Manga Review: Be Very Afraid of Kanako Inuki! by Kanako Inuki
Kanako Inuki is a popular creator in the field of shoujo horror manga, who’s been working since 1987. Despite being well-liked, she’s never had a real breakout hit, so is little known outside Japan. This volume is a collection of six representative tales of terror.
“The Birthday Present”: An old woman named Mayuko reminisces how many years ago, she and her classmates played a cruel joke on a girl they didn’t like, Kurumi. Mayuko and Kurumi had birthdays in the same month, May, so at the class birthday celebration, both of them should have gotten presents from their classmates. But by connivance, all the presents were given to Mayuko, leaving Kurumi snubbed.
Does Mayuko feel a bit guilty? Perhaps, but children are often cruel and it has been so very long. However, it’s said that each birthday present also contains another year of age, to trick you into accepting it. What happens if you never get birthday presents at all?
“Lolita”: Marimo is a precocious five-year-old girl who can’t wait to grow up and experience love like an adult woman. Although actually just a bratty child, she’s shrewd enough to bully creepy high-schooler Fumio Bukita about his lack of success with girls. Bukita is a bit of a science whiz, and previously came up with a growth acceleration formula that turned a baby turtle into a full grown one with seemingly no ill effects.
So since Marimo is insisting on “growing up” faster, Bukita agrees to let her drink the formula. Sure enough, it allows her to rapidly become a pretty teenager. Physically. Mentally, Marimo’s still five, so although Bukita enjoys looking at her, he’s not nearly as keen on having her as his girlfriend as he thought he’d be. He insists she stay inside the house and buys her clothes and such.
Marimo gets bored and leaves while Bukita’s away to go “play” with men. The teen catches up just as two men are playing too rough with Marimo, and gets stomped for trying to interfere. (But the men do go away.) Bukita notices that Marimo now looks like a mature young woman. He realizes too late that turtles live a heck of a lot longer than humans, but Marimo won’t listen to him about the danger.
Oh so much triggery content here. Bukita is a series character, and his stalkerish tendencies usually make him the antagonist in his own stories.
“The Sasori Doll”: Sasori (“scorpion”) is a naughty little girl who often picks on her little sister Sanagi (“chrysalis”). It’s come around to Christmas, and Sasori tells her younger sibling that Santa isn’t real and the presents come from their parents. Sanagi isn’t entirely convinced and asks Santa to give her a present that Sasori can’t break.
Come Christmas morning, and Sasori is bored with her present of a book, and promptly breaks Sanagi’s toy kitchen present while trying to assemble it. But this year, there’s something else in Sanagi’s stocking, a doll that looks exactly like Sasori. Turns out it’s a poppet and anything that happens to the doll happens to Sasori, making the naughty girl wary of touching it.
Things happen, and Sasori eventually ends up protecting Sanagi from danger. “Only I get to pick on my little sister!” It’s hinted that the doll is anatomically correct.
“Lovesickness”: Psychologist Dr. Kanawa specializes in seemingly supernatural cases, mostly involving girls in their early teens. In this case, his patient is Koiko (name changed to preserve her privacy) who reports difficult breathing and tightness of the chest, as well as hearing the voice of a man from inside her. It seems that due to unpleasant incidents in her past, Koiko cannot handle the thought of romance or even friendship with real boys or men.
Instead, Koiko reads romance novels and manga, and has formed an imaginary picture of her ideal man. And somehow, this “ideal man” is inside her chest, so Koiko thinks, and trying to get out. It ends in horror.
“Happiness Hidden in the Dark”: A princess is born blind. Nevertheless, all the kingdom loves her, tells her she’s beautiful, and treats her well, and eventually she marries a kind man who is wonderful to her. But she worries that she’s actually just being coddled, and that she’s actually ugly. So she tricks the castle librarian into telling her how to capture a demon to grant a wish.
It works, and now the princess can see. As this is part of a “be careful what you wish for” series of stories in a horror anthology, she soon wishes she couldn’t see, but you only get one wish.
“Friends at the Smiling Gate”: This story features Tatari Kamino, who claims to be just your ordinary middle school girl who’s easily bullied. And indeed, on the first day of the new term, Tatari has a nasty sign attached to her back, and the other classmates are relentless in their bullying. Then Yoshiko Tamura, who’s trying to be a bit kinder this year, asks the others to back off. This just gets her bullied as well.
However, Tatari’s name doesn’t mean “divine punishment” for nothing, and bullies who push it too far may find themselves in pain.
There’s mini-bios of several of the characters, including one who doesn’t appear on-page during the story. Also, some top five lists “favorite horror manga” and such, and an autobiography of the author. While Kanako isn’t an implausible name in Japanese, it was rare back when she was born, and those of you who can never find your name on tourist trap souvenirs can empathize.
The art is “creepy cute” with bulging eyes. “Happiness” is the story that shows the artist’s range the best, and the story I find best in the volume. There’s some inventive horror gimmicks here.
Content notes: Body horror, bullying, “barbie doll” female nudity, lookism, spanking of a child, basically all of the “Lolita” story. It’s aimed at middle school girls in Japan, but American parents may balk.
Overall: If you’re looking for something a bit different in your horror manga, this may satisfy that itch.
