Iwasaki
Iwasaki walks down the street, with a bad feeling. As he sits in a coffee shop, he begins to wish there was a way to avoid fate. From previous experience, he has always had bad luck, when it came to avoiding his ‘premonitions’
He strolls through a magazine, and sees the face of an ugly woman, and asks could she really be a model. Iwasaki lies in bed later that night, having a bad dream, about the ugly model. His friend asks him if he was sure he remembered the model’s face correctly.
Oda, his friend asks him about a film project, that they are working on, and tells Iwasaki that he’ll find someone else to help, if the model is freaking him out that much.
Iwasaki cannot stop thinking about the ugly model, but had never seen the photo of her ever again. Time passed, and his memory of her faded. Iwasaki’s group wins the prize for the film project they made. They decide to hold auditions for their film, and open it to the public. They get three submissions, and find the perfect girl, Tamae. The third submission, is a picture of an ugly woman.
Its the same model, that Iwasaki had seen from before. Oda decides to cast the ugly woman in their student film, alongside Tamae. He thinks her look is ‘unique.’
Fuchi
We learn the model’s name is Fuchi, and boy is she quite ugly in person! Oda lies, and tells Fuchi that Iwasaki is a huge fan of hers. What an asshole friend. Oda still pushes for Fuchi to be in the film, even though she is freakishly tall and clearly unattractive.
The group drives to a location to shoot the film. Someone tells a joke in the car, and Fuchi laughs hysterically. Everyone notices her creepy looking teeth. As they are filming a shot, Iwasaki sees Fuchi staring at him, and goes to wash his face in the river. Fuchi follows him, and he starts running.
The chase
Fuchi chases after Iwasaki in the woods. He makes it back to his friends, and they notice that Fuchi is missing. Iwasaki begs his friends to leave her in the woods. They continue filming, but they’re only filming Tamae’s roles, which makes Fuchi a little jealous. They take a break, before they start filming Fuchi’s part.
Tamae
The group argues over whether or not they should leave her in the mountains. Iwasaki urges them to leave her regardless. Miyake, another friend runs towards the group, out of breath. He tells them that he saw Fuchi in the woods, eating Tamae. Oda doesn’t believe Miyake, so they try to go find Tamae.
Instead of finding Tamae’s body they find bloody rocks and a bloodlust Fuchi. Fuchi begins chasing them, and she catches Miyake and eats him. Iwasaki falls behind. He knows that if he tries to stop Fuchi, something bad will happen. The scene ends.
The Long Dream
Mami lies in bed, crying about dying. She hears someone at her hospital door and screams. The next morning, Mami is screaming at a doctor telling them, she doesn’t want to die. She claims she saw the grim reaper, but the doctor tells her it was just a patient, from another ward.
She claims she has dreamed of a creature from the dark beyond. The doctors conclude that the “reaper” roaming the halls at night is most likely having a hard time sleeping. They go to see the special patient.
The Grim Reaper
Tetsurou Mukouda, is the special patient (Mami calls him the grim reaper), who roams the halls at night. He has been at the hospital for two months due to his “long dreams” He would go to sleep, and his dreams would last for two to three full days. His last dream lasted one whole year. He has a hard time telling when he’s awake and asleep. This was when he was admitted to the hospital.
Dr. Kuroda goes to check on Tetsurou who looks very sickly. His body is pale, and there’s barely any hair on his head. He really does kinda look like a grim reaper, but like if the grim reaper was super sick.
Mami
Tetsurou calls out for his wife, Mami. He claims this is where he met her. Cutting back to Mami, the nurse is trying to get her to eat, but she refuses. Tetsurou busts into her room, and calls out her name, causing her to scream. Tetsurou remembers he’s having another dream. He voices more concerns to Dr. Kuroda.
Mami is still freaking out about dying. Doctor Kuroda goes to check on Tetsurou again. He’s lying in bed motionless. And his body looks a little decayed. Eventually his body turns to literal dust. Kuroda later discovers some crystalized material, that was left in Tetsurou’s brain. He linked the material to the dreams.
Kuroda checks on Mami, who claims she is feeling better. She tells Kuroda that lately, she’s been dreaming for a long time. She’s starting to look like Tetsurou did. Kuroda confesses he transferred the crystal material to her brain. He knew Mami’s fear of death, is what kept them from being able to give her proper treatment. So he decided, that if she dreamed for long periods, it would rid her of her fear of death. The scene ends.
My Thoughts
Okay so this wasn’t too scary again, but way less comedic than the first episode. I like the cliffhangers, since it does allow me to wonder what has happened. Did Iwasaki ever escape Fuchi, or did she eat him? Was she fully human? What made Oda want to be around her in the first place? Is there an underlying message to her appearance, and the fact that she was a model? Looks can be deceiving, but chick looked creepy and turns out, she was a killer so why didn’t everyone just listen to Iwasaki in the first place? Hate to see it.
And for the dreaming episode that doctor would have been going to jaillllll! However, I did like the concept of humans being able to dream forever, in the effort to escape death. I daydream a lot. I often wish my dreams could last years on end, I’d be so much happier. Seriously. Death really isn’t something one should fear, because it is inventible. But if one could dream forever, and slip peacefully into death, I’m sure it wouldn’t be so bad. Which is why I really do hope I die in my sleep one day.
Anyways, that was a pretty good episode. I would say in terms of horror, Junji is still spot on with the art and his style. Fuchi was a pretty creepy looking woman, and I certainly wouldn’t want to be be thinking about that face at night. And the way Tetsurou’s body looked, was super sickly. I like it. On to the next episode!
Junji Ito Collection
