sicko-charging

  • newcru [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    1 year ago

    Confession Time: I love Junji Ito and will definitely watch this but.. I don't think I've ever found any of his stuff actually scary. Creepy for sure, but I never walked away from any of his stories with any uneasy feeling. Maybe manga/anime just isn't the right medium for me to be creeped out, because a lot of horror movies have worked. I mostly appreciate Ito for the great art and how good he is at using that art to create an eerie mood.

    • CriticalOtaku [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      For me, his stuff is kinda like H.P. Lovecraft's, in that what's unsettling are the concepts explored in the stories and how they relate to the metaphors/allegories they are (and where Ito beats Lovecraft is that at least his monsters don't boil down to allergories for miscegenation). I think the term used is Cosmic Horror.

      And yeah the guy can draw some absolutely unhinged stuff in gruesome detail.

      Manga/anime's aesthetics don't really lend themselves well to horror in general- I remember this old Mother's Basement video about that. Anime can do psychological horror decently well tho- I think the only anime I ever found actually scary were the original Higurashi and the first episode of Gakkou Gurashi (School Live).