The obsession towards Japanese writers in general started with a late night conversation, where a particular story of the book Goth came up, and by doing so ignited the desire to jump into that twisted world of human mind. Even thought Goth was the first Japanese dark fantasy book I’ve read and loved, the mind shattering journey didn’t start until I stumbled upon the existence of Fuminori Nakamura.
On a fine afternoon, I decided to give Last Winter we parted by Fuminori Nakamura a read, which happened to be just a random pick. I didn’t look up the synopsis, nor did I check the ratings. The author has an alluring way of storytelling, which builds up the suspense well enough to develop a pull, strong enough to continue the reading, even if at one point the eyes start to burn.
I remember being fascinated by that one photograph, which was also the center of this thrilling story. A simple photograph, captured in a sinister way, giving the captor instant fame, reward and recognition overnight. The photograph contained thousands of butterflies, flying away from their crucial captivity, while the gesture added an aesthetic layer of appreciation, it wasn’t those butterflies which made the photography famous, no.. it was the blurry figure behind that secen.
Some argued the blurry shape belonged to a man, while some thought the figure to be a woman, but for a few, it’s neither, to them that blurry figure that lurked behind those butterflies could not be human. Whatever the identity of that blurry vision was, one specific part everyone ended up agreeing with and that was, when one looked long enough into that shape hiding behind the layers of butterflies, it started to move towards the watcher.
Everyone described it as a shadow that moves, trying to find an escape from that prison frame, but the layer of thousands butterflies created the unbroken obstacle it could not break, but if you could look long enough, who knows maybe it would find the way.
And that’s the beginning of the quest to finish reading all of Nakamuras’ books. The very first story managed to introduce the fascinated, sinister, horrifying, confusing psychology of the human mind. Even though, in the end, the admiration mixed with obsession with Nakamuras work made me stumbled up the mind shattering book Cult X, the one and only legendary creation that made me unable to read any form of books for a year. But surprisingly, it was not Cult X that put a full stop and made me pull myself out of the dark fantasy world. That credit goes to none other but Evil and the mask. During this reading session, I just had to force myself to stop and by doing so, the journey of my lurking around in a dark fantasy world finally came to an end.
Well, that’s what I thought.
What exactly tipped off the falling into that chaotic ocean is still unclear, but when a certain gaming choice to make the decision of whether to kill a rapist or spare his life came forward and the complex dilemma made me hesitant was the moment I knew, well the deed had already been done. So with this new journey, why not take a peck to the world I left behind.
I would say, I got quite lucky. Because even though the decision of coming back was welcoming, I had no intention of continuing the reading of Evil and the mask, the only book of Nakamura that I didn’t finish. Luckily the new of book of the authors just came out recently and with a synopsis like What transforms a person into a killer? it was hard not to jump into the spiral void of psychological thriller.
While I could say, I enjoyed the book with its thrill, suspense, mystery and finished it in one sitting, the ending did feel kind of rushed. It lacked the satisfying spiral his other books had. While the outcome was quite dissatisfying, the most surprising part was those extensive amount of research and information this book contained about Tsutomu Miyazaki also known as Otaku Killer.
Now, because of the year long of obsession with crime world, I was already familiar with the story of Otaku Killer, which is impossible to miss as he was one of the most famous serial killers of Japan. All his targets were little girls, ages ranging from four to seven. And those gruesome killings and aftermaths made it a rare crime-case to study.
Tsutomu Miyazaki would target the young girls and then take them to a secluded place, there he would choke them to death, while some report suggested sexual assaults during/after the killing, he would always take off all the cloths from the body and snapped pictures of the corpse. The body then would be left to be decomposed, some part he would eat, blood he would drink, hands and feet he would chew and after a certain time, some of those body parts would be mailed back to the girl's family house with a small note. So far, I found two.
Now, as chilling, horrifying and disturbing as it was for the family, it could easily spook any other human. But what struck me most was that, majority of the reports mainly focused on what he did, how he did and where he did it, but no one shed much light on why He committed such gruesome crimes, why it had to be so gruesome and violent. That’s where the book turned the attention.
Which pushed my overthinking mind into that shattered direction of Rat-Men.