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so in a previous post i had this to say about episode 1:
if you look closely, you can detect worry in this paragraph. i've been a little worried about this anime adaptation the entire time i've known of it, but i always try to give things my good faith, and i'm a big fan of a lot of flawed gems. i'm pretty forgiving as long as there's something there to like but oh no oh no oh nooooooooooooooooo oh dear oh no (sorry for linking to the ex-bird-website it's just where i know of a clip sorry. if you're reading through this in the future after elon musk has finally killed that poor website: it's a clip from Uzumaki episode 2 with some... DEEPLY CURSED bad animation)
i kinda haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. i think the first episode made some admirable swings at being a good adaptation-- but i also think the wild pacing really kills its ability to actually be frightening. i was approaching it from the perspective of someone who's read the manga a few times, but for someone who's new to it??? i have no idea if this would actually scare them or just weird them out a little. i have a feeling "weirded out" is more likely than scared.
seeing this messy adaptation honestly led to some newfound extra respect for Junji Ito. not that he didn't have it before, but like, until i saw the anime truly in action i hadn't thought about just how specifically calculated his work is, and how difficult it would be to adapt for the screen. i think half the problem with adaptations of Ito's work is that they somehow always fall into the hands of incompetent dingdongs (and gossip on the MAL forums confirms that's probably what happened here), but i think it's also just like. extremely difficult, maybe impossible, to take his manga and make it work onscreen.
time flows differently on a comic page than it does when we're watching a movie or a tv show or a video game cutscene. (Scott McCloud explains it much better than i can in Understanding Comics-- warning, this is a PDF link.)
to create suspense, you need to stop and linger on stuff a lot. you need to put people into that cycle of dread → scare → relief → dread, and there's kind of nothing extraneous in his work to stretch out. there's also very little, if any character development and not really much going on outside of the horror, and it's amazing how much suspense and terror he's able to put into his work with characters that in anything else would kinda be... like honestly, and i don't mean this in a derogatory way... cardboard stand-ups. i don't feel like i know much about Kirie or Shuichi, and i don't feel like i see them grow and change so much as just struggle. i think Ito is tapping into your empathy in a different way than most writers do. it's like finding a scary video on the internet out of context, like seeing someone fall into a sinkhole or something. a lot of the time, these characters are almost complete strangers. it's campfire ghost stories, pretty much entirely story-driven. and vibes-driven.
and it is all calculated so specifically for the page. he is the master of making you terrified to turn the page. it's his whole thing. i think where i realized it was not working as well as i hoped was when you first see Shuichi's dad coiled up into a spiral. when i first read the manga, that was the page turn that sold me. it hits like a bus. i was honestly dreading seeing it onscreen because it's so upsetting, and... it just didn't have the same impact. and again i was like, eh, well, i've read the manga and i knew what was coming, i dunno what this would be like for someone who hasn't. but i don't know. probably not nearly as effective.
i think a lot about horror, because i'm working on a visual novel that has some horror elements (obligatory plug). i'm not really out to make something that's consistently scary the whole way through, and i'm not aiming for it to be a test of courage in the way horror games often are. but there are some key scenes that i want to be pretty upsetting, and i adore the horror genre in general, so i'm always thinking: what do i find scary, and why? why does this upset me? when i come across horror that doesn't do it for me, i'm like: why isn't this for me? what about this is not working, and is it a structural problem or is it just not playing to any of my anxieties? (ex. i am very difficult to scare with ghosts; i think they're neat and my reaction to them is usually "that's my new friend. we would be friends". i just empathize with them too much to be horrified-- some people find the mere concept of a lingering spirit horrifying on its own and get the willies about anyplace that might be haunted. i was "hang out in the graveyard and hope ghosts are real" teenager, okay. i'm that weirdo.)
i think horror and romance are like, maybe the two most difficult things to write, because what someone finds upsetting or terrifying or romantic or sexy is going to vary so much between people, and it can flop SO HARD if it doesn't work for you. whatever you do, basically, even if you're really good at your craft, it's probably gonna miss for some section of the audience. i feel like those are also maybe the most potentially embarrassing things to fail at because they're so emotionally vulnerable. you're putting something out there with the intent of creating a really intense emotion and if it doesn't work right it, it might be either be secondhand embarrassing, or funny, or both. that is a terrible feeling, to be like "here's my very big emotion!" and have someone's response be awkward laughter.
so. this is all to say. nothing but respect for Junji Ito, whose work rides such a thin line between horror and absurdity all the time. he's always throwing spaghetti at the wall and it doesn't always stick for me, but i'll always be back for more spaghetti. if we ever see a good adaptation of his work, i'll show up for it, but i don't really long desperately for it. the initial trailers did ignite some hype for me, but i wasn't sitting there like "goddamn why is there no anime adaptation???" before i knew it was happening. this doesn't feel like a tragedy to me in quite the same way as Sailor Moon Crystal (shitshow i'll probably make a youtube video essay about someday) or Berserk 2016 (insult to the medium). it sucks to see it mishandled, i'm disappointed in the people that dropped the ball on it, and i think some genius maybe could pull it off, but i don't need it, because i don't think there's much for animation to add to his work other than bringing it to a wider audience. what he's doing is already exactly what it needs to be.
