p/mnqtbp

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:08 PM

Thinking about the Junji Ito Collection anime again

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:08 PM

There was an observation I saw about Junji Ito's work a while back

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:09 PM

that I think explains why an Ito anime doesn't work that well even beyond the fact that it was Studio DEEN

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:09 PM

Junji Ito's short stories have a simple narrative beat they like to use

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:10 PM

that basically goes

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:10 PM

1. You learn that there's something weird, but you haven't seen it yet

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:10 PM

2. You see the weird thing

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:10 PM

The latter usually as a full-page spread of fantastically fucked Ito art

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:10 PM

but the thing about this beat is that it's inherently tailored towards the medium of a comic

Gabiluzbad

@Overbringer

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:11 PM

I still think my favorite ending to an Ito story was the one where they guy saw a creepy woman out his window looking at him

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:11 PM

because what's unique to comics

Gabiluzbad

@Overbringer

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:11 PM

And then her window started physically distorting the side of the house to get closer to him

Gabiluzbad

@Overbringer

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:11 PM

So they fucking moved

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:11 PM

is that, 1, you absorb a whole page's worth of visual information all at once, in chunks

Gabiluzbad

@Overbringer

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:11 PM

Sorry tangent carry on

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:11 PM

and 2, the reader has control over when they move on to the next page

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:12 PM

so when you get to right before the scare, you know it's coming, but you still have to basically jump scare yourself

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:13 PM

and a lot of Ito's freaky shit moments are built on that emotional beat, but in an anime it's just gonna be, here's a scary thing now

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:13 PM

it doesn't give you the chance to psyche yourself out over it

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:15 PM

like, OK, concrete example

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:16 PM

early on in The Enigma of Amigara Fault

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:16 PM

Here's a pair of pages

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:16 PM

you see their reaction to the strange sight, there's a page break, then you get a massive, detailed shot of it

an alleged frog

@actualfrog

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:16 PM

you could prrrrrrobably simulate that audience-agency by keeping the reveal in the next episode so you gotta hit "next" to see the reveal, but that doesn't really work

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:17 PM

then you learn all about the holes, what they do to people, what their purpose is, etc

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:17 PM

then, this is the second to last page

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:17 PM

which gives you just enough information to draw the horrible conclusion

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:17 PM

page break

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:17 PM

resolution

an alleged frog

@actualfrog

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:18 PM

yeah you're discovering things at the same pace and tension that the characters are

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:19 PM

god, Amigara Fault might be the best single chapter of manga ever drawn

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:19 PM

I read it years ago and I got fucking chills digging it up to get these pages

ғᴏxʏᴍᴏʀᴏɴ

@lastbastion

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:20 PM

drr drr drr

RobotApocalypse

@ninjarobotclone

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:36 PM

i love junji ito and yeah this is a solid breakdown of why it doesn't translate well to anime

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:36 PM

I mean even if it did, Deen wouldn't have done it justice

RobotApocalypse

@ninjarobotclone

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:36 PM

not that i've actually seen any of the attempts to do so, but i can imagine it

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:36 PM

the art is so bland

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:37 PM

and low-budget

RobotApocalypse

@ninjarobotclone

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:37 PM

which one(s) did Deen attempt?

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:37 PM

It's an anthology and I've only watched episode 1, which was uh

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:37 PM

the voodoo doll nails guy

RobotApocalypse

@ninjarobotclone

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:37 PM

oh him

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:38 PM

which is honestly

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:38 PM

a really bad point to start on

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:38 PM

because it's kind of meandering and weird

RobotApocalypse

@ninjarobotclone

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:39 PM

yeah, it's.... yeah

RobotApocalypse

@ninjarobotclone

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:43 PM

that kid's actually like a recurring character, or rather there are several vignettes about him and his family, like if Twilight Zone had a sitcom family that only showed up every few episodes or something

RobotApocalypse

@ninjarobotclone

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:44 PM

so it's...a weird one to start on if you're not going to just collect all of those stories into one place and skip the other horror one-shots in between them

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:44 PM

they ended with a quick short about someone's daughter turning into a doll and like

Quinneapolis

@quinn2win

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:44 PM

there was more tension in those 90 seconds than the preceding 20 minutes

RobotApocalypse

@ninjarobotclone

Thu, Mar 1, 2018 8:44 PM

lmao