English Dub Review: Junji Ito Collection “Smashed/Rumors”

We smash the finale.

 

Overview:

A group of friends try some secret nectar. Elsewhere, there are some strange rumors circling about Souichi.

 

Our Take:

Smashed is all about addiction, and ignoring every warning that can come your way. A man ventures into the tropics and returns to Japan with a container of mysterious nectar. The nectar is so potent that it destroys all sense of taste so that the consumer becomes highly dependent on it, to the point that they can’t eat anything else. Overall, there’s one looming warning- don’t let anyone see you eat it.

Nobody takes this warning seriously, and so they consume the nectar without fear until one by one they’re suddenly crushed to a pulp. It’s so sudden and without warning, and the need to consume the nectar begins to slowly overwhelm their self-preservation. What’s coming after them is the plant that the nectar is from, seeking retribution for stealing the nectar. The leaves have the ability to teleport from place to place, killing anyone that the tree senses is eating their nectar. But the pull is too strong as one by one, the friends throw their senses aside to get their high. In the end, that gets them all killed.

And we finish the series with- yet another Souichi episode. Don’t get me wrong, Rumors was overall a very good segment. For once, Souichi gets his direct comeuppance, with it getting discovered that he started the rumors early on, and the consequences and revenge he suffers as a result. Souichi wants to be cooler, so he inserts the rumors of him doing great things, so much that nobody begins to question them. When it’s discovered that he made it all up, his classmates turn on him. In trying to get revenge, he ends up biting off more than he can chew when his false rumors about Fuchi being in town end up being real. To have Souichi suffer directly from what he did instead of it happening to go wrong is a good move. Problem is, it’s yet another Souichi episode where this could have been an Amigara Fault or a second Tomie. Souichi is one of Ito’s favorites, but it’s more humor than horror, so this absolutely shouldn’t have been an endpoint.

Overall, this was kind of disappointing as an anime. More thoughts on that in the upcoming series review, but right now with this endpoint, it’s not looking too good.