Either the horror genre has become dull or I have grown up. Perhaps it is because I don’t believe in monsters anymore or just because monsters are uninteresting (I have to admit that Mr Barker managed to create a really good monster that still gives me the chills everytime I watch Hellraiser). Perhaps I have made peace with all the monsters, ghouls, vampires and the such over time.
In the past Stephen King’s books used to scare me. I remember when I read both Pet Sematary and The Shinning, both scare the shit out of me. More recently, with the exception of The Audition, which I blogged about not so long ago, I haven’t seen or read anything that is really worthy of the Horror genre.
That is until I got in my hands Ode To Kirihito. This book is written by Manga God Osamu Tezuka. This was the guy that actually got me into comics with his Buddha biography, which is magnificent. Ode to Kirihito was recently made available in English. The book (or should I say graphic novel?) is about 800 pages long, and you can read it in a matter of hours, because it is very hard to put down. Tezuks’a story telling is simply too good and the art is so compelling that is hard to stop reading.
The setup for the story is really bizarre, and characters throughout the story are even more bizarre. The book is about human nature, or shall I say dark human nature. It is about corrupted values and the extents people would go for power, revenge, and self satisfaction.
The book is set up in Japan in current times, whatever current was when the book was written. A medical Dr (Kirihito) is researching about a disease that turns humans into dogs. Little he knew he was put into that position on purpose by his mentor, which felt threatened by him, in an effort to make him disappear. In the midst of his coming back ala Count of Montecristo, he encounters with the most bizarre characters. Just to give you a taste: a woman that made her life out of dipping into hot boiling oil while covered by some form of dough; a multimillionaire that is so bored that pays for freak shows like giant snakes eating children slaves, politicians that sell their daughters for personal satisfaction, etc, etc… you get the idea.
I think it is fair to say that the story has somewhat a happy ending, as much as it can be given the story. I won’t give out the end in case you are curious enough to read it.
There is hope for the horror genre, you just have to look deep in the dark side of the human nature.
