Junji Ito

伊藤润二 Junji Ito

I.INTRO ABOUT JUNJI ITO II.TOMIE THE WALKING DEMON III.UZUMAKI SPIRALS

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CAUCTION DISTURBING CONTENTS INCLUDED

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第一話 伊藤潤二

INTRODUCTION ........................07 第二話 富江 行走惡魔

THE WALKING DEMON.............10 第三話 漩渦

UZUMAKI SPIRALS......................22

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JUNJI ITO A Japanese horror manga artist. Ito first began writing and drawing manga as a hobby while working as a dental technician in the early 90’s. In 1987, he submitted a short story to Gekkan Halloween that won an honorable mention in the Kazuo Umezu Prize Some of the recurring themes of Ito’s work include body horror, seemingly ordinary characters who begin to act out of irrational compulsion, the breakdown of society, deep sea organisms, and the inevitability of one’s demise.Ito’s universe is also very cruel and capricious; his characters often find themselves victims of malevolent unnatural circumstances for no discernible reason or punished out of proportion for minor infractions against an unknown and incomprehensible natural order.

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78: What inspires you to write horror?

Ito: I get inspiration from various things in my daily life. I see things from different angles, and I often get interesting ideas that way. Mostly, I get inspiration from horror movies, mystery stories, and horror comics. Natural scenes and sounds, such as dusk and thunderstorms also stimulate my creativity. Lately, I’ve been interested in documentaries about ancient samurai. I’m also very interested in the work of puppeteers. Lost lands and cultures are a great source of inspiration too.

78: You’ve stated that the artistry of Kazuo Umezu is a big influence on your work. How so? What is it about his work you enjoy?

Ito: Kazuo Umezu has been my favorite comic artist for as long as I can remember. His work is very inspiring. When I draw comics I’m influenced by his work without even realizing it, and I believe many other artists are too. His comics leave a lasting impression due to high quality art and compelling storytelling. I don’t think any horror artist can surpass him in Japan. My favorite Umezu comics are “Drifting Classroom,” “Fear,” and “The Grave of Butterfly.”

78: “Spirals” seem to be a prominent symbol in many Japanese films, manga, and anime. What does the spiral represent in Japanese culture, and what inspired you to write “Uzumaki?”

Ito: The “spiral pattern” is not normally associated with horror fiction. Usually spiral patterns mark character’s cheeks in Japanese comedy cartoons, representing an effect of warmth. However, I thought it could be used in horror if I drew it a different way. Spirals are one of the popular Japanese patterns from long ago, but I don’t know what the symbol represents.

I think spirals might be symbolic of infinity. The different stages of the spiral (in “Uzumaki”) were definitely inspired from the mysterious novels of H.P. Lovecraft. His expressionism with regard to atmosphere greatly inspires my creative impulse.

78: Many of your stories such as “Uzumaki” and “Tomie” have become successful films. What do you think of the film adaptations of your work?

Ito: The production of a movie is not as easy as creating comics. Filmmaking involves many people, and concerns many things such as production schedules and budgets. My original comics are created solely by me, so it’s done the way I envision it.Comics utilize images, angles, and feelings that are hard to create in the real world. I think it’s hard to reproduce the overall atmosphere of a comic into a movie, because a film must use real actors and actresses that are not perfectly matched with my original work.

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78: In many of your tales the female character’s hair seems to take on a life of its own. Why is that? What does it represent, if anything?

Ito: Historically, long black hair has been symbolic of Japanese women, and most women value this image. The long hair of a woman is common in Japanese horror, because it conveys an enveloping feeling of movement. I think it conjures up fear in people unconsciously. For example, we know what snakes are, but they still evoke spooky feelings inside us, and for similar reasons hair is common in Japanese horror.

78: Do you ever miss dentistry?

Ito: Dentistry demands a craftsman’s skill, and I’m very proud that I worked as a dental technician. There were more skills I needed to learn, and for a while I had a few regrets about not pursuing that career. However, creating comics is so much more exciting than dentistry, and I don’t regret anything now.

78: What inspired you to write “Gyo?” Ito: “Gyo” was definitely inspired by Steven Spielberg’s, “Jaws.”

He masterfully captured the essence of fear in the form of a man-eating shark. I thought it would be even greater to capture that fear in a man-eating shark that goes on land as well as sea.

78: What advice can you give to young manga and comic artists working in today’s marketplace?

Ito: Keep your own point of view, but always welcome advice from others.

78: What are you working on right now? What can fans expect in the future?

