<b>Review of Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon & Mu by Christophe</b>
If you’ve not heard of Junji Ito, I feel obliged to give you a brief primer on his work. He is a horror manga artist (a genre which we see disappointingly little of here in the west), but to leave it at that would be far too shallow. Like H.P. Lovecraft , the famous creator of Eldritch abominations, Ito’s skill isn’t just in scaring the reader, but in imagining creatures and situations so disturbing that it seems no sane mind could ever come up with them. The first book of Ito’s collected works released in English included the <em>Tomie </em>stories; these are about a beautiful and captivating girl, who makes men fall so madly in love with her that they feel impelled to take her life. However, Tomie rarely stays dead for long... The <em>Tomie </em>series was adapted into a series of Japanese films and a TV series during the J-Horror boom, with 2011 seeing the release of film number eight. Junji Ito only started to become a household name for western manga fans with the release of <em>Uzumaki</em>. <em>Uzumaki </em>begins with a teenage girl who notices that her father is becoming obsessed with strange spiral patterns, which seem to be materialising around their town. Her father adores these spirals so much that he eventually contorts his body to become one, killing himself in the process. And then the rest of the town start to follow suit... <em>Gyo </em>came swiftly next, and is about an army of zombie fish with mechanical legs, who roam around the land killing humans; this had a pretty good anime adaptation in 2012. From these brief summaries, one can begin to get an idea of the disturbing depths from which Ito is able to dig up his fascinating stories. So now we come to <em>Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon & Mu</em>, Ito's latest publication in English. Is it another one of the author's dark and scary tales, for which he is so well known? Not exactly. This manga is an autobiographical story about Ito's two pet cats. Do not be put off, however. For while this is clearly a departure from his other works, into a more comedic arena than his usual horrific one, Ito still uses his talents to make proceedings very out of the ordinary.
The story begins with J-kun, Ito’s representation of himself, moving into a new house with his fiancée. He’s excited to be settling down with the woman he loves in a house that’s all his own, until his fiancée asks him that fateful question: “Are you a dog person, or a cat person?” “I’m a hamster person,” J-kun responds. Next thing J-kun knows, a cat tower is getting delivered, and he’s being forced to put anti-scratch plastic over his walls. Soon two cats, Yon and Mu, are sharing the couples’ new home, and J-kun goes through that inevitable transition of initially hating the two cats, before growing to unabashedly adore them. Throughout this, however, there are stories which are more unconventional in the genre of pet manga. There’s a scene early on where J-kun walks in on his fiancée suckling Yon on her finger. He decides to get in on the action, screaming at the poor cat, “Suckle on me! Suckle, I command you!” J-kun’s grotesque menace and Yon’s terror make for a wonderful panel of manga – the kind that seems as worthy of becoming a meme as Ito’s famous “This is my hole!” page from <em>The Enigma of Amigara Fault</em>.
The genius of this manga is that what would otherwise be a sickly sweet and, honestly, rather inane story about a couple and their pet cats becomes, in Ito’s experienced hands, both hilarious and disturbing. The juxtaposition of Ito’s ridiculously grotesque art with everyday situations is a stroke of genius, which amps the humour of the situations depicted up to manic levels. And the way that a cute cat can transform into a revolting monster in J-kun’s mind can genuinely be quite unpleasant, in a good way! There are many other factors which demonstrate that Ito was definitely not holding back in his usual style when drawing <em>Cat Diary</em>. There are the shadowy backgrounds, horror-film angles, and creepy sound effects which are staples of Ito’s typical stories. J-kun’s fiancée has incredibly disturbing pupil-less eyes and a constantly smiling face, making her look like some kind of crazed, villainous zombie; one wonders what the lady herself thinks about her depiction! J-kun himself is presented as a tired man with bloodshot eyes, who occasionally turns into a horrible monster when the cats annoy him or when his wife gets one over on him. It’s difficult to convey the greatness of Ito’s art to those unfamiliar with it using only words, so please give it an image search or have a flick through at your local bookshop’s manga section. At first you’ll be put off by how horrid everything looks – that’s normal. But give yourself over to the creepiness, and you will come to appreciate the intricacies of his uniquely disturbing style.
Junji Ito fans coming into this fresh off of Viz Media’s <em>Fragments of Horror</em> release may be in for a bit of a let-down: despite the books being roughly the same price, Fragments of Horror is a deluxe hardcover with a beautifully creepy and brightly coloured dust cover, which has been embossed with more strange imagery that's only visible when light is shone upon it in a particular way; <em>Cat Diary</em> is a paperback that is about only half the length of <em>Fragments</em>, and has a comparatively basic cover of orange, black and white. However, rather than feeling cheated, readers should appreciate how this reflects the content of Ito’s work. Rather than being one of his famously over-the-top and macabre stories, <em>Cat Diary</em> is an autobiographical manga about a man and his fiancée who live with their two adorable, although slightly evil, pet cats. As such, this more low-key release feels suited to the manga’s tone. There are also a couple of nice glossy full colour pages in here, which include actual photos of the real Yon and Mu. It’s a nice touch to be able to see the cats in their real form, after witnessing Ito’s more creative depictions of them!
Overall then, <em>Junji Ito’s Cat Diary</em> is something that I would heartily recommend to manga readers willing to broaden their horizons, but it is unlikely to be for everyone. Ito fans may be let down by this not being as creepy as his more typical horror works, but they should appreciate seeing the manga artist use his skillset in such a different genre. And while <em>Cat Diary </em>may not be very representative of Ito’s main body of work, it’s exactly this characteristic that might make it appeal to newbies. A nice entry point, into Ito’s disturbing and wonderful world.
