Nikubami Honegishimi - Vol. 4 Ch. 11.5 - Spirits and Supplementary Lessons and Youth

[MangaDex]

 

[Skullkrusher]

Ghost got lined with eyes on the inside AND outside.

The immense brain that Mensis retrieved from the nightmare was indeed lined with eyes on the inside, but they were of an evil sort, and the brain itself was terribly rotten. But even still, it was a legitimate Great One, and left a relic. A living relic, at that, which is a precious thing indeed...

 

[Pagemistress]

Aw, this was kind of cute! Horrifying, yes, but they both helped each other, and we got some happier lore for him.

 

[solamente]

I like the fact that this is less of a setting with distinct rules, and more like an ecosystem where your role is closer to zooplankton or leaf mulch. kind of a pleasant contrast to vengeful souls and karmic pollution and burial taboos. Like, it's just nature bro. it doesn't care unless you're edible

 

[StarGear]

Heartwarming AND happy end. Unusual, but highly appreciated.

 

[capricieux]

Blushing??!
Could anyone explain what Asama's thought meant after his friend wondered why the Haniwa wasn't found near a tomb?
And thank you for the update!

 

[Junpaku]

Blushing??!
Could anyone explain what Asama's thought meant after his friend wondered why the Haniwa wasn't found near a tomb?
And thank you for the update!

I think it's implying they weren't for dead humans but for the spirits eaten by that thing.
Or! They were used as vessels for the spirits to feed them to the thing.

 

[Gem-Bug]

Great little chapter, thank you!

 

[Hikineet]

Thanks for the chapter.

 

[Descendent]

I like the fact that this is less of a setting with distinct rules, and more like an ecosystem where your role is closer to zooplankton or leaf mulch. kind of a pleasant contrast to vengeful souls and karmic pollution and burial taboos. Like, it's just nature bro. it doesn't care unless you're edible

Yeah, this series feels like it leans more towards cosmic horror, where humans are just an insignificant part of the universe—but based on Japanese folklore instead of the usual Cthulhu mythos. It makes this series stand out from other horror series. I think the frequent insect imagery also reinforces this, reminding us that humans are as insignificant as insects in the greater ecosystem.

 

[Lexington1099]

Where's 11.4?

 

[BalrogDeMorgoth]

Thanks for the chapter

 

[Fugutron]

I wonder if this is related to Chapter 5 haniwas?

 

[Descendent]

Where's 11.4?

I don't think there's a chapter 11.4. Scanlaters on MangaDex conventionally use x.1–x.4 to refer to a single chapter that was released in multiple parts by the publisher; and use x.5–x.9 to refer to bonus chapters/content that were released after the chapter (typically in the tankobon volume release).

In this specific case, chapter 11 was split into 11.1 ("Former"), 11.2 ("Middle"), and 11.3 ("Latter"), so 11.5 is just unrelated bonus content that was released after chapter 11.

 

[tpanny]

whys asama so moe

 

[solamente]

Yeah, this series feels like it leans more towards cosmic horror, where humans are just an insignificant part of the universe—but based on Japanese folklore instead of the usual Cthulhu mythos. It makes this series stand out from other horror series. I think the frequent insect imagery also reinforces this, reminding us that humans are as insignificant as insects in the greater ecosystem.

I want to farm some thoughts from you, since all I've read is Shadow over Innsmouth with random bits and pieces from others, and I don't want to generalize too much from so little.

I did some thinking, and I see a lot of direct continuities btwn that and the stories here - the exposition via metatext, the narrative framing of being an outsider in isolated "inbred" communities, blurring of boundaries btwn man and animal, indifference of the natural order, etc.. There's the borrowing from Japanese mythology here, that's pretty clear.

I might be grasping at straws, but I feel like the essence of Lovecraft's horror is flavoured by his preoccupation with the ideological implications of Darwinian evolution which at that time was relatively new (in Innsmouth it's a bit on the nose: the protagonist realizing his ancestry and carrying out genetic programming, the oblique mentions of the evolutionary progression of the Deep Ones, the town's deliberate breeding of hybrids). So there's this attempt at reconciling the earlier medieval cosmology in which humans are direct creations of God with contemporaneous discoveries in biology made during that time period bringing everything into doubt, archaeological findings continually rewriting the apparent historical record as species and taxonomies were reshuffled or made obsolete. So...

