Introduction to Junji Ito
1963: Born in Gifu Prefecture, Japan
When I was in kindergarten, my sister read a book that ignited my interest in horror (my sister read it in On his birthday, he would always give him some horror books such as), and since then he has been addicted to the horror comics of 楳図かずお, はもちろん, Hino Hinodeshi, and Koga Shinichi. In addition, because my sister was drawing comics, she gave Ito Junji a lot of inspiration.
Ito started drawing comics in the first year of elementary school. His sister had a great influence on Ito.
When I was in high school, I met a fellow comic artist. At this time, my works progressed from pencil drafts to inked lines, and from semi-finished products to finished products.
After graduating from high school, he entered Nagoya Dental Technology College.
After graduating from a junior college, he worked as a dental technician in Nagoya (making dental models). At the same time, Asahi Sonorama founded the "Halloween Monthly" (discontinued)
In 1986, the "Uraki Award" was established at the base camp of newcomers in horror comics. Junji Ito, who admired the "Uraki" very much, participated in the submission for the first time and became the His short comic works were selected as excellent works. Since there were no vacancies for the first excellent and excellent prizes in the No. 1 Novel Awards, Junji Ito actually won the first place. The winning work was "Tomie" which later became Ito's masterpiece series. The judges at that time were Kazuo Umeki, Junji Inagawa, Hideyuki Kikuchi, Atsuko Narimao, Mitoshi Furukawa and the editor-in-chief of "Halloween Monthly".
In 1987, the first episode of "Tomie" was published in the February issue of Halloween Monthly, and he entered the comic industry from then on.
After debuting from 1987 to 1997, he did not quit his original job as a dental technician. He held second job for two or three years from then on. However, he found it very hard and felt that continuing like this was not a long-term solution, so he later I chose to continue being a cartoonist as my favorite profession, and insisted on continuing. At this time, "Wonderful Stories of Sleepless Nights" (later Nemuki) was also published, and many other stories were published thereafter.
"Frankenstein" was published in 1995.
In 1997, the comic was serialized outside of Asahi Sonorama in the supplement of Shogakukan's "Weekly Newsletter" with a four-page short story "The Elegy of the Great Black Pillar".
In 1998, it began to be serialized once a month in "Weekly Journal".
On March 6, 1999, the movie version of "Fujiang" was released. The serialization of "Whirlpool" ended and it was decided to adapt it into a movie version. Tomie" has also decided to be adapted again into a movie version of "Tomie replay" (Midnight Ghost - Tomie), the second serial short story "The Doll Burial in Hell" published by Million in "Manga Gon". In the summer of the same year, autograph sessions were held, two in Tokyo and one in Nagoya. It's been a very busy year. The serialization of "Series Tomie" started in "Nemuki".
In 2000, the movie versions of "Fujiang Replay" and "Whirlpool" were released at the same time. In addition, some short stories have been adapted into movies, such as "Human Head Balloon", "Oshikiri Monster Story", etc.
The 2001 works, "Fujiang - Rebirth" and "Scarecrow" were adapted into movies.
Episodes 1 and 2 were published in 2002.
Screenwriting works
Tomie’s final chapter: Saishuu-sh? - kindan no kajitsu (2002)
Kakashi Kakashi (2001)
< p>Uzumaki Uzumaki (2000)Tomie Tomie (1999)
Many people would define Ito as a cartoonist who specializes in horror manga creation. What about Ito himself? A series of comics such as "Uzumaki", "Tomie" and "Undying Love" were adapted into movies. Ito, whose popularity has risen rapidly, finally gave himself a new definition in the movie "Uzumaki": in the film, he was named "Wanted" The crime appeared in the form of photos, and the crime was "using his comic strips to plunge readers into extreme fear."
Although Ito is confident that he has plunged us into extreme fear, but what is fear? What trick did Ito pull off that scares us? What do we really fear in our hearts?
