Haptic Visuality in Junji Ito’s “Frankenstein”

Junji Ito’s Frankenstein raises the obvious question of “what does this new adaptation (and new medium) offer to this old story?” One possible answer is “haptic visuality” a visual experience with the potential to enhance or alter the dominant themes of the story. #Ito #frankenstein 1/13

In his doctoral thesis on Junji Ito for Nagoya University, “Monsters, Spirals and Spooky Girls: Affective and Embodied Modalities of Reading Itō Junji’s Horror Manga,” JCI Dario examines and explores how haptic visuality is employed by Ito in his various horror works. 2/13

Dario’s work makes use of Vivian Sobchack’s discussion of haptic visuality, a process by which “the viewer’s frustrated engagement with the “sensual solicitation” of graphic violence prompts a shift in focus towards their own body,… 3/13

“… forging a visceral connection between the on-screen events and the lived experience of the audience. This phenomenon becomes even stronger in body horror, where the events of a narrative mostly center on the violation and transformation of the human form.” 4/13

Simply put, the visual spectacle of violence that we see in Ito’s Frankenstein forces a sort of hyperawareness of the body onto the reader. Additionally, haptic visuality is believed to heighten the experience of tactile sensation whilst inviting long staring at grotesque panel images. 5/13

Thus, haptic visuality can be seen to allow Ito to build a Frankenstein experience that greatly amplifies the reader’s sense of morbid fascination and of texture. It draws the reader in and has them “feeling” the textures of the grotesque images depicted. 6/13

In this sense, haptic visuality would seem to make the Frankenstein-reading experience more visceral, thus connecting the reader in a deeply compelling way to a creature that is comprised, almost literally, of viscera. 7/13

In sharp contrast, the reader’s exposure to the homunculus in Shelley’s version is through text, most of which is essentially monologue. This system of representation can be seen to distance the reader from the embodied monstrosity of the character, which is, of course, invisible. 8/13

The visual assertion of the character’s monstrous body, ably illustrated by Ito’s figure drawing, thus pushes the reader to Other the creature more, and, by extension, to become more conscious of their own body in all of its monstrous imperfections. 9/13

Put inelegantly, Shelley’s monster is verbose, manipulative, and insightful. Ito’s monster is those things as well, but also grotesque in a way that is largely beyond the reach of Shelley, save for in a few descriptive passages. 10/13

This continual visual presence of the grotesque can also be seen to play well off the evolution of Frankenstein’s audience. In 1816 a novel about a sympathetic monster was shocking in and of itself. In the 21st century, we are fully accustomed to the idea of sympathetic monstrosity. 11/13

In this sense, Ito’s adaptation could be seen to restore for a modern audience the depths of shock and horror felt by Shelley’s original readers, prompted as they were by factors (religion, science, literacy) that have since diminished the visceral impact of the character. 12/13

Simply put, then, Ito’s adaptation goes far beyond illustration of an existing text – it radically alters (or radically restores) the most fundamental aspects of the horror within a horror classic and of the humanity within a philosophical exploration of the boundaries of said term. 13/13