#blame it on Junji Ito

[spookythesillyfella]

I've always been fairly bad at approaching SPECIFIC AU asks which is why I always ask "Hey how about you ramble about x, y and z" but perhaps this is going to be something BROAD to ask but I'm a bit curious to know MORE about Sketchbook? Is there things you've ever associated him with? (The spirals got me in a clutch okay. But if there's more to know about THAT YOU'D BE WILLING TO SHARE I'm all ears)

If this is too weird just ignore it? Honestly I'm again BAD AT approaching things with others AUs also out of fear of mischaracterizing because I realize that not everyone is actively posting crazy amounts of information like I do HEP

i think ive brought up how i deeply azzociate HV! Sketchbook with bunniez . but i still REALLY wanna touch up on that !!

not only are bunniez cute . but therez quite a bit of perzonal hiztory behind thiz idea ; Someone i really cared about owned a bunny and alzo loved Sketchbook . so maybe thatz something that drew me in [?]

but bunniez are alzo symbolz of the life cycle . of rebirth ; perzonally . i thought itz fitting with how Tony found so many attributez of Chesterz within paper

on top of that . i alzo azzociate Sketch with dandelionz !!

dandelionz symbolize the overcoming of hardshipz . happinezz — both of theze thingz really rezonate with their character . given everything theyve been through and where they currently are in life

and i alzo wanna say that my azzociation of the color red comez from the fact it haz a lot of pozitive AND negative connotationz ; it symbolizez love . but alzo blood — which again tiez in with the grief narrative in Tonyz story

i suppoze thatz about it ; itz quite bazic but theze are some thingz i REALLY wanted to touch up on eventually — i juzt never had the opportunity to do so in a way that felt actually satizfying

[xshindaaix]

The Dark Sh*t •ᴗ•

My recommendations for depressed people (≖‿≖)👍

[dailyfigures]

what's everyone's fav manga(s) ever <3

[prjctdiva]

at this point I think junji ito's works are cursed to be inadaptable

[npdlangley]

saw a close up of a finger print i feel like that onejunji ito comic i am goign to freak out

[lacm-ac]

[@engardeitsme ]

[teddybasmanov]

Finished "Tomie" and it was pretty fun and now I'm going to bite the bullet and read "Blame!" even if I don't understand jackshit.

[diamondnokouzai]

more infinicities need medieval architecture instead of whatever blame! is doing

[sidsinning]

I read Tomie for the first time recently

Junji Ito you fuckin cooked with the art progression and especially on the commentary on femicide, societal beauty standards, victim blaming, slut shaming-

If yalls are interested in horror and exploring these topics in a unique way I definitely recommend Tomie

[gremlinmodetweeker]

Circles of Stars in Cosmic Waltzes

Okay this is just a feel-good fuzzy fic of dealing with self esteem. There is a lot of negative talk in the beginning, but König's always there to help remind us of our potential. He's a very good eldritch horror husband. Junji Ito would be proud of him.

Anyways!

TWs: Self esteem issues, feelings of being useless and unworthy of love, feeling like you're not worthy of your parents (even if there is a hint that they're actually a bit abusive)

Wordcount: 2K

Art from This Post

Story below the cut

Circles of Stars in Cosmic Waltzes

You looked at yourself in the mirror. What glared back at you was nothing but shameful.

You looked wrong in your summoner robes. These robes, intricately woven out of enchanted wool and cotton, were naught but circus costumes on you. The elaborate gold and silver designs that had been embroidered into the front and along the sleeves looked gaudy on the black cloak. What was meant to be clean, professional, respectable looked almost like an elaborate joke somebody had crafted out of the scraps of a crafts room.

Looking at yourself pained you. It didn’t seem fair. You, born of great and noble blood that had coursed through the veins of some of the greatest summoners to ever live, were incapable of doing so much as taking control over a weather imp that you conjured from the first layer of the other world. You were nothing but a humiliating mistake to your family’s name. Once, maybe you embraced being the black sheep, but on nights like these you couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to have the shepherd’s care.

