Itou Junji: Collection – 06

Two really solid horror tales this week from Itou Junji.  While the second story was the longer and weightier, the first one was creepy as all get out.  Kimura Ryouhei returns as a young man whose family has just moved next door to a very weird house with only one window – which really should be enough to make anybody suspicious.  This is a pretty straightforward story, without a whole lot of explanation behind it – just a really hideous-looking oba-san taking an unhealthy interest in the boy next door.  If I were him, I’d definitely change rooms with the parents and do my clothes at the laundromat.

The next tale is a quieter, more subtle unsettling story about a woman who marries into a rich and powerful family – or at least she thinks she does.  Riko has fought nightmares about her father’s death for her entire life, and they don’t stop even when she moves into the massive old house her husband’s family lives in.  She begins to notice something strange when her husband’s older family members appear to be ghostly in appearance, and it’s soon revealed that this particular clan has a tradition of a “gentle goodbye” – though just how they come by this power is a mystery that’s never explained.

The secret to the success of this piece is atmospherics, absolutely.  There are a couple of twists here, including a rather shocking one at the end, and it grows increasingly disquieting as it progresses.  I can’t help but wonder if Riko’s father knew the truth – if so, he’s either had a really good explanation given to him or he has a hell of a poker face.  This one is quite powerful in a tragic way, maybe the most melancholy chapter we’ve seen so far.  It shows off a side to Itou’s writing that we haven’t seen much of so far in this series, but I suspect is the author at his very best.

Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens – 05

I’m at the point now where I’m starting to wonder whether Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens, in addition to being a fantasy, is actually satire as well.  I mean – “shadyjob.com”?  “Discount torturers for hire”?  Maybe there’s something intentional going on here – a kind of “what would happen if we treated the murder business just like any other utterly mundane industry in the information age?”.  That we’re supposed to take any of this seriously isn’t even an option that’s on the table (and thank goodness, as it would be horrifying if it ever happened).  But I haven’t figured out in just what sense we’re not supposed to.

That new face is destined to become “The Submarine Shuriken”, and he’s played by Nakamura Yuuichi.  It’s another baseball tie-in, as he’s a former sidearmer from high school, and he (like Saitou) leaves Murder Inc., though for different reasons – he’s bored and wants to kill a better class of victim.  So he heads to Hakata looking for greener pastures and runs into his old catcher, who’s now a “hitman consultant” (ROFL) who’s brainstorm is to turn Saruwatari Shunsuke into the aforementioned ninja hitman – a PR foil for the Niwaka Samurai.

Meanwhile Murder Inc. has decided to take out Saitou for not giving two weeks notice (and knowing too much).  It’s ironic that Lin is the cross-dresser here as it’s Saitou who’s pretty much playing the damsel-in-distress role to a “T”.  With Banba off getting hammered every night as part of his role in the Hakata Yamakasa Matsuri, Lin-chan steps into his role in more ways than one – starting with the fact that he’s the pinch-hitter who has to save Saitou’s konbini-clerk ass when  Murder Inc. hitman comes looking for him.  It’s all as larky and breezy as ever, so I suppose the early returns suggest this arc will be as solidly entertaining (and absurd) as the first one.