 On this episode, we fill our cosmic spooky agenda with some Junji Ito goodness. Hey everybody, welcome back to Wikigitem, Gio here, and today I'm always excited to bring you another Junji Ito manga review. I really enjoy doing them. Here we are reviewing Remina from Junji Ito. So essentially, there's not a whole lot to the book. It is a very simple yet effective horror story about a rogue planet that the scientist discovers and it sort of crosses this warm hole and it arrives into our solar system. And it's on its way, moving super fast on a collision course with Earth. Now the scientist's daughter is named Remina and after this marvelous scientific discovery, he decides to name this rogue planet in honor of his daughter Remina. And she suddenly becomes the talk of the town, if you will. Super famous with acting opportunities and everybody's darling. And it highlights the absurdity of cultish celebrity status and how overnight somebody can become this idol-like character and how many people fall head over heels and you start forming these fan groups that turn quite deadly and quite serious. You don't really know the character and yet you're obsessed that you want to live, breathe and die for that character. That's pretty insane. And we see that in the cult that forms for Remina. Now things take a sour turn when they discover that the planet is moving way too fast and destroying or essentially eating anything it comes across. All these other planets don't stand a chance against this behemoth celestial body that's on its way to potentially destroy, consume and eradicate Earth. You don't really have an explanation as to why it's happening. What's the motive behind this or the scientific reasoning and all that stuff? This is a book that plays more into the fantastical. It really did remind me of reading a classic 50s and 60s sci-fi story where you take absurd premises and you build something horrific out of it. And obviously the charm of the book of having sort of the grotesque images when we find out what's inside Remina or we take a look at the actual planet. And it really did remind me of old school sci-fi stories that don't necessarily have an answer to everything, but that's part of the fun and the mystery of you finding out and maybe theorizing what could happen or why things are going down the route that they're going through. So as the story progresses, there is the revelation and it gets leaked that the planet is headed to Earth and a mass hysteria forms and we see that cultish obsession bubble and boil over in the fact that, hey, this scientist is at fault because he named his daughter Remina and now Remina is coming to the planet to crash into Earth and it could be like the true Armageddon. Therefore, they're the bad guys and we have to... and it suddenly escalates from they are probably the bad guys to no, they're evil and we need to sacrifice Remina and her dad in order to appease the planet so it won't crash into Earth. It sounds absurd and hilarious and kind of silly and especially in a world like the one we're living at now in 2021. I believe that this would happen. If you were to tell me right now that there's a giant asteroid coming and it's named after somebody famous, I would totally believe that a cult obsession would form over that person and they would want to lynch that guy or girl or whatever and to sort of make a last minute Hail Mary to see if it will stop the incoming disaster. I totally believe that and you see that in Remina and that's part of the genius and satirical funny bone that Jujito has because it's not always just about the spooks. There's a message behind it and there's a humor to the absurdity. There's a humor to the craziness and you just got to roll with it and enjoy it for what it is. There's a lot of cheesy sci-fi jargon that's really wild and funky but you go with it, you believe it. Like I said earlier, it does remind me of classic old school Hollywood sci-fies from the 60s. So you do get some striking images. One of the most intriguing ones that you see right away if you don't know anything about the book, you see Remina freaking crucified with a giant mob in the streets demanding her sacrifice and then we go back a year I think and then the story gets explained. The ending I really enjoyed, like a lot. Like again, it reminded me of old school sci-fi and old school horror short stories where the outcome isn't necessarily what you would have expected and it puts the characters in a very dangerous situation and the story just ends there for you to imagine and interpret what could happen next. And that happens with Remina as well. The characters for the most part, almost all of them are kind of stereotypical mob-ish characters. Remina is a shy young girl who doesn't really want to be in the spotlight like she is and when she starts getting deals and sponsorships and being a celebrity of sorts, it kind of changes but you still see that resentment, you still see that shyness and that timid quiet girl that honestly would rather just escape all of that and when crap goes down that is magnified exponentially. Art-wise though, aside from the sci-fi aspects and all the drawings in space, the character models are kind of just extremely forgettable and ordinary. This isn't something that will blow you away when it comes to the people on Earth. Obviously the cool thing about Remina are the visuals of the planet which reminded me of stuff like Ego the Living Planet from Marvel Comics or stuff like that. There's a lot of detail and grossness in Remina the Planet to warrant getting this book. The writing is pretty sharp and concise to the point. There is a message to be said about the human condition and the mob mentality and the cultish obsession with celebrities and just the reaction, the domino effect of a disaster and how people can grow into this massive blob of hate and how that dictates actions over rational thinking. I think that's sort of what I got out of Remina but overall, I really did enjoy it. I'm a huge fan of cosmic horror and scary stuff in space so I was right at home with this. Obviously the deluxe presentation from Fizz Media is to be commended as well and should make a fine addition to your Ito Library or your scary books on your shelf. So what about you guys? Let me know in the comment section down below what you thought of Remina and if you haven't read it, let me know what are some of your favorite cosmic horror but just space themed manga or comics in the comment section down below as well. Thank you everybody for tuning in. Thank you for liking, commenting, subscribing and being a part of it we can geek them. Share the video if you want. It will definitely help out the channel. Thank you so much. Stay safe out there. God bless. I will catch all of you on our next episode.