KIJIN GAHOU

This manga is not for the faint of heart.

Kijin Gahou is a long and twisted slope into the abyss of darkness. It is wicked, gory, and perverse in nature. It is ero-guro, first and foremost, a label that is not exactly in the norm. It is not a genre that can be enjoyed in the traditional sense; the initial barrier of disgust will turn many readers away and rightfully so. However, if you are able to stomach in your desire to look away, then there is a lot to appreciate from this. Shintaro Kago's penchant for visualising guro through his art shines completely as he is able to create unique and refreshing, and equally disgusting, pieces of fiction that tackle themes grounded in our reality.

Kijin Gahou is an anthology, containing various stories ranging from sexual desires turned rotten to peer pressure being envisioned through the slicing of your stomach. It is a lot to take in, especially with the second story being hard to read for various reasons that will not be spoiled, and, if you get shivers by looking at insects, the last story is extremely hard to get through. This is not just a creative outlet for drawing horrifying imagery, however, as Kago manages to insert wicked humour that criticises society's issues, commenting on topics such as peer pressure, abortion, and religion. They are rather simple themes, but they are manifested in creative ways, and Kago uses his guro style of artwork with these themes to create ridiculous yet captivating stories.

The artwork is raw and ugly; characters are not exactly "pretty" or pleasing to the eyes. Of course the gory and disgusting imagery are not nice to look at either. This works entirely in Kijin Gahou's favor, however, as it is a collection of guro stories, but Kago never aims to fetishise his art nor does he work to create meaningless depictions of the grotesque. His artwork mixes entirely well with the nature of his wicked stories, and it keeps to a consistent sense of dirtiness and rawness.

Some of the stories present really are just exhibitions of Kago's style of art and do not contain anything beyond being concepts for Kago's creativity to shine, but they are still imbued with his signature wicked style of humour. The dark kind of humour that is absurd enough for the reader to revel in despite the disturbing content, and it is crazy enough to work in the confines of this assortment of guro stories.

Kijin Gahou is not for the faint of heart, and it is easy for one to avoid it from glancing at its first few pages. With that in mind, it does a lot for the genre and beyond it, incorporating a wicked sense of humour which fits in line with the absurd stories and containing a style of art that Kago knows exactly how to use in his favor. Shintaro Kago knows exactly what he wants out of his creations, and he communicates it to us directly with a dark collection of disturbing guro stories that do its job to horrify and captivate while also commenting on interesting topics surrounding society. It is hard to stomach through, but it sure as hell can get a reader's attention.

Shintaro Kago is renowned for his frank and disturbing tales of sexual perversion. There is a dark wit running throughout all of his manga. I have personally read around 200 manga and 'Suck It' is by far the most disturbing I have ever read.

I didn't know whether to give it a 1 for making me feel disgusting, or a 10 for the balls of getting it published. I settled for a generous score due to its hilarious climax.

To analyse it would take a thousand words and make many assumptions about the author. The premise does it no justice. To talk about it more would spoil it. Therefore I have no option but to let veteran seasoned manga readers of MAL do the talking:

'...that was fucked up, man.' - idklol

'Omfg. What the hell was that?!' - Kimia

'that was awesome' - Lith

'Hahaha, what the hell.' - Raidanzoup

'after getting to the animal part I thought it can't get any worse but man was I wrong :/' - Leffy

'God, I think I'm having suicidal feelings right now... fuck, that was the darkest shit I've ever read' - gomu_ninguen

'what-the-fuck' - Rei-Rei

'Cried...' - Pineappledishes-

'Holy shit.' - HooHiraiBunny

Indeed.

If you're new to Shintaro Kago, or guro in general, this is not the place to start. That being said, if you've read some of his other stuff and are attracted to extremely dark subject matter, you'll greatly enjoy this; it was the most brutal collection of his stories I have thus read.

**You probably shouldn't be reading things like this at all if you're easily triggered, but nonetheless, major trigger warnings for self harm and rape**

A short review of each chapter that was available in English:

The Collection contains fantastic character development, satirizing, defining, and distorting the idea of collection and collectors, as portrayed through the protagonist. Her sadistic blindness contrasted with her subjects' growing sense of fear had me violently wishing the manga would end in justice. I won't say whether or not it did, but regardless, the ending is fantastic.

Harakiri was hard for me to personally stomach (haha) because it dealt with self harm, which is a rough subject for me to look on objectively, so admittedly the following is very biased. I suppose this story could be interpreted as humor, but I did not find it funny, though it effectively commented on how people, teens in particular, can so mindlessly subscribe to trends. The characters in the manga were interesting to follow to see what choices they made, but ultimately, I wouldn't count this as the strongest chapter.

