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Uzumaki: Dissecting Junji Ito's Inspirations During His SDCC Interview

During today's Comic-Con@Home virtual panel, publisher VIZ Media interviewed Junji Ito, the acclaimed manga writer and master of horror media. During the conversation, the masterful mangaka spoke of varied inspirations and answered questions posed to him by his audience across the globe.

The interview started off solid with Ito being asked what the secret is to producing quality horror works – to which, Ito answered quite wisely that he attributes his personal success to an early and continued fascination of, and exposure to, the genre which he writes within. Basically, he says that because he was exposed to the horror genre early on and he stuck with it throughout his life of 57 years so far, he succeeds where others may have faltered. His words are a bit more humble than that, but this is the gist of his message.

Ito was also asked of his inspirations. As one could expect, Ito mentions various mangaka who had inspired his art and writing, including Kazuo Umezu, who wrote The Drifting Classroom, a piece that Junji Ito really appreciates. He also makes mention of the iconic horror author Stephen King, a writer who likely needs no introduction to the readers of this article.

Ito was also asked about whether or not he would date Tomie, the titular character of one of his most iconic manga. Ito replied quite frankly, practically asking "Do I have a choice?". His wit is duly noted here. If you wish to watch more of Junji Ito's interview with VIZ Media, you can do so by checking out the YouTube video below. What do you think of Ito's work? Is it sufficiently horrific for you? Let us know in the comments below!

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