above is a perfect foresight for what is about to come.

STORY

Our story begins with Rie and her best friend and cousin, Yuuko. Yuuko was once a very talkative girl, but recently she has become unusually quiet. Not just that, Yuuko has also become pretty bad at pronunciations. Rie talks to Yuuko but she clarifies that she is not feeling well. Sometime later, Yuuko’s condition becomes so bad that she is unable to attend school.

And here, I must say that…

The Junji Ito Collection really caught the depressing tone on that simple still.

The point is that Rie decides to visit Yuuko at her house, but when she reaches the doorbell, no one answers the door. so Rie goes and tries to enter on the backyard; once she arrives there, she finds Yuuko’s parents squishing many slugs, and throwing them salt.

Immediately, Yuuko’s mother escorts Rie to her room, where both find Yuuko resting in her bed with a facemask on. Rie wonders whether Yuuko caught a cold, while her mother only mentions that the doctor found Yuuko’s mental health weak. Rie tries to see beneath the mask, but Yuuko refuses to let her, only to furiously tell both to leave her alone.

Once more…

…looks to me that the Junji Ito Collection is making a fantastic job in catching the dark atmosphere with the animation.

After leaving the house, Rie remembers, through the terrified eyes of Yuuko, some other time in which the latter was that scared, and that was on elementary school; one day, her backyard was completely full of slugs, the very thing that Yuuko hates the most, and some of their classmates tried to scare her with those slugs. Since that day, Yuuko never returned to the backyard.

The next day, Rie goes for another visit to Yuuko, when suddenly her mother hysterically leaves the house and asks for a doctor. Rie catches her and asks what happened. Yuuko’s mother answers that something is wrong with Yuuko’s tongue. Immediately, Yuuko appears before both of them, with something slowly appearing from her mouth.

Then, it is revealed that Yuuko’s tongue transformed into a big, disgusting, slimy slug with a sort of conscience.

And I specifically mention «with a conscience», because, as the story points out, the slug is not listening to any instruction of Yuuko.

Let me, once more, share with you some GIFS from the Junji Ito Collection.

Rie was so terrified that she never returns to Yuuko’s house. The rest she hears it from her aunt and uncle.

They revealed that Yuuko tried to cut the slug with a pair of scissors, but it grew back, again and again; afterwards, her parents tried to force salt into Yuuko’s mouth, only for her to spit it out. Soon, because the slug is devouring everything that Yuuko eats and drinks, she becomes sicker and skinnier. So, desperate, her parents come up with a drastic plastic.

And that is filling up the bathtub with salt to kill to slug.

They do that and force Yuuko to get it. Sinking slowly, slowly into the bottom. The problem is that Yuuko never actually comes out from the bathtub, staying there for quite long.

They immediately attempt to drag her out of the bathtub, but all what they find is her pijamas and her underwear. Nonetheless, they are able to reach Yuuko’s head, with her body reduced almost to nothing due to the salt. However, the slug is still alive, and it begins crawling outside the house.

The slug reaches the backyard, where it still remains there until the end, with Yuuko’s head at its shell, always sharing a sad gaze toward those who look after her.

And there the story concludes.

This last image apparently became a meme, because so many authors recreate Yuuko’s head on the slime in the best way. Here is a small gallery of what I found.

Credit to the respective authors.

SYMBOLISM

I didn’t mention this before, with Slug Girl introduces us to a recurring theme from Junji Ito, one that is also deeply present in The Enigma of the Amigara Fault – Body Horror. However, unlike what happens in the latter, the transformation of Yuuko is more subtle, because along with her tongue becoming that disgusting slug, we are witness of how Yuuko’s mental health changes for the worse, first from talkative to quiet, then from quiet to aggressive, and finally, from aggressive to acquiescent; because for me, Yuuko is practically begging us to kill her through that «sad gaze».

And that is very common with many people with mental health issues.

But before I discuss that, I want to mention that this story reminds me to another great, influential short story with a similar theme – The Metamorphosis, from Franz Kafka. In the story, Gregor Samsa transforms into a disgusting insect, at the beginning he is optimistic that his condition is only temporary, but it is clear that this is not the case. And little by little, his father and mother decide to ignore and neglect Gregor. And despite Grete looks after him, at least at the beginning, she gets tired of him, and all the Samsa family decides to «dispose» Gregor and throw the corpse.

