"The better to eat you with, my dear..." (Fuan no Tane)

[fungo_squiggly.insanejournal.com]

This post is dedicated to a much-beloved "family" of ghosts from Fuan no Tane who all share one very obvious feature in common.

First up, this is the story of how it all began. By which I mean that this story was the very first story from the manga ever posted to scans_daily (not by me). And if it weren't for that, I would most likely have never heard of Fuan no Tane at all. I, for one, shall be forever grateful to... uh... whoever it was that posted this story the first time around.





"Hello, please excuse me. Here's your baby."

"Oh, thanks. I was wondering where I put that..."



Ah, so at last the horror begins. Something is coming... and it WANTS A HUG!

You just know this is going to be terrifying.



Ugh. Actually, that IS sort of terrifying.



Man, did I ever love this story. When it was first posted some people complained that it wasn't scary. But like 90% of Fuan no Tane, this story is one of the going for more of a creepy and eerie tone, and if you ask me it pulls that off in spades. It's the tale of a weird, nightmarish encounter that's only made more surreal by the fact that it's apparently so commonplace at this hospital. Observe the look of dread on the nurses' faces, and how relieved they are to talk about more mundane matters, as if they're waking up from a bad dream. You can feel the almost childish dread, the sense of "We must never speak of this, or something terrible might happen."

Also... HELLO! It's the first appearance of the famous Big-Teeth Ghost Family! Awe, I missed these guys. They're some of my favorite recurring characters in Fuan no Tane! That first was just a baby one, though. And, when you really think about it, all he really wanted was a freaking hug. Well, then... next up are a couple of Big-Teeth Ghosts of the full-grown variety. Perhaps they'll put those enormous teeth to more horrific use!



Kid in STRA- shirt: *thinking* "DAMN that reeks. What in the hell did that guy EAT?"

Man in black jacket: *thinking* "I have dishonored myself and my family by breaking wind in a public elevator."

Oh, wait. I guess that's not what the title meant by "Scent..."



Now that there really is a genuinely spooky moment.



Big-Teeth Ghost Girl: "What's the matter? You want a bite of my flowers? Sure, go ahead! I've got plenty."

What, you thought this was going to be scary? HAHA, NO. Big-Teeth Ghosts are vegetarians! Or didn't you know that?

Alright, so the baby Big-Teeth Baby Ghosts just want hugs, and the Big-Teeth Ghost Women won't do anything more threatening than offer to share their sweet, sweet flowers with you. But what about the Big-Teeth Ghost MEN? I bet they're pretty mean, huh? Man, they'd probably tear out your throat with their enormous choppers as soon as look at you (which is harder for them than you'd think, because all Big-Teeth ghosts wear some kind of concealing head-covering that obscures their eyes)!



"Being merry will help you keep you on your feet?"

Whoever said that is either very drunk, or the victim of a bad translation.



Aw, lonely man is lonely. But wait... it's Santa, coming to the rescue!



Wait, no... that isn't Santa. That's a Big-Teeth Ghost dressed up as Santa!



What, you're asking Big-Teeth Santa to leave already? What happened to your, ahem, Christmas spirit? *riotous laughter*

So, there we have it: the Big-Teeth Ghost Family! As you can see, their "haunting" routine consists mainly of asking for hugs, offering you flowers, and dressing up as Santa in order to visit lonely people at Christmas time. So I ask again, what very obvious feature does this family of ghosts have in common?

If you said "They are all friendly and completely harmless, and therefore un-scary," you're right!

And now, a very special bonus story, served to you with extra WTF? on the side. A very prestigious no-prize goes to to anyone who can explain to me what the hell is going on in this story, and why.



"Hmm, this seems pretty clear so far. I'd venture to guess it's about a haunted photograph or some such."



"Yes, it's definitely about a haunted photo, like in that story from Magabana perhaps. Clearly that fungo_squiggly is a drooling idiot, if he can't understand something so obvious as this."



"Hum. And now... well, the spirit of the photo has possessed her, I suppose. For some reason. As to what that 'How did you know' stuff if referring to, I can only suppose... um."



"And, uh, the ghost wanted her to attack that one loudmouthed guy who didn't like the photograph in question. Because the ghost was insulted by his criticism of the photography, perhaps. Still not sure what the mountain has to do with anything, or why the picture is haunted, or what was supposed to be scary about it before the possession occurred... but, uh, yeah."



"Wait, what? That's the end of the story? What the hell, Fuan no Tane!? I mean, uh..." *flees*

And that's it for now! I figure that last story will let me segue neatly into my next themed posts, because that one will be about scary eyes, and this one was about scary smiles, and Joker-Possessed Girl has both!

And as an extra-special bonus, I'll be posting the story where the disembodied spirit of the Joker possesses a Japanese schoolgirl (or something)!

Comments

[foxhack.insanejournal.com]

Even the Japanese are scared of Rob Liefeld's creepy grins.

