English Dub Review: Junji Ito Collection “The Ongoing Tale of Oshikiri Collection \ Cloth Teacher”

Kill your double.

Overview:

Oshikiri’s house is haunted by people that he knows. Elsewhere, Souichi is back, and is causing trouble yet again.

Our Take:

Oshikiri’s tale is by far, a very strange one, even by Junji Ito standards. It deals with Oshikiri’s large, manor-style house, and how it seems to be a gateway to an alternate dimensions. He constantly sees people he knows, but he’s never sure if they’re the versions he knows, or those that stumbled in from an alternate dimension. They’re also constantly fearful of him, so he’s never able to get a straight answer out of anyone. Worst off, sometimes the people sees turns into monsters right before dying. It’s enough to constantly set him on the edge, and keep him in perpetual fear.

What bring Oshikiri out of his fear is his budding friendship with Mio, who becomes interested in his life following a misunderstanding. Her curiosity ends up putting her in danger, but also provides Oshikiri an incentive to find out what’s going on with his house. It turns out that while the house acts as a bridge to alternate dimensions, it also brings in other, murderous Oshikiris. This double is responsible for turning everyone into monsters, and as he dies, he mentions that there are infinite doubles out there, waiting. This plays into the fact that not only can Oshikiri not trust others, but for no fault of his own, he can’t be trusted. This particular kind of story plays into the fears that there are sinister forces outside of one’s control.

The second story is another Soichi story. This strangely, cuts out the first part of the story, where Yanagida attempts to help Souichi. In the original, Yanagida visits Souichi’s house several times, trying to convince him to come out of his shell. Yanagida was a troubled kid, and having a teacher really helped him. He wants to do the same to Souichi, but Souichi responds to his kindness by sucking out his soul and turning him into a doll. This cements that Souichi is really a brat, only looking out for himself, no matter what sort of kindness he’s given. As for the actual segment itself, it’s pretty wild. For some reason, the dolls are indistinguishable from human beings. This also feeds into the idea of somehow being replaced, and that the people supposed to be your allies may turn out to be your enemies, which is an understandable fear.

It’s a more subtle horror this time around, but unfortunately with the lack of a prelude for the Souichi sequence, the episode fell a little flat.