Suck It. Oh boy. This is probably the single most disturbing thing I have ever seen, read, or heard. Do not go into this manga lightly. Heed the warnings of those who have been scarred. Seriously. If you feel uncomfortable with the chapters that came before this one, skip it. Still, it had enormous emotional capability and a terrifying progression, making it probably my favorite piece. This is not an easy thing to forget; it will make an impression and stick there.

Thank god Fetus Collection is the next chapter, because any reader will need a breather, and this provides it. Kago returns to his typical humor and satire with this fun little tale of the art of aborted fetus arranging. The only downside is the end; it was abrupt and unsatisfactory.

Unscratchable Itch was solidly good. It had graphic and effective art, creepy characters and atmosphere, and a superbly creative premise. Once again, the end disappoints, being a bit cliche, but its very worth reading through.

Last but not least is Holy Night, a fantastic little concept executed nicely. Its length, characters, art, and story were all well developed and though it ended on a somewhat mediocre note, it made for a perfect conclusion to this anthology.

Happy Kijin Gahou-ing.

Came across this here and read the reviews so I was all curious to see what this was about,alhough I did know it'd be shocking.And of course it was very.But I don't believe I'll be scarred for life though,so I guess it's o-k-a-y I think...

It is pretty unvonventional I have to say,unusual and weird.Also twisted but that was to be expected by its title and summary.Don't think it is quite deep but even if it was I won't waste my time and think about it much,I don't want it stuck in my head,that's for sure.
It is about a man who in the process of the story becomes obsessed with taking pics,but very obsessed and trying some extreme things too,concerning the sucking of his dick.As pages go by it becomes more..."edgy",what he tries and much more disgusting than how it starts.The cool thing is that he also comments on how the experience was.
It's pretty small so it ends fast.I am not gonna reveal the ending since it's the best,personally I found it quite ironic and sickly funny and I was thinking that for the end alone I might have given it a 10,but nah.

In the end I gave it a 5 because it's very strange,I am not used to it that's for sure bu it's also kind of wrong for me what he does(you'll understand what I mean when you read it).I don't really regret reading it for the time being,although it was pretty hardcore and shocking for me,but it was "entertaining" to see something so different.And of course I wouldn't recommend it to anyone,only to a select few who fancy such a kind.It doesn't fir in the mainstream and it wouldn't do good to everyday readers.Most likely it'd do harm with the pics it presents but if you feel like tying something like this go ahead,I just hope you can take it~

It's gory. It's disturbing. It's perverted. It's twisted and downright sick. And this shit is hilarious. Kijin Gahou is a collection of guro one-shots that parody different elements of modern society, with abortion, peer pressure, fashion, religion, BDSM, and mental illness all being targets for shamelessly fucked-up jokes. This is some of the darkest humor you will ever see, and can easily be off-putting to prudish types. But the gore and bizarre sexual content is used like a plot device, serving as a visual punchline to Kago Shintarou's sick sense of humor, and at a few points the gore itself is the joke. It's not supposed to be serious, and you can tell that Shintarou had a good time making it. If you're a Kago Shintarou fan, or like dark humor in general, this is a great way to kill some time. Also, the last chapter is about a violent and perverted version of Santa Claus wreaking havoc in Japan. If that sound awesome to you, you're a sad, sad person.

"Hey Satan, do you like manga?" "Yeah." "Nice. What kind of? I mean, seinen are probably my favo-" "Ero-guro." "...what's that?" "It's this type of gore mixed with sexuality, sometimes it's black humor." "That doesn't sounds too good, Satan." "No no, read this one, I think you'll really enjoy it." "Shintaro Kago's Suck It?" "Yeah." "Alright then."

"Did you read it?" "..." "Did you get to the panel with the bees? Probably my favorite." "..." "..." "..." "You okay?" "..." "Come on man, it wasn't that bad" "...the... the guy..." "What?" "Shintaro Kago..." "What about him?" "Is he human?" "Technically yes. I took the soul of Maruo Suehiro this time he visited me in Hell then sprinkled a little of the Marquis de Sade's soul." "Damn."

Please save yourself the trauma and stay the hell away from this demented piece of sheer agony. If I could take back reading this, I would, x1000. I had trouble sleeping for a little bit. I read this when I was younger, about 14, because my friend decided it would be funny to troll me by saying this manga was "a masterpiece of literature and art. "I honestly don't understand how someone could jokingly recommend this to another human being while being one themselves. I mean, I joke around and stuff, but this is way too much. You know those videos of those babies with their eyes bloodied up and skin cracking (It's a disease)? Well this is even more disturbing than that. Hats off to the author for being the most twisted f**k that ever lived. I bet the author is going "HUR HUR SHOCK HUMOR SO FUNNY"

TL;DR: DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU VALUE YOUR SOUL.