Only… because is different.

With Slug Girl something similar happens. Yuuko becomes «different», and then Rie just turns her back on Yuuko, without even bothering on understanding how is Yuuko actually feeling. And later, Yuuko’s parents try to help her, but both cause more damage than help, to the point of being irreversible (Since we are talking about Junji Ito, it won’t surprise me that this is the case). In the end, everyone in Yuuko’s family lets her down, but through different actions, Rie because of mere repulsion, and Yuuko’s parents because of reckless ignorance. It is different that with Gregor Samsa and his family, but both stories go around the same theme – Incomprehension.

I repeat, while Samsa’s family willingly chooses to neglects Gregor, Yuuko’s family are forced to hurt her.

Now, I need to go back to mental illnesses, another element from Slug Girl. Because those who suffer them never actually understand what is going on, and since they are unable to share their thoughts to their relatives and friends, they feel isolated, depressed and paranoid. There is no one to fully trust, and somehow they know that those around them will judge and attack them, which is why these individuals are aggressive and defensive. And even in our times, these problems are more common than we can think.

Due to my anxiety issues, I got my arguments with family and friends. But not to the point of violence, luckily.

To sum up, Slug Girl deals with a more subtle fear to the unknown, in this case, deformities in our minds and bodies, some elements so disgusting that make people walk away, instead of trying to investigate about what is really going on.

And to finish now, I want to point out another element that caught my attention and that is… How nature, far from beautiful, it can be also really terrifying. And in the case of Slug Girl, it is more about our fears.

In my case… I DESPISE TICKS.

Sorry for the unnevering image

I fear ticks more than I fear spiders. And I get paranoid of what they can do.

And when I read Slug Girl, I constantly remember how nature can surprise us in the worst ways possible. Hopefully you won’t suffer with that… or with them.

CONCLUSION

Of all the stories from Junji Ito that I have read so far, Slug Girl is the most disgusting and gruesome, even more than The Thing that Drifted Ashore (but surpassing by Glyceride), but it is also one of the most tragic, because Yuuko looked like a genuinely nice girl, and I don’t think she did something to deserve that hideous destiny. I want to think that she eventually passed away.

But that is up to everyone’s interpretation.

Check the analysis of the YouTube RagnarRox about Slug Girl. It is really good. Here I leave the link.

Thanks my friends, for stepping by, and I hope you have enjoyed It’s Junji Ito Time.

The best is about to come.

References:

<https://junjiitomanga.fandom.com/wiki/Slug_Girl_(story)&gt;

<https://imgur.com/gallery/HLC93ZP&gt;

IT’S JUNJI ITO TIME – THE THING THAT DRIFTED ASHORE

Hey!!! What time is it?

It’s Junji Ito Time.

THE THING THAT DRIFTED ASHORE

The Thing that Drifted Ashore, just like The Window Next Door, belongs to the The Horror World of Junji Ito, more precisely, Volume 7, Slug Girl. So yes, it belong to other of my favourite stories of Junji Ito, the eponymous Slug Girl.

Both published in 1997.

STORY

Our story begins somewhere on the Pacific Ocean. A gigantic, grotesque, serpent-like creature has drifted and died. The corpse looks to be very unnatural, the heads looks to be full of tumors, furthermore, the creature is over 30 meters long, and, due to its body, it appears to belong to the prehistorical period. It does not happen too long before the corpse attracts the attention of both scientists and bystanders.

Our protagonist and narrator is a young boy who always hated the fishes and the ocean. The story reveals that the boy’s fear of ocean life comes from a quick visit to a local aquarium. The boy gets extremely terrified by the creepy appearances of the fish, calling them «creatures forgotten by the entire universe.»

Because of this, our protagonist is constantly suffering from nightmares, around being surrounded by these creatures.

The creature is beginning to rot, but the scientists do not want that, for they called this «the discovery of the century», and start working in a way to study the creature as much as they can. Meanwhile, it begins to get very hot, almost a heatwave. And just like the boy and the scientists continue looking at the creature, the former meets a young woman, called Mie, who gets dizzy due to the heat and the stench of the corpse.

The boy takes Mie to the shadow.

