The Horror of Obsession and Compulsion

Junji Ito on OCD, Punishment, and Body Horror

there are a lot of reasons i like Junji Ito, but often it is not because i am scared of his stories. i like his artwork a lot but often i think his stories are more goofy than thrilling, much less actually horrifying. there are a few exceptions, like The Window Next Door and Glyceride, but that is because i was already afraid of windows and grease¹. this is not to say i do not like his stories, they are very compelling (not scary), especially when they depict obsession and compulsion. i don’t think this is a very interesting claim, that Ito’s work often depicts obsession and compulsion, i think it is a relatively common motif in psychological horror and it is also not a very interesting claim that he just does it better. but i do want to say that Ito is often less heavy-handed with his depictions of obsession and compulsion, which creates a more realistic depiction OCD, often one that is more compelling.

before i discuss examples of obsession and compulsion in Ito’s work, i first want to describe what i mean by obsession and compulsion and how the two go together. clinically, obsession represents a strong desire to enact something, a compulsion. an obsession may be cleanliness, order, or social-moral issues. often, these obsessions take on an underlying, even overlying, theme of purity in some shape or form. present literature has found the disorder, among others, to be related to the cortico-basal-ganglionic-thalamic circuit². the functions of the orbitofrontal cortex include sensory integration, reward, punishment, and social behaviors which is combined with the basal ganglia, the part of the brain that controls movement. the literature has found that the orbitofrontal cortex tends to be hyperactive in those with OCD meaning this circuit often gets stuck in a loop. a spiral, if you will. as i mean to discuss it related to Ito’s stories, obsession will often take the form of a desperate need to accomplish a compulsion, something that will often have nefarious consequences³.

one of Ito’s most famous works, The Enigma of Amigara Fault, depicts an instance where obsession and compulsion have a horrifying end. in the story, a mountain in Japan splits open due to an earthquake to reveal silhouettes of people pockmarked on the mountainside. as news reporters flock to site, people across Japan experience something strange: they begin to identify holes that belong to them. more aptly, they find holes they belong to. the protagonist of this story tries to resist. like any good hero, you must resist the call to adventure, but like heros and victims alike, adventure will find you. one by one, people begin running to their holes. it shocks and horrifies others, especially as rescue teams fail to find one of the first victims even after going miles into the mountain. this terror wears off as more people are driven into their holes, forgetting anything and everything else behind them. later, another earthquake takes a side of the mountain many miles away. on this side, the lines are not in the silhouettes of people, but long and stringy: the people who went through the first side were slowly stretched and contorted. combined with Ito’s infamous talent for body horror, which will often support his less-than-dazzling works, The Enigma of Amigara Fault depicts obsession and compulsion as irrational markers of our demisre. more than that, obsession and compulsionn are punishments. in the story, the silhouettes are described or extrapolated to be from a prehistoric civilization and were specially designed for specific criminals. their crimes are not described (or perhaps, i just don’t remember) and, frankly, it’s unimportant. OCD, in its many forms, is often associated with a fear of punishment or an impending sense of doom (typically, in the form of a punishment be it social, divine, or medical vis-à-vis sickness). we have done something wrong and will be punished unless we clean, order, count, check, or otherwise atone. in its simplest form, The Enigma of Amigara Fault describes the most basic horror of obsession and compulsion.

as one of his first works, made sometime in the 90s, and one of the more popular introductions to Ito, The Enigma of Amigara Fault creates the formula for much of Ito’s horror: something to obsess over, a compulsive action or feeling, and a punishment.

in an older and lesser-known story, Wooden Spirit or Haunted Wooden Mansion, a man and his daughter, Megumi, move into a historic home, one that was designated a national treasure. the father is quickly seduced by a beautiful and mysterious woman named Manami. from here, the story does not follow typical expectations: Manami a perfect stepmother and wife, except for the fact that she sort of wants to fuck the house. one night, Megumi finds her stepmother stark naked, kissing and grinding against the floors and walls of the home. she’s shocked, but the signs were there: she describes the house as sexy and masculine and forgoes a honeymoon to stay home, declaring her love for the house. as her feelings become more sinister, the father begins to take note; the daughter finds him scrubbing the floors, lamenting how filthy the house has become as it warps and changes around them.. a foul smell fills the air and the pair rushes to escape, thinking there is an earthquake. they try to bring Manami with them, but they find her straddling a beam, laughing at them. her figure now warped and wooden as her love for the house makes her one with it. floorboards and rafters twist and grow eyes, staring down at and around the pair. Megumi passes, dreaming of her mother. when she comes to, her father has burnt the house down and they watch as it crumbles into a living, writhing lump. they are unsure if Manami escaped, but it’s unlikely she would have been willing to leave her lover. Megumi’s father concluded that the home came to life to meet Manami’s love for it. in this instance, obsession, compulsion, and punishment seem unsettling. because we are seeing Manami’s obsession through Megumi, we feel more distant and separated from it. by maintaining this distance, by framing Manami’s fervor as surprising and strange from Megumi’s perspective, we are led to feel more disgusted by it than sympathetic, as we are in The Enigma of Amigara Fault, which is more typical for Ito. there is also something to say about the sexual nature of her obsession, one that would likely be harder to sympathize with for a more conservative Japanese society.

there are similar instances of Ito depicting the obsession and compulsion of others in various stories, but they typically follow the same formula: an innocent protagonist meets an eccentric stranger hiding a dark secret. they come to realize how depraved the stranger is, how consumed they are with their obsession, how they hurt themselves and others with their compulsions all before succumbing to a miserable end, though the protagonist tends to escape by the skin of their teeth. other examples of this include Drifting Spores⁴, Layers of Fear, My Dear Ancestors⁵, and more, but instances of Ito exploring the obsession and compulsion of the protagonist are far and few between⁶.

comparing the two stories, the nature of the horror is a clear difference: in Wooden Spirit and other stories, we are led to be horrified by the strange and disgusting nature of the character’s obsessions. in these stories, the character we attend to is often an antagonist and the nature of their obsessions and compulsions are often repulsive, typically making them hard to sympathize with. The Enigma of Amigara Fault is very different from these stories. as the protagonist, we have a very simple desire: to go into the hole that belongs to us. the hole we belong to. this subtelty creates a kind of horror that creeps under your skin. this story asks you directly: would you be able to stop yourself?

there is a third vague type of Ito story depicting obsession and compulsion, where female characters struggle with the trapping of womanhood. this is most common in Tomie stories, but Flesh Colored Horror and Ribs Woman are a good examples. they are not directly relatable as an obsession or compulsion, but represent a very real feminine terror of descending into nonsensical madness where a beauty routine warps into self-destruction. i would think that many male readers and readers unburdened by the body horror that is beauty would look at these stories as many of us look at Layers of Fear, for example: with abject horror that someone could live like this and, worse, like it. i feel the characters represent both myself, reflecting on my previous obsessive habits, and other women as they mutilate and melt their tender skin. i read these stories and think not how could you do that? but rather why haven’t you stopped?

1. what? you came down here because you think i’m going to explain why i’m afraid of windows (at night) and grease? no. these things are scary and i’m right

2. the thalamus is sort of like the post office of the brain, most functions relate to this part, which means it’s not terribly unique or important

3. i’m not citing shit leave me alone

4. GREAT example of social-moral OCD

5. this one was FREAKY, it’s so good

6. when i say this i really only mean The Enigma of Amigara Fault but feel certain there are other ones