Page 45 Review by Jonathan
"It's our Mama and Papa.
"But their brains leaked out already, so they're all empty."
That'll teach them to read comics... And indeed have children! A veritable double whammy of brain disintegration visited upon the fools!!
The master of absurdist horror returns with this selection of shorts featuring sicko siblings elder brother and arch-apologist Yuuma and "the worst sister in recorded history" Chizumi. She really is as well. No one is safe, not even you, dear reader, as you will find your sanity, and stomach, tested reading this material. But then I suppose that's the point isn't it?
Fans of UZUMAKI, GYO and TOMIE will know exactly what to expect, which is... people behaving strangely, then mass confusion arising, before epic levels of surreal carnage ensue. I will have to make a confession at this point; I'm not particularly a fan of Ito. I struggle to suspend my disbelief sufficiently with horror that is so patently, ridiculously unbelievable that it makes CROSSED look plausible. I mean, there really is a dissolving classroom, complete with dissolving kids and most definitely a dissolving teacher.
Which is harsh, because much like CROSSED, which perversely I love, there is so much dark humour in Ito's works, that trying to even take it remotely seriously is as bonkers as the material itself. He knows full well just how crackpot it is too and even throws in a suitably bizarre, fourth-wall breaking, one-page afterword gag strip that I truly have no idea what to make of.
Also, I think Kengo Hanazawa's I AM HERO, which is essentially THE WALKING DEAD with UZUMAKI-styled zombies, plus an additional sprinkle of mentalism in the form of a schizophrenic, shotgun-wielding manga creator as the lead survivor, is utterly brilliant, if just as equally preposterous.
I think the problem is that I initially struggled with UZUMAKI for the reasons above, and it has now become a sticking point, in my mind at least. Some might say it's strange behaviour on my part, which will undoubtedly lead to mass confusion amongst Page 45's many, many Ito fans before I flip my lid and go on a hysterical killing spree armed only with a gun. Price gun, that is. Well, and maybe a pack of comic bags to put all the body parts in. No, fuck it, let's push the boat out, magazine-sized bags, and the sellotape dispenser... It's a nasty little serrated swine...
Where was I...? Ah yes, strange behaviour and even stranger comics...
