I couldn’t get into this one personally, because there are all sorts of inventions and ways we could do that would explore the holes without ya know… jumping into them?
Like, I dunno, throw a cell phone camera in there and see where it goes?
I guess the “horror” was the mass hysteria that caused people to mentally link themselves to a hole and think they had to jump in. But psychology doesn’t work like that, as far as I’m aware (and there’s some psychological horrors in the real world, like schizophrenia, that do scare the bejezus out of me).
But yeah, I realize everyone else thinks its a masterpiece. But… I just couldn’t take it seriously. But give it a try, maybe it works for ya!
Yea, it’s the fact that it seems impossible to resist. Yes, there are better ways than described to check out the holes, but it doesn’t ruin the story for me. I get those impulsive thoughts to jump off of cliffs or drive off roads so this story is the fear of following those thoughts.
It’s a very sad story actually, which I don’t think gets discussed much. All the characters who go in seem accutely isolated and lonely. That feeling of isolation from the world, if you’ve ever felt it, well, the story resonates. The characters literally only fit in to their own little place, completely separated from the rest of the world. There’s literally no room for anyone or anything else. But what comes out of living like that in the end? Well, it’s not pretty.
It’s an examination of modern life and hyper-individualism.
The surreal aspects beg you to drop your hyper-criticism and to look for deeper imagery. I love it. And he can do it in such a short form, while also managing to singularly capture the psychological horror as well as anyone.
Imagine present day Stephen King telling stories through a one-shot manga. The action wouldn’t even be started before he ran out of paper! Of course, King has his own masterful way of conveying horror and it works very well, too.
I love that Junji Ito has a bunch of stories that are metaphors for stuff like this. This one. Snail Girl being the same allegory as Metamorphosis. The tall actress being about the anxiety you feel when you know a coworker might ruin the business but everyone else seems to not care. The woman in the window and the window creeping closer is one of the ones most on the nose.
But then he also has the hot spring to hell which is literally “stupid man experiences stupid horror”. He just felt like making cheap horror that month, lol.
They… they don’t jump in though. They press themselves into their hole slowly, and continue to press themselves deeper in, so slowly that they are physically pressed and molded into something monstrous.
Like… yeah, mass hysteria doesn’t work exactly like that, but it’s fiction? It in no way resembles something that could take place in real life. The fear comes from putting yourself into the headspace of everyone around you seeming to lose control of themselves, and then the same thing happening to you, but you don’t seem to care, you just slowly begin to yearn desperately for the tight pressure of the hole that fits you perfectly.
Horror is subjective.
I couldn’t get into this one personally, because there are all sorts of inventions and ways we could do that would explore the holes without ya know… jumping into them?
Like, I dunno, throw a cell phone camera in there and see where it goes?
I guess the “horror” was the mass hysteria that caused people to mentally link themselves to a hole and think they had to jump in. But psychology doesn’t work like that, as far as I’m aware (and there’s some psychological horrors in the real world, like schizophrenia, that do scare the bejezus out of me).
But yeah, I realize everyone else thinks its a masterpiece. But… I just couldn’t take it seriously. But give it a try, maybe it works for ya!
But the scariest part of this story isn’t the holes, it’s the irresistible urge to go in…
Yea, it’s the fact that it seems impossible to resist. Yes, there are better ways than described to check out the holes, but it doesn’t ruin the story for me. I get those impulsive thoughts to jump off of cliffs or drive off roads so this story is the fear of following those thoughts.
It’s a very sad story actually, which I don’t think gets discussed much. All the characters who go in seem accutely isolated and lonely. That feeling of isolation from the world, if you’ve ever felt it, well, the story resonates. The characters literally only fit in to their own little place, completely separated from the rest of the world. There’s literally no room for anyone or anything else. But what comes out of living like that in the end? Well, it’s not pretty.
It’s an examination of modern life and hyper-individualism.
The surreal aspects beg you to drop your hyper-criticism and to look for deeper imagery. I love it. And he can do it in such a short form, while also managing to singularly capture the psychological horror as well as anyone.
Imagine present day Stephen King telling stories through a one-shot manga. The action wouldn’t even be started before he ran out of paper! Of course, King has his own masterful way of conveying horror and it works very well, too.
Those impulses are so common the French have a lyrical term for it:
The call of the void.
Yeah, that’s the first thing I thought of, too. It’s called l’appel du vide (“call of the void” in French).
I love that Junji Ito has a bunch of stories that are metaphors for stuff like this. This one. Snail Girl being the same allegory as Metamorphosis. The tall actress being about the anxiety you feel when you know a coworker might ruin the business but everyone else seems to not care. The woman in the window and the window creeping closer is one of the ones most on the nose.
But then he also has the hot spring to hell which is literally “stupid man experiences stupid horror”. He just felt like making cheap horror that month, lol.
They… they don’t jump in though. They press themselves into their hole slowly, and continue to press themselves deeper in, so slowly that they are physically pressed and molded into something monstrous.
Like… yeah, mass hysteria doesn’t work exactly like that, but it’s fiction? It in no way resembles something that could take place in real life. The fear comes from putting yourself into the headspace of everyone around you seeming to lose control of themselves, and then the same thing happening to you, but you don’t seem to care, you just slowly begin to yearn desperately for the tight pressure of the hole that fits you perfectly.