The tattoo on the back of your hand once made you proud, but lately it had only drawn ire. A high ranking officer had commented on how strange it was for a summoner to need a mark to copy, to not have their summons’ symbols firmly embedded in your mind’s eye. You had laughed it off at first, but the longer you sat with the thought the lower you delved into the depths of your mind.

You closed your eyes, shielding yourself from the horrible vision. You couldn’t bear to look any longer. The image of you playing as a summoner haunted you. You were simply a fake. You were a laughable excuse for a summoner, anyone could tell that at a glance. Your work was shoddy and unfinished, your memory was poor, your mental fortitude was as strong as a sandcastle in the face of the ocean’s tides. You would wash away, immemorable. You suspected that your name would be scrubbed from the family tree. You couldn’t blame them; you knew you were nothing but a disgrace to anyone who ever cared for you.

You opened your eyes again. You never were good at hiding from fate, were you? What a waste of space… Your parents were usually sympathetic, but you could see how they envied your cousins. They hated what you were. There was nothing but emptiness in the words they spoke to you. They could offer you kind smiles and hopeful praise, but you would never be able to reach up to greet their kindness. Instead, you’d stay on the forest floor and watch the trees grow tall and mighty above you, reaching up to grasp the clouds in the arms of their boughs. You, little ant that you were, could only watch in awe.

In some ways, what was most humiliating about your state was the only summon you had managed to make bend at the knee, and even then it wasn’t even with your force, but rather by their will. König was something beyond your comprehension, both literally and metaphorically. He’d long since made you aware that you were nothing but a speck under his foot.

What was the worst aspect about being König’s summoner was how he treated you so kindly. He was nothing but revenant with you, almost as though he actually treasured you. It was completely beyond your ability to comprehend why König was so interested in you. He’d explained once before, but it didn’t make much sense. Or, well, it did, but that didn’t help make the misery disperse. Instead, you were lost in a nebulous fog of shame, fear and guilt.

Guilt? Guilt. Guilt for wasting your parents’ resources, guilt for tricking others into thinking you were a capable summoner, and the most burning ember in your fire, guilt for chaining König to your side. You were nothing but cruel in how you bound him to you, weren’t you? But did you really decide this fate for him, or was it rather he who chose to shackle this yoke to his neck?

König was incredible. He was a light that shone within your darkest hours. He was the sun that shone down upon your skin, the moon that watched over you at night. He was with you at every moment, always at your beck and call. You’d grown used to his evening conversation, his playful banter as he helped ease you into bed, his warmth as you curled into his side at night. He was the daylight’s greeting and the night’s retreat. Ultimately, he’d become your home.

The lights flickered above. You may not have spoken his name, but he came regardless.

“You doubt yourself. Again.”

You ripped your eyes away from the mirror to look at the figure crouching under the doorway.

“You’re late,” you replied monotonously.

“Am I?” König asked as he stepped in behind you, watching you in the mirror.

“I think so,” you said.

“Then I must be,” König agreed, “I had hoped you might be able to see your light, however, even I am merely a subject of fate.”

“And fate says I’ll hate myself forever?” you scoff.

“Fate says you need a reminder of your worth,” König replied as he situated himself directly behind you.

“I don’t want it,” you spat.

“Fate does not care for your desires,” König droned.

“If fate doesn’t care about me, why should I care about it?” you argued petulantly.

“Fate is not so kind, Summoner,” König raised his hands to place them on your shoulders, “now, tell me, why does my mark cause you pain? Is it not imprinted on you to inspire comfort and hope? Does it not make you warm?”

You looked down at the intricate design on the back of your right hand. You raised it up to take a better look at the darkened skin. The pattern was truly beautiful, full of constellations and ocean waves sweeping into one another. It was one of the most intricate designs you’d seen, a testament to your summon’s strength and abilities. Everything about him exuded power and prestige. He was hammered gold, shaped into intricate arcane art. You were coal burning at the bottom of a pit.

“It’s a reminder,” you told him coldly.

