INFLUENCES PT 1 - Junji Ito

I've been meaning to do this for a while, actually. I put things off a lot (this blog is literally bursting at the seams with nothing but procrastination) but at 3AM, even though its technically Tuesday, its still Monday to me and I'll go with that. I was tired writing this so it may also seem a bit jumbled or weird or shit, either way, I'll be posting another tomorrow (Tuesday... or Wednesday, it depends) on another influence of mine.

So anyways, I first discovered Junji Ito through Tumblr - I think I stumbled across a few panels from his manga Uzumaki and became so fascinated with what I was seeing. A horrific series of portent images, each significantly more disgusting then the last. In fact, I'm very sure it was this one here:

Nice, isn't it? 

So I looked him up on google images. A plethora of similar images cropped up. I shut the tab down and began hunting online for the manga that this originated from. And what I managed to find was something that was truly, great, and also terrifying.

Uzumaki (meaning spiral in Japanese) tells the story of Kirie Goshima, a high school student who begins to notice the town become obsessed with spirals after the death of her boyfriends father. Cue a series of strange happenings, weird deaths and a descent into obsession that brings the 3 volume manga to a rather terrifying conclusion. Not because there is a super gory panel filled with blood and guts, but because of the message. The spiral is entrancing, circular, but also infinite. Its impossible to take your eyes away and once you start, you slowly lose grip. I remember a quote by Nietzsche which says "Don't fight with monsters lest ye become a monster... Remember that when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you". The overriding theme of obsession, and also the finality of fate and the unending chaos that you are doomed to repeat becomes even more unsettling then the content of the images, but the synthesis of words and pictures is just fantastic. Ito knows how to write and he can manifest his characters really well on paper (especially since most manga is black/white too). I don't want to reveal anything other then that though, so I won't go into anymore detail. Just read and be astonished.

Perhaps what I was so surprised, and impressed by was how raw, less camp and animated the characters were compared to the conventional manga style with the huge eyes, eccentric personalities and exaggerated plots. I find most shounen-ai and romantic manga to be mostly pretty crap (and they also attract some of the most obnoxious, strange people I have encountered, period.), but finding this really revived my interest in Manga and graphic novels, something that had waned since I started college.

So not only did Ito create a pretty elaborate piece of work with Uzumaki, but he also collected all the average and mundane things we encounter and turned them into figures of malevolent evil with the sole purpose of terrorising and destroying mankind with madness. And for any writer, I've discovered, being able to make your audience shaken after they read your work is a very powerful feeling.

Recommendations/Further Reading:

• Gyo (sharks that can walk on land)
• Uzumaki (evil spirals)
• Tomie (dangerous and seductive woman who terrorises mankind with her beauty)