Review: Lovesickness

Lovesickness by Junji Ito
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Viewer discretion advised: Warning for graphic violence, acts, and body horror.

The master of Japanese Horror, nay, graphic horror worldwide. As usual he has the unique ability to take day to day, mundane aspects of life, and turn them into graphic, disturbing, macabre displays of terror.

The premise of these series of interconnected short stories involves our protagonist, who has returned to his childhood home, a childhood which I might add, has some seriously disturbing repressed memories attached to it.

Right after his arrival, mysterious incidents begin taking place, ending in a serious of disturbing suicides and deaths. As the body count rises, and bit by bit the townspeople turn to rabid, maniacal, insanity, it's upon him to solve this phenomenon and stop the violence.

It seems as if, in every other of his stories, things go bad, and everyone goes mad. But despite a predictable pattern, we still tune in for the monster of the week, and the slideshow of disturbing visuals put on page. Which might speak to the reader's particular mental state than anything, but that is for the psychoanalysts to decide.

But where Mr. Ito really shines is, despite the degree of detachment and indifference that the narrative has in regard to what happens to its characters, the visual impact they have is considerable. There are some frames where you're being maintaining a baritone of horror and jump scares, where you think, you are used to whatever the story throws at you.

Then, out of nowhere, it throws something like THIS, at you...


Or THIS


Unlike typical western horror stories, where either the heroes triumph over evil, or succumb to the darkness and the world ending, Japanese form of horror is pretty matter of fact. By taking away any power that the characters have in opposing these dangers, and showing how their struggle means so little, Ito Junji is able to wind up the proxy terror we feel for them all the more.


Oh, a bunch of people died gruesome deaths because of some malevolent entity?... Cool.

An entire town went insane over a short time, and then suddenly up and disappeared into oblivion?... Neat.

There is a ghost stream in that mountain, where the dead spirits from decades ago repeatedly drown in agony unable to find peace?... Interesting.

Another thing that I, as well as others have observed is the sheer randomness of the whole thing. Sometimes, a person does something, that makes them deserving of the gruesome fate that befalls them. But most of the times, the people who die have abso-lutely nothing to do with the instigator of the whole thing. They're just random people, who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Japanese horror, especially Junji's horror, treats ghosts and evil spirits like they're a loose beam that fell on a guy walking down the road.

Like Opera giving out gifts, it's like... 'You get cursed, you also get cursed, EVERYBODY gets cursed'. For those who've seen the J-Horror classics like the Ring, would find this to be quite par for the course.

One thing that sets apart the protagonist of the story from your usual heroes or victims is the respond he has to the horrifying series of deaths surrounding him. Sure, for a while there, he, much like your typical Junji protagonist, faithfully goes insane, obsessed, losing weight and human like complexions.

Then, after some time, he gets fed up with the evil spirit perpetuating this whole thing. He's like, 'you know what! F**k you! And F**k your sob story!". He literally decides to kill him with love. Which is something quite hilarious and something you need to read.

Of course, then there are also other unrelated, hellion like, abominable, irritable characters, who go about making the lives of people a living nightmare, and really need to have their faces intimately acquainted with the floor. But that's neither here nor there.

For the most part, Lovesickness is another entry into Ito sensei already impressive library of work. Not for the faint hearted, and definitely for all of us disturbed weirdoes hiding in plain sight. So, you know who you, Enoy.



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