Some ghosts are scarier than others (Fuan no Tane)
Fuan no Tane comes in 3 volumes of about 135 pages each. Even if the chapter headings and whatnot don't count in the final page count, I figure I'm clear to post a little more than 40 pages from each book. Which means I can post most of everyone's favorite stories... especially mine! Still, I highly encourage anyone who likes these stories to look up the books and read them in their entirety.
Anyway, click on the cut why don'tcha! For today's special bonus, we get the story behind these guys.
The first story for today is one of the genuinely creepy/scary ones, at least in my own opinion. It's from volume 2. Read right to left, although I'm sure you smart folks have figured that out already.
Things start innocently enough...
...but quickly take an ominous turn.
I don't know about you, but I can really feel that tension building in these panels, with the strange little girl just sitting there in silence, and the other girl realizing only now that she doesn't know her.
I don't care what you say: that is some seriously scary shit.
(Now, the next three panels are actually the final page of the story, cut up so that I could insert my mini-commentary. Just skip over my text if you like.)
Oh my god! OH MY FUCKING GOD HERE IT COMES--
...
So apparently the kid has been kidnapped by some kind of animate ragdoll. That's... that's scary, I guess.
That's actually an unusual amount of closure for a Fuan no Tane story. And a rather bleak ending, with Miki vanished from the face of the earth after her encounter with Raggedy Anne, there.
In all seriousness, that one has all the elements of a really great ghost story, if you ask me. Though I must admit to some disappointment with the monster, who really doesn't look all that scary. Maybe Masaaki Nakamura ought to have quite while he was ahead, with that great build-up and the face cast in terrifying shadow? But the man actually can draw a pretty scary monster face when he wants to, as seen in some of the other stories. So... I dunno.
Now for something markedly less scary. Per Smirnoffmule's request, once again, I give you a long-time favorite from Fuan no Tane: "Upside Down."
So, once upon a time there was a canopy over a busy sidewalk in Japan.
And this canopy was totally haunted, by a scary ghost. And the ghost would GRAB people as they walked by!
Well, he'd TRY to grab people. He totally missed that one lady of course. But I maybe if he can just stretch his arm out a little bit further...
Ooh! Nope, he missed that guy in the business suit, too. And what's worse, I'm pretty sure he was actually AIMING for the Rastafarian dude, anyway.
Don't give up, Slow-Grabbing Ghost! Maybe if you actually look at what you're grabbing this time?
*WHIFF!* Aaaand, he still misses the schoolgirl so badly that she doesn't even notice him.
That's it, Slow-Grabbing Ghost. You're fired. You fucking FAIL at haunting.
Now as promised, here in its glorious, two-page entirety is the story of the scary safety poster: "Look." Or, as I like to call it, "The kids on the traffic safety poster are evil! EVIL, I tells ya!"
Lolwut?
Yeah, watch out for those traffic safety kids. They get REALLY pissed if you don't look both ways before crossing the street.