Sensor

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Junji Ito is probably the most prolific creator of horror comics in the world. Sure, he took a few years off Horror during the mid-2000s to create some funny autobiographical cat manga, but once his cat passed on, he returned to the genre that made his name and has been even more prolific than ever. Sensor is his longest story for a while, a serialized story that features divergence from the main plot to allow for more weirdness in the tangents—themes of Gnosticism and Lovecraftian cosmic horror loom larger than ever. To Ito, the universe is filled with malevolent forces out to get us, and there are more than enough people who want to help them. Ito's slightly retrograde gender politics are at play here: the woman becomes a kind of cosmic Madonna symbolizing feminine mercy in contrast to another woman who stalks the reporter as a symbol of Ito's – and Japanese men's – fear of aggressive female sexuality. In the morning, it is announced that Mount Sengoku has erupted. The rescue team discovers Kyoko in the debris, now sporting the golden hair coloring of the Amagami. Now, with the unusual phenomenon and the dark visions that the village has seen in deep space, an unknown terror threatens to be unleashed. Kyoko must save the world before the cosmic nightmare wreaks havoc on humanity.

Because Destiny Says So: Father Miguel accepts his execution because it was foretold to him. He urges his brethren to leave him so they have a chance to live. The reason is that he needs to die to help Kyoko take on Aido. What you said is very true about the windy path of storytelling. For a long story, I will usually sit down and have a plot planned out, but Sensor’s approach of having no particular premeditated ending actually ended up resulting in more ideas, unexpected ideas, then finding a plot from there. This is, of course, if these discoveries go well, because sometimes they don't. And specifically for the suicide bugs, that fundamental idea already existed. It was intended to just be a one-off story, but during the writing of Sensor I thought oh, I need to put in a really good idea here. So I took that idea and wove it into the story. In his afterword, Ito talked of how the characters frequently refused to behave how he wanted them to and followed their own paths, which resulted in a sprawling, unpredictable story full of turns even he didn't expect. He just had to put them on paper. He credits his editor with helping him wrestle the story into something that held together and reached a logical, satisfying ending. This highlights the importance of manga editors in helping creators shape their stories into something readable. Ito may feel Sensor is his failed attempt to find an answer to why the universe exists, but the journey is as grotesque, insane, and horrific as ever, and that's what we read him for. The artwork is suitably fascinating, bringing into visual life the unfathomable horrors of space (also oceans because twinsies). He encourages the creepy dread of looking up at the sky only to find disturbing visions of deep space monstrosities and the incomprehensible knowledge that we as a planet are just one infinitesimal grain of sand on the Universe's beach.

Cut to 60 years later, the mountain has erupted again, leaving a cocooned Kyoko to be discovered by scientists surveying the area after the eruption. What follows is her being chased down by multiple people, including a cult of the darkness & a "no-name reporter", for her experience with the Amagami - "The Heavenly Hair". Spanning decades, important moments are depicted of not only Kyoko but also those chasing her culminating in many show downs and enlightened (no pun intended) discoveries. No spoilers! La idea es buena, los elementos que tiene son llamativos, la historia alrededor del pueblo me ha parecido interesante, me recuerda mucho a otra historia del autor, en el que maneja muy bien este elemento de la historia alrededor de un pueblo, a diferencia de Sensor. Near Kiyokami, there’s a volcano, into which Miguel, a Christian missionary is thrown, in keeping with an edict against Christianity during the Edo period in Japan. After that murder, golden hair falls all over the village, for some reason (well, Miguel had golden hair, but beyond that. . . . no real reason, though it would seem the goodness of Miguel showers down on the people. The hair transmits psychic powers to the villagers). (I am not smirking as I write this! One element of Ito's horror is the ludicrous. He likes pulpy campy stuff as much as any horror manga-ka anywhere).

So, this story starts with a young woman, Kyoko Byakuya, feeling drawn to this mountain, Mount Sengoku. Road trip. Arriving at the mountain, she meets a man who has been waiting for her. What? Yeah, the Amagami (angel-hair like cooled lava strands) told him she was coming and she's supposed to bring happiness. Uh huh okay. He leads her (hello? stranger danger!) to his village, Kiyumaki, which lies at the foot of the mountain. I love Beniko. I think she could be one of his most interesting antagonists if he built her out. The one jumps are with her in the mirror was one of the best scares of the manga. But I didn’t know why she was stalking him or anything so sadly she wasn’t as great as she could’ve been. (Still a fan because love his evil women) Loveridge, Lynzee (August 16, 2021). "Review: Sensor". Anime News Network . Retrieved December 22, 2021. Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: The villagers believe that after his supposed death Father Miguel actually returned to the heavens. They're right. He also had some assistance, with Kyoko's help. Sensor details the travels of a reporter named Wataru Tsuchiyado as he follows the trail of Kyoko Byakuya, a mysterious, golden-haired woman with powerful clairvoyance. Byakuya is the lone survivor of a recent eruption from Mt. Sengoku -- a volcano that last erupted 60 years beforehand, wiping out an entire village of psychics. It was this eruption that granted her psychic powers and golden hair, which notably resembles the volcanic glass spewed from the mountain, and made her the target of the maniacal cult leader Kagero Aido.

