You can't spell "Halloween" without "Fuan no Tane!"
Well, obviously you can. But you shouldn't!
In this final (hah!) three post series, I finish off the very last of the allowable page limit for each of the three volumes of Fuan no Tane. In so doing, I will fulfill a few requests I got way back when, and also post several stories never-before-seen on scans_daily.
Excited?
What is Fuan no Tane? For those of you arriving late to the party, suffice to say that it is the very best horror manga ever, written by the great Masaaki Nakayama. In English, the title is Sees of Anxiety; unfortunately there is no official English translation as yet (Start a petition to Akita Shoten Publishing, everyone! Alert your local Japanese embassy!). The scans here are from MangaFox.
Most of these stories are supposed to be based on Japanese urban legends. Those of you looking for buckets of blood and "boo" scares, will likely be disappointed. Those of us who like quirky "horror" stories with a very Japanese feel are always in for a treat.
As many commentators have observed, if you really want to be creeped out by Fuan no Tane, the best thing to do is to read a whole lot of it in one sitting. After a while stories which (when taken on their own) seem comically un-scary, will suddenly become genuinely frightening. To assist in the transition, let's start with one of the more creepy/frightening stories from volume 1.
Remember to read from right to left for teh scariness.
What, indeed? Remember that ominous title now...
Horrible toothless drool-grin = BRRR.
So there we have it. Terrifying? Probably not, especially if you were expecting some hideously gory shock ending. But eerie? Yes. Unsettling. Nightmarish, even. If I was that driver I would be positively shitting my pants right then.
Next up, by... in very belated response to someone or other's request...
Weird kid waving at you late at night? You wave back, of course. What's the worst that could happen?
Oh... that. Look, it's young Reed Richards!
Okay, I admit that I personally don't find that one especially scary. At least not on first glance. But if you really think about it, especially after an hours-long Fuan no Tane reading binge late at night... yeah, it starts to get a bit freaky.
Finally, for now... I debated with myself for a long time before deciding to post this next story. This one has a great deal of build-up to it, and with the rest of what I've posted from volume one it neatly takes my page count to the very maximum allotted 1/3 of the book. And possibly not for very much return, either, since some of you will say it isn't scary at all. Still, I find it disturbing, the way it sloooowly ratchets up the tension...
But why blather on about it when you can decide for yourselves.
"What, your sneaking into school after hours to sniff his text books? Yeah, sure, he'd find that real romantic. Certainly not weird or obsessive."
"Now here's ANOTHER fine mess you've dragged me into!"
Now here's where I think the story earns his title. The footsteps just keep going, and going, never stopping, never seeming to lead anywhere in particular... for ALMOST AN HOUR, while the two girls continue hiding fearfully in the empty classroom while it gets later and later in the evening. I swear, that scenario (of hiding from an unseen threat that just WON'T GO AWAY) is an old childhood nightmare of mine.
And so the girl reaches for the door with a trembling hand... and... AND...
Oh. It's a big, bored-looking eyeball. Staring at them listlessly, like the Eeyore of monsters.
"Hello. Boo, I suppose. Do you find me frightening at all? Can't say I'd blame you if you don't. I probably wouldn't be frightened, myself."
Dammit, Fuan no Tane! Again you smack us with an anticlimactic ending! I for one would have liked it to have been at least a little bit more menacing-looking creature at the end. Still, as I said, I think this story did do a good job of building up the tension, bringing us from a rather mundane moment involving a school girl's crush, and then bringing us into a nightmarish world of otherworldly almost-fright.
Next time (probably Wednesday) we finish with Volume 2. By request... the upside-down ghost that isn't an incompetent boob! The horror that fucks up your office late at night! And as a bonus, the story of why your real estate agent shouldn't call you a jerk just because you asked if the house was haunted!