We may be frightened by sudden loud noises, weird-shaped animals, and disgusting scenes of bloody flesh and blood in horror movies that “write the word horror on their faces,” but this is not real. fear.
The real fear is: we are afraid of the unknown future, the pressure of life, the fear of losing everything we have, the fear of one day discovering that we are not ourselves... It is this that comes from deep in our hearts. Fear is tightly grasped by Ito, who performs it repeatedly, exaggerates, and abstracts, allowing us to sink and sink again in his terrifying world...
The process of mutation
Born in Japan in 1963 Junji Ito of Gifu Prefecture eventually became a master of horror. Of course, there is no reason why. Since the first horror comic provided by his sister in kindergarten, Ito has been spending his birthdays in the company of horror comics. Therefore, as he grows older, Ito has become familiar with horror, and he has gone from being frightened to being frightened. other people.
I first tried comics when I was in elementary school. I collaborated with a group of colleagues in high school. My works progressed from pencil drafts to ink line drafts, and my skills improved by leaps and bounds. After graduating from high school, Ito entered Nagoya Dental Engineering College and worked as a dental model maker in Nagoya after graduation. Originally, Ito's horrific life was over, and he was about to abandon darkness and turn to light to live a normal life. But in 1986, the "Halloween Monthly", the home base of newcomers to horror comics, established the "Umeto Award" (named after the Japanese horror comics master Kazuo Umeto. The first horror comic "Mummy Sensei" Ito read was from this master) works.) pulled Ito into the "abyss of darkness" again. Ito won the "Outstanding Work Award" for his short comic "Tomie". Since the Merit Award for this year’s Meitu Awards is vacant, Ito is the actual first place winner. Since then, Ito has officially embarked on the long road of horror comic creation. Subsequently, , , , and even set off a whirlwind among middle school students with their unique horror content. In 1998, the movie "Midnight Evil" started the Japanese horror movie craze. Ito's comics were adapted into movies one after another, and his career reached a new height. It is worth mentioning that Ito's horror comics are produced in a family workshop style, with his mother and eldest brother as assistants - what a "horror family"!
Weird Moves
Short - Most of Ito's works are short stories or a series of short stories, such as "Tomie", "Double One", etc. Even the first full-length novel "Whirlpool", which was serialized in 1998, was actually a collection of short stories that had little connection with each other. Maybe the feeling of horror is a process of tension gathering. If you have been frightened for a long time without a breakthrough, you will eventually lose the sense of tension, so the nightmares will not last too long.
Picture - Ito's painting style is realistic, and the characters' faces, hair, expressions, movements, and postures are all described in detail. In his works, the characters are no longer the common ones with nine to twelve heads and bodies, with eyes taking up half or three-quarters of the face, but images with the most normal and standard proportions - even heartthrobs Fujiang is no exception. Moreover, the picture is very clean and crisp, without the abuse of dot paper that is common in horror comics. The hand-drawn background suggests that this is a perfectly normal place, and the upright and peaceful faces suggest that this is a perfectly normal group of people. However, amidst this normality, you will feel a gloomy and ambiguous atmosphere lingering - The low pressure before the storm is coming has slowly enveloped you...the more normal and real it is, the more you can empathize with it. You can't escape this terrifying fog.
Plot - the most ordinary things seen in daily life will become the starting point for the extension of Ito's story. The beginning of an event is often just a sign of departure from the norm, or the emergence of a legend, story, or metaphorical intention, which you will not mind or feel threatened. However, gradually you will find that you have been involved in this incident. All the clues will make you tremble with fear. All the brows and corners of your eyes reveal conspiracies. You make assumptions and conjectures, and you are busy overturning them. However, you ignore the ending and come straight to it. , you can’t help but struggle, everything is a foregone conclusion, but the mystery in your heart cannot be solved, Ito leaves it to you, only for you to think about it in the dark night...
