Junji Ito's Tombs: Short Story Collection review

[@VoynichVoy]

I think slug girl is horrifying because it had no reason to happen(other than the slug infestation in her house), it’s a story about things about you and your circumstances that you can’t control which to me is scarier

[@VoynichVoy]

I probably worded this weirdly

[@wasnlos2676]

With slug girl you may need to keep in mind that one of Itos inspirations is Lovecraft. I think the point really is that sometimes things just happen with no reason or by forces of an unseen higher power.

[@bluemooninthedaylight8073]

Thank you for being a little critical that we're likely seeing the diminishing returns of Ito's work (The same conclusion I've reached over the years). Not all of his work is great, and it drives me nuts how customer reviews tend to simply gush over his most recent collection. Usually, I find his weaker works still enjoyable thanks to the high level of art, but at his worst, Ito has written some incredibly dull pieces. It's interesting that in one of the collections he even admits to having lost his edge and apologizes for it. As for the stories, I feel that much of it works on dream logic. The title story is a good example of this, in that the reason why people turn into gravestones is never explained, being merely a weird quirk of a rural area. Slug Girl I believe deals with having a worsening illness, the inability of one's family to help, and having to exist in a vegetable state. This is not a story about punishment, but a fantastical portrayal of an illness, like having cancer or some other long-term illness. Being reduced to a snail's spiral-shaped shell is reminiscent of the continuing hell of Uzumaki. Much of these stories dwell on vanity, illness, and mortality, which is interesting considering the collection is named Tombs. The may not all work, but at the very least, most of them were fun and even chilling to read.

[@UndeadGirlCyber]

I don't quite agree with the punishment-angle on slug girl, but I see where you're coming from. I think there doesn't need to be a 'punishment' in a horror story, but there should be some kind of reason for it (except if the message of the story is stuff not making sense/the absurdity of existence). It needed some kind of 'spin' - like, if this was an allegory for someone dealing with an illness, for example. Just some kind of theme. In 'The long dream' the sleeping patient doesn't do anything to deserve his millenia-long dreams either, but there is an exploration of a concept that's very intriguing - it's almost a sci-fi story. With slug story the question is kinda "okay, but what is this story actually about? (apart from what's literally happening)"