Ever since I read Uzumaki, I had been meaning to look into more of Ito’s work. So I caved, and decided I’d try out Funimation, even though Hulu and Netflix [hell even YouTube] was holdin’ ya girl down. I was browsing through anime to watch, and came across this Junji Ito collection. And I figured why not watch it, so here we are. The collection is just a series of very ‘scary’ animated stories that were created by Ito, of course. There is no central plot, or storyline as these are short stories. But even if there was, I’m sure nothing would make sense. This was released in 2018 so it is fairly new which is cool.
Souichi
This particular episode starts out with a pale skinned boy named Souichi, hammering a nail into a doll to a tree, in the woods. Somewhere near the woods, a boy staggers in pain. Each time Souichi hammers a nail in the doll, the boy continues to agonize in pain, as a result. The boy then screams for help, and Souchi asks “are you ready to witness true horror?” And then the opening plays, which is a nice little number I might add.
The next day arrives, and we see Souichi sitting at a desk, bragging about how handsome he is. He suddenly hears a group of girls, talking about a classmate, who passed out in the middle of the street. Souichi then begins to laugh at the student’s predicament, and says he can’t let anyone know what he did to the student.
Kuroda
Outside, a fight is occurring between two male students. Souichi walks through the woods again, and brings a toad home. He finds his family watching tv at dinner, and points them all out as boring. It’s very clear he doesn’t like them. And that he’s definitely crazy aha ha. Souchi decides to do a hibernation curse. So, he goes out into the woods, and buries a doll named “Kuroda” into the ground.
The next day in class, students talk of a student named Kuroda having gone missing. A day or two prior, Kuroda was one of the male students fighting outside with another student, named Akiyama.
The next scene cuts to an old man wondering through the woods. The old man is angered to see a doll pinned to his tree. He rips it down, and finds another doll in the ground. Then, he rips it up, and begins walking until he finds Kuroda in the ground. The student doesn’t remember how he got in the ground. Souichi is upset that he was found.
Kawai
Souichi watches a group of students talking about Kuroda’s situation, and deduces that something awkward has happened between the group. Souichi in his head, decides that the group of boys are starting to hate each other. He walks up to one of the boys, named Ishizaka, and tells him he’ll curse his friend Kawai, to get back at him. Ishizaka warns Kawai, who brushes off the warning, saying it’ll probably be fun to be cursed by Souichi.
Souichi borrows a flashlight from Akiyama. He goes home, and bothers his sister with a dead spider. After messing with his sister, and his own brother teasing him, he decides he’ll do a curse with spiders involved. The next day in class, Souichi pulls out a doll, and begins poking it with a pin. Not far from him, a student in class begins to move as if he were uncomfortable. Kawai asks to go to the bathroom, and realizes the pain he’s been feeling has gone away. He gets locked in a bathroom stall. Souichi throws a spider on the doll.
In the bathroom, a large spider appears above Kawai wrapping him in silk. He is found passed out but wrapped in toilet tissue. Souichi goes up to Kawai’s friend, asking for thanks for what he did to Kawai. Ishizaka is in confusion, as Souichi implies that he’s so kind, he doesn’t even want a payment or a thank you. Souichi is then embarrassed by Ishizaka and therefore, vows revenge.
Ishizaka
He calls Ishizaka, and tells him he won a free trip, and tells him to come to a park alone. Ishizaka knows it was Souichi prank calling him, but still shows up to the park. He is chased through the park by some weird monster. The monster happens to be Souichi on stilts. He is caught in a trap that the old man from before set. Scared, Ishizaka leaves Souichi in the trap, in the woods.
Souichi is found by the old man, and Souichi pretends to be a cat. Consequently, the old man throws a hatchet at Souichi, who begs to be spared, after the man tells him he’s gonna die. It’s a quite comical moment really. Souichi’s brother shows up right in time. Kouichi agrees to take Souichi to the police, but also tries to blackmail the old man in the process. After that, he lets them go, and they go home.
Souichi gets back home, and gets a lecture from his parents. But, he does not listen to them, and goes off to his room to see his toad. The toad is dead.
Hell Doll Funeral
The next scene cuts to a man talking to his daughter, who happens to be a doll. Apparently, the girl has succumbed to the “doll transformation.” The parents are in distress, as they see their daughter is no longer human. The father decides to keep the doll at home, instead of burning her. As time passes, the doll begins to deteriorate. As a result, the parents decide they must put the daughter to rest, as she has grown into a gruesome looking creature. The episode ends, and the ending plays.
My Thoughts
Okay, so I’m assuming Ito likes to dabble in comedic relief quite often. This was more so maybe comedic horror? Nothing was scary. Now I suppose had I just been watching without the sound on, then maybe but eh. I’m still gonna continue the collection. My hope is that maybe it’ll just get scarier as I watch? We shall certainly see. I’m getting R.L. Stine vibes low key. On to the next.
