English Dub Review: Junji Ito Collection “Supernatural Transfer Student / Scarecrow”

The guy who runs straight towards the monster.

Overview:

A new transfer student is in town, looking for stranger things. Elsewhere, planting scarecrows in the graves of the dead turns the scarecrows into those who died.

Our Take:

The mysterious transfer student comes and brings chaos with him. Tsukano’s appearance brings inexplicable things, like a mysterious waterfall, corpse revivals, organ flowers, and sudden statues. Instead of being put off by them, he’s instead excited and takes everything in a positive stride. The rest of his clubmates don’t share his views and are freaked out by him. Some of them even suspect that Tsukano is behind it.

Thing is, it’s all purely coincidental- he’s not responsible for anything that happens. He doesn’t actively bring all the phenomena with him, it just appears around him. He’s enthusiastic, but he’s not the one pulling the strings. All the actual responsibility falls to the rest of the club who actually go about causing trouble. Shibayama becomes nervous about faking his powers and falls under the waterfall’s trance, and Kitagawa becomes murderous. While Tsukano’s definitely part of the phenomena somehow, he merely sets things in motion and then vanishes when he feels like moving on. Interestingly, the episode reveals more about Shibayama and Kitagawa than it does Tsukano.

As for Scarecrow, it all revolves around death and the unresolved feelings that come with it. People want so desperately to see their loved ones again that when Yuki’s scarecrow becomes a success, everyone plants scarecrows. However, the lingering attachments of the dead still remain and are even more powerful now that they have a physical medium to act through. Toshio wants to be with Yuki, so Yuki’s scarecrow haunts him until he joins her in death. Another family features Shigeru, a young boy who died recently. While his death seemed sudden, his scarecrow is able to reflect the resentment he felt towards his murderer– his stepfather. By having a physical form, Shigeru is able to enact his revenge.

Both stories circle around the idea of external factors and phenomena bringing out the truth in people. Interesting stories to pair together.