Ito: Right now, I’m drawing a short story for a comic magazine called, “Nemuki.” I’m planning to draw four short stories for this comic series, and then I’m going to do a story about Japanese mystery writer, Ranpo Edogawa. However, it is not clear how long this story is going to be. I think it will be long, but I’m not very good at doing long stories. Even though it isn’t my usual style, I’ll try to make it as appetizing as possible.

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TOMIE

THE WALKING DEMON

You will always know schoolgirl Tomie Kawakami by her preternatural beauty, the mole under her left eye, and her smiling cruelty. Typically, her beauty (and cruelty) will run men mad until they start breaking out in homicides. The death toll may be impressive, but Tomie herself will always be somewhere in the number, usually in many pieces. But from all those pieces, or even just a quantity of her blood, new Tomies will be born. The cycle repeats, with Tomie(s) regenerating as lovely and sadistic as before, even with the same memories. With several volumes of manga, eight films, and a TV series in Japan, Tomie still has not enjoyed the kind of success outside of her home country as vengeful ghost ladies Sadako or Kayako from Ringu and Ju-On, but she’s just as much an implacable force, and her curse translates even more seamlessly than theirs, because at heart, even though she spends the souls of countless men to make her evil happen, Tomie talks about the tacit ways that women learn to hate and fight other women.

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You will always know schoolgirl Tomie Kawaka-

en learn to hate and fight other women. Tomie,

mi by her preternatural beauty, the mole under

naturally enough for a demon, seems delighted

her left eye, and her smiling cruelty. Typically, her

by this. That is what she wanted. She draws close,

beauty (and cruelty) will run men mad until they

kisses Tsukiko and embraces her with an expres-

start breaking out in homicides. The death toll may be impressive, but Tomie herself will always be somewhere in the number, usually in many pieces.

But from all those pieces, or even just a quantity of her blood, new Tomies will be born. The cycle repeats, with Tomie(s) regenerating as lovely and sadistic as before, even with the same memories.

With several volumes of manga, eight films, and a TV series in Japan, Tomie still has not enjoyed

sion of possessiveness, and then tells her, “You are

the kind of success outside of her home country as

me. Tsukiko, you don’t remember that either?” At

vengeful ghost ladies Sadako or Kayako from Ringu

which point, they both laugh heartily until Tsuki-

and Ju-On, but she’s just as much an implacable

ko immolates Tomie with a flare, like you do. But

force, and her curse translates even more seamless-

in the epilogue, successful photographer Tsukiko

ly than theirs, because at heart, even though she

will discover she has a telltale mole. I do think it’s

spends the souls of countless men to make her evil

still arguable the boyfriend-sending-to-murder-you

happen, Tomie talks about the tacit ways that wom-

mean girl is worse.

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Tomie, naturally enough for a demon, seems delighted by this. That is what she wanted. She draws close, kisses Tsukiko and embraces her with an expression of possessiveness, and then tells her, “You are me. Tsukiko, you don’t remember that either?” At which point, they both laugh heartily until Tsukiko immolates Tomie with a flare, like you do. But in the epilogue, successful photographer Tsukiko will discover she has a telltale mole.

It’s a bit of a “say, what?” ending, I will concede. For one thing, Tsukiko does not look like Tomie, has an individuality, a family, a history, is obviously not a copy that grew from Tomie’s severed anything. It’s not explored in this film, but the manga established Tomie can regenerate from her blood, even an injection of her blood taking over a human host, so maybe you could imagine Tsukiko picked up a few too many Tomie cells while splattered in gore in flashback. I prefer to think that hating Tomie corrupted Tsukiko’s heart and made her vulnerable to Tomieness. Or maybe the hatred itself — murderous jealousy, anger, bitterness, and thwarted possessiveness — is Tomieness. It is possible I am being too fancy and metaphorical, but what seems important to me is this: Tsukiko spends the entire movie trying to remember and accept her past with Tomie. Once Tomie forces her to remember, Tsukiko finally admits the hatred she had for her friend and that Tomie was never really her friend, re-murders Tomie, and from that point on, she is a demon girl walking. So the monstrous feminine proposed by Tomie combines a lot of ideas about what makes a woman scary, but the really unique thing about her is the way she sows her own destruction. Tomie influences, but is not actually in control of the effect she has on the men she drives mad, and if you’re Tomie, that’s a pretty big drawback. At least, I don’t think she ever evinces the masochism of a Cenobite. The ability to be eviscerated and tell the story is a