While Mie slowly recovers, she reveals that she also hates the ocean, just like the boy, but she felt curious about the creature. Immediately, the boy asks her the reason of the hatred of the ocean. Then, Mie reveals that she lost a very beloved person, seven years before the events of the story. A ferry shipwrecked in the coast of Izu and many people disappeared. Her friend was one of them.

The boy asked Mie who he was, then she reveals that it was her fiance, Tadashi.

She already gave up hope of him being alive. Nonetheless, she dreams of becoming him, at the middle of the ocean, in an embryo-like position, surrounded by grotesque fishes that will might eat her, but that there is an invisible wall protecting her, so there is nothing to worry about.

More and more people gets closer to the creature. The scientists are starting to get desperate and request the assistance of the police to keep the distance. However, one of the bystanders takes a look into what appears to be the stomach of the creature, just to make a very terrifying discovery.

Inside the stomach, there are lots of people. Worse still, they are not digested despite being there for years.

Everybody deduces that the sea monster devours people. Shortly, after the discovery, they proceed to cut the stomach and release the people trapped.

But the awful truth does not stop there. Turns out that all of them are alive, and that one of the many survivors… is Tadashi. Mie has no doubt, because she recognises him. In other words, all of the rescued people are the same that disappeared on that ferry accident seven years ago.

The bystanders asked for ambulances, and when the survivors react, they start to scream in an ear-piercing, terrifying way. Even Tadashi acts like crazy in front of Mie.

The boy deduces that they acted like parasites inside the monster. In other words, they survived by absorbing the nutrients of the creature. Scientists wonder if that is possible for a human being, but all are declared mentally ill afterwards.

The story finishes with the boy wondering what kinds of horrors they witness inside the stomach of the creature.

SYMBOLISM

As a whole, The Thing That Drifted Ashore doesn’t seem to have any social commentary toward Japanese society, and it is more like a conventional horror story, influenced by two different elements from my viewpoint.

The first is the fact that the oceans, our planet’s oceans, still have a lot of mysteries, especially in the abyssal areas, where the light cannot penetrate. Remember that scene from Finding Nemo where Marlin and Dory fight against the angler fish?

Or these from the deeps of the sea?

BTW. This photo is real

The angler fish and the macropinna microstoma are just two simple examples. But overall, the deeps of the ocean have many secrets, some of them fascinating, but for the most part, very terrifying. The ocean comprises between 70% and 75% of our planet, and scientists mentioned that we barely know 5% of what lies beneath the water.

So there you go… Nightmare fuel.

The second element is the presence of Lovecraftian horror. It is no secret that Junji Ito was influenced by American writer H.P. Lovecraft, and that the latter was a lot of terrifying monstrosities, including Cthulhu, who resides in R’lyeh.

Most likely, the survivors of that sea monster witness something belonging to the Old Ones… or the Great Old Ones.

CONCLUSION

Another great horror story from Junji Ito, similar to The Window Next Door, but with a more imposing ending, because despite not having a social commentary about our society, The Thing That Drifted Ashore definitely includes not just a really strong Lovecraftian feeling, but also a reminder that our planet, as beautiful as it is, is as terrifying as Universe itself… Perhaps worse.

Anyway, I hope to enjoy it.

Thanks my friends, for stepping by, and I hope you have enjoyed It’s Junji Ito Time.

The best is about to come.

References:

<https://junjiitomanga.fandom.com/wiki/The_Thing_That_Drifted_Ashore&gt;

<https://imgur.com/gallery/bPe6HVv&gt;

IT’S JUNJI ITO – THE WINDOW’S NEXT DOOR (THE NEIGHBOUR’S WINDOW)

Hey. What time is it?

It’s Junji Ito Time!!!

THE WINDOW NEXT DOOR

The Window Next Door, a.k.a. The Neighbour’s Window, is the third chapter of volume 13 of The Horror World of Junji Ito, that has the name – The Circus is Here, published in 1997. The other stories are amazing, but, from my perspective, The Window Next Door is the most famous, both in Japan and overseas.

STORY

Hiroshi Sakaguchi and his parents have just recently moved to a new house, it was a bit old, but nice and comfortable. Shortly after moving, Hiroshi notices another house in particular which has one window on the second floor.

