Hino Horror 7: The Collection 1
Posted: November 2, 2007 Filed under: Hino Horror Leave a comment »In case Panorama of Hell and (sort of, I disagree on this) Lullabies from Hell weren’t enough autobiography for you, the next two volumes of the Hino Horror series feature short stories about the life of Hideshi Hino as he imagines it. He tells you these stories, all stories from his youth, via items in his collection, which includes lumps of flesh, different types of creatures, fetuses, hands, friends, and multiple personalities.
One of the first stories in this collection talks about how he met his wife, and how they murdered separate groups of bullies with a magic mirror. Aww.
Some of the stories intersect with both Jigokuhen and Red Snake, for instance his father having the spider tattoo on his back (which Hino maintains is true, he says people were afraid of them when they went to public baths, which is kind of funny), his grandfather being a yakuza, the massaging of pussy sacs on one’s face, the gathering of eggs for eccentric purposes, things like that. The stories get told slightly differently here than in Jigokuhen, though. Jigokuhen is a much better work than these two volumes are, but the stories in these two volumes are somewhat more fascinating.
Some of the other stories in this volume include the way that friends hatch from eggs laid by grandma, who’s turned into a chicken. There’s a story about how Hideshi collects his father’s spider tattoo. There’s a story about how Hideshi’s mom went insane because he was born clutching the tiny fetus body of his twin. Most of his family members die.
It’s not Panorama of Hell, but it’s still pretty awesome.
