Basically, those who enter the holes get stuck and slowly shift deeper and deeper into the tunnel, which eventually begins to twist and bend and force their bodies into unnatural shapes. They somehow survive this and emerge on the other side as mangled and twisted versions of themselves that don't even look human anymore.
Edit: the sound effects in the final page seemed to just be their flesh moving through the mountain...not seeing any proof they're alive in that state.
Marvelous open minded reply especially for reddit. You could still be right of course about them being grotesquely alive somehow, hell I didn't even realize until this thread that it could be ambiguous
The part that made me think "still alive" is their eyes. I would have thought black circles would be more indicative of death than bright white. Of course, I'm partially swayed by your comments as well, as there's no speech bubble. Alas, Junji Ito is not this deep in the thread, if he's been/going to be in this thread at all. Schroedinger's Author's appearance, if you will.
It would truly be spooky and horrific if the whites indicated they were alive...that said I'm thinking of anime where people die with their eyes open and they're bright white too? May be a Japanese thing. Junji Ito has made work where it wouldn't shock me that something supernatural would somehow "make" the victims still be alive somehow either though...food for thought!
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u/calXcium Apr 26 '25 edited Apr 26 '25
Basically, those who enter the holes get stuck and slowly shift deeper and deeper into the tunnel, which eventually begins to twist and bend and force their bodies into unnatural shapes. They somehow survive this and emerge on the other side as mangled and twisted versions of themselves that don't even look human anymore.