Anyway, Hiroshi and his mother go and greet their neighbours. One of them tells them about the house next door. They claim that a middle-aged woman lives there, but she barely shows her face in public and apparently has an odd behaviour, living in that place for over ten years.

Hiroshi’s mother keeps ringing the bell, but no one is answering the door.

That night, Hiroshi goes to bed, when he starts hearing an unsettling voice calling for him. When he sees the window, he finds a very disgusting, deformed creature, with a monstrous face, filled with warts and sharp claws. The woman asks Hiroshi to visit her.

At first, Hiroshi thinks that all was a dream, but the next night, he hears the same voice from the woman and goes check it out. He not only finds the woman, he notices she is trying to reach his window with a pole. Frightened, Hiroshi throws the pole, closes the window and rushes toward his parents’ room, calling for help.

To no one’s surprise, Hiroshi’s mom and dad didn’t find anything at the window next door. However, after so much consideration, they agree to switch rooms on the night. However, the woman never appears and Hiroshi is convinced that everything was a dream, so he goes back to his room.

Unfortunately, the woman calls his again that night, and this time, she is trying to reach Hiroshi’s room with her bare hands.

This time, Hiroshi is determined to confront the woman, ready to push her toward the window to her death, not sleeping that night. However, the woman never appears.

The next morning, Hiroshi reveals that he has now proof that the woman is still trying to reach him. And then it is revealed that the window has magically stretched into some bridge hallway-like monstrosity.

Hiroshi’s parents are planning to move, but he is already prepared to be reached by the entity… tonight.

Whether the woman got him or not is up to our interpretation.

SYMBOLISM

Honestly, I am surprised of how short this story is. In fact, of all the stories I have read from master Junji Ito so far, this is the shortest. But luckily, that doesn’t make it less entertaining, a little bit less scary, but not short in quality.

And the ending, as well of whether it was all a dream or not adds to the value and the horror factor.

In other words, this is an excellent stories for those who are new to the work of Junji Ito. Then, after some «ice-breaking» with the Window Next Door, I will recommend try and continue with either The Enigma of the Amigara Fault or The Woman Next Door.

Furthermore, I agree with many YouTubers, who state that the only purpose of Junji Ito was to tell a normal horror story, with no particular social commentary. Thanks to Luis DeWitt, whose video was useful for me to do this blog.

Here is the link (Warning – the video is in Spanish.)

One element that concerns me is that this story destroys my hopes about the Junji Ito Collection. You know, the anime. Why? Because by looking to the grotesque woman, and comparing her with the original manga…

…It makes me think The Junji Ito Collection is of an inferior quality.

Now! I repeat myself! I am not saying the anime is bad, I am saying that the its animation is inferior. Nothing more and nothing less, despite being done by Studio Deen.

Well. When the time comes, I will find out.

CONCLUSION

The Window Next Door is another fantastic horror story from Junji Ito. Basic, but impressive as the previously reviewed on Junji Ito Time. No wonder why is consider one of his best.

Thanks my friends, for stepping by, and I hope you have enjoyed It’s Junji Ito Time.

The best is about to come.

References:

<https://junjiitomanga.fandom.com/wiki/The_Neighbor%27s_Window&gt;

IT’S JUNJI ITO TIME – THE HANGING BALLOONS

Hey! What time it is?

It’s Junji Ito time.

THE HANGING BALLOONS

The Hanging Balloons is part of the anthology series, called Horror World of Junji Ito, published since 2001. The series consists of sixteen volumes, and includes stories like Tomie, The Circus is Here and Frankenstein. In this case, The Hanging Balloons is the sixth chapter of volume 4 of the series, called The Face Burglar.

The Hanging Balloons is often hailed as one of the best works of Junji Ito, and personally… I can’t agree enough.

STORY

The story starts in media res, with a young high school girl called Kazuko, who is been trapped inside her house after a long time. She is starving to death, and cannot risk herself to go out, because one mysterious creature with her voice is constantly calling her.

We then jump back in time, to one month. Kazuko’s best friend, Terumi Fujino, a popular girl and celebrity, commits suicide by hanging herself with a telephone wire for no apparent reason. Immediately, everyone blames on Shiroishi, Terumi’s boyfriend, due to constant arguments for her celebrity career, all of this pressure and harassment take a toll on Shiroishi, who starts to blame himself for the death of Terumi.

