Junji Ito/Headscratchers


 * So, apologizing for questioning the logic horror stories, after the terror sets in some things still bug me in regards to the inner logic of Junji Ito works. For example...
 * What's that giant earthworm doing in in "Mansion"?
 * Possibly a mutation with an earthworm. It's established that Tomie can regenerate from just her blood alone, and we were also shown that her DNA isn't above invading living creatures (as evident by the "Hair" chapter, where a young lady decides to add some of Tomie's hair to her own, and the strands eventually transformed her into another Tomie). So, it's entirely possible that some of Tomie's blood got splattered onto an earthworm during the experimental stages, and that ungodly abomination was born.
 * Wouldn't the earthworm become a full Tomie, though?
 * My guess is it's the opposite - earthworms turn into two living worms when cut in half, so the doc probably did some comparisons with worm DNA. Or hell, Tomie evolved from earthworms and that explains her regeneration ability. Yeah.
 * Earthworms don't have such regeneration at all, actually, it's a myth. Some other organisms do however.
 * Not that the myth would have to be true to be true in Tomie.
 * Why did the doll children turn into... whatever theu do in the end? How is the creepy wooden doll stage an intermediate between human and "fucking creepy horror thing"?
 * What is "A Shit to Remember" about, anyway? Is it some sort of Nothing Is Scarier trick story? Or just an account from Ito's childhood? Or maybe just a play with our expectations?
 * It is a story about a boy that buys shit. The shit is described in great detail, and nothing supernatural happens. A story a kid would tell.
 * And finally, Army of One. Creepy as hell, yes. Unsettling reveal of who's the culprit as well as yanking the hope of a happy ending? Sure, that' awesome! But how, exactly, did the "Stitch Killer" do it? How could over 500 people simply disappear under heavy security and then suddenly appear in another place all stitched up. Or, worse, the gruesome Christmas decoration?
 * I had a theory about this one...the way I saw it, it wasn't just this one person doing it. It was some other group--who, I have no idea--that broadcast subliminal messages into the large groups of people--the bigger the group, the more people would get the message and feel compelled to stitch everyone together and kill them. After this, they were still under Mind Control, so after assembling their portion in some way, they'd stitch themselves in. The vanishing? Well, my thoughts was that the broadcasters weren't human, and took the 500 people away in an instant for the deed. But that's just my theory.
 * My interpretation is that . However, it offers absolutely no explanation of what the hell was happening the whole time.
 * A bunch of different people went insane from loneliness and did it. It was probably different people every time. Kind of a More Than Mind Control thing, and once the murders started people started going insane just from seeing that. I totally expected that people had been stitching themselves in, and I kind of wanted to see that. It would have made it so much creepier!
 * Just to chip in with my two cents regarding all of these - I don't think Ito himself knows why and what is going on in many of his works. That's how he does things, he cripples story in favor of horror. Sure it doesn't hurt to theorize, but ultimately one shouldn't think too much about it. If you think of a satisfying explanation on your own, it's probably as correct as anything anyone else could say.
 * Far less a bug and far more a generic WMG about Juni Ito's work: Why am I increasingly convinced that Juji Ito is a fan of (or inspired by) Warhammer 40,000, particularly the Chaos faction? All of his works would sit in the 40K universe without as much as a hiccup to adapt, just like Event Horizon. Heck, even the 'villains' and mutations look like spawns/work of the Chaos gods, if not outright lesser Chaos gods...
 * Yeah, bit myopic right there. If you look into detail at the kind of stuff Japanese horror manga comes up with, you'll find that Ito fits well right in. There's some twisted stuff out there. Some of it is which is extraordinarily difficult just to explain in words...
 * OP here. Point taken, which then only takes the question to the next level: Why are Japanese horror Mangas so good at portraying psychological horror that can easily match 40K level!?
 * Maybe it's the opposite, and 40K is inspired by Japanese horror.
 * 40K and Junji Ito are both heavily influenced by H.P. Lovecraft, so it's not shocking they would come up with similar stuff.