The horror Mangaka returns to the genre with this gross out gory social commentary of cancel culture and body dysmorphia. Listen to the start for the chance to win your own copy of Dissolving Classroom, skip to minute 19:25 if you want to ignore the synopsis.
Junji Ito's Dissolving Classroom
(a.k.a. Yokai Kyoshitsu)
By Junji Ito
Translation by Melissa Tanaka
Published in the Japanese Motto! Magazine in 2015, and in English in 2017 by Vertical Comics.
Talking about the following stories/chapters:
Dissolving Classroom
Dissolving Beauty
Dissolving Apartment
Chizumi in love
Interview with the Devil
Topics:
· 'Dissolving Classroom' and the concluding chapter, 'Interview with the Devil' being a commentary on cancel culture and the need for celebrities to apologise in today's culture for fear of fan backlash. Ariana Grande, we're looking at you!
· 'Dissolving Beauty' being a commentary on body dysmorphia and anorexia in an age of social media.
· Did the last chapter have a downer ending?
Synopsis:
Dissolving Classrom –
The new boy in class, Yuuma Azawa, is known for his overly apologetic behaviour and becomes a target for bullies because of it. Keiko Arisu befriends him out of pity but is quickly stalked and harassed by a creepy girl on her way home. The girl demands to suck out and feast upon her brains. In an attempt to flee, Keio gets ran over crossing the road.
As Keiko recovers in hospital, Yuuma apologises for his sister, Chizumi, the girl who scared and chased Keiko into the road. Yuuma visits her in hospital and it becomes apparent that keiko is feeling the soothing effects of his apologies, as if her mind and body, not just her worries, were melting away. Behind Yuuma's back, Keiko finds his home in order to speak to Chizumi and befriend her.
Chizumi explains that her brother doesn't apologise for her sake but for himself, he is addicted to apologising and has become a devil worshipper. Keiko is scared away when Chizumi reveals the decrepit heads of her dead parents, their brains having been melted away.
Chizumi believes the heads were fake but she is still left unsettled when a flu like sickness grips her parents and herself. On her return to school she finds that her class has become sick as well. Keiko goes to protect Yuuma from his bullies but finds that the bullies all physically melt in front of her. Chizumi arrives in the middle of a devastating attack on the school, everyone is melting away into goo. She explains to Keiko that Yuuma has the power to melt people via his apologies and Chizumi herself loves to drink and lick up what's left of them. Keiko flees from the siblings and survives.
Chizumi in love –
As the two siblings settle in a new place to live, Chizumi falls in love with a young boy of the same age, Tomohito, who is quickly stalked by Chizumi. Tomohito's parents melt away due to Yuuma's apologising but with a bit of luck, and through help of the spirits of those who were melted, Tomohito is able to escape Yuuma and Chizumi.
Interview with the Devil –
Eventually a journalist called Hamaoka is able to track down the siblings and bring a paralysed Keiko to meet with Yuuma. Keiko can't walk but is able to manage some speech. Upon seeing Yuuma she is unsettled and starts to scream. Chizumi is surprised to see that Keiko is alive, considering any girl that Yuuma dates, tends to have their face physically melt whenever he compliments their looks.
Yuuma burns the remains of his dead parents and flees town with Chizumi. Tomohito is found dead which makes Keiko the only survivor of the Dissolving incident. Hamaoka explains that Keiko developed psychic powers from her brain damage and is able to know where Yuuma is, he puts her hand on a map and her finger guides the way. Eventually Hamaoka manages to set up a press conference for Yuuma and Chizumi with plans to live stream it. To Keiko's horror, Hamaoka brings her to watch. Yuuma doesn't actually confess but apologises for the murders towards everyone at the conference and the world. As for what happened to the people who watched it and where the Aizawa siblings are now, well that will be left to your imagination.
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