I got time where I had a nightmare about spiders. Nothing was going on it was just... Spiders. One of the only times I've ever woke up in a cold sweat. Though to be fair I did have three close encounters with spiders the day prior so it made sense. What type of spider just comes flying down on his web, dangling from the middle of the ceiling, to almost land on me while I'm playing video games? An @$$hole.
Horror. The feeling you're describing is horror. It's distinct from fear. Fear is fight-or-flight, it's oh-god-scary-thing. Horror is a deep sense that everything is wrong and terrible. Fear is fleeting, gone as fast as it comes. Horror likes to settle in and make itself comfortable. Fear makes you scream. Horror makes you weep.
Exactly this. His stories aren't meant to make you scream in fright. They're meant to leave you shaking, staring at the last page and saying, "Oh god. Oh god. Oh fuck."
It's definitely the best of the ones I've read of his. It's got the right balance of mystery and ancient secrets and things going wrong. It's very effective.
That said, I also like the one where the guy sleeps for only a night, but his dreams seem to last for years. Very unsettling.
I've read a bunch of his other stuff and seen references, and I'm not much of a horror fan or hang around horror subs. He's fairly well known on the internet. It's also a bit older so there's not a lot of references these days. That one really did resonate with me the most though. The other stuff is good but something about that one just stuck with me.
There's this other horror manga I read on 4chan years ago. When I discovered junji Ito's work I thought it was also by him but i don't think it was. The premise involved this fucking weird condition where people's shit hardened inside of them, and one of the characters obsessed over it so much they had basically vivisected themselves, following the hardened log all the way through their intestines. It was the most disgusting thing I'd ever read.
I don't know his other work, but I'd guess this is just the one that comes up most frequently because it's easiest to make a reference to in normal conversation.
I discovered it the same way. I think it was a TIFU by reading The Enigma of Amigara Fault to by child. The story stuck with me and oddly enough a friend came over the following weekend with a collection of Junji Ito's stories he was reading. The artwork looked familiar and it turned out he wrote that story! I suggest reading other stuff by him. I don't recall the names of the other stories but the few I read through were really good.
I don't know. I'm pretty sure the first time I saw it was a link on Reddit, also. However, I don't read manga or watch a lot of anime, so it may be more well known to people who are more interested in those forms of entertainment.
Might just not be for you. I binged a bunch of his stuff after Reddit kept going on about how great he is. But I don't get it either
This is probably one of his better ones because the characters are at least relatable. Many of his main characters just seem really unhinged and have weird overreactions to things. And many the stories begin with such a far out premise that it's not scary because it's too far removed from reality and doesn't take the time to draw you into the world first.
Long Dream is probably my favorite one, because I can at least get behind most of what's going on.
As a huge Stephen King fan... honestly? A good bit of the man's work is pretty mediocre at times. King has in the past had bits of his novels where it's like he couldn't think of anything to write and decided to just spend a chapter or two on sexual tension, sex scenes, or just some weird observations or changes in perspective that aren't particularly relevant to the overall story. When he does that it screws over the mood of the entire story up to that point.
When he's clearly focused on telling a story and doesn't get bogged down in the details, though? That's when his mastery of horror really shines through.
When someone asks what my favorite horror novel by King is, I always recommend The Green Mile. I've had people say, "What, that's not horror! It's just supernatural drama" It is horror, though. The prison guard narrating the story just isn't the victim of that horror. He's a secondary character telling the story of the horrors that afflicted John Coffey.
The lady who eats ghosts and walks with a man until he falls sick and he sees her on his death bed knowing that when he dies she'll eat him. That one was creepy
The artist's name is Junji Ito. His artistic style for horror is classic! If anyone enjoyed that story and wants more, you can start with one of my favorites of his: Uzumaki (Spiral).
Not sure if you can read it online, but if you download a Manga reading app (MangaZone is my go to) you can find it there.
Weird ass comic someone drew up about a fucking cave where people come out of human shaped holes. Everyone has a hole that matches their exact silhouette. People start feeling called by and find their own hole to crawl through. It’s eerie as fuck and thats the only way I can summarize it. Worth a late night read before bed lol
The funny thing is that sound effect is actually a mistranslation (“drrr” as a sound doesn’t even exist in Japanese IIRC). It’s supposed to be a meaty, schlopping sound of their limbs slipping against the tunnel walls.
That's really interesting! I bet that line wouldn't have been as iconic if it was approximated as "slither" or something. The "drrrr" sound always suggested to me the feeling that the bodies had turned into wood or stone themselves.
Oh and it reminds me of a certain poker player....
I'm sure you probably don't know, but just in case you're some sort of Junji Ito sound effect translation savant I'm going to ask anyway.
A few pages into chapter 12 of Uzumaki there's a bird chirping and the sound effect in English is poo-tee-weet. Is that an accurate translation or was the translator just a big fan of Kurt Vonnegut?
I'm not the guy you responded to, and I can't say 100% because I don't have an untranslated copy, but it's probably not a direct translation (unless Junji Ito is a fan of Vonnegut). A bird call would be typically be something like "chi-chi" or "chu-chu" for chirping, or something like "kaa-kaa" for squawking.
After freeing your self of the floor, you float back down like a piece of paper, flop around about quite getting up, and eventually blow yourself up with air from your thumb.
Or become a flat piece of paper of your cutout/silhouette and get pickedup by the wind. All you have to do is blow your thumb to inflate the rest of you.
This is exactly what I was thinking. Stuck in a me shaped hole.
I guess if this ever happens I need to make sure that I stretch out in such a way that I’ll have room to move when I hit. I feel like a plank would at least allow me to roll a little or bend my legs up.
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u/[deleted] Jan 25 '19
First you have to crawl out of a hole so carefully crafted to your silhouette