More Cosmic Horror from Junji Ito

Sensor (Viz Media, 2021)
Story and Art: Junji Ito

Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

Wataru is a self-described "no-name reporter" who becomes drawn into a struggle between cosmic forces when he crosses paths with Kyoko, a mysterious woman with hair that literally glows.

"Sensor" is the latest work from comic book horror master Junji Ito. It was originally serialized in Japan during 2018 and 2019, and the English translation of the collected edition was released in August of 2021. Like "Uzamaki", this is a cycle of short stories that combine to tell a single novel-length tale. As such, Ito played to his strengths, avoiding the mistake he made with "Remina": He does good short stories, but long-form is definitely not his strength.

As such, this is a project that plays to Ito's strength as a storyteller. As "Remina" showed, Ito can't quite pull off a novel-length tale if he's structuring it like a novel. However, in this book, he instead is presenting a series of short stories that ultimately combine into one long story. And it works beautifully.

With "Sensor", the book opens with a prologue that initially seems only loosely connected to what follows--with the mysterious Kyoko spending decades in suspended animation within a cocoon formed around her when a village of people who worshiped a cosmic force they called the Akashi was destroyed in a sudden volcanic eruption. Each of the stories that follow, however, tell a stand-alone story that has elements that tie back to that prologue, and these ties get stronger as the book unfolds. Eventually, as the book reaches its climax with a clash between good and evil on a very literal cosmic scale, it becomes apparent that every story have, in fact, been closely related to each other; our hero, Wataru, may have seemed like he was following loosely connected threads, but we discover at the end that he had been trapped in a web of pre-destiny since even before his first encounter with Kyoko.

According to Ito's afterword to the book, "Sensor" (which was originally published under the title "Travelogue of a Succubus") was originally conceived as a story that would have had strong similarities to "Tomie", the series that propelled him to international fame.

This early piece of promotional art certainly looks like it's for a serial about a succubus and the horrors she leaves in her wake as she travels:

However, from the very first installment, "Sensor" was already showed signs of not being what the title was implying. Instead, this prologue lays the foundation for a tale of cosmic horror that the likes of H.P Lovecraft probably would have gotten a kick out of. It is to our benefit that Junji Ito followed his creative instincts and abandoned the original concept for the series (and that his editors allowed him the freedom to do so). The story he delivers is excellent, as is the way each chapter initially seems to stand alone, but that they ultimately add up to a single narrative. 

The only complain I can field about "Sensor" is that it's too short. I felt like the overarching plot seemed to resolve too quickly between the true threat to Wataru's safety coming into to focus in Chapter Five, and the climax unfolding in Chapters Six and Seven. It feels like this book needed to be at least three or four chapters longer--perhaps even twice the length of the seven that it lasts. I feel this way, partly, because because I liked Wataru as a character, and I wanted to see him have more intriguing encounters, but I was also impressed with the way Ito wove a larger story through the background of a series of short ones. I wanted more of this--brief stories that unfolded against a backdrop of events that couldn't possibly be connected yet somehow seemed to be. 

If you've enjoyed Junji Ito's work in the past, or if you're new to it and want to read some excellent horror comics, I strongly recommend you get a copy of "Sensor".