A book review on The Enigma of Amigara Fault by Junji Ito

Written by: Jed Lorenz T. Leonardo, STEM 11

Checked by: Zyrene R. Mallare (English for Academic and Professional
Purposes, Subject Teacher)

The Enigma of Amigara Fault

By Junji Ito
“A very brief horror manga that leaves a substantial impression of lingering unease.”

Overview
An earthquake has opened up a fault across the Amigara mountain where it reveals an eerie
phenomenon. The faults that opened up are not ordinary, they are shaped like people. Of
course people begins to gather around thie fault, one of them is a boy named Owaki, he meets
a girl named Yoshida on the to the mountain. They later find out that the people aren’t just
gathering there because of curiosity, they are gathering there because they feel like they have
to, something about the faults feels hypnotic and irresistible. They later find out that
somewhere along those faults, there is one shaped exactly like you. Once you find yours, You
will find yourself in an irresistible compulsion to go inside. There is nothing we can do but to
watch these people vanish into the faults. What is the mystery that lingers inside the Amigara
Fault?.
The books objective is to leave the audience with uneasiness and discomfort. The frustration
of the unexplained mysteries creates fear which leads to a unique feeling after reading the
book.
About the author
Junji Ito is a Japanese manga artist who was born in July 31,1963. He is one of the top
mangakas in the horror genre. He began his experience in the horror world at a very young
age, with his first manga being “Mummy Teacher” by Kazuo Umezu; his two older sisters
read Umezu and Shinichi Koga in magazines, and consequently, he began reading them too..
In the house where he lived, the bathroom was at the end of an underground tunnel, where
there were spider crickets; such experiences were later reflected in his works. Ito began to
draw manga at the age of 4, taking inspiration from the works he read in magazines. He
continued to draw as a hobby until he became a dental technician in 1984, where he struggled
to find a balance between the two.
 "An Interview With Master of Horror Manga Junji Ito (Full Length Version)". Grape Japan. June 10, 2019.
Archived from the original on July 30, 2021. Retrieved April 9, 2020.

Notable Works
“Long Dream”
“Uzumaki”
“Souichi’s Diary of Curses”
“Fragments of Horror”
“Tomie”
“Sensor”
“Frankenstein”
In 1987, he submitted a short story to Monthly Halloween that won an honorable mention in
the Kazuo Umezu Prize (with Umezu himself as one of the judges). This story ran for 13
years and was later serialized as Tomie.
Iwane, Akiko (October 1998). "The Junji Ito Interview: A conversation with the creator of Uzumaki". Davinch.
Archived from the original on March 6, 2019. Retrieved February 20, 2019.

Analysis
I first learned about this book through a youtube channel I follow named “Tale Foundry”
where they make analysis videos about works of literature and art. They made a video about
“The Enigma of Amigara Fault” by Junji Ito. I got interested because the channel labeled it as
“Junji Ito’s most disturbing story”, it surprised me because Junji Ito has made a lot of
disturbing stories, I got curious what makes this the most disturbing one.
As I read it, I was not that convinced of the statement. However, as I started analyzing the
story, it is not just about a horror manga based on body horror, its much deeper than that.
The story is a metaphor to one’s struggles with life. The irresistible urge of a person to enter
the fault depicts a psychological term called “compulsions”. It manifests as repetitive
behaviors or thoughts that you feel the need to do regardless if it is unhealthy, irrational or
may impact you negatively. A more familiar term with the same idea is “addiction”. It is
where we become dependent of such behaviors starting from mild addictions such as sweets
and caffeine, to more harsh things like drugs and sexual behaviors. The more we give in to
our addictions the more dependent we become to these addictions. As we crave for these
addictions they will eventually consume the addict’s life, like how the faults consume the
humans who dare goes inside it.
When the first man went inside the fault shaped exactly like him, people tried to see through
the hole what happened to the man, but they just saw complete darkness. This symbolizes the
phrase “no one can help you but yourself”. He failed to fight the compulsion to go inside the
fault. According to Owaki’s dream, the man was still stuck inside the fault, screaming and
begging for help, but it was too late for anyone to help. The second time Owaki dreamed
about the man, his neck and limbs started to be disfigured but still diving deep into the fault,
much like how compulsions could ruin the course of someone’s life.
Another symbolism I saw was the depiction of Yoshida as a depressed individual. She saw
the fault as her death, she was scared that one day she might just give up and give in to the
compulsion of going inside the fault. Owaki comforted her when as she panicked when she
saw the fault identical to her. Owaki thought that Yoshida was fine after the night, but when
he woke up, Yoshida was gone and she already went inside her fault. Depressed people tend
to desire to end their life but continuously fighting that urge. Owaki was devastated, and in an
unfortunate timing he saw his own fault, due to his grief he accepted and gave in to his own
compulsions and went inside it, never to be seen again.
The most disturbing panel of this manga is its last. They had discovered the other end of the
fault, but its not human shaped like the other side. These are shaped like abnormal and
disoriented cracks, nothing like the human shaped ones from the other side. One person
peeked inside and discovered the horrifying truth. The people that dived into the fault had
been crushed and molded into freakish abominations, however even with these
disfigurements, they are still alive, meaning that they can still feel the excruciating pain done
to them by the fault. This last panel was made to leave the reader with the feeling of
discomfort and terror due to the body horror they just witnessed.
The manga achieved its purpose of leaving the reader terrified. However it failed to make the
metaphorical aspects of the story too hidden. Not everyone would have thought of the
purpose and symbolism of the story and would’ve just saw it as a body horror and
claustrophobia centered horror manga.
In conclusion, I highly recommend the manga “The Enigma of Amigara Fault” due to its
endless possible understanding a reader can have of the story. It may be a short story but the
metaphors hidden in it can be seen in completely different themes depending on the reader. In
my understanding I saw the story as a metaphor for psychological struggles of a person. It
can also give the reader an unforgettable feeling of terror and uneasiness because of the
horrifying illustrations Junji Ito drew on its panels.