A book a day: Shintaro Kago: Fraction

Original language: Japanese

Original title: fraction

Translation: ¿?

Year of publication: Between 1998 and 2009

Valuation: Delirious

“Fraction” is a trip that only an author as extravagant as the mangaka Shintaro Kago could conceive.

“Fraction” is also a gem of the ninth art. At the end of the day, it is a highly original comic, it has some of the craziest script twists I have ever read and its meta-literary component is very bold. Likewise, its graphics are as creative and refined as all of Kago’s works.

In “Fraction” we follow in the footsteps of Rebanador, a serial killer who dedicates himself to cutting women in half and who may have an imitator; We also follow Mangaka (Kago himself), who wants to stop being recognized as an ero-guro author and deliver a mystery comic that plays with the viewer by resorting to different narrative tricks that challenge “prejudices”, “pre-established ideas” and ” predispositions” of people (showing, for example, what lies beyond the “frame” of the cartoons, how “sandwiches” can deceive us, etc…).

“Fraction” subverts all kinds of expectations: those derived from the genre in which the story is inscribed (the detective mystery) and those fostered by the medium used to narrate said genre (the comic). And, by the way, Kago also subverts what people expect of him as an ero-guro author (that is, “corpses, viscera, shit, torture, sadomaso”).

“Fraction” was published in 2009 along with four stories that had already been previously published. These stories combine, like their predecessor, the plot chaos and the repulsive aesthetics of ero-guro, although without putting both sections at the service of meta-literary explorations. Compared to “Fraction” they are somewhat simple, but I liked them all.

Perhaps the craziest are “The Returned” (an even more perverse homage than Edogawa Rampo’s “The Caterpillar”, its obvious inspiration) and “Collapse” (a deranged character study of a woman).

On the other hand, “The Peak of the Irritating” remains quite faithful to the basic concept (something that is unusual for Kago, so prone to disperse his stories in various directions) and “Collapse” has very powerful imagery, but it takes its promising premise towards the most cliché register possible, that of the psychological.

In short: if you are lovers of hooligan literature in which violence, gore, pornography, absurdity, black humor, satire, crazy ideas and script twists come together, the volume Fraction you will love it; I also recommend it to those who look for a transgressive and self-referential component in art (and its language). Well, whoever you are, read Kago in general; Believe me, you won’t be disappointed in the slightest.