Wooden Spirit

In Wooden Spirit, Junji Ito takes us on a strange journey of love. Specifically, the love between one woman and a house that she finds desirable…

Wooden Spirit — Synopsis

In Wooden Spirit, we are introduced to Megumi and her father. They live together in an old wooden house that has recently gained cultural recognition. Despite them being the only ones who live there, the house has eleven rooms to its name. And they take very good care of each and every square inch.

In the story’s opening scene a woman knocks on their front door and asks to take a look inside the house. This woman, Manami Kino, immediately falls in love with this house. And when I say “falls in love with it”, I really mean it.

Before long, she and Megumi’s father become an item and she eventually moves in.

What is most strange here though, is Manami’s behaviour towards the house itself. This woman takes house proud to a whole new level. But just how far will she go with her strange antics?

Megumi
Megumi’s Father
Manami Kino

One with the elements

This is a house that has been given cultural status for its historic importance. And then when this mysterious woman comes by she remarks at the elegance of the wood work. She sees the walls; the floors; the joists and remarks at how “sexy” they are.

At first read of this story last year I took it at face value. I saw it simply as a woman who makes her home within this house, before beginning to make love to it. I enjoyed the read for how ludicrous it was and thought nothing more of it at the time. However, on revisiting it with my new appreciation for Junji Ito, I am seeing deeper into the material.

One wild theory

Later on when she reveals herself for the demon she is — with an almost wood-like appearance — I came to an interesting thought. What if she was some kind of tree spirit? Yes, I know the story is called “Wooden Spirit”, but I thought I’d dig a bit deeper. What if her love for this house is not as a result of the building, but of the materials instead? Could her love towards the walls and the beams come from them being made from a former partner of hers when they were once both trees?

Megumi and her Father’s house

My theory does take a few leaps in imagination, but that is precisely one of the biggest things I enjoy about Ito’s work: the new connections he helps to form in my brain. Yes, this is a bit of a crazy theory, but is it so unbelievable within the world of Junji Ito? I don’t think so.

I loved how the story ended too. It felt almost poetic for me after I’d been on this theoretical journey in my mind. Let’s think for a moment how the wood has been taken from its natural place: the forest, and forced to become something fit for humans: a house. From this idea we could suppose that what this demon / spirit woman is doing in the end, is herself turning the wood back into something that she could then love again — flesh and blood.

Manami arrives at the house
Manami really likes the flooring of the house
Megumi catches the strange woman in the act
Manami kisses the floor

In Conclusion

Wooden Spirit is one of Junji Ito’s strangest stories when taken at face value, as I once did. But when I began asking myself questions about its world, I managed to build up that world even more in my mind’s eye.

Whether Ito had any similar thoughts behind this story as the ones I have discussed here, I’ll probably never know. But what I do know is, is that no matter what physical images someone sees on this story’s pages, his stories have the power to create unique and interesting visions in the minds of those readers… if you’ll let them.

As the second story in his Fragments of Horror collection, Wooden Spirit will open you up to new experiences within Ito’s work. To a very unorthodox and, dare I say it, beautiful love.

The Scar (Uzumaki part 3)

In The Scar, we focus on a high school friend of Kirie’s — Azami Kurotani — who has a strange connection with the spiral.

There’s something mesmerizing about her. It’s like looking down from a high place… like vertigo…

Shuichi doesn’t like the vibes that Azami is giving off.

The Scar — Synopsis

Azami Kurotani is a girl who attends Kurouzu high school with her friend, Kirie. You will remember Kirie from the opening chapters of The Spiral Obsession.

Azami has a very strange power over the boys in the school — they all seem to fall in love with her. She even has the reputation for making these boys fall for her before dropping them like dead weights. Does this sound like another Junji Ito character we all know and love? Yes — she reminded me of Tomie.

However, whereas Tomie’s power came from something dark within her, Azami’s seems to originate from the crescent-moon-shaped scar on her forehead. Of course, kids being kids, there are all sorts of rumours going around about Azami and her strange power, but the truth may just end up being the most terrifying thing imaginable.

Azami Kurotani
Kirie Goshima
Shuichi Sato
Okada

After meeting Kirie’s boyfriend Shuichi, (remember that he goes to a school out of town?), Azami becomes obsessed with him. This is down to the fact that Shuichi is instantly repulsed by her and, more specifically, the scar on her forehead. Only by the time she has met him, that scar is no longer moon-shaped, it has begun circling in on itself to reveal a very recognisable and terrifying shape.

Azami can’t believe that Shuichi hasn’t fallen in love with her, and she wont let it go either. It isn’t until the story’s closing pages that her obsession takes her over completely…

The girl that was a spiral

The first two chapters of Uzumaki dealt with the spirals around the people that were haunted by them — even the spirals within their bodies. But this is the first time that a spiral has begun to actually take over a person, as it seems to be with Azami. But what is so special about her? And why did the spiral seem to choose her?