“It is,” König acquiesced, “but I suspect it is more.”

“It is,” you traced the linework with your pointer finger.

“Then tell me, Summoner,” König softly ordered you.

“I shouldn't’ need it,” you said quietly.

“You value the words of the lesser far too much,” König grumbled, “what weakness is there in keeping a symbol of us with you?”

“You only gave it to me because I couldn’t draw your summoning symbol properly,” you cradled your hand to your chest.

“That was what I told you, yes,” König leaned his mask over your shoulder as he looked into your eyes in the mirror.

“You say that like there’s more to it,” you snorted.

“Summoner,” König tsked at you, “do you truly believe that I speak freely and openly?”

You smiled bitterly, “You’ve got me there.”

“Summoner, I like seeing my mark on you,” König chuckled as he leaned over you, caging you in between him and the counter, “when I see it on you, it is but a mark of my ownership of you. I own you, mind body and soul, it all belongs to me. When I put my mark on you, I was binding you to my side.”

You looked down at your hand, where the mark tingled on your skin. This mark seemed less of a reminder of your simple mind and now more a reminder of your fixture in König’s life. Strangely, the idea didn’t seem so disagreeable.

“You believe you are weak,” König drew you from your thoughts, “and there is merit to this, but you are not doomed to a life of fragile floundering. You are, rather, destined for greatness. Your blood gave you a promise on birth, and it has not lied to you. Your blood is simply dormant, but not lost on you.”

König took a taloned hand and brushed it through your hair, careful so as not to accidentally nick your skin with his hooked claws, “When I see you, I am reminded of the cosmos. There is emptiness, yet if you pull back to see the full picture, there circle planets around stars as they dance Azothoth’s maddening waltz through the universe. You are simply experiencing growing pains, of a sort.”

“You keep saying that, but how long do I have to wait?” you sighed as you matched his gaze through the looking glass, “when do I actually get to be strong?”

König shook his head, “To tell you that would be to ruin your potential.”

A frown crawled across your face. König’s prophecies sometimes seemed so far away that they sounded more like myths and legends than they did your fate. At this point, you were beginning to loathe this concept of fate. Had you a chance, you’d take their scissors and drive them through the eye those three witches shared. You had the suspicion such thoughts were thoroughly blasphemous in nature. You didn’t particularly care anymore.

“I wish I could punch fate,” you finally stated.

König laughed heartily, throat warbling with ocean currents and cosmic storms. His head kicked back with mirth, and so warm was his cold laughter that you couldn’t stop yourself from giggling. The two of you shared in the light of the laughter, a beacon in a sea of self doubt and fear. For a moment, the fates seemed to smile upon you, despite your surly nature.

“You do amuse me, Summoner,” König chuckled as he managed to wrangle himself back under control.

“I don’t get why you find it that funny. Don’t you know what I’m going to say before I say it?” you pointed out with a final laugh.

“I only see the potential of what you’ll say. Seeing what you decide upon is a constant welcome surprise,” König leaned down to brush his cheek against your own, “you may think I know everything before it occurs, but I assure you I am in awe with your choices.”

“What else would I have said?” you smirked knowingly.

“Must I tell you?” König sighed with exasperation.

“I command it,” you sniffed haughtily.

“You command! My Summoner, you are certainly growing into your role, aren’t you?” König chuckled before pressing a pinching kiss to your temple before deftly avoiding your retaliatory swat, “I believe another thought was rather depreciatory of your character, another was optimistic in nature. That response, however, was the one I expected the least. And that, dear Summoner, is what I appreciate most about you.”

“What you appreciate most?” you asked.

“You consistently amaze me,” König’s eyes crinkled with sunlight warmth, “and for that, I love you more.”

You didn’t think, and for that you paid the price of turning your head to press a kiss to König’s cheek. For once, both of you were as equally surprised as you were delighted.

König pressed a hand against his cheek briefly before bringing the hand back to circle over your chest, “You may not realize, but each and every kindness you gift me is cherished.”

You ducked your head into his forearm to avoid showing your blush, knowing full-well that König was quite aware. 