Uzumaki (episode 1) - one of my fav manga and another "that's gonna be hard to adapt" situation, the pacing feels WACK but idk how else you could have done it-- other than maybe splitting it up into 2 chapters at the commercial break, which i think maybe would have felt less confused? the choice to keep it greyscale is A+, and the surreal never-quite-still animation style is working for it.
if you look closely, you can detect worry in this paragraph. i've been a little worried about this anime adaptation the entire time i've known of it, but i always try to give things my good faith, and i'm a big fan of a lot of flawed gems. i'm pretty forgiving as long as there's something there to like but oh no oh no oh nooooooooooooooooo oh dear oh no (sorry for linking to the ex-bird-website it's just where i know of a clip sorry. if you're reading through this in the future after elon musk has finally killed that poor website: it's a clip from Uzumaki episode 2 with some... DEEPLY CURSED bad animation)
i kinda haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. i think the first episode made some admirable swings at being a good adaptation-- but i also think the wild pacing really kills its ability to actually be frightening. i was approaching it from the perspective of someone who's read the manga a few times, but for someone who's new to it??? i have no idea if this would actually scare them or just weird them out a little. i have a feeling "weirded out" is more likely than scared.
seeing this messy adaptation honestly led to some newfound extra respect for Junji Ito. not that he didn't have it before, but like, until i saw the anime truly in action i hadn't thought about just how specifically calculated his work is, and how difficult it would be to adapt for the screen. i think half the problem with adaptations of Ito's work is that they somehow always fall into the hands of incompetent dingdongs (and gossip on the MAL forums confirms that's probably what happened here), but i think it's also just like. extremely difficult, maybe impossible, to take his manga and make it work onscreen.
time flows differently on a comic page than it does when we're watching a movie or a tv show or a video game cutscene. (Scott McCloud explains it much better than i can in Understanding Comics-- warning, this is a PDF link.)
to create suspense, you need to stop and linger on stuff a lot. you need to put people into that cycle of dread → scare → relief → dread, and there's kind of nothing extraneous in his work to stretch out. there's also very little, if any character development and not really much going on outside of the horror, and it's amazing how much suspense and terror he's able to put into his work with characters that in anything else would kinda be... like honestly, and i don't mean this in a derogatory way... cardboard stand-ups. i don't feel like i know much about Kirie or Shuichi, and i don't feel like i see them grow and change so much as just struggle. i think Ito is tapping into your empathy in a different way than most writers do. it's like finding a scary video on the internet out of context, like seeing someone fall into a sinkhole or something. a lot of the time, these characters are almost complete strangers. it's campfire ghost stories, pretty much entirely story-driven. and vibes-driven.
and it is all calculated so specifically for the page. he is the master of making you terrified to turn the page. it's his whole thing. i think where i realized it was not working as well as i hoped was when you first see Shuichi's dad coiled up into a spiral. when i first read the manga, that was the page turn that sold me. it hits like a bus. i was honestly dreading seeing it onscreen because it's so upsetting, and... it just didn't have the same impact. and again i was like, eh, well, i've read the manga and i knew what was coming, i dunno what this would be like for someone who hasn't. but i don't know. probably not nearly as effective.
i think a lot about horror, because i'm working on a visual novel that has some horror elements (obligatory plug). i'm not really out to make something that's consistently scary the whole way through, and i'm not aiming for it to be a test of courage in the way horror games often are. but there are some key scenes that i want to be pretty upsetting, and i adore the horror genre in general, so i'm always thinking: what do i find scary, and why? why does this upset me? when i come across horror that doesn't do it for me, i'm like: why isn't this for me? what about this is not working, and is it a structural problem or is it just not playing to any of my anxieties? (ex. i am very difficult to scare with ghosts; i think they're neat and my reaction to them is usually "that's my new friend. we would be friends". i just empathize with them too much to be horrified-- some people find the mere concept of a lingering spirit horrifying on its own and get the willies about anyplace that might be haunted. i was "hang out in the graveyard and hope ghosts are real" teenager, okay. i'm that weirdo.)
i think horror and romance are like, maybe the two most difficult things to write, because what someone finds upsetting or terrifying or romantic or sexy is going to vary so much between people, and it can flop SO HARD if it doesn't work for you. whatever you do, basically, even if you're really good at your craft, it's probably gonna miss for some section of the audience. i feel like those are also maybe the most potentially embarrassing things to fail at because they're so emotionally vulnerable. you're putting something out there with the intent of creating a really intense emotion and if it doesn't work right it, it might be either be secondhand embarrassing, or funny, or both. that is a terrible feeling, to be like "here's my very big emotion!" and have someone's response be awkward laughter.
so. this is all to say. nothing but respect for Junji Ito, whose work rides such a thin line between horror and absurdity all the time. he's always throwing spaghetti at the wall and it doesn't always stick for me, but i'll always be back for more spaghetti. if we ever see a good adaptation of his work, i'll show up for it, but i don't really long desperately for it. the initial trailers did ignite some hype for me, but i wasn't sitting there like "goddamn why is there no anime adaptation???" before i knew it was happening. this doesn't feel like a tragedy to me in quite the same way as Sailor Moon Crystal (shitshow i'll probably make a youtube video essay about someday) or Berserk 2016 (insult to the medium). it sucks to see it mishandled, i'm disappointed in the people that dropped the ball on it, and i think some genius maybe could pull it off, but i don't need it, because i don't think there's much for animation to add to his work other than bringing it to a wider audience. what he's doing is already exactly what it needs to be.