Evil Counterpart: Kagero Aido is a clear one to Father Miguel, with both being long-haired men who lead groups who obtain a matching hair color from mystical volcano fibers. Miguel is the Messianic Archetype of the story, while Aido turns out to be the Satanic Archetype from the villagers' terrifying vision. Official Synopsis:A woman walks alone at the foot of Mount Sengoku. A man appears, saying he’s been waiting for her, and invites her to a nearby village. Surprisingly, the village is covered in hairlike volcanic glass fibers, and all of it shines a bright gold. At night, when the villagers perform their custom of gazing up at the starry sky, countless unidentified flying objects come raining down on them—the opening act for the terror about to occur! The best of these is Chapter 4, "The Battle at Bishagaura." In it, Tsuchiyado follows Kyoko Byakuya to a village plagued by "suicide bugs," huge, bulbous, roach-like insects that leap under walking people's feet, as if they want to be squished. When stepped on, these bugs burst into a disgusting mess of fluid and organs that mysteriously resemble a crushed human. This story only vaguely relates to the others in Sensor, but it's easy to see why Ito would include it -- it's awful in the best way. Why did you think eating a certain food would make your teacher mad at you?” Brown asked. “I didn’t eat ochazuke very often in the morning,” Ito replied, “and it just happened that the morning I did, I got in trouble with my teacher. That happened once and it turned into a jinx.” EditSynopsis Kyoko Byakuya walks alone at the foot of Mount Sengoku, mysteriously drawn to the place. She notices something odd about the area: the volcanic hair bears a gold appearance, uncommon in Japan. Kyoko soon runs into a strange man named Aizawa, who proclaims he has been expecting her.

It's prime Junji Ito territory - it's scarily over-expressive faces, it's insects that want to be stepped on, it's an insane sect, it's obsessive people, it's bulging eyes and tongues, it's cosmic horror, it's lots and lots of gore. It has something for everyone! Speelman, Tom (August 17, 2021). "Junji Ito does Lovecraft better than Lovecraft in Sensor". Polygon . Retrieved December 22, 2021. You’ve referred a few times in this interview to getting older. How has age affected what scares you?

Brown pointed out that one of Sensor’s characters, Yukio Kurodera, believes he has discovered life’s purpose. “Do you agree with his conclusion?” he asked Ito. “If not, what do you think the purpose of life is?” Hazra, Adriana (November 29, 2021). "Daruchan, Ship of Theseus, 4 More Manga Nominated for Best Comic at Angoulême 2022". Anime News Network . Retrieved December 22, 2021. Church of Saint Genericus: The inhabitants of Kiyokami Village are comprised of persecuted Christians, though their tradition or denomination is never specified. They were all slaughtered via crucifixion in the past.

Originally serialized in Nemuki+ from September 2018 to September 2019 as " Muma no kikō" (夢魔の紀行), fan-translated as "Travelogue of the Succubus". It was renamed when released in a collection in November 2019 by Asahi Shimbun Publications: Nemuki+ Comics as Sensor (センサー). In Ito’s afterword he says he had 1,000 words to write in the afterword and admits he doesn’t have much to say: Hazra, Adriana (September 5, 2021). "Jujutsu Kaisen Ranks #1 on U.S. Monthly Bookscan August List". Anime News Network . Retrieved December 22, 2021. Despite having all the usual features of a Junji Ito book - weird horror, weirder women, body horror, and some bonkers imagery only Ito could draw - Sensor is the least interested I’ve been reading any of his work.

Alternative Titles

El manga tiene 7 capítulos, más un epílogo. Cada capítulo tiene su final, su propio tema y desarrollo, pero todos siguen un mismo hilo conductor que le da un contexto al manga en general. Bandaged Face: Kagero Aido is the lone survivor of his cult, but has been disfigured by the Akashic records crushing him, and wears bandages over his face when he's seen again. Messianic Archetype: Father Miguel is a leader of oppressed Christians who has long hair and a beard like typical depictions of Jesus, and dies on a cross because of his faith, becoming a martyr for his people. I had to write a thousand words for this afterword, so I went on and on there about things that didn't really need to be said."