Body Horror: Swinging between the lines
Wow! Boy I sure hope all three of you are excited for these incoming blogs because I have not one, not two, not even three, but ten different blogs to post. The reading on all of them was done in advance, this semester's just been kinda eating at my soul like a rat under a heated bucket. Anywho, let's jump right in with my boy Junji Ito and the ever infamous Gyo.
So, I'm already a huge fan of Junji Ito and while initially I was going to talk about a different manga, this one just felt right for the topic. The best way to simplify the story would be fish with legs mixed with the fallout of Japanese Imperialism and while they seem like opposite sides of the spectrum, they come together beautifully. There is something rather horrific in knowing an airborne pathogen is spreading wildly as rotting corpses from the sea continue to invade land on legs that seemingly were not built. And while at first it causes an understandable uproar, especially the sharks that still actively attack, things appear to get better with hospitals taking in the sick and the military trying to fight off the invading fish.
But of course, that's only like the fifth chapter out of sixteen so we all know something is up. Surprise! The fish bodies are so weak and rotten that the legs start using infected human's bodies in their place, as well as whatever creature they can get their wires in. What really stands out to me though is the mechanism powering the legs in the first place. They're described as rinning on the gas produced by the pathogen. But the pathogen is actively powered by the souls of those killled by the hands of the Japanese military in the past. That revelation right there is the point in which the story takes on some typical elements of J-Horror with spirits from the past seeking revenge on the living in horrifying forms. For the most part, the souls succeed in their goal as all of Japan is overrun with bloated corpses on semi organic legs, there being only a handful of people that are immune to the pathogen and despereately trying to work on a cure. Although no one is really alive at that point but I digress.
We didn't even scratch the rest of the plot in the story but honestly, it can get so ridiclous and outlandish but also terrifying that it would be better to read the manga and watch the pendulum constantly swing between hilarious and painfully disturbing for yourself. Assuming of course that you're pretty chill with body horror, plus everyone's favorite short story follows this one, so two for the price of one.
So, I'm already a huge fan of Junji Ito and while initially I was going to talk about a different manga, this one just felt right for the topic. The best way to simplify the story would be fish with legs mixed with the fallout of Japanese Imperialism and while they seem like opposite sides of the spectrum, they come together beautifully. There is something rather horrific in knowing an airborne pathogen is spreading wildly as rotting corpses from the sea continue to invade land on legs that seemingly were not built. And while at first it causes an understandable uproar, especially the sharks that still actively attack, things appear to get better with hospitals taking in the sick and the military trying to fight off the invading fish.
But of course, that's only like the fifth chapter out of sixteen so we all know something is up. Surprise! The fish bodies are so weak and rotten that the legs start using infected human's bodies in their place, as well as whatever creature they can get their wires in. What really stands out to me though is the mechanism powering the legs in the first place. They're described as rinning on the gas produced by the pathogen. But the pathogen is actively powered by the souls of those killled by the hands of the Japanese military in the past. That revelation right there is the point in which the story takes on some typical elements of J-Horror with spirits from the past seeking revenge on the living in horrifying forms. For the most part, the souls succeed in their goal as all of Japan is overrun with bloated corpses on semi organic legs, there being only a handful of people that are immune to the pathogen and despereately trying to work on a cure. Although no one is really alive at that point but I digress.
We didn't even scratch the rest of the plot in the story but honestly, it can get so ridiclous and outlandish but also terrifying that it would be better to read the manga and watch the pendulum constantly swing between hilarious and painfully disturbing for yourself. Assuming of course that you're pretty chill with body horror, plus everyone's favorite short story follows this one, so two for the price of one.
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