Last year, the news that legendary game developer Hideo Kojima was having fun with one of Japan’s most famous contemporary horror film directors, Junji Ito, caused quite a stir. The collaboration of these two greats on a new horror game would no doubt be the dream of every fan of these creators and the genre as such. While there has been silence along the way since then, the chances are very high that Kojima is currently actually working on a horror game. In the meantime, we have the opportunity to find out why Ito became so famous: his most famous manga is now published in an excellent Czech reprint.
- Soft cover
- 648 black and white pages
- Scenario: Junji Ito
- Picture: Junji Ito
- Czech translation: Jan Horgosh
- Publisher: Crew
- Language: Czech
- Price: 649 CZK (Xzone)
Body deformation
The Japanese town of Kuruzu is located on the coast, between mountains and forests. Despite the extensive wilderness in the surrounding area, the city does not feel overly cut off, for example trains run here. Nevertheless, it breathes a noticeably rustic atmosphere, which, among other things, is facilitated by the unusually well-preserved historical “rows”, i.e. elongated one-story houses that have stood for hundreds of years in the old parts of the city. We get to know the city and its history through high school student Kyrie, the daughter of a local potter, who also lives here with her mother and younger brother. Kyrie is not a heroine, she is an ordinary girl with a slightly pensive nature, which every reader can easily marry – her reactions to what is happening around are always natural and humane.
Life in a small town flows slowly and you also notice various little things around you. For example, the fact that Shuichi’s dad (Kyrie’s best friend) started spending a suspiciously long time watching the snail shells behind the house in a completely fanatical manner. Shuichi himself is properly concerned about this, and little by little, Kirie begins to take notice of the strange oppressive force slowly plunging the entire city into an obsession with spiraling shapes. What at first seems delusional will gradually begin to manifest itself in more and more pronounced forms, until the first deaths come, in which the victims are twisted into completely insane forms. Before the people of the city can hope, a mysterious curse spreads over the city like night, and falls on all living things in ways you never dreamed of even in your worst nightmares.
Victims twist into completely insane shapes.
The book’s author is said to be “an expert on darkness and body deformities”, which Spiral clearly confirms. It brilliantly picks up gruesome allusions and explicit scenes and wraps you around your finger before you notice it. The introductory cannonade of seemingly harmless oddities is replaced by a brutal pressure on the saw as soon as the townspeople begin to die, and when you think that it can’t get any worse, Ito shows time after time that this abyss is much deeper and more terrible than you can imagine. Human bodies deform in absolutely insane ways, and the scenes on some sites are so frightening that you probably wouldn’t dare read this book in public, where the drawings could be seen by people around you.
Darkness coming
While some of the descriptions refer to the book as a “collection of stories” and can probably be seen (or read) as standalone stories, where in each chapter you’ll learn about Spiral’s next crazy performance in the City, I strongly recommend that you set aside one free evening for reading. Although the book is over 600 pages long, a capable reader can get through it in two hours, and I have every confidence that this descent into madness is best done in one go. Like the main characters of the story, you will be amazed at the speed and ingenuity with which the deadly force takes over the entire city and drags it beyond the limits of conceivable. Personally, I’ve been consuming Japanese manga since the 1990s (which this book is), and during that time I can predict a lot of twists and turns, but I was very surprised at where Spiral went.
While some of the elements may be a little unsettling (for me, it was the use of a tornado), their absurdity adds to the overall believable impression of a bad dream, where the characters and the reader feel that this simply cannot be. Great work with the psychology of the main characters then helps to substantiate the whole case, so you will surely empathize with Kiriya very well and understand why he behaves one way or another in certain situations. The best horror movies throw their protagonists into a desperately hopeless battle with absolute horror, which Spiral pulls off perfectly. In addition to the ingenious script, this, of course, is also due to the beautiful and uniquely stylish graphics. The overall impression is completed by the excellent translation by Jan Horgosz, the quality paper and binding of this new edition, which also includes an additional bonus chapter.
Source :Indian TV
