Jan 26, 2018
Junji Ito's Black Paradox is an interesting story concept. A group of suicidal people grouping together to go to the other side and finding themselves wrapped up in a spiritual journey through another world definetly intrigued me when I was beginning to read it. Perhaps there is an important overarching theme or message to all of the supernatural events that occur in the story that require a little bit more digging. But I am not willing to do that digging because of how much it bored me to undeath.
It's very obvious that Ito is a horror director at heart. He is the master of the
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page turn scare and builds tension to such a degree that you want to read through his stories faster to see just how it turns out. There are elements of horror in this Manga, don't get me wrong. It wouldn't be Junji Ito without them. But if anything, this is much more of a weird mishmash of genres that don't really go together. There aren't enough action elements to call it a Shonen action Manga, there isn't enough focus on the relationships between characters to call this a romance, and, most disappointingly, the horror aspects of Black Paradox focus on freaky visuals rather than the horrifying implication that truly makes Ito's best works shine. It really feels like it doesn't know what it wants to accomplish as a Manga.
Not to mention that the pacing is very awkward. There's what's supposed to be the big reveal in the last chapter that is foreshadowed in the first chapter incredibly subtle and no where else. Not to mention that when the reveal drops, it's in multiple pages of lengthy exposition that could have much more interestingly been captured in the actions that we aren't shown. The whole Manga plays out incredibly slowly up until the later chapters, that have a much bigger focus on the moral aspect of what is happening rather than the more interesting dilemma being the actual action in it of itself. Especially since we aren't explicitly given a real reason to doubt the morality of what is happening until too late.
You really aren't presented with a reason to really care about the characters or what they are doing, and it makes for a very boring read once you get over the concept. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone other than those who appreciate Junji Ito's art in other work, as it is the best part of the whole Manga in my opinion. Even then, there are some wonky designs that being to look silly once you've been looking at them for a few chapters.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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