![]() I’ve read quite a bit of Itou, and his short stories sometimes struggle to balance showing and telling, but it was disappointing for such a high quality idea to be stifled by an easily avoidable addition (i.e. If anything, it ruined the mystery behind these psychological compulsions, trying to attach some ancient lore in a story primarily focused on the mental states of individual characters. Itou uses this sequence to shed light on the origin of the human shaped holes, but not only does he spoil the ending, the “truth” Itou intends to reveal about the fault is incredibly underwhelming. The biggest and most disturbing discovery, displayed on the final page of this manga, is ruined a few pages earlier, when Owaki has a nightmare. Unfortunately, the manga still possesses issues. The fear in their eyes as their bodies overpower their mind is harrowing, and deeply confronting to witness as a spectator. While the minds of the characters are infrequently verbalised, their facial expressions convey all the unrest needed to produce an incredibly unsettling experience. This disturbing and highly symbolic experience manifests in a vintage Itou art style. The characters are aware of this, and never act mindlessly, but are unable to prevent their inner urges from manifesting into action, often leading to tragic outcomes. The human shaped holes, are in a sense, the “antagonist” of the story, but they never have a firsthand effect on the characters. While no monstrous being is present to scare the reader, a sense of helplessness comes from the type of supernatural occurrence our characters are facing. Ito never overcomplicates his story with ambitious narration, opting to focus on one strand of horror, that of psychological terror, and the internal agony one can experience within. The idea behind this story is great, and provides an opportunity for the author to establish a unique horror experience. Along the way he meets Yoshida, a young lady who has been lured to the mountain by these voices. Along the side of the mountain, human shaped holes have appeared, and begun “calling” to particular people who share a resemblance to them. In this short story, we follow Owaki, a young man who has scaled Amigara Mountain to uncover the mystery behind an unsettling discovery made after an earthquake. And while I’ve read a handful of Ito’s works, none have resonated with this sentiment quite like The Enigma of Amigara Fault. The works of the later have become a staple in horror, in particular, Itou’s manifestation of psychological horrors through grotesque imagery has won him universal admiration. Contemporary authors like Kazuo Umezu ( The Drifting Classroom) and Junji Ito ( Gyo) have brought with them unique methods to horrify, utilising the predominantly visual medium of manga to play with constructs of reality. Nakagaki reveals that he has finally found his own hole, removing his clothes and disappearing into it before Owaki can stop him.While horror has been a genre present throughout the history of manga, it was only with the rise of alternative/adult manga that a diverse range of titles aimed to terrify became prevalent in the mainstream. ![]() Most of the people who have come to the mountain are looking for their own holes. Owaki is skeptical, but another man called Nakagaki overhears and says that the same thing happened to him. Ever since she laid eyes on the hole, she has had a strange feeling that it was meant for her to enter. She explains that she came because she saw something on TV: a hole that she swears was her exact silhouette. ![]() Owaki is distracted from the speculation when he notices Yoshida looking for something. The accumulation of soil over the centuries eventually sealed up the entrances, but they have no way of knowing why the holes were made or who would have the technology to do it, especially since they appear to be thousands of years old. They can, however, determine that the holes are not natural and must have been dug from the inside out. Scientists examining the holes announce that there is no way to find out how deep into the mountain the holes go. Following the sound of voices to the fault, the two of them marvel at the strange sight before them: countless human-shaped holes in a rock face exposed by the earthquake. The former assumes that they are both here to see the fault, which has captured the attention of the global press. On the slopes of the mountain, two hikers meet a man named Owaki and a woman named Yoshida. Following an earthquake in an unnamed prefecture of Japan, a fault is discovered on Amigara Mountain, very close to the epicenter of the quake.
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