BE VERY AFRAID OF KANAKO INUKI
Writer/Artist: Kanako Inuki
Translator: Kevin Gifford
Lettering: Phil Christie
Publisher: Kodansha
Genre: Horror, Manga (Japan)
Dubbed “The Queen of Horror Manga,” mangaka Kanakao Inuki looks like a pure match for followers of horror comics in North America. Her cartoony type is eerie and her tales hinge on a perverse sense of humor.
However, this assortment from Kodansha isn’t the primary time Inuki’s comics have traveled to America. Dark Horse revealed her sequence SCHOOL ZONE in 2006 whereas DC’s CMX imprint revealed PRESENTS, one other quick story assortment, each within the 2000s. Unfortunately, neither sequence appeared to discover a wider viewers on the time. The quick story assortment BE VERY AFRAID OF KANAKO INUKI then appears like a crucial reintroduction to this manga grasp. With the present growth in Japanese horror manga because of the recognition of Junji Ito, Kodansha revealed this assortment of bizarre horror comics final yr in an reasonably priced softcover version. A brief story assortment is the right introduction to the type and sensibilities of one of horror manga’s easiest.
The Be Very Afraid of Kanako Inuki assortment consists of six quick tales. Each story includes a younger girl in some type of predicament that at all times seems badly, both for them or the folks round them. While none of the set-ups are significantly new, Inuki imbues every story along with her personal type of childlike horror.
“Childlike” is the perfect descriptor for the reason that majority of the tales heart on the purpose of view of youngsters and the cruelty of youngsters to one another. Birthday presents, one of the supreme joys of childhood, develop into harbingers of outdated age and impending dying in direction of the top of life. A youthful sister, whose toys are continually destroyed, lastly will get a doll that her older sister wouldn’t dare break.
This is all greatest exemplified by “Bukita-Kun”, a narrative the place a five-year outdated lady needs to be older as a result of she will’t wait to go on dates. She runs right into a horrid trying center faculty boy who provides her a serum that can age her up. The serum does trigger her to get older however she nonetheless has the thoughts and understanding of the world {that a} 5 yr outdated has. Then the serum retains growing older her, till the ultimate web page that sears itself into your mind.
Even the 2 tales on this assortment which are centered round extra grownup figures, these adults really feel like they’re in a state of arrested growth. The girl on the heart of “The Haunted Examination Room” needs for a boyfriend with all the fervour of a teenage lady. The solely boy she will appeal to is one she concocts in her head. Yet her ardour of this false boyfriend is so intense that she horrifically wills this imaginary entity to life. It bursts forth from her coronary heart within the goriest sequence within the e book.
The different tales with an older protagonist is centered round a blind princess who’s instructed that she’s lovely, however doubts what folks inform her. She captures a demon to grant her a want and to say it doesn’t go effectively for her is an understatement. Inuki remembers childhood needs, however as an grownup is aware of the darkish outcomes that may come from these needs.
Visually, Kanako Inuki can be a welcome sight to any followers of horror grasp Kazuo Umezz aka Kazuo Umezu, the creator of A Drifting Classroom and Orochi: Blood. In commentary all through the quantity, Inuki praises the outdated grasp all through, together with Moto Haigo’s seminal shojo manga sequence about vampires, The Poe Clan.
Looking on the cowl artwork provides you an thought of Inuki’s type. A cartoony face pokes out of a subject of pink roses. There’s one thing concerning the expression that’s each intriguing and off-putting. The eyes of the determine trace at pleasure but in addition insanity. The shade of pink used for the flowers is fleshy, although ominously one of the flowers seems decayed. Inuki favors making her figures as grotesque as doable.
Like Umezu and Umezu’s up to date Hideshi Hino (creator of Panorama of Hell), Inuki takes pleasure in making her characters as weird and visually unappealing as doable. The nerdy Bukita in “Bukita-Kun” seems about as repellent as a stereotype of a nerdy Japanese faculty boy. In the identical story, Marimo, the kid that taunts him into making her an grownup, seems a ’70s shoujo nightmare. Sasori from the quick “Big Sis Sasori” seems like a demonic Betty Boop. Inuki will get a real thrill out of drawing grotesque figures and it exhibits in each panel.
This glee for drawing the grotesque extends to the remainder of her artwork. Inuki favors the weird and the occasional shock over gore and spooky ambiance in her tales. Horrific issues do occur, however Inuki’s pursuits as a storyteller lie within the reactions characters must her conditions reasonably than the conditions themselves.
While she’s influenced by horror masters like Hino and Umezz, a lot of the horror in her tales feels rooted in shoujo manga in its visible storytelling. She inverts these stylistic tics resembling large sparkly eyes and delicate imagery to intensify the horror in her comics. The wispy, delicate traces of romantic comics for ladies now not function an ethereal tether to a personality’s feelings. The intense linework now providers a second of terror and shock. A panel with a black background in a mean shoujo manga may spotlight an inside second of emotional fact, however in Inuki’s tales, these sorts of panels spotlight the horrifying realization of a devastating emotional fact.
Take the opening story “Presents,” In this story, an outdated girl reminisces about how she satisfied her childhood buddies to shun an odd younger girl and never give her birthday presents. In the current day, she’s haunted repeatedly by both the younger lady or by her ghost. Every time this apparently demonic baby confronts her, it’s on a black background, together with the climax of the story. It culminates in a ultimate panel of her opening a gift that appears like a damnation of this girl’s childhood cruelty. Through her storytelling, Inuki’s eye for the grotesque is used to focus on the horrors of human conduct by subverting standard storytelling tips.
Though it’s not her first e book translated for American audiences, Be Very Afraid of Kanako Inuki reperesents a welcome return. Inuki definitely earns her title as “The Queen of Horror Manga” and these six tales are an ideal primer for her work. Her specific model of horror storytelling is a direct descendant of horror greats like Kazuo Umezz and Hideshi Hino. Fans of these creators will discover rather a lot to get pleasure from on this e book. For individuals who favor comics with darkish humor and a singular visible type, Inuki’s work can be an ideal match for his or her library. Hopefully, there’s one other e book from her within the works and it isn’t one other 18 or extra years earlier than a writer places out a e book by her.
Be Very Afraid of Kanako Inuki is now accessible in each print and digital from Kodansha.
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