Caridee Chau, 15, Shanghai American School, Shanghai
Grotesque monsters, jump scares and gut-wrenching gore — the horror genre has long been epitomized by tapping into humans’ innate fears. We’re so accustomed to dramatic silences punctuated by ear-piercing screams, demonic monsters and bloody violence, that we often forget the impact of deeper psychological forms of fear. The author and artist Junji Ito skillfully elicits these primal fear responses through the stationary frames of manga panels. Without the usual sounds, sights and senses typical of other horror genres, his work “The Enigma of Amigara Fault” compounds our fear through grossly disturbing thematic arcs.
The manga is set in a nondescript prefecture in Japan’s countryside near Amigara Mountain, where a fault is discovered near the epicenter of a recent earthquake. The clamor surrounding the incident quickly turns from shock to intrigue, as the fault exposes human-shaped holes in the mountainside that look uncannily like the silhouettes of certain villagers. Witnesses of this strange phenomenon feel inexplicably compelled to visit the fault themselves. Eventually, an onlooker climbs into the hole shaped like his silhouette and disappears, his fate uncertain as rescue workers search for him.
When the villager is found, readers are immediately gripped by the grotesque image of a contorted humanoid. The person who stepped into the hole has bent, stretched and unraveled beyond recognition. The illustration itself was portrayed in sickly vivid detail, and each pen stroke expressed the character’s extreme pain. Beyond the immediate response to the graphic panel, however, the idea of being confined in a claustrophobic space makes readers feel like they are trapped within the tunnel’s restrictive walls.
The chilling image haunts readers long after they put down the manga, and the horrific realization that we are, in a metaphorical sense, contorting ourselves to fit societal expectations every day, is the most psychologically disturbing aspect of this story. We’re left reflecting on our own self-image, contemplating the ways we’ve repressed or changed ourselves to please others. Do we still recognize our reflections? Do we like the people we’ve become? Or, have we lost control over the circumstances around us and their influence on our lives? The manga turns the insidiously gradual loss of identity into a physical manifestation.
By shining a light into the tunnels we dig for ourselves, “The Enigma of Amigara Fault” holds a mirror up to our own lives, allowing us to see the ways we are falling into the holes of our own fate and empowers us to take the reins on reshaping our own futures. The greatest enigma may be understanding the ways in which we trap ourselves and remembering how we can still reclaim control over our lives.