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A review by angethology
Black Paradox by Junji Ito
3.75
Maruso, Taburo, Baracchi, and Pii-tan meet through website Black Paradox, a suicide website. Wanting to finalize their ideations, they backtrack when things go awry and find an opportunity to find new meaning in life. The Paradonite, magically ejected from their bodies, is a beautiful, unique mineral that opens up a new, dazzling world.
As always, Junji Ito's artwork is wonderful and shows you the grotesque side of seemingly alluring stuff in life. There's always a catch to infinite beauty and a new world to dominate or replicate on earth, and this book particularly shows you that no object, wealth or technology can truly fulfill your soul. When greed comes in the picture, the state of one's anxiety or uneasiness is only replaced with a temporary happiness that serves as junk food, and bites you back in the ass in the end. I love the acceptance and hopelessness at the end, where the characters seem to be much worse off than they were in the beginning. Not my favorite Ito book, but still a good read, also get a "cute" bonus story at the end.
As always, Junji Ito's artwork is wonderful and shows you the grotesque side of seemingly alluring stuff in life. There's always a catch to infinite beauty and a new world to dominate or replicate on earth, and this book particularly shows you that no object, wealth or technology can truly fulfill your soul. When greed comes in the picture, the state of one's anxiety or uneasiness is only replaced with a temporary happiness that serves as junk food, and bites you back in the ass in the end. I love the acceptance and hopelessness at the end, where the characters seem to be much worse off than they were in the beginning. Not my favorite Ito book, but still a good read, also get a "cute" bonus story at the end.