Even Kodansha got in on the horror manga craze, picking up an anthology from one of Junji Ito's peers who has been somewhat neglected by English-language readers.
BE VERY AFRAID OF KANAKO INUKI! (Inuki Kanako no Daikyoufu!), by Kanako Inuki. First published in 1997 and first published in North America in 2022.
PLOT:
Six tales of terrifying young girls are contained within. There are spectral girls ready to spoil your birthday, little girls who want to grow up too fast, a little girl wishing for a toy that her sister can't break, a girl who loves a fictional character a little too much, a princess who makes a wish she regrets, and two schoolgirls dealing with bullying and a bit of divine intervention.
STORY:
This is not the first time I've grappled with a Kanako Inuki manga, as I reviewed Presents over a decade ago. I will say that I think I'm more receptive not just to this particular anthology collection, but to what Inuki was trying to achieve in the first place.
I do think it helps that while there are characters in here that were reoccuring ones in her work (including Presents' Kurumi), they only appear once. Think of this more like a sampler or a greatest hits compilation than a more traditional horror anthology. It also helps that the stories here tend to be either a little longer or are built around stronger concepts. I feel like it's a better showcase for Inuki's off-kilter sensibilities.
More than anything else, I appreciate that Inuki brings some truly feminine ideas and perspectives to her work, something that wasn't uncommon in the horror manga of 1980s and 90s Japan but far more so in the horror manga you can find in the US in 2022. You've got stories about aging (be it the desire of the very young to be older or the anxiety of the old about wasted youth), the complicated love-hate relationship between siblings, escaping personal trauma through fantasy, and even some old-fashioned mean-girl bullying. These concepts help to ground the supernatural goings-on, even in their most audacious, gruesome, or darkly humorous heights. It's a different vibe and now more than ever I can appreciate that.
ART:
Inuki cites Kazuo Umezz as one of her formative influences, but visually she has a lot more in common with Hideshi Hino. Her characters are built along the same lines: short, round-headed, with equally round, large, unblinking eyes and little, upturned noses. Instead of being sallow and exhausted they tend to look more precious and fashionable (if not rather sweaty). If anything, the contrast between these demented doll-like figures and the cutesy hair and fashion they wear enhances their ugliness and strangeness almost to the point of making them charming in a jolie-laide sort of way. She also puts a lot of detail into the furnishings and backgrounds, fading them out only for a bit of decorative screentones or a dramatic halo.
PRESENTATION:
There are little interstitials between each story where Inuki gives some background on their creation. There also some character charts for some of the more notable characters with various statistics about them along with their likes and dislikes. Most interesting to me were the little listicles about some of her favorite manga. Aside from Umezz and other notable names like Osamu Tezuka and Mitsuteru Yokoyama, it turns out that she was fond of some of the spookier tales from the Magnificent 49ers, including Moto Hagio's The Poe Clan, Ryoko Yamagishi's Yureidan, and Yumiko Ooshima's To Joker.
RATING:
This book is published by Kodansha Comics. It is currently in print.
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Would this title be appropriate for teens?
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