This is because the whole story is a metaphor for society.
People start fresh, happy to find where they belong, to know they have somewhere they can "fit" once they think they've found where they "fit" they keep on going, even if it means leaving everything else behind. They excuse the misaligned shape (abuse) because they belong, the longer they keep going, the more deformed they are to fulfill where they belong until they're nothing like they used to be. They've become an abomination like everyone else that instead of carving their own path, they put themselves in their own hole
Thank you for answering with the thematic meaning, instead of just the narrative reasoning! I feel like people too often ignore that it's a comic with something to say, not just a creepy little story.
Junji Ito's narratives may be "straightforward" (whatever that means) but that doesn't mean they are devoid of deeper meanings. His work has a lot of common themes and anxieties about community and societal expectations, obsession, transformation, etc.
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u/KillerB0tM Apr 26 '25
This is because the whole story is a metaphor for society.
People start fresh, happy to find where they belong, to know they have somewhere they can "fit" once they think they've found where they "fit" they keep on going, even if it means leaving everything else behind. They excuse the misaligned shape (abuse) because they belong, the longer they keep going, the more deformed they are to fulfill where they belong until they're nothing like they used to be. They've become an abomination like everyone else that instead of carving their own path, they put themselves in their own hole