Shiver is a compilation of stories selected by the author complete with sketches, brainstorming notes, and commentary about each story. Some of the stories are brand new while others are from previous compilations or series.
* Used Record
Ogawa plays her best friend Nakayama a record of unaccompanied singing. Nakayama loves it so much, she is compelled to steal it, leading others to pursue her for the haunting melody. This story is absolutely perfect. It's a simple concept that then spirals out of control by the end. Everyone who hears the melody is compelled to take the record. As with any story about compulsion, things get ugly fast. The origin of the melody is completely chilling and comes full circle at the end. There are no wasted frames in this concise, creepy story.
* Shiver
Yuuji lives next door to Rina, a young woman barred from leaving her house due to a mysterious illness. The concept of this story is creepy and taps into a very specific fear that many people seem to have. An affliction that burrows holes in the skin and causes bugs to crawl through those holes is very creepy. The art is amazing and incredibly detailed, especially with those disgusting holes. However, the story itself is too convoluted for the length. The jade statue, the doctor, Yuuji's best friend Hideo, and Yuuji's grandfather's death all took a little too long to explain and had me not even remembering some characters or details at all. The impression of the horror aspects are good, but the story as a whole disappoints.
* Fashion Model
Iwasaki has a bad premonition before seeing a model, Fuchi, with an unconventional appearance. He becomes convinced she has something to do with his future. Her face becomes more and more monstrous as he dreams about her. When a friend wants to make a movie, she applies for a role and is accepted due to her fame. What will happen when they meet? This story plays into an Ito trope where ugly people are always monstrous, but it is creepy. The detail of the woman's teeth is incredible. Ito knows how to make people look otherworldly at first and then like complete monster. The ending is definitely memorable. It's kind of like a Tales from the Crypt story, showing how typecasting based on appearance might not go so well. The plot is pretty clear cut and predictable, but I hoped it wouldn't be true. This gave the story some nice suspense to see if Iwasaki (and I) was right.
* Hanging Blimp
Terumi Fujino, idol and TV personality, hanged herself. Later, people claimed to see her head over the trees at night. It later becomes clear it's not a hallucination and soon the entire sky is populated with giganyic blimps of people's faces with nooses attached that try to kill their human counterparts. This story is my favorite of the bunch. The beginning is a bit of mystery and then the surreal horror completely takes over. All of Tokyo is affected by this and makes even leaving the house impossible. How is anyone supposed to survive this? People try lots of things. Destroying the blimps makes the human counterpart die in the same fashion. Going about daily life is no longer an option. Most are stuck inside, slowly starving. This is a completely different dystopia than I've ever seen and it's a crazy ride.
* Marionette Mansion
A family works as poor travelling performers when Haruhiko and Yukihiko were young. Yukihiko runs away when their father fell ill. The two brothers reunite seven years later when they happen to live in the same town. Yukihiko's house is bizarre. He and his whole family are suspended by piano wire, operated as puppets by unseen puppeteers. This bizarre tale takes the trope of creepy puppets and pushes it to the extreme. People as puppets are even creepier to me because their muscles atrophy and literally can no longer do things for themselves. The source of the puppet obsession was unexpected and the ending is perfect. This one is memorable and got under my skin.
* Painter
Mitsuo Mori loves to paint specific muses he becomes obsessed with (and sleeps with). His current music is Nana Horie, a beautiful but vapid woman. He meets Tomie, a beautiful women unsatisfied with his paints of her, and finds her infuriating. He descends into obsession over capturing her true charm. I love this story and I consider Tomie to be his absolute best work. The thing I love most is exploitative, abusive men being treated as they treat others. Mitsuo exploits women, sleeping with them and painting them until they bore him and he throws them away for a new one. Tomie exploits him in a similar way, mocking his attempts to capture her. When he kills her, as the men inevitably do, they always die shortly after when she comes back. These stories are so satisfying to read especially in today's political climate.
* The Long Dream
Tetsuro Mukoda is in the hospital due to his dreams getting longer and longer while Mami is there due to her intense fear of death. His doctor is completely baffled and doesn't know how to help him. This one takes something we do literally every day and makes it horrific. For Mukoda, his dreams feel exponentially longer, from a month to a year to a decade and so on. His appearance and physicality starts changing as he seems to age through his dreams. I had no idea where this story would go and it was completely satisfying. The doctor does something awful, but then explains how it's actually helpful and I almost agree with him.
* Honored Ancestors
Risa has lost all her memories after agreeing to marry her boyfriend Mikita. Over time, they get reaquainted, fall in love again, and return to where they were before. Even though everything is going well, there are odd things about Mikita and his family that make Risa anxious. This story also takes something typical and makes it monstrous. This is about familial pressures to marry and have children taking form in disturbing ways. The ending shocked and surprised me with a huge dose of body horror and deep, dark family secrets.
* Greased Oil
Yui and her family live above their barbeque restaurant that gets more and more saturated with grease as time goes on. Both her brother and father start to act bizarrely as the oil index increases. Greased Oil is one of the grossest Ito stories I've read. I always saw frames passed around various internet sites to gross others out. It has extensive body horror and cannibalism. You feel greasy just reading it. I felt so sorry for Yui when her brother is an abusive rage monster and her father loses touch with reality.
* Fashion Model: Cursed Frame
Fuchi returns in a small bonus story. She is featured in the same magazine as a woman deathly afraid of having her body cropped in photos. That woman insults her looks and the inevitable happens. This is more of a mini-story, but it's fun to see more of Fuchi's exploits and how she handles being insulted. I would totally be for a Fashion Model series if he chose to expand it.
My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins
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