The Seashore

[cyberghostface]

Remember to read from right to left.

The story opens with Mimi and her friends going on a trip to the beach.





The sound of footsteps wakes Mimi and she looks out her window.







She wakes up her boyfriend(?) Naoto and tells him what she saw but there is nothing there.

The next day, at the beach...




"When night falls, those lost to the sea rise up to the shore. I've seen it many times."

Their rest of their friends come back from surfing and one of them, Furusawa, sees the waitress and hits on her. To the rest of their friends' surprise, she takes a liking to him.

At the shore they're taking pictures of each other.








That night Furusawa decides to go to bed early but later he runs out to the sea. The rest assume that he's sleepwalking and run out to get him before he drowns.






He says the teacher is begging him to help and attempts to run into the water again. The rest of the crew thinks he's lost it and decide to take him into the car and wait until morning.

The next morning, Furusawa is missing.




As Mimi asks how could this happen, the waitress turns up and explains that a long time ago a group of preschool children got swallowed up int the waves and drowned.

Comments

[auggie18]

You know, for a Junji Ito story, this is actually pretty close to a happy ending. The evil thing is contained to one area, there's lots of survivors, the body horror is minimal...


Still creepy as hell, though. That man knows his horror.

[razsolo]

Well! This has certainly helped with my blind terror of Everything In The Ocean! D-:)

I think this is the best one of his stories I have seen so far, thanks!

[cyberghostface]

NP, it ranks up there for me too. :)

[espanolbot]

Oh no, the ghosts got Chinface!

[superfangirl1]

lol, I laugh at this more the I should.

Also I enjoy these scans.

[donnblake]

First I was like: Hmm, I wonder what was wrong with the girl that scared the guy so much?

Then I was like: Holy shit, what was wrong with her that scared him so much more than "Legion of drowned ghost-children dragging his friend to his death?!"

[rainspirit]

Fridge horror at its finest.

*shivers*

[leoboiko]

Ah yes, the "Lovecraft" school of horror. Tell readers that it's horrible, show the effects of how horrible it is, but never let them know why it's horrible.

[thezmage]

You know, I usually hate that particular school of horror, but here it works. Largely because we saw the first picture so we have some standard for what the horrible thing is.

[nomadicwriter]

That image with the photo of the ghost children is fantastic.

[simiansyndicate]

Scrolling down, seeing the story is by Junji Ito: "Oh no. Oh dear God no. I'll want to sleep tonight." *clicks anyway*

Reading: "Y'know, this isn't too bad, a little grisly, but..."
*scrolls to the pictures*
"OH SWEET MARY THAT'S GOING TO BE THERE WHEN I CLOSE MY EYES."

Now: "Can't sleep yet. Must cleanse with something sugary-sweet for the eyes..."

[pyynk]

Wow, that's good! Usually his stuff his just grotesque to me, but that's genuine horror!

[silverzeo]

... huh... wouldn't the photo with the clingy kids work out better if they were normal kids? Uping the creepy ante that the ghost children were real but no one but themselves would know that they were ghosts, rather than the "HS! Ghost monsters are Nucking real!" in those pictures....

[captainbellman]

Apart from "Slug Girl", Ito's stuff is usually more fascinating for me than scary (and even that story just grosses me out more than scaring me). For true terror, you can't beat Jim Woodring.

[ar_feiniel]

The art is really good in this one.

[mrplague]

Okay, I might be on the wrong track here but that waitress looks just like Misaki from another Junji Ito story "Nothing but a ghost". [serious spoilers from now on, read at your own risk] You know, the girl who was nourished by her mother's ghost so she has to feed on spirits in order to stay alive? I think that is why she can see all the ghost at the beach and despite that she still hangs out there. It is her hunting ground. Also that's why Tanaka destroyed her photos, her otherworldly image must have been even more frightening than the tortured souls of the drowned children.