What is left unanswered is perhaps most interesting here. Only after her accident as a young girl did the boys start noticing her — after she obtained that scar. But she had presumably lived with that scar for many years since — it was only when she’d met Shuichi, and he had noticed that scar, that it started to become a full spiral. Maybe the spiral was lying dormant inside her all of this time, waiting for Shuichi to meet her? Or maybe it had always been growing from a slight cut, to a moon shape and continuing on into the spiral? Perhaps the timing with meeting Shuichi was just bad luck for him.

A whirlwind whizzes past Azami and Kirie

Ito’s closing panels in The Scar are images I will never forget too. Although not particularly gruesome in how they are depicted, they do demonstrate the great imagination of my favourite horror Mangaka. I can imagine ways that he could have added a lot more gore into those scenes. But I feel it was nice to focus on the strangeness of the devouring spiral, rather than showing loads of blood and flesh along with it.

Obsession

I think I enjoy Junji Ito’s stories of obsession the most over his other types. Uzumaki is itself a story of obsession, but I really enjoyed this particular obsession between the boys and Azami; and then between Azami and Shuichi.

There were many times I was reminded of Tomie and the memories of her attitudes towards those that desired her. Tomie has a power over men and was never afraid to use that power to get exactly what she wanted — she was pretty much evil through and through. And it was a nice touch of Ito’s to include a character like her within Uzumaki — whether that was the intention or not.

However, with Azami, I got the impression that she wasn’t an evil person. I felt that she was just another victim of the spirals that are haunting Kurouzu-cho. And interestingly, the catalyst for her extreme ending seems to me to be her meeting with Shuichi.

This is now three central people to become cursed by the spiral that have a connection to Shuichi. His Father; his Mother; and now Azami. Maybe he has a connection to the spiral that we are yet to discover?

Azami was one of those pretty reserved girls
Shuichi can feel the spiral is close with Azami
Azami’s spiral scar gets out of hand

In Summary

The Scar is probably one of my favourite chapters from the Uzumaki series. Although I don’t remember reading a bad chapter (I have read it once before a couple of years ago) this is one that always sticks in my mind. Along with the Jack In The Box chapter. (More on that one in the coming posts).

This one is pretty light on the gore too. There are no scissors in ears or the cutting off of one’s own fingerprints in this chapter. Junji Ito always has a good sense of what is needed within a given story. What I mean by that is, there is never gore for gore’s sake. He isn’t trying to include more and more shocking or violent events with each new chapter. He seems happy to only include those images that will serve his story. And I’m very happy with that.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe we have seen the most violent after-effects of the spirals just yet. But I also believe that along the way we will have these relatively softer chapters that will let us catch our breath a little. If you can consider being devoured by a spiral soft. 🙂

Love As Scripted

In Love as Scripted, Junji Ito explores a very strange relationship between a young woman and a would-be Casanova.

I started to see past the script and its limitations, and I began imagining I was chatting with him for real.

Kaori watches the video that Takahashi made for her

Love as scripted — Synopsis

We join the story in the throws of an argument between a couple. Their names are Kaori and Takahashi. Kaori is very upset due to her boyfriend (Takahashi) telling her that he’s leaving her. In the heat of the row, Takahashi does something very unusual — he gives Kaori a video tape of himself to play whenever she misses him. The way that Ito draws him, makes me think that there is no evil intent in his actions; he seems sincere in his gift.

But Kaori, after having apparently been warned about him before, lashes out with a large kitchen knife. Then just as that knife is coming down towards him, we flashback to some time before they were together.

Kaori
Takahashi

We go back to when Kaori was a new recruit in her theatre troupe and the screenwriter for that group was none other than Takahashi. When we see the beginnings of a romance start to blossom, she is warned off him by a friend in the group. But love is blind it seems, as she moves forward into her new relationship without regret.

We soon catch back up to the present day, where the results of her violent actions are revealed. But instead of worrying about needing to dispose of Takahashi’s body, she instead decides to play the video tape that he had gifted her. What this video contains is something very odd indeed, and may even be the reason why she could possibly fall in love with him all over again…

Video killed the…

This was an enjoyable read with little to no real body horror within, save for a single stabbing. Instead, Love As Scripted is more of a psychological look at love and what it possibly means to love someone.

Despite her actions, I found myself feeling sorry for Kaori — indeed all girls that Takahashi had presumably dumped in a similar way. I mean, technically there is no crime against dumping girls one after the other, but the way in which he does so can definitely be thought of as malicious.

And that is the key thing I wanted to explore here — the interpretation. Although I don’t condone how he seemed to mess these girls about, I couldn’t help but dig a little deeper into some of his possible motivations.

Kaori does a terrible thing

Man with a camera

Here we have a man who never really comes across as malicious in how he treats these ladies, at least not when he’s with them. Instead he seems to almost fall in love with each one in turn. Then the fact that he writes and records hours and hours of what is essentially a personal monologue, along with spaces for the video recipients to converse with the recording, makes me think that he is sincere with that gift. The way that Ito draws him also seems to support that theory.

Odd, yes. But sincere.