That naturally leads me to wonder - if this is Lovecraft hauled into present-day Japan, what central anxieties is this author preoccupied with? This is the part where I'm not sure because I don't know what's already there in Lovecraft, so I can't tell what's new, which is why I could do with a take from someone more familiar with the mythos. I don't want to put too much effort into this because of that, but here's what I'm seeing:

• The fixation on eating, on consumption, on ecosystem disruption. It's here in this one, 12.1, where a spirit trying to escape the jaws of a predator is mistaken as a "cursed object / disturbed gravesite" narrative.
• In 'Slaughter of Beko', we see that such creatures have preferred prey and preferred hunting-grounds, it's possible for its food supply to be winnowed out via overconsumption. In 'Birth Monk's Well' there's that focus on drinking and thirst, an analogue of a natural resource running out.
• But what makes them really distinct is this ... particular emphasis on eternal life, on incest-cannibalism, on Buddhist reincarnation reframed in "thank you mister cow, you will live on through us" terms rather than "yay I did good deeds, see you in the next life suckers" terms.
• I don't know if "attaining immortality via pact with a higher being whose implications you won't understand until it's too late" is Lovecraft, but for a horror story like this, the lack of explicit full stop death is a bit startling. When we see entities, like the figure of worship in Danta Kannon, they're alive in the same way a forest is alive - the individual trees may die, even a dead tree is alive in that it contributes to those that live, the only constant is the cycle and the starvation of input. The death is less "slasher" and more "squick" like when kids get told that the plants they eat are grown in soil that was once decomposing corpses or manure. There's no pact, just the echoed refrain in that chapter: "Join us"
• I'm getting incoherent so I'll leave it there. Anyone can respond to this btw again I'm just farming rn

 

[gundulgondrong]

love it when manga just drop short stories to relax the pacing

 

[Descendent]

I want to farm some thoughts from you, since all I've read is Shadow over Innsmouth with random bits and pieces from others, and I don't want to generalize too much from so little.

I did some thinking, and I see a lot of direct continuities btwn that and the stories here - the exposition via metatext, the narrative framing of being an outsider in isolated "inbred" communities, blurring of boundaries btwn man and animal, indifference of the natural order, etc.. There's the borrowing from Japanese mythology here, that's pretty clear.

I might be grasping at straws, but I feel like the essence of Lovecraft's horror is flavoured by his preoccupation with the ideological implications of Darwinian evolution which at that time was relatively new (in Innsmouth it's a bit on the nose: the protagonist realizing his ancestry and carrying out genetic programming, the oblique mentions of the evolutionary progression of the Deep Ones, the town's deliberate breeding of hybrids). So there's this attempt at reconciling the earlier medieval cosmology in which humans are direct creations of God with contemporaneous discoveries in biology made during that time period bringing everything into doubt, archaeological findings continually rewriting the apparent historical record as species and taxonomies were reshuffled or made obsolete. So...

That naturally leads me to wonder - if this is Lovecraft hauled into present-day Japan, what central anxieties is this author preoccupied with? This is the part where I'm not sure because I don't know what's already there in Lovecraft, so I can't tell what's new, which is why I could do with a take from someone more familiar with the mythos. I don't want to put too much effort into this because of that, but here's what I'm seeing:

• The fixation on eating, on consumption, on ecosystem disruption. It's here in this one, 12.1, where a spirit trying to escape the jaws of a predator is mistaken as a "cursed object / disturbed gravesite" narrative.
• In 'Slaughter of Beko', we see that such creatures have preferred prey and preferred hunting-grounds, it's possible for its food supply to be winnowed out via overconsumption. In 'Birth Monk's Well' there's that focus on drinking and thirst, an analogue of a natural resource running out.
• But what makes them really distinct is this ... particular emphasis on eternal life, on incest-cannibalism, on Buddhist reincarnation reframed in "thank you mister cow, you will live on through us" terms rather than "yay I did good deeds, see you in the next life suckers" terms.
• I don't know if "attaining immortality via pact with a higher being whose implications you won't understand until it's too late" is Lovecraft, but for a horror story like this, the lack of explicit full stop death is a bit startling. When we see entities, like the figure of worship in Danta Kannon, they're alive in the same way a forest is alive - the individual trees may die, even a dead tree is alive in that it contributes to those that live, the only constant is the cycle and the starvation of input. The death is less "slasher" and more "squick" like when kids get told that the plants they eat are grown in soil that was once decomposing corpses or manure. There's no pact, just the echoed refrain in that chapter: "Join us"
• I'm getting incoherent so I'll leave it there. Anyone can respond to this btw again I'm just farming rn

Regrettably, I'm not well-read enough to expound on the interesting points you've brought up. I wonder if more familiarity with Japanese culture could also shed some insight into the themes the mangaka has written into this series. I look forward to seeing more exploration of this series' themes in future chapters, and reading your and others' thoughts on them.