Sensor
I originally read Sensor after finding it at my local library, though I did not have a review section at the time so I have reread it so I can give it a proper write up now! Sensor is about Kyoko Byakuya, a young woman mysteriously drawn to the foot of Mount Segoku, which is known for its strange golden volcanic hair called "Amagami". This strange volcanic hair gives the local villagers some clairvoyance, and they say they were expecting Kyoko and invite her to their star watching. The star watching is short lived as they all see a frightening vision of dark hair covering the stars as Mount Segoku suddenly errupts. This eruption leaves Kyoko as the sole survivor, and she is found in a protective nest of the Amagami, as well as a head of the golden hair as well. This begins Kyoko's struggle as she tries to save the world from the darkness she saw that night.
This manga was just okay, which is dissapointing to say as I usually love Junji Ito's work, even the zanier ones. Honestly I feel like my rereading made me like it even less, the story takes a lot of odd turns and knowing how it went made me less motivated to continue. There is an entire chapter centered around the strange insects in a village Kyoko visits that want to be stepped on and when it dies looks like peoples corpses, it is a very interesting chapter which is a shame because these bugs never come up again :(. The story goes a much weirder religious angle than I originally expected too, and while I do enjoy religious themes and imagery usually this was like. Randomly tossing christians into a volcano in the last chapter, the whole last chapter and ending overall just left me unsatisfied and a little lost.
The most interesting part of the manga to me was actually not the work itself, but the mangaka's afterward. In it he describes how this manga was the first time he struggled with the characters and story not cooperating, and how the finished work was very different from his initial idea of something more similar to Orochi (A work I greatly enjoy and plan to write about eventually) which is why it was originally titled "Travelogue of the Succubus". Reading the afterword made the rest of the work make sense, as it did feel like it went a lot of different scattered places that weren't always cohesive. I would be interested to see what Itou does with the story if he ends up writing more for it like he says he is interested in doing. Oh this doesn't fit anywhere but I thought Beniko's design was cute, love her bangs.
Overall it was fine, if you like Junji Ito's works you'll like it, just don't expect his best from it.