Shortly afterwards, a number of copycats start appearing in the news, many of the fans of Terumi start taking their own lives by hanging themselves. But then, things take a turn for the worse, when many individuals, most of them fans of Terumi, claim that they saw a strange balloon-like creature floating in the sky, with the form of her head. The creature disappeared afterwards. The news causes a great commotion all over Japan in the way of a «ghost-mania» according to the media.

Meanwhile, Kazuko meets Shiroishi, who tells her that the head lures every night, and watches closely and with deep, hollow and penetrating eyes. Obviously, Kazuko is skeptical.

Later that night, Kazuko sneaks into the streets and sees the head for herself. And while she is running, she also finds Shiroishi on the top of a tree, asking for forgiveness from Terumi and hangs himself in front of the ghost. Kazuko unsuccessfully tries to dissuade and help him, but, much to her horror, she finds another enormous balloon-like creature, this time with the form of Shiroishi.

Immediately, Kazuko goes and reports the incident to the police, but Shiroishi’s body is nowhere to be found.

Days later, Kazuko tells her friends, Taeko, Miyuki and Chiharu, about the «suicide» of Shiroishi. However, before they reach school, all of them spot four mysterious objects floating and heading towards all of them. After some time, they find out the objects are balloon creatures that look like them, with metal wires at the bottom. Taeko and Miyuki are immediately caught and killed by the wires, but Kazuko and Chiharu hide in an alleyway, and one man shoots the balloon of Chiharu.

You might be thinking that they are safe now. Right? ABSOLUTELY WRONG!!!!

Because the balloon of Chiharu rottens… ALONG WITH CHIHARU HERSELF.

Kazuko has no other option than run and hide. Her father is caught by the balloons on his way to work, and soon Japan gets invaded with balloons with hanging corpses. Yosuke, Kazuko’s little brother, goes outside to search for food, taking an umbrella to defend himself and promising his sister and his mother to return. Times passes on, but Yosuke is not back, and when his mother is about to look for him, her hanging balloon gets her and kills her.

Now we get back to the moment the story started, and Kazuko is eventually able to hear Yosuke’s voice. Believing that he survived, she opens the door, but it is revealed that he is dead, and that the one that spoke was his balloon.

We can assume that Kazuko is killed by her balloon afterwards.

SYMBOLISM

Without a doubt, The Hanging Balloons is one of the scariest stories of Junji Ito. Personally I think that, if he could do what It, It: Chapter Two, and the miniseries of the 1990s failed to achieve, I mean… make the balloons scary… then he is a genius.

According to many readers, what Junji Ito tried to do here was to create a personification of death. The balloons are dead itself, either you die for a «natural» death, or you just kill yourself, but at the end… every living being dies. (I can’t believe I am saying that in a smooth way).

But I will interpret the story in two ways… The first one is that there is a curse in Japan on Terumi Fujino, so powerful that it destroyed countless lives around her, similar to the movie franchise The Grudge, or Ju-On, in which a death took place around so much pain and anger that ir created a vindictive, malevolent entity.

My second interpretation is that Junji Ito was criticising the excessive devotion, sometimes toxic, that we got to a celebrity, to the point that we could even take our own lives for him/her.

At least in my personal opinion.

CONCLUSION

Just like with The Enigma of Amigara Fault and The Woman Next Door, The Hanging Balloons is a really fantastic story, and of all the three reviewed as of today, this is the most gruesome. The death of Chiharu was pretty graphic, and it is one of the most shocking of all the stories from Junji Ito I have read.

Along with the main protagonist from Slug Girl, but I will talk about that on its time.

Thanks my friends, for stepping by, and I hope you have enjoyed It’s Junji Ito Time.

The best is about to come.

References:

<https://junjiitomanga.fandom.com/wiki/The_Hanging_Balloons&gt;

IT’S JUNJI ITO TIME – THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR

«Hey! What time is it?»

IT’S JUNJI ITO TIME

The Woman Next Door.

This story is the first one of the Mimi’s Ghost Stories (Mimi no Kaidan, ミミの怪談), published in 2003, a series of short manga volume that centers about Mimi, a young, beautiful college student who is always attacked by some kind of natural force, no matter how much she runs, every nightmarish monster is after her.

