Junji Ito - Army of One

I have just read Remina and its accompanying story, and my brain is full of f*ck. Don't get me wrong, I have read several of Ito's stories, and while I am by no means an avid reader of horror, let alone, manga, I have found his stories to be chilling, and the art incredibly well-detailed and horrifying. Not so much in Army of One's case. The protagonist overcomes his social anxiety, after 7 years alone in his room, and then, when he discovers what's been going on... Boom. It just ends.

The only thing I took away from this story was, as usual, the incredibly well-done and unsettling art. There's nothing else salvageable here. I mean, what the hell was going on? There is little, if any, connection between the leaflets and the murders. Who was behind it all? If I, as a reader, am just supposed to "accept the mystery", as is common in this type of storuies (especially so in Ito's case), it just feels vague, not to say lazy. I have the same feeling I get when I read Murakami, who writes compelling scenes, somewhat linked to one another, and then just stops writing and sends it for publishing. By far the weakes story I have read from Ito.

I have read all of them, and I can say this much of this author.

He relies on Nothing Is Scarier in terms of story and in his stories, it's like "walking the street and all of a sudden getting mugged for no reason at all".

It is mostly Fridge Horror once the reader reach the end and starts to unwillingly imagine what happens next?

The Fridge Horror in his work even scared me from reading them again.

And in the case of "Army of One", it is the same formula.

"Horrifying/painful things happens. The reason? It just happens."

Nothing more, nothing less.

That's all.

And that is also what makes it terrifying.

So that's it, huh. This one just didn't quite click.

That's because there is no room for fridge horror in "Army of One".

Why?

Because once you reach the final panel, you realize it.

"It's "Game Over". Everyone is already dead."

And that...is not a good thing in this context.

No. Not everyone is dead. The killers are not dead. And honestly, the story doesn't go anywhere from the premise. "People disappear, then turn up dead and stitched together". It doesn't explore it, it doesn't evolve, other than the number of people together. Any of the death panels could have been the first or the last, and nothing would change, because the story doesn't play with anything, not even itself. With other of Ito's stories we have, at the very least, a "what would happen if" that gets explored and resolved: -What would happen if we get into these person-shaped holes? -What would happen if the planet ate the earth? -What would happen if we burst these balloons? The mechanics of what's going on is interesting, perhaps not so the reason as to why (rationalization is the very enemy of horror as a genre), but here? Nah. So far, and in my humble opinion, Ito's weakest story.

I think that you're missing a key aspect of Junji Ito's works: it's psychological. It's not a story about scary holes, it's about obsessive curiosity. It's not a story about a serial killer girl, it's about deadly lust. It's not the planet that's scary, it's seeing your life's work and accomplishments destroyed and perverted into something violent and life-ending.

Army of One isn't about people just turning up dead, it's about social anxiety. It's about the idea that being in the safest and happiest places possible is going to destroy you, and you don't know why. It's about coming out of your room and trusting someone, only to discover that you were wrong about them. If you've never experienced that sort of anxiety, I can see why this one may not hit you.

Edited by IniuriaTalis on Mar 21st 2022 at 6:11:19 AM

I have experienced that sort of anxiety, but I didn't find it in the story. And neither did the character. Since when "he finds out he was wrong about that person" boom, the story ends and so does my investment in it.