Sensor - Junji Ito

Even in a collection as relatively slim as Sensor, Junji Ito manages to find plenty of imaginative new ways to depict a tale of terror. His 2019 graphic novel develops in a direction not even expected by the artist when he started out on the story, developing and expanding on ideas and horror, chapter by chapter in a number of episodes that extend out to the cosmos but also deep into inner fears.

For some reason she isn't quite sure of, Kyoko Byakuya is drawn to visit Mount Segoku, an active volcano that is noted for the strange phenomenon of its volcanic hair. Rather than the more common hard black strands of volcanic material, the area around Segoku abounds in the golden light of glimmering "angel hair", known to locals as Divine Amagami. Kyoko is brought to the village of Kiyokami that is bathed in the light of this substance, where she learns the myth of its origin in the Edo era.

The reason Kyoko has been drawn there is because she has been chosen by God for a special purpose, to partake of the ability of the Divine Amagami to amplify sensors connect her to the whole universe. Her arrival instigates the first eruption of the volcano in 60 years, but what it brings forth is not the healing happiness that the villagers have been hoping for. In fact, the village that Kyoko has been welcomed into was destroyed by the last eruption, and she has been chosen and protected by the volcano for another purpose.

That's the story laid out in the opening chapter "Angel Hair", and for the rest of Sensor, the mystery surrounding the legend of Kyoko Byakuya is investigated by a journalist Wataru Tsuchiyado over the subsequent six chapters. Ito uses each chapter to find a new way of expressing the battle between the horrors unleashed by the volcano or the cosmos, and the light that Kyoko has been given to battle it. The young woman however has not received any divine revelation and is unaware of her power or how to use it, wandering around in a kind of daze.

As you would expect from a master like Junji Ito, each chapter is beautifully illustrated with imaginatively disgusting horrors, from nightmarish visions of a body expanding out and broken down into neurons, to the most grotesque bugs imaginable, suicide bugs that seem to fall under people's feet leaving the most horrible mess behind. As promised then, there are elements then of body horror as well as fear of terrible things that exist unseen in the wider universe. And Junji Ito is up for depicting it in all its graphic gruesomeness.

Reading notes: Sensor by Junji Ito is published in English translation as a hardcover by Viz Media.