#Junji Ito's Smashed

[ogradyfilm]

Junji Ito and the Horror of Compulsion

[The following essay contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!]

At first glance, the premise of Junji Ito’s “Smashed” is almost comically absurd. The plot revolves around a group of youths that become hooked on a sweet, syrupy substance that an acquaintance smuggled back to Japan following a recent excursion to the jungles of South America. Unfortunately, every time they partake of the nectar, they risk a brutal demise: abruptly crushed flat by some invisible telekinetic force, reduced to grotesque pancakes of blood, hair, bones, teeth, and leathery flesh. Escaping this grim (and darkly humorous) fate should be a simple enough matter—just quit eating the darn stuff! Alas, any other food or liquid that they attempt to ingest is utterly revolting (or so they insist), tasting of ash and dirt. Thus, they continue to greedily, gluttonously consume their newfound ambrosia, repeatedly gambling on immediate short-term gratification—a sucker bet that inevitably leads to disaster. Not even the more sympathetic characters are immune to karmic retribution (indeed, the most amoral among them survives the longest); all succumb to their base urges—and pay dearly for their transgressions.

Ultimately, it’s a rather silly story. Ito himself admits that the development process wasn’t terribly complex; what if, he essentially wondered, humans were akin to the humble mosquito—voraciously seeking nourishment, in constant peril of being swatted into oblivion. Nevertheless, the tale’s deeper implications lingered in my memory, haunting me. Were the protagonists literally deprived of their agency by paranormal means? Or was their fatal addiction comparatively mundane in nature, indistinguishable from the sort of chemical dependency one might encounter in our own reality? Did a malevolent otherworldly entity manipulate their actions? Or were they doomed by some self-destructive impulse engraved directly into mankind's collective unconscious—a counterintuitive yet irrepressible instinct as inherent and immutable as the need to breathe?

This theme of compulsion recurs throughout Ito’s work (e.g., “Used Record”, “Hair”, “The Enigma of Amigara Fault”), and the ambiguity surrounding it is consistently compelling. The author wisely resists the temptation to provide concrete answers; the true horror, after all, lies in that very uncertainty.

[Click here for more posts on this topic. Happy Halloween!]

[spiraphobia]

Smashed - In Mirror Valley | Junji Ito

[smashorpass50plus]

Junji Ito

[dawn-in-the--adan]

Junji Ito Story Collection

[dark-manga-stuff]

Manga: Smashed

by Junji Ito

[whatever-nvrmnd]

The period butt-stab be like

[ambrose-mp4]

The Uzumaki movie/series/whatever it will be coming to Toonami in September looks SO DAMN GOOD! After the flop of the other Junji Ito adaptation we are EATING GOOD!!!

[kristen1216]

Junji Ito collage Sketch By. Kristen Mitchell, 2022, Drawing with sharpies

#art #artwork #artist #prismacolor #prismacolorpencils #draw #drawing #anime #SharpieArt #junjiito #junjiitocollection #tomie #nolongerhuman #yonandmu #remina #theliminalzone #uzumaki #blackparadox #sensor #frankenstein #shiver #smashed #venusintheblindspot #disolvingclassroom #gyo

#deserter #lovesickdead #souichisdiaryofcurses

[supitsgdo]

Book review: Smashed & Uzumaki by Junji Ito

Rating:

Smashed: 4⭐️

Uzumaki: 4⭐️

I still don't know to this day how I didn't have nightmares reading this. But damn, I'll never look at things the same way again. Spirals... Mosquitoes... Pregnant women... Haunted houses... HAIR!?!?!?!?! Forget it.

Junji Ito created these super freaky horror stories. Loved it. Between Smashed and Uzumaki, I found Uzumaki more disturbing. These were the first books of his I've read and I'm invested for more. LET'S GOOO!

[voynich-exists]

The Brazilian Junji Ito cards are so cool... (I have smashed and the groaning pipes i am gonna show them later) I can't believe other countries don't have them...

[spiraphobia]

Smashed - I Don't Want To Be A Ghost | Junji Ito

[myhikari21things]

Read of Smashed by Junji Ito (2013) (412pgs)

Translated from Japanese

[monarchetype]

OHHHHH THAT MAKES SO MUCH MORE SENSE

I LEGIT THOUGHT THAT STORY WAS JUST ABOUT A FUCKED UP TREE KILLING PEOPLE FROM A DISTANCE WITH UHHH DISSOLVING TREE MISSILES

[abstractsnail]

So Roar just hit me like a brick wall? Was not expecting that to resonate as hard as it did

I think I need to contemplate my life if this story has the same level of impact that Glyceride did on me…

Admittedly the feelings are more positive than how Glyceride left me but it still gives a lot to think about and the different ways my past has affected the way I live and see things.

[hoorayiread]

Smashed, A Book Review

The reason I love horror as a genre is because so much of it is steeped with themes and symbolism. There's a lot to analyze and think about. Stuff to decode and understand. I care about what a text means and how to interpret it more than I care about characters, plot, or worldbuilding. You may have noticed this trend in the way I review books. What I love about Junji Ito's works are his concepts and themeing, and Smashed certainly has this going for it. Also, having gorgeous and andmospheric artwork helps.

Smashed, by Junji Ito, is a collection of short stories that share some common themes between them, such as obsession and the inability to move on from past trauma, but are otherwise unrelated. "Earthbound" tells the story of people who suddenly freeze in place in certain spots around town. They can speak and know why they're there, but refuse to explain. Then there's "Splendid Shadow Song" where a woman hears an angry break up song that gets viscerally stuck in her head for weeks. I particularly like this one because it also evokes how some art is built from trauma and can be damaging to those who are unprepared to emotionally handle it. "Death Row Doorbell" was about two homocide survivors who are stalked by an apparition of their parents' killer and was an interesting tale of revenge and forgiveness.

Now not every story in this collection is his finest work, and I would say that of the 3 Ito books I have read this one comes in 3rd (Uzumaki is my favorite). But Junji Ito is like pizza where even the stuff that isn't so good is still pretty damn great. There's good horror that's fun and good horror that isn't. Ito, at least for me, squarely falls in the fun category. Then again, I also enjoy things that are gross.

Also, the first story in this collection revolves around a woman with an eating disorder, so take that into consideration before you read. Not the trigger warning I was expecting with this book.

[irl-marlenemckinnon]

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