Source of terror
< p>For Ito, there are too many sources of horror, they are everywhere. The following is a summary of opinions from all sides, which may not be comprehensive... Visual horror is the most common, and Tomie’s new look is full of ferociousness. The head, the bloody limbs with teeth and claws, the disgusting skin that looks like it is covered with hemangioma, the overwhelming meat paste, the dense hair growing on the face, the human head balloon... I have to say that Ito's imagination is invincible. Although humanoid monsters such as Tomie and Souichi can scare people half to death, Ito still likes to use ghosts to scare people. Such works include "Exceptionally Close", "Promise", "Home of the Deserter", "The Creature" "Swamp", "Scarecrow", "Ghost Alley" and "Ghost House" and many other chapters. Psychopaths are the creepiest of all sources of horror, because anyone around you could be them. "Bad Kid", "Pen Pal", and "My Father's Heart" fall into this category. Personally, I think "Bad Kids" is the scariest. The loving image of the mother is completely destroyed by Ito: the perverted mother dresses up as a child and takes her children to the park to play every day, reliving the old dream of playing with her husband... There are some scary things in Ito's comics. There are places with eternal curses, such as "Tombstone Town", "Map Village", "White River Village Blood Story" and "Whirlpool". If you are lucky enough to pass by, please take a detour. Tomie's hysteria is frightening. It's really creepy to see her obsessed with her beauty and youth like a resentful woman for thousands of years. It can be seen that there is no difference between excessive persistence and resentment.Strong Desire - "Whirlpool"
As mentioned before, "Whirlpool" is Ito's first novel. The simplest summary of this story is that all the residents of Black Whirlpool Town All were swallowed up by the whirlpool. This whirlpool also follows Ito's consistent style. It does not tell us why there is a giant underground whirlpool full of curses there. It only says that a hundred years ago, Black Whirlpool Town was already a polluted town. Although this reason is not completely convincing and can only be accepted, the most curious thing is where are the people taken away by the whirlpool? What's bad is that Ito continues his usual style, and we can't get the answer at the end. We can only watch the clasped hands of the male and female protagonists, intertwined into whirlpool-shaped bodies, and being sucked into the boundless darkness by irresistible force.
What is completely different from "Tomie" is that the protagonist of the whirlpool, Goto Kirie, exists in a pure and perfect state, so she can become a witness to the mysterious events in Black Whirlpool Town. Although it is her boyfriend Shuichi Saito who has the mysterious telepathy in "Uzumaki", murders in the form of "whirlpools" keep coming to Kirie. This is all because her purity allows her to "see" the black whirlpool. The strange changes in the town. In the twelve episodes of "Typhoon One", even Typhoon fell in love with her. I feel that Ito wanted to give an explanation to female readers this time, so he set up such a flawless woman.
In "Whirlpool", Ito's imagination has reached a new level, with strange events and pictures: a man turned into a snail, a girl swallowed by the whirlpool on her forehead, a shriveled rotating corpse... …This kind of terrifying atmosphere created by unknown phenomena and mass panic is more frightening than the actual ghosts appearing.
As far as the subject of whirlpools is concerned, Ito really has a very special vision. Although whirlpools are a phenomenon that can be seen everywhere in daily life, a dynamic phenomenon, few people pay attention to them. In fact, whether it is sunlight or water patterns, as long as you follow the lines of the circles and watch them fall for a long time In the center, you will feel the pull of a mysterious force, making people sink into it uncontrollably... If the vortex symbolizes evil, then we are attracted by it, unable to resist, and falling rapidly. Of course, Ito may not have the will to extricate himself from the subject like us. He just watched us panic, scream all the way, and get involved in his whirlpool of terror, but he didn't smile.
Junji Ito
Debut work: The first episode of "Tomie" was published in the February issue of Halloween Monthly in 1987
Award-winning experience: "Tomie" in 1986 》Won the first "Plum Blossom Picture Award" Excellence Award
Main works:
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