Other stories from Mimi no Kaidan include Sound of Grass, Graveman, and The Seashore, which I hope I can red anytime soon.

What is interesting is that Jun ji Ito did NOT write these stories, he simply collect them from Japanese urban legends and modified them to be inside his lore.

STORY

Mimi is living in the first floor of a really old apartment building, from 1966. The walls of the building are very thin, so Mimi is able to hear everything their neighbours do, including listening very… really loud music. Mimi is trying to study, but she can’t due to the loud music played by her neighbour, and despite expressing her complains toward the landlady, here is no traces of lower the volume.

Finally Mimi snapped and gets up to the second floor to confront her neighbour. The person who opens is a young man, who, after being confronted by Mimi, denies that his music is pretty loud, but he will turn it off if his neighbour complains too. Mimi always thought that the next door apartment is empty, but the young man believes that someone is living there, due to listening door opening and closing all the time. Mimi knocks the door, with no avail. At least from the start, because after some time, the door opens and the owner appears. A tall, young man completely dressed in black, with sunglasses, gloves and a big hat, who simply walks away, ignoring Mimi and her neighbour.

Interestingly enough, another neighbour appears, disrupting by the argument, and claims that there are actually three women living on that neighbour.

Some time after, the noise upstairs stops and Mimi is satisfied, because she can finally study. However, one day, Mimi finds the young man outside; he tells her that he is completely terrified of that woman, and then…

…the mysterious woman appears in front of them, going upstairs.

Things become stranger when, at night, Mimi listens a loud scream from the neighbour, who moves from that house next day. Despite Mimi feels very uncomfortable due to the abrupt moving of the young man, she moves to his apartment, because she finds it very quiet and peaceful, perfect for her study.

On her way home, Mimi accidentally trips with one of the women, dropping her groceries. Mimi apologises, and when she tries to help her…

…Mimi discovers that her arm is a large metallic rod. The large woman ignores Mimi and gets back to her apartment.

Some time later, Mimi talks to her friends about what what she saw, and one of them tries to convince her that the arm was a mere prosthetic. Obviously Mimi doesn’t believe that, however she decides to forget the event and celebrate her new house.

And just like the young man before her, Mimi does not her absolutely anything at the other side of her wall. While studying, Mimi finds a hole on the wall and assumes the young man did it. Out of the curiosity, she comes closer and peeks at the hole. What she sees surprises her… but not in a good way. The woman from before is here, and she is removing some screws from her arm, which allows her to extend in a very unnatural fashion.

Immediately, the woman finds out Mimi is spying on her and stretches her arms so it will go through the wall. Mimi deduces that the three women is actually one, and proceeds to block the hole. She begins to calm down and feel safer, due to the door being locked as well. Then suddenly, she begins to listen to some noises outside, first on the hallway, and then outside the building.

The woman attacks Mimi, who passes out from the stress.

Shortly afterwards, the woman keeps acting as if nothing happened, while Mimi decides to move somewhere else.

SYMBOLISM

The purpose of The Woman Next Door, according to Junji Ito, was to point out the fact that we never find out who our neighbours actually are, because we never know them properly, expect that we salute them, or crosses path in a rushed manner, but we never take our time to find out of them, and that we are always in our own world.

Therefore, we… might be living next to a really bad person, like a criminal, or a serial killer. This element is more common nowadays, due to globalisation, because we are connected from a place to another, due to the Internet and social media, but we are more isolated than before, unlike fifty, or forty years ago, time in which a true sense of community was always present.

CONCLUSION

Personally, as a story, The Enigma of the Amigara Fault is better constructed, but if we have to mention the commentary that impacted me the most, that is the one from The Woman Next Door, naturally because it is something more deep and relatable to us. Yes, the element of compulsion is keen to humanity, but the isolation and lack of true communication is dealt every day, unintentionally or not, and that is why I see it more as a precaution, because if we are not careful, we find an unpleasant, if not dangerous surprise from our neighbours… or roommates.

And I finish by sharing with you a small game based on this fantastic story.

Thanks my friends, for stepping by, and I hope you have enjoyed It’s Junji Ito Time.

The best is about to come.

References:

<https://junjiitomanga.fandom.com/wiki/The_Woman_Next_Door&gt;