Shivers
Shivers
JUNJI ITO
Just from the title we can anticipate that this manga was going to send goosebumps up and down our arms. This quickly became my favorite series out of Ito’s Selected Stories. Ito bases his stories off of real life phobias, maybe that is why I feel this is Ito’s most terrifying combination of stories. As a bonus, he includes an ‘Author Commentary’ at the end of each story. Each commentary is different from the last, explaining how Junji Ito came up with the concept of the story or what he was feeling during the time he wrote it. Hanging Blimp and Painter were not only my favorite but some of the creepiest. However I felt like ‘Shivers’ (the story) obviously carried the book.
Shiver went through a series of titles before being finalized as ‘Shivers’; (“Coldness” and “Chills”), which is exactly what you feel reading it. Could you imagine huge pore-like holes starting to appear on your body? In ‘Shivers’ there is a dark green jade carving (stone like) that was said to curse humans with an unholy disease. This disease was described to riddle people’s bodies with holes. Ito writes
“spiracles are openings on the exoskeleton of an insect that allows air to enter the trachea”.
A tracheal tube delivers oxygen directly into their tissues.This is how the holes that would appear on people's body would have felt. It made you feel cold and allowed insects to crawl around inside your skin. In the end, there was no cure. The disease was fatal. This story was very chilling to me because it’s described in such great detail, I can feel it happening to me by just reading the words off the paper. However, I was left with so many questions. Usually, Ito’s short stories are made to leave you wanting more, but they also tend to answer said unanswered questions. Why would the doctor track the jade? He would only appear once the disease had spread to the point of death. This doctor would appear on the last days of the cured person's life.Did he not have the cure ? Did he just not want to help? I just don’t see the need for his part in the story. We are left with very little knowledge of who he is or what his relation to the jade is.
Just the very idea of huge pores in your body makes my skin convulse.
Hanging Blimps, also known as ‘Hanging Balloons’, follows Kazuko who is introduced as a girl trapped inside her home due to her fear of what’s outside. We shortly learn she is hiding to preserve her life. This concept of having death following you and waiting for the right time is the real frightening part. The stress of unavoidable death.
A month prior, Kazuko’s best friend hung herself with a telephone wire from her window. Shortly after that, a giant balloon started appearing around town that looked identical to Terumi’s head. As if she would have been decapitated and started floating. Kuzuko believes this to be a rumor, until she sees her friend (Shiraishi) latently hang himself off a tree. Immediately after, it is revealed a hangman’s noose is attached to another floating head who happens to look identical to Shiraishi. Soon after that incident more of these floating heads started appearing. They would float around searching/ calling out for their corresponding person. Kazuko manages to hide in her house for about a week, she is lured by the voice of her hanging brother and suffers the same unavoidable death as the rest of Japan. We don’t really find out where these balloons came from. I don’t believe Terumi initiated anything, I just think she was the first of many.
Painter was based on Ito’s most popular character ; Tomie. Her story pretty much stays the same with slight differences in each story. Painter was the first chapter of the Tomie series and Ito was devoted to expressing Tomie’s characteristics. In this story Tomie wants to capture her “beautiful form” but when she attempts to capture it through photographs she’s portrayed as a “horrible monster”. That is where this chapter starts. She meet our protagonist, Mr. Mori. She meets him at his art opening and pretty much inserts herself into his life demanding him to capture her beauty. His first painting of her disappoints her and she’s not kind about it.
This sent our painter on a frenzy. He attempts to portrait his formal muses but instead of admiring them he starts being nasty and unpleasant with them. Insulting them to the point where they walk out on him.
Mr.Mori later hears his old colleague (Tadao Iwata) is releasing a new project. The project is attracting a lot of attention because the muse is none other than Ms. Tomie herself. He sees a photograph of Tomie and Iwata but Tomies face is disoriented, as if the film stretched her face out. This triggers Mori to the point where he goes to Iwata’s house to see the portraits he made of Tomie. He wants to see what Tomie chooses over him, but when he gets there Iwata looks grimy and overworked. This part is kind of hazy; Iwata goes crazy and gets knocked out by Mr.Mori. Tomie runs up to him claiming Iwata went crazy on her because he wasn’t able to capture her beauty.
Mr.Mori, being sprung to Tomie and all, proposes re attempting to paint her. When he paints her reaction remains the same. Unimpressed and not satisfied, she insults his painting again calling it offensive and horrible. She then begins to laugh at him in a mocking way, calling him the worse painter in the world.
Mr.Mori doesn’t take like to that.
He kills Tomie and chops up her body.
He sat in his apartment for a couple days watching her body scattered. Just looking at what had become of her. After four days her body started to multiply. Each one of her body parts would grow into a full grown Tomie.
“ I know… I am grateful I won’t see the end. With Every passing day, I grow thinner. I can no longer even walk. All I can do is sit… and wait… and pray for my death. AHH… Tomie… Tomie…”