Paper short abstract:

By drawing upon several concepts and (re)interpretations of cinematic affect, along with the notion of “body-in-suffering/spectatorial body”, this paper discusses how body-horror representations in manga work in tandem with narrative and stylistic elements to provoke affective responses in readers.

Paper long abstract:

Japanese manga artist Itō Junji’s oeuvre is well-known among horror enthusiasts both in Japan and overseas. He has been a renowned horror author since his work Tomie was released in the late 1980s. Tomie tells the story of an eponymous vengeful entity who, after being killed by her classmates on a school trip, leads men she encounters to obsession and madness and to her own assassination which leads to her multiplying and being reborn again. Previous studies have focused on gender-based readings of the violence depicted in this work, as well as on the body-horror elements of it. Yet, little attention has been given to how this latter works in tandem with other elements as affective devices in Itō’s work.

By drawing upon several concepts and (re)interpretations of cinematic affect and Affect theory, along with the notion of “body-in-suffering/spectatorial body” proposed by Reyes (2012), which situates an alignment between the spectator (reader) and the body on-screen (page), the affective capacity of Itō’s horror manga will be discussed in selected segments of Itō Junji’s Tomie. Conversely, this paper analyzes how body-horror representations in this manga may provoke affective responses in readers.

How do black-and-white printed images, panels, and frames in manga convey affective responses akin to that of horror in other media like cinema? By looking closely at the narrative techniques used in this manga, while considering further stylistic, visual, and compositional elements, this paper aims to prove that body-horror representations in manga provoke high levels of affective engagement in readers though these do not happen in an isolated manner. My larger aim is to suggest that Itō's ability to elicit affective responses in readers has more to do with the "cinematism" he employs than solely with the detailed horrific imagery he conveys in the pages of his manga.