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juushikaTitle: Parasyte (寄生獣, Kiseiju, Parasitic Beasts)
Author: Hitoshi Iwaaki
Translator: Andrew Cunningham
Published: Del Rey, 2007-2009 (1988-1995)
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 2,315 (288+288+283+287+304+288+288+288)
Total Page Count: 341,265
Text Number: 1201-1210
Read Because: personal enjoyment, paperbacks borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: Parasites invade human heads, piloting the body as a shapeshifting, maneating monster. But one fails, and manages only to capture the right hand of a teenage boy. This has a great length, long enough for a few episodic arcs, short enough to enforce consequences and progression. This isn't to say it's artful—there're moments that feel like any trashy seinen manga. But I appreciate the effect, particularly the escalation which builds on, rather than eclipsing, previous tragedies, and the satisfying exploration of my curiosities regarding the parasites. There's a human character who's weirdly sensitive (and therefore susceptible) to their presence, which is a great concept; the protagonist's character growth, trauma, and escalating violence is foiled by his physical changes as he becomes increasingly integrated with the parasite; relationships between parasites and humans, parasites and the concepts of humanity, parasites and their hosts, are nuanced and diverse. It's a surprising degree of gratifying id material within a fast-paced action/horror plot.
The overarching theme of "humans are the real planetary parasites" is less effective—it's just not an argument I take well to given the popular discourse surrounding climate change. The body horror I found more interesting than horrific, but my tolerance for that is high; the art is consistent, legible, but largely unexceptional. I blazed through this—it's not perfect, but it does well by an interesting concept, and I dig that.
Title: Ibitsu
Author: Haruto Ryo
Published: 2009-2010
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 415
Total Page Count: 341,680
Text Number: 1211-1212
Read Because: personal enjoyment
Review: An urban legend proves true when a strange lolita-clad woman begins stalking the protagonist. This is silly, but I appreciate that it takes itself so far. There's no baited murder here—just murder, with later altercations taken to wholehearted extreme. The antagonist's backstory gets the requisite final twist, but it actually improves things, taking her from"trauma turns you into a monster" to "nope, just a super mega serial killer." None of this makes it good, and if it does interesting things by taking stalking seriously then it undermines any progressive intent with panty shots, gendered violence, and incest played for shock value.
Was my life enriched by Ibitsu? No. Did I want a horror manga and indeed read a gleefully gruesome horror manga which, emboldened by its short length, is carried away but its own violence? You betcha.
Title: Helter Skelter: Fashion Unfriendly
Author: Kyoko Okazaki
Translator: [forgot to record it, can't for the life of me find it online]
Published: Vertical, 2013 (2003)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 320
Total Page Count: 342,760
Text Number: 1222
Read Because: mentioned on some or another list of horror manga, paperback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: And up-and-coming celebrity is the product of secret, extensive, fragile plastic surgery. This is about the fickleness and violence of fame, beauty standards, pop culture, and sexism, taking them to surreal extremes; it's effective social commentary but not particularly nuanced or, as a result, memorable. What is memorable is the characters. Okazaki has an unfortunate same face issue that makes supporting characters difficult to distinguish, but the rancid mess of the central character (whose voiceovers intrude, sympathetic and vicious, into a usually-distant narrative) and her toxic, compelling relationships (explored through sexual content which teeters between coy and shocking but never settles for merely titillating) has a vibrancy that the themes alone lack.
Author: Hitoshi Iwaaki
Translator: Andrew Cunningham
Published: Del Rey, 2007-2009 (1988-1995)
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 2,315 (288+288+283+287+304+288+288+288)
Total Page Count: 341,265
Text Number: 1201-1210
Read Because: personal enjoyment, paperbacks borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: Parasites invade human heads, piloting the body as a shapeshifting, maneating monster. But one fails, and manages only to capture the right hand of a teenage boy. This has a great length, long enough for a few episodic arcs, short enough to enforce consequences and progression. This isn't to say it's artful—there're moments that feel like any trashy seinen manga. But I appreciate the effect, particularly the escalation which builds on, rather than eclipsing, previous tragedies, and the satisfying exploration of my curiosities regarding the parasites. There's a human character who's weirdly sensitive (and therefore susceptible) to their presence, which is a great concept; the protagonist's character growth, trauma, and escalating violence is foiled by his physical changes as he becomes increasingly integrated with the parasite; relationships between parasites and humans, parasites and the concepts of humanity, parasites and their hosts, are nuanced and diverse. It's a surprising degree of gratifying id material within a fast-paced action/horror plot.
The overarching theme of "humans are the real planetary parasites" is less effective—it's just not an argument I take well to given the popular discourse surrounding climate change. The body horror I found more interesting than horrific, but my tolerance for that is high; the art is consistent, legible, but largely unexceptional. I blazed through this—it's not perfect, but it does well by an interesting concept, and I dig that.
Title: Ibitsu
Author: Haruto Ryo
Published: 2009-2010
Rating: 2 of 5
Page Count: 415
Total Page Count: 341,680
Text Number: 1211-1212
Read Because: personal enjoyment
Review: An urban legend proves true when a strange lolita-clad woman begins stalking the protagonist. This is silly, but I appreciate that it takes itself so far. There's no baited murder here—just murder, with later altercations taken to wholehearted extreme. The antagonist's backstory gets the requisite final twist, but it actually improves things, taking her from
Was my life enriched by Ibitsu? No. Did I want a horror manga and indeed read a gleefully gruesome horror manga which, emboldened by its short length, is carried away but its own violence? You betcha.
Title: Helter Skelter: Fashion Unfriendly
Author: Kyoko Okazaki
Translator: [forgot to record it, can't for the life of me find it online]
Published: Vertical, 2013 (2003)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 320
Total Page Count: 342,760
Text Number: 1222
Read Because: mentioned on some or another list of horror manga, paperback borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: And up-and-coming celebrity is the product of secret, extensive, fragile plastic surgery. This is about the fickleness and violence of fame, beauty standards, pop culture, and sexism, taking them to surreal extremes; it's effective social commentary but not particularly nuanced or, as a result, memorable. What is memorable is the characters. Okazaki has an unfortunate same face issue that makes supporting characters difficult to distinguish, but the rancid mess of the central character (whose voiceovers intrude, sympathetic and vicious, into a usually-distant narrative) and her toxic, compelling relationships (explored through sexual content which teeters between coy and shocking but never settles for merely titillating) has a vibrancy that the themes alone lack.
