Summary
Most countries and cultures have their fair share of ghost tales and horror stories, but none stand out quite like Japanese ones. With internationally famous characters like Sadako Yamamura (changed to Samara Morgan in the English adaptations), and movies likeRingandJu-On: The Grudge, it’s safe to say that Japanese horror has earned its reputation for being memorable. Japanese horror goes far beyond just blockbuster movies, though, and as you can likely imagine, is a huge part of anime and manga as well.
While there are plenty of famous horror anime, likeTokyo Ghoul,Death Note,Another,Gantz, and more, one particular creator is a household name when it comes to horror anime and manga. Junji Ito is arguablyone of the most famous horror mangaka of all time, having a portfolio of some of the most recognizable and memorable horror stories in modern Japanese storytelling. As everyone gets hyped about the mind-bending trailer for the upcoming animeUzumakithat came out last week, let’s take a deeper look at the creative mind that made the original story - Junji Ito.
Junji Ito’s Early Life and Inspirations
The Origins of a Horror Mastermind
Many parts of Junji Ito’s childhood inspired his stories. For example, his childhood toilet was in an underground tunnel under his home with a dirt floor, so there were lots of insects like spider crickets down there. His fear of the insects and the dark tunnel translates into some of his stories, like “The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel Ice Cream Bus” inJunji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre. “The Hanging Balloons” was based on a childhood dream that he had, and seeing ad balloons a lot when he went into the city as a child, which reminded him of something mysterious like UFOs.
Like many artists, Junji Ito started drawing when he was as young as 4 years old. He was originally inspired by the horror magazines his two older sisters read in their home, and drew his own stories as a hobby. Because Ito grew up in the countryside far from any cities, anything from the big city was intriguing to him. He also did not have access to a movie theater, and could only watch what came on TV. Growing up in the 70s and 80s during what he calledthe “occult boom” on television, his childhood was filled with movies likeThe Exorcist,Jaws, and the originalDraculaandFrankensteinmovies.
As he was already interested in horror even from a young age, he watched many of these movies, continuing to dive deeper and deeper into horror as he grew up. Rather than jumping right into art as a career, though, he ended up becoming a dental technician. While he was unable to balance working as a dentist and drawing, and after three years quit the former to become a full-time mangaka, what he learned while studying dentistry affects his art even today - but more on that soon.
Junji Ito’s Most Famous Works
Award-Winning Works and Adaptations
Junji Ito has written a number of short and long stories,mostly in the horror genre. Several of his works have even been adapted for TV, both live action and anime. His most famous works are calledTomie,Gyo, andUzumaki. All three are horror manga stories that span multiple chapters.Tomiewas inspired by a classmate of Ito’s who died when he was young, and he had a hard time imagining that that person was actually gone forever, and imagined them just showing back up one day like nothing had happened.Gyowas inspired by stories from WWII that Ito grew up listening to from his parents, and his fear of being drafted himself and forced to go to war when he was older, which led to his anti-war feelings.
Right now, the story everyone is talking about isUzumaki, which is beingadapted into an anime for Adult Swim.SuperSummaryexplains the plot ofUzumakias,
Uzumaki follows Kirie Goshima, a high school girl who lives in a Japanese seaside town called Kurouzu-cho. Kirie and her boyfriend, Shuichi Saito, discover that Kurouzu-cho is cursed by the spiral shape. The curse affects the bodies, minds, and souls of Kurouzu-cho’s residents, causing mass obsession over spirals. Shuichi’s father is the first victim of the curse, becoming so consumed with the spiral that he kills himself by forcing his body to twist into a large tub. Shuichi then loses his mother, who develops a phobia of spirals and destroys her body in a frantic attempt to rid herself of them. As more residents become consumed by the spiral, the curse soon hits Kirie and her family. Her father becomes obsessed with making ceramics out of Dragonfly Pond clay, which contains the souls of the recently dead and bakes into spiral shapes. Kirie’s hair grows rapidly and curls into spirals, taking on a mind of its own and towing Kirie around to feed off of the attention of others.
Uzumakiis definitely a unique and original idea that at first does not sound like something that should be scary - but Ito makes it absolutely terrifying, especially with his imagery of people whose heads become nothing but endless spirals, pulling others inside, and the level of obsession and madness that the town sinks into and the desperate acts it drives them to commit.
Junji Ito holds several Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, which are considered to be the Academy Awards of the comic book world.Uzumakiwas nominated for an Eisner Award twice, and Ito won the award for his adaptation ofFrakensteinin 2019, forReminaandVenus in the Blind Spotin 2021, and forLovesicknessin 2021. He also won the 2023 annual Inkpot Award at San Diego Comic Con.
The Horror Themes of Junji Ito
The Influence of the Ito-Verse
The most common themes in Junji Ito’s works arebody horrorand cosmic horror. When he was studying to become a dentist, more than the profession itself, he was interested in books on human anatomy. He bought many illustrated human anatomy books, which he later used to inspire his drawings. His interest in anatomy likely contributes a lot to his body horror stories, and how realistically drawn his pictures of humans, including their insides, are. Ito has a realistic drawing style that makes his art easy to recognize from other manga.
Stories specifically likeUzumakiare consideredcosmic horror, exploring the unknowable and incomprehensible. Rather than focusing on supernatural elements like ghosts, demons, or monsters, or even the horrors of the dark side of human nature, cosmic horror emphasizes concepts that are hard to wrap your mind around. The most famous writer of cosmic horror historically is H.P. Lovecraft, but Ito continues to break ground in the genre today.
For example,Uzumakirevolves around a concept that is unique and not at all grounded in reality. That is what madeUzumakiso famous; it was something that people had never heard of or even thought about before, and yet was such a terrifying concept when it was brought to life through Ito’s story. The upcomingUzumakianime adaptation onAdult Swimseems to be following the manga nearly page-by-page in the latest trailer, and is even being produced in black and white, truly bringing Ito’s most famous cosmic horror story to life in anime form.
Beyond these two genres, though, Ito’s stories also focus on the plight of being human, and very real fears that people face. He takes common fears like insects, closed spaces, and the dark and exaggerates them, telling tales of normal people who are forced to face extraordinary circumstances. Eugene Thacker wrote inThe Japan Timeson Ito’s works,
…what makes Ito unique is the fascinating way he departs from the horror genre. Less concerned with the genre clichés of monsters, murder and high school melodrama, Ito uses the horror genre to raise disturbing questions that are metaphysical and existential — all with a touch of gallows humor.
Junji Ito is arguably the most famous Japanese horror writer of our generation, with countless tales and short stories exploring many different themes to enjoy. He touches on both things that you can resonate with and things you cannot begin to understand, and does it all with his quintessential touch and realistic drawing style. He has made major contributions to the horror genre in the last thirty years, and seems not to be stopping any time soon.
Uzumakiwill air on September 28th, 2024 on Adult Swim. In the meantime, you can watchJunji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the MacabreonNetflix.