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pretty good party trick, but it also makes Tomie’s terror naturally self-limiting, like meteorological conditions that would never allow a tsunami to rage unfettered in perpetuity. Tomie must eventually be her own undoing, and I think that’s significant, too, as a subliminal patriarchal moral to the story. Tomie is deathless, life-wrecking evil, but she has her place in the (super)natural order and she stays in it. Tomie’s many, many horrible deaths would make her sympathetic probably, except Junji Ito keeps her so meticulously bitchy. I think particularly of the manga story “Revenge,” where Tomie is discovered by a mountaineering search party, naked and hanging from a cleft in a frozen cliff wall. She immediately turns imperious, selfish demands on her rescuers, straining credulity more than finding a naked girl alive in subzero weather, all meant to hasten their doom. She’s a circuit of wickedness in the shape of a woman who would say anything to manipulate someone else and cause them pain. Especially if you’re a woman and you’ve lived through bullying by mean girls in your own life. The manga, after all, is a girls’ comic. And it must be allowed that while Tomie typically stays in her lane with the seducing/being killed deal, sometimes experiments happen, things go wrong, I do think it’s still arguable the boyfriend-stealing, boyfriend-sending-to-murder-you mean girl is worse, and the pretty girl is regenerated as a monstrous abomination or a cannibal ghoul, and those results are a different kind of horrible.

Collection of the manga was just reissued, Tomie: Complete Deluxe Edition, and the Tomie films can be challenging to find streaming, most are available wherever you get your weird, cult horror physical media.

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Tomie has the magnetic allure of a siren, the eter-

love for the guys that come under her spell. She’s

nal youth of a vampire without the inconvenient

much more interested in hurting the girls who lose

bloodlust, and she can make more of herself with

the guys, or at least achieving the conquest of an-

infinite virgin regenerations. (Unless maybe you

other heart/soul. It’s important to note that Tomie

consider the act of being chopped up by a de-

doesn’t kill on her own. She may not even compel

ranged lover a weird simulacrum of the violence

killings directly. She works through influence,

of heterosexual sex. I would prefer not to.) Taken

which is a very traditionally feminine approach

all together, she’s a perfect nightmare of classic

to power, especially in a world where institutions

feminine attributes combined with invincible

might not admit them license.It can be enough for

parthenogenesis, a package that would have made

her to take away someone beloved from her victim

the authors of the Malleus Maleficarum mad with

or to corrupt them; she’s a very misogynist vision of

terror. But whatever potential she might have, her

a female villain in that way, but misogyny the way

purposes remain firmly anchored in the tradition-

women learn to do it — fighting over influence in a

ally feminine sphere of relationships, and those

(purported) man’s world.

purely for power’s sake. Tomie generally has no

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In the movie, Tsukiko is university-aged and living with her boyfriend Yuuichi, who supports his rock band by working as a chef in an Italian restaurant. Yuuichi seems to quietly resent Tsukiko for reasons that are unclear, and he’s also cheating on her with one of her friends. Tsukiko’s blithely unaware, possibly because she’s more worried about recovering memories she lost surrounding a bad car accident when she was in school.

That accident ended a relationship and caused her mother to move her to another school district. Now Tsukiko has enlisted the help of a psychiatrist using hypnotherapy to recover those memories, even though it’s driven a wedge between her and her mother, and her psychiatrist – spurred by learning some of the Tomie backstory from a detective — advises her to stop.

Of course, there was never a car accident. Tsukiko’s story from “Photograph” is conflated with Reiko’s, with Tsukiko as Tomie’s friend who watches Tomie get slaughtered. Meanwhile, Tsukiko’s downstairs neighbor is feeding a head in a bag Yoplait, until that head grows into a beautiful, vicious woman. Of course, there was never a car accident. Tsukiko’s story from “Photograph” is conflated with Reiko’s, with Tsukiko as Tomie’s friend who watches Tomie get slaughtered. Meanwhile, Tsukiko’s downstairs neighbor is feeding a head in a bag Yoplait, until that head grows into a beautiful, vicious woman. Blind spots and the sins hidden in them are big themes in Tomie. The director gets this across visually with consistently weird choices. The camera shies away

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from showing faces in intense dialogue scenes that seem to cry for it.

Important conversations happen with characters deliberately facing away from each other. There’s one dialogue scene, Tomie and her landlord where the camera is downstairs and across the street from them, cutting off their heads. Tomie herself ishidden for most of the movie – literally, in a bag, in a wicker basket – and then filmed only from the back. We first see her face when she begins seducing Yuuichi at his restaurant, but she’s still cloaked in shadow. We actually don’t see the demon girl in a good light until her confrontation of Tsukiko – at which point everything will be revealed. Plot-wise, you’ve got Yuuichi’s infidelity and the betrayal

by Tsukiko’s friend. There’s the psychiatrist keeping her new knowledge of Tomie’s bizarre supernatural history from Tsukiko for her own good.

