The Monstrous Feminine in Junji Ito’s “Frankenstein”
In some ways, Junji Ito’s adaptation of #Frankenstein is slavishly faithful. Unlike most adaptations, it maintains the bulk of the novel’s plot & the Creature’s eloquence. Its major digression is the animation of a female Creature, with implications for intersections of gender & monstrosity. 1/12
Ito’s version of the story creates additional horror & pathos by having Victor give the female Creature the head of Justine Moritz, a maidservant and companion of Victor’s intended, Elizabeth. As in the original novel, Justine is executed after the vengeful male Creature frames her for murder. 4/12
The cruelty and injustice of Justine’s fate, whose brutal death and horrific resurrection are ultimately Victor’s fault, might inform the female Creature’s immediate reaction to Victor’s use of Justine’s name when she awakes: she immediately stabs him multiple times with a pair of scissors. 5/12
It’s also notable that in the novel, Victor destroys the female Creature prior to her (re)birth, while Ito’s male Creature destroys the female Creature *after* her (re)birth. The female Creature who was Justine is thus multiply, graphically brutalized. But this is not done uncritically. 6/12
Jack Halberstam argues that in Shelley’s novel, the female Creature is especially threatening because she represents “the symbolic & generative power of monstrosity itself, and particularly of a monstrosity linked to femininity, female sexuality, and female powers of reproduction….” 7/12
“While the male monster educates himself and argues eloquently with his maker, the female monster repels Frankenstein before he has even brought her to life… While [the male monster] becomes part of his author’s identity, she threatens her maker with his own dissolution.” 8/12
In other words, because she threatens to create a race of monsters, the female Creature takes the authority of creation away from the male scientist. This speaks to both the power of women as well as misogyny, reflecting, simultaneously, Victor’s awe, fear, and revulsion of women. 9/12
In Ito’s version, it is the male Creature who is most dramatically fearful of & disgusted by the female Creature. Initially, the male Creature weathers the female Creature’s rejection (which is also a manifestation of her own existential horror). But the situation quickly escalates. 10/12
The male Creature kills the female Creature in response to her violent assertion of agency. Perhaps he kills his prospective mate in order to protect himself. Or perhaps he kills her because she defies his misogynistic expectation for a docile bride who will naturally reflect and obey him. 11/12
The male Creature’s brutal murder of the female Creature is ultimately a condemnation of the same masculine hubris that both created the male Creature and killed Justine: the monstrous son is a reflection of the monstrous father. But at least the female Creature gets some (temporary) revenge. 12/12