29 Oct / Booklist Backlist: Japanese Graphic Horror [in Booklist]
I can’t watch scary movies, but I love graphic horror on the page. And really, fear-mongering via Japanese manga – both series and standalones – promises some of the most affecting fright-fests. As we approach that most haunting time of the year, here’s some chilling company.
Death Note. By Tsugumi Ohba. Art by Takeshi Obata. Tr. by Tetsuichiro Miyaki. 2005–2011. Viz Media. (12 vols.).
The omnipotent Death Note bestows genius high-school student Light Yagami the power to control death. Initially, he just rids the world of the most heinous criminals. But that’s not enough, especially as his power grows with the assistance of Ryuk, the Death Note’s Shinigami (“death god”). Murder rates rocket, but Light’s ultimate utopian vision means he won’t let anyone or anything stand in his way.
Helter Skelter: Fashion Unfriendly. By Kyoko Okazaki. Art by author. 2013. Vertical.
Meet Liliko, a supermodel made possible with the latest scientific (and illegal) enhancements. She’s been carved, sculpted, assembled by “Mama,” but Liliko is no malleable, voiceless shell. And she’s determined to enjoy her public adoration to the absolute max, using and abusing other people’s bodies while she can.
Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit. By Motoro Mase. Art by the author. Tr. by John Werry. 2005–2012. Viz Media. (10 vols.)
One in 1,000 first-graders receives a fatal nanocapsule in his or her mandatory immunization to “make people value life.” Notice of death is delivered via ikigami (“death paper”) to the victim, aged 18–24, exactly 24 hours before the predetermined moment of death. Interwoven with episodes featuring ikigami victims’ final days is an account of messenger Kengo Fujimoto’s troubled tenure delivering death for the National Welfare system.
The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. By Eiji Otsuka. Art by Housui Yamazaki. Tr. by Toshifumi Yoshida. 2002–2015. Dark Horse Comics. (14 vols.)
Five Buddhist university students band together to help the dead: Numata finds the dead; Karatsu talks to the dead; Sasaki hacks background information about the dead; Makino preserves the dead; and Yata’s sock puppet provides the lone voice of reason. Irreverent dark humor – with plenty of gore – fills these other-worldly volumes as the five help suffering souls find everlasting peace.
Limit. By Keiko Suenobu. Art by the author. Tr. by Mari Morimoto. 2012–2016. Vertical. (6 vols.)
Konno’s class is the last to set out for its “exchange camp.” Their bus crashes en route into a deep ravine. After Konno struggles out of the carnage, she eventually finds four other survivors. All social pretenses are stripped away, and the most bullied, tormented girl holds a deadly sickle in her hands, ready for revenge. Limit throws the girls into a brutal 21st-century Lord of the Flies.
Lovesickness. By Junji Ito. Art by the author. Tr. by Jocelyne Allen. 2019. Viz Media.
The titular “Lovesickiness” – one of five stories here – introduces “crossroads fortunes,” which involve standing at an intersection and asking the first passing stranger to answer a question about future love. Middle-schooler Ryusuke is convinced his 6-year-old self caused a desperate pregnant woman’s death. Eight years later, an irresistible specter in black is inspiring multiplying suicides and Ryusuke fights to stay alive.
Mail. By Housui Yamazaki. Art by the author. Tr. by Douglas Vernas. 2006–2007. Dark Horse. (3 vols.)
When Reiji Akiba has his sight restored, he also gains the ability to see a whole other dimension, populated by suffering souls damned to wander until someone can guide them to eternal peace. With the help of his trusty Kagutsuchi, a supernatural gun that sends the undead to final rest, Akiba reclaims the living from certain fatality.
Monster. By Naoki Urasawa. Art by the author. Multiple translators. 2006–2016. Viz Media. (18 vols.)
One fateful night, neurosurgeon Kenzo Tenma ignores the hospital director’s politically motivated orders to operate on the collapsed mayor and instead saves a young boy whose parents have just been killed. Deaths continue. Enter Inspector Lunge, who examines the case while the good doctor – now Chief of Surgery – saves lives. Nine years later, Lunge and Tenma cross paths when the young boy that Tenma saved reveals himself to be a murderous Monster. The chase is on.
Nijigahara Holograph. By Inio Asano. Art by the author. Tr. by Rachel Thorn. 2014. Fantagraphics.
When a body turns up in the entrance to the Nijigahara tunnel, rumors start circulating. The town’s children insist that a monster lurks deep within. In a fit of terrifying violence, they decide to “sacrifice” Arié – the daughter of the just-identified corpse – and throw her down a long well. And then the dead speak …
Published: “Booklist Backlist: Graphic Horror,” Booklist, October 15, 2021