Even the detective hunting down the Tomie Kawakami case is secretly just looking for Tomie. He confesses he knows this whole deal is beyond the realm of law and order, but he really just…wants to see her, which is chilling and sad. And of course, Tsukiko’s hypnotherapy peeling back her amnesia is a leitmotif that runs right through Tomie tormenting Tsukiko in her psychiatrist’s office and a big old flashback sequence. When Tomie does finally corner Tsukiko, it’s not clear initially what she wants.Then she muses on how Tsukiko will marry a useless man, have stupid children, and become a wrinkled, old grandma.

“That is happiness for a woman, isn’t it?” Meanwhile Tomie will always be young and pretty. Tomie says she’s jealous, but she just seems spiteful. It’s not until the final confrontation that it becomes clearer.

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第二話 完 - 21 -

UZUMAKI INTO THE SPIRALS

In the early 1990’s, Junji Ito was faced with a life changing decision; continue his promising career as a dental technician, or embrace his awesome talents as a horror manga artist. Fortunately for his fans worldwide, he chose to pursue his passion for writing and illustrating original comics, trading the real life horror of dentistry for that of horror fiction. Since making that fateful decision, Ito created the ultra-popular manga series, “Uzumaki.” The “spiral pattern” is not normally associated with horror fiction. Usually spiral patterns mark character’s cheeks in Japanese comedy cartoons, representing an effect of warmth. However, I thought it could be used in horror if I drew it a different way. Spirals are one of the popular Japanese patterns from long ago, but I don’t know what the symbol represents. I think spirals might be symbolic of infinity. The different stages of the spiral (in “Uzumaki”) were definitely inspired from the mysterious novels of H.P. Lovecraft. His expressionism with regard to atmosphere greatly inspires my creative impulse.

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Within the first 20 pages of the book Ito gives us all of the main elements that he will be dealing with over the course of the series. We get the row houses, snails, madness, the light house, the evil pond, whirlpools, and twisters. All of which are highlighted on each page–just enough to give the reader a sense that these things are connected to a greater obsession which will be revealed. This is Ito in almost essay form beginning with his thesis. Also notice in each of these pages–the characters are directly looking at these elements–so there is no way as a reader that you can miss these core things

until he eventually found the spiral within his own

which will make up the symbology of Ito’s world.

body and died–Shuichi’s mother flees from every

This is in fact the core function of Ito’s horror.

spiral she finds. And in this way, she comes to be

The introduction of a specific element–and the

cursed by the spiral. Whether one goes toward the

slow unveiling of it’s final horror. One of the early

spiral or away from the spiral, the curse functions

and most powerful illustrations of the story of Shui-

the same. This is an early lesson for the reader that

chi’s mother, and her desperate attempts to avoid

no matter what these characters do in this book,

the curse of the spiral that claimed her husband.

salvation is impossible. You simply can not look

Where her husband pursued every spiral he saw

away from the mesmerizing power of the spiral.

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The notion that Uzumaki is primarily at it’s foun-

and then they became grotesquely mutated, and

dation about the meticulous management of in-

upon losing their human form, are no longer treat-

formation by Ito, is while true–not the whole truth

ed as humans. It’s basically Kafka’s Metamorphosis

either. There is a side of Uzumaki which does get a

but with Snails and expanded outward as a disease

lot of power out of his stylistic choices, particularly

that could affect anyone. Ito chose Snails because of

as they pertain to body horror. Uzumaki would be

their shells being like spirals. But it is his ability to

just as scary if it were done with stick figures–on the

draw their transformation, and slow loss of humanity

other–the punch lines that are delivered–wow do

that makes them so haunting. All throughout the

they pack a punch. Ito’s ability to both conceive and

kid’s transformation into a slug he has been bullied

frame the grotesque is one of his real strengths as an

by this other kid Tsumura–and there is this interest-

artist. what’s more, his grotesques are also themati-

ing debasement that takes place Katayama fully loses

cally entrenched. One of the most striking sequenc-

his human form, and is now just a thing that is kept

es of image making horror meets theme is the snail

at the school to feed like a pet and gawk at. Tsumu-

people in Uzumaki. The horror in them is that they

ra in almost cartoonish cruelty pretty much puts his

were once people–well they were treated as people–

foot right into the back of this tension.

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Of course it’s not justice. It’s just the spiral. And anyone can be turned into a snail as we learn later. But a large part of why these snails are so horrifying is how well Ito is able to draw them as human hybrids–we can still see ghosts of their humanity–and then the way he has drawn every postule on their bodies, and the very detailed way he has rendered the shells. The amount of visual information is almost overloading to your senses. It is quite interesting because there is a sense that in particularly dramatic punchline moments, the rendering style that Ito uses gets much more complex and specific. It is the nightmares in Uzumaki which ring the most clear.

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第三話 完 - 29 -

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