He was, thankfully, merciful in how he addressed you, “Summoner, it is late and tomorrow does not bring much in the ways of rest. Do you wish to rest?”

You thought for a moment. You knew König was right, tomorrow would be strenuous in how it played itself. Your friends mentioned something about a physical test and something about a wilderness survival trip, but in that moment, König’s hold was greater than any expense the next day brought.

“Not yet,” you told him, “can you just hold me for a bit?”

König encircled you fully in his arms, guiding you into his dark cloak to press you into his form, “Always, Summoner.”

Konig Masterlist

Konig Alternate Universes

Summoned!Konig

[jananimal813]

im the same now as I was then

[talefoundryshow]

Junji Ito's Frankenstein adds a great little extra to the original Mary Shelley story: The monster's bride is horrified by him too, and even tries to fight him.

The monster blames Frankenstein, thinking it was a trap. It wasn't. He just never considered she might not want to be with him.

[nadekofannumber1]

I wish I liked some popular shojo more bc it’s legit a genre that gets way too much hate and is often discriminated against in publishing spaces even having its real genre being changed when being localized bc shojo is locked to a specific context. But since I don’t feel like I can advocate for it as much as someone who prefers shojo magazines like “Halloween”, I feel like a lot of my defenses of shojo josei fall flat to a degree when not discussing the very literal advertising discrimination (Kodansha loves changing genres on their site, instead of using publication or demographical categories, they just make shojo a more “romance” genre.) (also less and less shojo manga are getting anime adaptations in favor of live action shows, josei is treated even worse) (ppl also give shojo too much flak bc of misogyny, even though I’ve seen ppl watch shows with similarly awful qualities of other publication genres).

What I can say is ppl decide if something is shojo based on vibes just because jump’s brand is so identifiable. Even though learning about other magazines could easily let you get the read on the vibes and tropes of the magazine’s publishing contents easily, like, a lot of popular gangan manga hold similar fandom vibe because gangan is more woman friendly creativity wise. Though I must say that ofc more standard shonen like soul eater came out of that as well, along with a slew of adaptions of other material into manga (it is the manga publishing brand of square after all). But even beyond things like FMA they have properties like: Pandora hearts, black butler, nozaki kun, the royal tutors, TBHK, kokkuri San, the apothecary diaries, inu x boku, ojisama to neko, durararara. Of course with things like gangan online and subsequent apps a lot more of the content published gets more varied like daily lives of highschool boys, watamote, jahi Chan, my bride is a mermaid, vermil in gold, how I attended an all guys mixer. As a publisher, gangan is actually very unisex, which makes it have the vibe of being innately less hostile to women. But because it doesn’t have the vibe of being shonen shonen (tm) ppl don’t realize how they think of

I feel like this concept got out of hand but it proves my point that ppl don’t know the difference between a publishing demographic, and a genre. I blame jump for this and thus I mentally hold a rivalry with it (of course I have more legit reasons to beef with jump like how they protect nobuhiro watasuki makes me suspicious, even if I like a good amount of jump manga my mind has beef, there’s more to this but I’ll stop now)

I can say all this but I can’t defend shojo in the way I want to, I can’t say people are too hard on something like peach girl when I haven’t read it. People always act surprised when shojo is good, and I find that, incredibly weird. Criticizing tropes is fine, saying a romance sucks and you don’t like it is fine, saying that a lot of common tropes in said publication genre put you off from reading is ok too, but by treating all shojo the same is weird.

Society is when people don’t know that junji Ito is primarily a shojo mangaka.

[lizweirdo]

i know jurgen leitner’s european ass was definitely not culturally aware enough for this but the manga section of his library would have gone so insanely hard. goodnight punpun. blame! berserk. goodbye eri. the summer hikaru died. every single junji ito work….

