I recently(FINALLY) dove into the new long form manga written by Junji Ito titled “Sensor.”
Junji Ito’s new tale’s description is as follows: “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!”
I want to clear the air on something that’s been floating around this book since release.
Certain outlets and reviewers have claimed that, “Junji Ito does Lovecraft better than Lovecraft…” in regards to this story and I want to nip this in the bud. While the cosmic horror aspect is definitely at the forefront of this story, it is still comparing apples to oranges in my opinion. Junji Ito doesn’t need to do Lovecraft better, because he outdid himself with this one.
I won’t be giving away any major plot details as not to dampen the experience for first time readers. So, let’s get into it!
A story that evolves within itself.
The story of “Sensor” begins with following a young woman, Kyoko Byakuya, being led to a secluded village at the base of Mount Sengoku. This village is special for its use of “amagami.” Amagami is what the village calls the thin hairlike volcanic fibers that rain down from Mount Sengoku. What makes the amagami special in this village is that it doesn’t vanish in the same the way as traditional volcanic glass. Instead, it binds to the people of the village and gives them special extrasensory abilities. There is an eruption and after a series of strange events, Kyoko essentially wakes up 60 years later.
The story shifts to a nobody journalist named Wataru Tsuchiyado. After this point the story touches on some typical cosmic horror elements. A dark god in the deepest parts of space, cults, madness. Unfortunately there are certain points where the story kind of bounces around, and it becomes a tad convoluted at points. Luckily it doesn’t derail the whole story and is still an overall enjoyable read.
The part that stood out to me in this story is the artwork. It has, in my opinion, some of the best artwork and body horror in any Junji Ito work to date.
Should you read it?
If you’re a fan of the cosmic horror genre, then absolutely! It’s still a shorter story than some others but still long enough to explore a few different themes within the story.
We here at Loot Crate are big Junji Ito fans. I was as honest as I could be in this short review without exposing too much information. If you have a love for all things Junji Ito, You should check out our Junji Ito Artist Collection! It’s still on the first crate, so get in and make sure you don’t miss out on the awesome collection!