[silverzeo.insanejournal.com]

lol!

[kamino_neko.insanejournal.com]

The bigass mouths don't bother me, really.

The lack of eyes creeps me the hell out, though.

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

In the flower panel, did anyone else think of that story where Starro gave Superman some cupcakes? "FOR YOU."

[foxhack.insanejournal.com]

The "Fuck you, have a cupcake" one?

[whatistriestine.insanejournal.com]

I don't know, I always thought the toothy baby story was incredibly sad sooner than creepy. I mean, to know that maybe you can put this little soul to rest, but you can't risk the lives of living babies... I dunno. The 'whew, glad that's over' moment among other nurses struck me more as being happy that you don't have to think about that poor ghost any more, than being relieved from fear.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Agreed, I get a much more pathetic vibe off this than menacing.

[fungo_squiggly.insanejournal.com]

One wonderful thing about Fuan no Tane is that the stories are so open to interpretation. Even in the most "complete"-seeming stories, quite a lot is left up to our imagination. Depending on how you want to read them, that can make the stories a lot scarier than they otherwise would be. Or, as I often prefer to do, you can just as easily imagine the scenario devolving into an amusing farce, instead.

So I would certainly agree that you could read the Big-Teeth Baby story as sad rather than scary. With this story, however, I tend to see it the other way. All joking aside I always figured that the "baby" is actually some kind of nurse-eating demon or something, a monster that wants to maul you with its giant teeth but that, like a vampire trying to get into your house, it needs an "invitation" before it can actually touch you.

[crinosg.insanejournal.com]

Plus the fact that the thing isn't gone forever just because you ignore it. It obviously shows up often enough that the other nurses can tell what happened just from the first nurses face.

Can you imagine working in a place, every day, where that thing is lurking about? I wonder how many nurses quit from that place? How many got committed because they insisted on seeing it? How many couldn't take it any more and killed themselves?

Maybe it is just a lost soul and would disappear if someone did pick it up (only everyone is too chicken to be the first to try it), or maybe they ignore it because of what happened to the last person who tried to pick it up...

[daggerpen.insanejournal.com]

"With this story, however, I tend to see it the other way. All joking aside I always figured that the "baby" is actually some kind of nurse-eating demon or something, a monster that wants to maul you with its giant teeth but that, like a vampire trying to get into your house, it needs an "invitation" before it can actually touch you."

Yeah, that's the way I've always interpreted it.

Which just creeps me out even more, because I'd totally be dumb/sentimental enough to give the poor thing a hug, and then would probably get my face eaten off or something.

[noahbrand.insanejournal.com]

See, I am afraid of Tooth Baby. Never mind the fact that it's, y'know, dead and a ghost, but when something feels the need to, unsolicited, volunteer the information "I'm a baby. I won't bite." then you can be pretty sure neither statement is true.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

When did the manga come out, because the chattering teeth thing reminds me of nothing so much as the Cenobite "Chatterer" from 1987's Hellraiser.

[fungo_squiggly.insanejournal.com]

Fuan no Tane came out in 2004, meaning that the chattering teeth might very well have been inspired by Hellraiser.

On the other hand, of course, monsters with ginormous teeth have been around for just about as long as people have been around to imagine them.

[crinosg.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, but look at the date, apparently this story came about in 1999 (remember all of these Fuan no tane stories are based off of old urban legends and folklore, so who knows when it really came about).

Also, I'd like to see some more of this; like the one with the stretchy waving kid, the playful man, and the ear spitting monk.

[daggerpen.insanejournal.com]

"remember all of these Fuan no tane stories are based off of old urban legends and folklore, so who knows when it really came about."

Wait, they are? I had no idea- I don't suppose you'd happen to know where I could find anything about the legends they're based off of?

[crinosg.insanejournal.com]

I'm afraid not, but here's the entire three volume series online:

http://www.mangafox.com/page/manga/read/4049/fuan_no_tane/chapter.63260.01-000.0/

enjoy.

[crinosg.insanejournal.com]

nevermind, it looks like the above link doesn't let you change the pages. And I can't seem to find the link I was thinking of, sorry.

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

The toothy baby that wants a hug breaks my heart a little.

Also, reminds me of this a little, although the toothy baby is much more haunting...
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll125/mysteryfan/superman/KB.jpg

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

Oh, and agreed that it pulls off a creepy, eerie vibe in spades. Very much. Again I'm reminded of El Orfanto (http://newline.com/properties/orphanagethe.html), with the poor kid who's so terribly that he wears a mask to try and play with the other children.

[daggerpen.insanejournal.com]

Ah, Fuan No Tane. I found that, in order to really get the full effect, you have to read a whole shitload in a row- after a while, it goes from "WTF" to "kind of creepy" to "holy shit get it away!"

It still drives me nuts how none of the stories seem to have anything resembling an explanation of what the fuck's going on. I'm well aware that that's an intentional part of the effect, but it still drives me nucking futs.