[ghostofcinders]

Tomie arriving to Dead by Daylight (even as a skin for the Spirit) has been interesting. It allowed me to see plenty of DbD creators explain her & make clear how the surface perception so many have of her is just so, so wrong. Mind you, Tomie is BAD, but things aren't super simple with her. Many described her as "a succubus-type, a girl who slept around with professor & classmates and got killed. Then, she returned. She regenerates, and makes people obsess for her" Only a part of that is true. Tomie thrives on attention and has a seemingly supernatural ability to attract people. But it's never clear how much of that is powers and how much is her being really pretty (on the surface) and good at lying & reading people. Those who see through her lies or just aren't into her resist far better or outright are disgusted by the truth of Tomie's actual rotten soul. Now, the thing with Tomie is that she's NOT a succubus that sleeps around. She seduces people, and the resulting obsession plus Tomie's demands ruins their life. By the time Tomie's body horror monstrosity shows up, her victims tend to be done already. Notably, though, Tomie's a victim too. The obsession drives people to turn on Tomie, as they become more and more fixated on the impulse to "kill her," destroy her, and so on. Tomie's not a cheery manga, ever.

Tomie's really so bad, but you get plenty of panels where she sees the situation turning, where her control begins to slip. And she's *scared* when it happens. Tomie's a demon the more the story goes on, but she doesn't have 100% of the control. What goes on with the cycle of love/obsession/violence is something she exploits but also a force she's trapped within. The biggest twist? *She's a victim, full stop, in the beginning* Tomie opens with a chapter where a professor that's pretty much stated Tomie slept with & classmates who either long for her attention or are jealous of her queen bee thing lash out at her, she gets hurt, and thinking she's dead they cut her into pieces to hide evidence. Really. There's more. They see she's not dead halfway through. *They don't stop* And let's be clear, being a bossy bastard doesn't warrant that. AND EVEN MORE, Tomie's not the one to blame for having a relationship with an adult professor as a high school girl. The man's disgusting trash there, not her.

Mr. Junji Ito, who in other chapters shows clearly how evil Tomie is (but still puts the occasional panel how her being scared here & there) makes clear that in chapter 1 she's a victim. Not a flawless one, but hey, that's a silly thing to expect from people. Tomie's not the villain right away. The curse and the...thing Tomie turns into halfway from chapter 1 onward are as much as a supernatural property unlocked within her as a cycle of violence she DID NOT start and, at the end of the day, is also trapped into. So no, Dead by Daylight. I love ya, but Tomie's not just "a succubus"

[voidhope]

omg i loved the second part of the other woman!!!

this isn't a request, u don't have to write this but i thought of an alternate outcome/ending to ur story: what would happen if reader were to die? hmm much thought

also imo u should definitely keep writing! ur style has so much potential!

-that one junji ito anon

thank you thank you thank youuu 🥺 i’m so glad u enjoyed it!!

ooo i actually had already wrote some notes to this! having the reader die was something i had considered but then i was like damn they lost their home, their man, and they DIE 🧎🏻‍♀️ would have a been a bit too cruel haha

I think what would have happened is;

miguel would have never moved on. Loosing a loved ones time and time again having such a tragedy a 3rd time in his life he would completely close himself off after this. He would never be the same. He’ll find a way to blame himself, as reader wouldn’t have returned to their universe if he hadn’t cheated. With the amount of guilt he was already holding this would just destroy him. Instead of having a grumpy personality you’d see his grief turn him more empty, less empathetic, and would struggle to feel anymore.

Reader is very very unique!! ofc there are many versions of them in the multiverse but there’s only one version as a spider. Reader wasn’t meant to become a spider person and was bit by accident summoning a spider from Miguel’s earth. You could say similar to miles situation! So the thought of Miguel not being able to even see another version that resembles you so closely would leave him distraught and he would find himself struggling to even want to keep protecting the multiverse. I could see him maybe even having to steps down as spider-man 2099 and let maybe jessica take over the spider society as he couldn’t do missions anymore as he would struggle with ptsd.

I think it might take him awhile to come back but when he does he’s way more aggressive in missions. in universes where he would have to face kingpin again he would really show no mercy. Reader’s death would not just hit hard on him but the entire spider society as they had been such an important figure there.