You should check out this album by Apollo Brown called Thirty Eight. It's so dope!
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Top 15 Itou Junji Stories
I wrote up a list of my top 10 favorite horror manga a few months back. But nowhere in that post did I mention any of Itou Junji stories. So, to make amends. I decided to kiss little ass in this post.
Mangaka Itou Junji is a master of horror. With a career spanning over two decade, he has a great assortment of stories that can really leave an impression on you. Like, some real cognitive shit that you might need to suppress like a horrifying trauma. Stores of helplessness and plight. Most of which are worth a read.
Great stuff from Glyceride
All of the stores on this list have well planed setups with very surprising pay offs. I had to cut a few here and there. Omitting stores with continuing plots, reoccurring characters, and convoluted or bland narratives. So no Tomie, and Souichi Tsujii. None the less, here are a list my 15 favorite Itou Junji Stories.
15. The Window Next Door
The Window Next Door, is about a boy who moves into a cheap new house with his mother and father. Nothing seems too abnormal. Except for his rather creepy next door neighbor.
This is a great appetizers to start you off with. Short and sweet.
14. Face Burglar
Face Burglar, is about a girl by the name of Yumi Machida who transfers to a new school. Through the course of the first day, she is followed by a strange girl, Kamei. Who just so happens to be the carbon copy of another student in class.
This one is a strange read. Its still an appetizer, but more like the free bread sticks at Olive Garden (not like Red Lobster cheese bread or anything).
13. Fashion Model
The story, Fashion Model, is about guy named Iwasaki, who gets up one morning with a feeling of utter dread. As if, misfortune well befall him any minute. While contemplating his uneasiness in a cafe, he picks up a magazine that features a very frighting model. Now Iwasaki can't stop thinking about this very unsightly woman.
12. Hallucinations
Hallucinations, is about a boy named Oshikiri, who killed his best friend and buried the body in his backyard. Contemplating his actions. He soon starts to hallucinate. Distorting his perception of reality...
11. Gravetown
Gravetown, is about girl named Kaoru, who received a letter from an old friend, inviting to come visite her town. Kaoru is accompanied by her brother, who agrees to drop her off. But along the way, they accidentally hit a young girl in the middle of the road with their.
This one is about 60 pages long. Not too long, right?
10. Second-hand Record
Second-hand Record, is about a girl name Nakayama who hears a strange record at her friends house. There's something very alluring about the music. Just something that seems a but supernatural.
This one is for all you hipsters, buying obscure experimental indie music. You have been forewarned.
9. Ice Cream Bus
Ice Cream Bus, is about a mysterious man who visits an apartment complex once a week. He gives the local children ice cream. Topped off, with a joyride around the neighborhood in his ice cream bus. Seems pretty legit.
8. The Conversation Room
The Conversation Room is about a woman named Hashimoto who wakes up in the hospital after a serious car accident. Bedridden, she is roomed together with the proprietor of the other vehicle, Sugie. Along with four strange woman, who seem to share... some communal habits.
7. Splatter Film
Splatter Film, is about a guy named Sugio who is catching up with his old friend Ogi. Ogi shows him a jar he brought back from a trip in the jungle. This jar contains some of the must rare and delicious honey on the face of the earth. But theirs a stern warning the comes with eating it.
6. Village of the Sirens
Village of Sirens, is about a boy named Kyoichi, who's going back home after receiving a letter from his mother. Simultaneously, hundreds of infants have been abducted throughout all of Japan. I would be pretty strange if both stories converged somehow. Just saying...
5. The Town Without Streets
The Town Without Streets, is about a girl named Saiko, who's been dreaming about a guy from her class. She's never talked to him or even noticed him. But he shows up every night in her sleep. Her friend suggest that the guy has been sneaking into her room at night and whispering in her ear, but could that "reeeeally" be the case (side note: that is the case).
This story seems like a combination of two different narratives. Like, Itou had two different stories that really didn't work as stand alone pieces. So he glued them together or some dookie. Oh well. Its a bit of a read. 70 pages. But it good, trust me!
4. Den of the Sleep Demon
Den of the Sleep Demon, is about a man named Yuji, and he has a problem. Yuji's problem is that he can't sleep. For if he sleeps, the other him will wake up and pull him through to another world. Trading places.
This story is like one of those old Lindsay Lohan Disney movies. Where people are trading places and shit. But this story involves a demon on another plane of existence. Sooo....
3. My Dear Ancestors
My Dear Ancestors, is about a girl named Risa who has come down with a sudden case of amnesia. It is suggested that it was brought on by traumatic experience. None the less, she is aided by her friend Miakita... and there something about a caterpillar or something.
1. Hanging Balloons
Hanging Balloons, is by far my favorite story by Itou Junji. Just read this one. I don't want to ruin it for you. Its pretty good.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)