A book a day: Junji Ito: Sensor

Original language: Japanese

Original title: sensor (Sensā)

Year of publication: 2019

Translation: Olinda Cordukes Salleras

Valuation: Alright

Today, Junji Ito is probably the mangaka better known in the West, outside the realm of fans of the genre, of course. This is undoubtedly due to his recognizable and disturbing style, but also because he has been dedicating himself to the subject for more than thirty years and in that time he has made a multitude of mangas, more or less groundbreaking and more or less bizarre: also others that can be considered almost as mainstreameven within its rarity, as is the case of this Sensoran interesting example, but which, I already warned, is not, I believe, among the best of its author.

Brief summary: the young Kyôko Byakuyo is walking one day near the Sengoku volcano when she notices some golden hair in the air, which at first she confuses with the so-called “pele hair” that the volcano can release. In these, she meets a boy who takes her to his town, Kiyokami, where everything shines because it is covered by those golden hairs that also, apparently, give its inhabitants clairvoyance and all, according to them, thanks to the god Amagami and Miguel. , a Christian missionary from the time of the shogunate. Anyway, I’m not going to go into more detail, because there are many twists and turns that occur throughout the plot, with the beautiful Kyôko turned into a fugitive with golden hair, wanted by both a reporter named Wataru Tsuchiyado and the Indigo Shadow sect, which wants to access through it some supposed Akashid records that contain all the knowledge of the Universe. In addition, we find here suicidal insects, spy traffic mirrors and the occasional jump in time – apparently, Ito’s first intention, followed later by him only half-heartedly, was to develop a series of independent episodes with supernatural or extraordinary events , of which Kyôko and then the reporter Tsuchiyado would be witnesses and guiding thread; In short, all the usual imaginative display with this author, although I already say that here it is somewhat lowered or adapted to the tastes of the general public.

Even so, it is an entertaining manga to say the least and, above all, drawn with its usual exquisite lines, especially in the case of the women. It can be, therefore, a good way to approach (without being scared, I mean) the work of this peculiar mangakabut always keeping in mind that its bizarre and at times terrifying universe does not stop at this, far from it…