<b>Final score: 8 out of 10</b>
If you’ve not heard of Junji Ito, I feel obliged to give you a brief primer on his work. He is a horror manga artist (a genre which we see disappointingly little of here in the west), but to leave it at that would be far too shallow. Like H.P. Lovecraft , the famous creator of Eldritch abominations, Ito’s skill isn’t just in scaring the reader, but in imagining creatures and situations so disturbing that it seems no sane mind could ever come up with them. The first book of Ito’s collected works released in English included the <em>Tomie </em>stories; these are about a beautiful and captivating girl, who makes men fall so madly in love with her that they feel impelled to take her life. However, Tomie rarely stays dead for long... The <em>Tomie </em>series was adapted into a series of Japanese films and a TV series during the J-Horror boom, with 2011 seeing the release of film number eight. Junji Ito only started to become a household name for western manga fans with the release of <em>Uzumaki</em>. <em>Uzumaki </em>begins with a teenage girl who notices that her father is becoming obsessed with strange spiral patterns, which seem to be materialising around their town. Her father adores these spirals so much that he eventually contorts his body to become one, killing himself in the process. And then the rest of the town start to follow suit... <em>Gyo </em>came swiftly next, and is about an army of zombie fish with mechanical legs, who roam around the land killing humans; this had a pretty good anime adaptation in 2012. From these brief summaries, one can begin to get an idea of the disturbing depths from which Ito is able to dig up his fascinating stories. So now we come to <em>Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon & Mu</em>, Ito's latest publication in English. Is it another one of the author's dark and scary tales, for which he is so well known? Not exactly. This manga is an autobiographical story about Ito's two pet cats. Do not be put off, however. For while this is clearly a departure from his other works, into a more comedic arena than his usual horrific one, Ito still uses his talents to make proceedings very out of the ordinary.
The story begins with J-kun, Ito’s representation of himself, moving into a new house with his fiancée. He’s excited to be settling down with the woman he loves in a house that’s all his own, until his fiancée asks him that fateful question: “Are you a dog person, or a cat person?” “I’m a hamster person,” J-kun responds. Next thing J-kun knows, a cat tower is getting delivered, and he’s being forced to put anti-scratch plastic over his walls. Soon two cats, Yon and Mu, are sharing the couples’ new home, and J-kun goes through that inevitable transition of initially hating the two cats, before growing to unabashedly adore them. Throughout this, however, there are stories which are more unconventional in the genre of pet manga. There’s a scene early on where J-kun walks in on his fiancée suckling Yon on her finger. He decides to get in on the action, screaming at the poor cat, “Suckle on me! Suckle, I command you!” J-kun’s grotesque menace and Yon’s terror make for a wonderful panel of manga – the kind that seems as worthy of becoming a meme as Ito’s famous “This is my hole!” page from <em>The Enigma of Amigara Fault</em>.
The genius of this manga is that what would otherwise be a sickly sweet and, honestly, rather inane story about a couple and their pet cats becomes, in Ito’s experienced hands, both hilarious and disturbing. The juxtaposition of Ito’s ridiculously grotesque art with everyday situations is a stroke of genius, which amps the humour of the situations depicted up to manic levels. And the way that a cute cat can transform into a revolting monster in J-kun’s mind can genuinely be quite unpleasant, in a good way! There are many other factors which demonstrate that Ito was definitely not holding back in his usual style when drawing <em>Cat Diary</em>. There are the shadowy backgrounds, horror-film angles, and creepy sound effects which are staples of Ito’s typical stories. J-kun’s fiancée has incredibly disturbing pupil-less eyes and a constantly smiling face, making her look like some kind of crazed, villainous zombie; one wonders what the lady herself thinks about her depiction! J-kun himself is presented as a tired man with bloodshot eyes, who occasionally turns into a horrible monster when the cats annoy him or when his wife gets one over on him. It’s difficult to convey the greatness of Ito’s art to those unfamiliar with it using only words, so please give it an image search or have a flick through at your local bookshop’s manga section. At first you’ll be put off by how horrid everything looks – that’s normal. But give yourself over to the creepiness, and you will come to appreciate the intricacies of his uniquely disturbing style.
Junji Ito fans coming into this fresh off of Viz Media’s <em>Fragments of Horror</em> release may be in for a bit of a let-down: despite the books being roughly the same price, Fragments of Horror is a deluxe hardcover with a beautifully creepy and brightly coloured dust cover, which has been embossed with more strange imagery that's only visible when light is shone upon it in a particular way; <em>Cat Diary</em> is a paperback that is about only half the length of <em>Fragments</em>, and has a comparatively basic cover of orange, black and white. However, rather than feeling cheated, readers should appreciate how this reflects the content of Ito’s work. Rather than being one of his famously over-the-top and macabre stories, <em>Cat Diary</em> is an autobiographical manga about a man and his fiancée who live with their two adorable, although slightly evil, pet cats. As such, this more low-key release feels suited to the manga’s tone. There are also a couple of nice glossy full colour pages in here, which include actual photos of the real Yon and Mu. It’s a nice touch to be able to see the cats in their real form, after witnessing Ito’s more creative depictions of them!
Overall then, <em>Junji Ito’s Cat Diary</em> is something that I would heartily recommend to manga readers willing to broaden their horizons, but it is unlikely to be for everyone. Ito fans may be let down by this not being as creepy as his more typical horror works, but they should appreciate seeing the manga artist use his skillset in such a different genre. And while <em>Cat Diary </em>may not be very representative of Ito’s main body of work, it’s exactly this characteristic that might make it appeal to newbies. A nice entry point, into Ito’s disturbing and wonderful world.
<b>Final score: 8 out of 10</b>