Maybe Takahashi suffers from a crippling inability to commit. Or perhaps he believes himself to be no good for these women? Maybe that’s why he goes to the trouble of making all of these recordings? Again, I’m not looking to condone any of his actions, I’m just trying to look at those actions from fresh angles.

But then he could always just be a complete bastard with zero regard for others’ feelings.

A predictable love

The real sadness in Love as Scripted, at least for me, was the conclusion of Kaori’s story. It’s a shame how her love, and anger, for Takahashi drove her to stab him. She pretty much seals her future with that fateful blow. It is also a shame how she realises just how much she loves him through the medium of the video that set the attack off.

Kaori isnt impressed with Takahashis video

But that video will never be self-aware. It will always be exactly the same tomorrow as it is today. It will never offer anything new by means of conversation and will never surprise her. But she seems content in this predictable love.

What I found perhaps most sad with her was that even when she realised what she had done, and is then offered a chance to save him, she just passes it up. She knows that her new Takahashi will never leave her; will never cheat on her; and will never upset her.

But ultimately it will never be able to love her either.

In conclusion

Although this is one of Junji Ito’s shorter stories, I found Love As Scripted to have lots of charm. Despite it being a sad, more psychological piece than others, I found myself enjoying what I was looking for between the pages.

Takahashi gives Kaori a video tape
The Video Tape

Perhaps I am looking too deep into it. Maybe Junji Ito just thought of a weird idea for a relationship and just ran with it? Perhaps he had no real intentions of exploring deeper themes. But I like to believe that he knew full well all of the themes he was exploring.

I think that this story could be enjoyed thoroughly as an introduction to Junji Ito as well. And while it gives no indication as to depths he goes to with his more graphic depictions of horror, it does give you an introduction to his work and his excellent story telling.

The Spiral Obsession part 2 (Uzumaki part 2)

In the second part of the opening two-part story, The Spiral Obsession, we follow on from the shocking events of Shuichi’s father’s cremation.

Things are about to get much darker…

What’s inside… the human ear? Don’t tell me… there’s a spiral.

Mrs Saito becomes increasingly tormented by the spiral.

Synopsis — The Spiral Obsession part 2

High over the sky of Kurouzu-cho sits a blanket of spiral-shaped smoke, with what seems to be the face of Shuichi’s father coming out of it. This strange vision seems to be the last straw for Mrs Saito’s sanity though. She quickly suffers a breakdown and is immediately sent to a nearby hospital to monitor her fast-declining mental condition.

Mrs Saito soon becomes afflicted with the same cursed obsession as her husband before her – the Spiral; Uzumaki. She starts noticing the spirals all around her, as well as the natural spirals of the human body. This only serves to drive her further over the edge and further out of help’s reach.

Shuichi’s Mother
Shuichi Saito
Kirie Goshima
The Doctor

But where the father would be embracing these spirals, she is instead physically repulsed by them.

After some disturbing nightmares, and some ungodly acts she performs on herself, she becomes convinced that there are spirals hidden away within her body — places she can’t get to with ease. But just how far will she go to rid her world, and herself, of the spiral shape that seems to be haunting her?

Searching for spirals

I found it interesting to be able to follow this first story line of the spiral through to see how it actually affected those left behind. Normally we are served an eye-watering final reveal by Junji Ito, only to be left to imagine the following events in our own minds. Think about the majority of stories in the Tomie Collection. Although I love a good cliffhanger to think over, I also love staying with these characters. I love exploring what comes to those affected after those big reveals.

This is what Uzumaki allows us to do here.

Nightmares of Centipedes

Although the actions of his father were weird and somewhat shocking at times, there were no real gross-out images in that first chapter ‐ save perhaps for the final state of the father and, of course, that tongue. However, nothing could have prepared Shuichi, or me for that matter, for what would become of his mother.

Effects of the Spiral

What was especially interesting to me was how the spiral seems to trigger different emotions in different people. Where the father would embrace the spiral, even being somewhat excited by it, the mother is disgusted and horrified by it.

Perhaps for the father the spiral was a path of wonder to journey to its secret centre. Whereas maybe the mother saw nothing but the inevitable dizzying descent into death and madness. Different interpretations of the same pattern could be a metaphor for how we as people can interpret the same events in life in vastly different ways.

Shuichi’s family has been torn apart by the spiral obsession. This has been exhibited by both of his parents now and I hope things start getting better for him. It seems somewhat ironic that the only person who seemed to feel something was wrong in Kurouzu-cho, Shuichi, is also the one most directly affected by it so far.

The smoke is settling
Shuichi’s mother cant take much more
The Father appears to the Mother in disturbing visions

In Summary

If the first part of the spiral obsession was the somewhat calm introduction to Uzumaki, then this second part is the foot-to-the-floor, visceral continuation.

No longer is Junji Ito sugar-coating the effects of the spiral. No amusing curling tongues or cute pieces of pottery. He’s now showing us violent, nightmare-inducing images of what this obsession can actually do to people. God help the rest of the citizens in Kurouzu-cho.

I can’t wait to see where he takes us next…

Buy Uzumaki from Amazon today.