Customer Reviews

The Red Snake (Hino Horror)

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I first learned about Hino through another talented artist who works in the field of horror manga, Junji Ito. In a short bio at the end of one of his books, Ito cited Hino, as well as the American writer H.P. Lovecraft, as two of his influences. Ito was also the recipient of an award which carries Hino's name which honors Japanese artists who have mastered tales of terror. I already knew about Lovecraft. If you're into horror and you don't know his name, you should. Ito . . . well, let's just say the guy continues to amaze me. "Uzumaki" was fantastic, as was "Gyo". So, long story short, I put 2 and 2 together (and for once I didn't come up with 22). I reasoned that it made sense--considering the logical connections--for me to learn more about Hideshi Hino. At the time, I could only find two of his books on Amazon: "Hell Baby" and "Panorama of Hell". Both were out of print. Far too lazy (and picky) to buy them used, I waited for the day when more of his works would be published in English. That day has come! DHP has recently published two of his books, "The Red Snake" and "The Bug Boy". Hino. How can I describe his work? His drawing style has a childlike quality about it. This does nothing to offset his horrific tales. In reality, it accentuates the disturbing atmosphere that hangs over each and every page of lush black and white illustrations. "The Red Snake" is a story told from a young boy's point of view. He lives in a house surrounded by an endless forest that he can't escape. To make things worse, he is surrounded by lunatics: his grandfather has a large growth hanging from his jaw, his grandmother believes she is a chicken and lives in a nest, his father, who raises chickens with sadistic affection, aids her dementia by giving her baskets of eggs that he claims she laid herself, his mother tends to grandfather's boil with far too much tender loving care, and his sister fondles insects with erotic glee. As if the poor kid doesn't have enough to worry about, his grandfather tells him that the large mirror in their house is, in reality, a barrier that blocks the gates to Hell. I'm not going to spoil the story for you, but it should come as no surprise that events unfold in a manner that is reminiscent of lingering nightmares. As for the format of the book, DHP has remained true to the original layout; the pages and panels are meant to be read from right to left. This has become a current trend, as many translated mangas are now printed like this. If, however, you are new to this sort of thing, have no fear, it's easy enough to adjust your reading habits. I ordered "The Red Snake" along with "The Bug Boy" (not quite as dark, but a worthwhile read, nonetheless). Both books are well worth the money. Considering each volume consists of roughly two hundred pages, the price of ten dollars is a steal. With more Hino books to be released in the future, I would strongly suggest you start your collection now. With over 400 Hino title in print, it could turn out to be a rather large collection.

Volume one of the Hino Horror series involves a strange tale of a bizarre family and a strange house.

The story opens with a frightened little boy telling us of the house he hates. It is huge and surrounded by a dark forest. He has never been able to leave the house, always running bach scared to a new section he did not know. One hallway is blocked by a large mirror. It is said by the boy's grandfather that the mirror prevents the demons on the other side from getting through. But even stranger than the house is the boy's family. Among them is a grandmother who thinks she is a chicken and lives in a big nest. The boy seems to be the only normal one in the house.

One day the boy sees a crack in the mirror. He is terrified that the demons can now come through. The first evidence is a large red snake loose in the house. From there things escalate at a frightening pace as the boy becomes witness to terrible horrors involving his family. In the end we return to a narrative similar to the opening.

This is a strange one. We never get any real idea of who these people are or what the house is. It sort of reminds me of The Sentinel but there is nothing to indicate that the family is watching or guarding anything. But despite all of that this still remains a very creepy story full of dark imagery and atmosphere. A pretty good choice to lead of this new series of Hino's work.

The Red Snake is the first volume in the Hino Horror series put out by Cocoro Books, celebrating the achievements of Hideshi Hino, the master of Japanese horror manga. I don't know if I would actually called this first volume horror or a disturbing meditation on suffering, death, and abnormality. Oh yeah, that's what horror is!

The narrator of this tale is a young boy desperately trying to escape his home that is surrounded by a dense forest. Everytime he tries to leave, the forest somehow always mysteriously makes him wind up back at his house. Why does he want to escape? If you only knew! For starters, his grandmother is insane and believes she is a chicken, even eating bugs and living in a nest she constructed from sticks. His grandfather has an enormous cyst or pus-filled growth on his chin the size of a bowling pin. The kid's father is psychotic who raises chickens. Innocent enough, but if the chickens don't produce eggs, the father decapitates them. The mother's main job in the house is to massage the grandfather's giant size abscess by rubbing it with an egg and even stepping on it with her foot to lance it.
And then we have the kid's sister, who has a perverse obsession with bugs. On top of this cheerful set-up, there is a hallway in the house blocked by a mirror, behind which the grandfather says lurks abominable horrors. Like the house isn't filled with horrors already! When the narrator ventures behind the mirror in a dream, he finds that things can always get worse!

Some of the images in this book made me almost not want to turn the page. But hey, that's what horror is for! To show you things you want to turn away from but feel compelled to look at. Hino does a good job of creating an alternate world somewhere in the depths of Hell akin to Dante's Inferno. If you're in the mood for a creepy story, check this out.

One of the more surreal Hino books I have read, The Red Snake is a sensitive portrayal of an innocent child caught up in the midst of his family's insanity and perversion. I was moved by the poem at the beginning even though I'm sure it loses something in the translation, and I was even more entranced as I watched the book unfold and realized that parts of the poem were being echoed in the story. I am very glad I got this book and it may be my favorite book so far among those I have collected in the Hino Horror series. It definitely ranks up there for me next to Panorama of Hell and I think it's somewhat superior to Mystique Mandala of Hell in its treatment of the child protagonist.

I entered the dream (or shall I say, the nightmare) as I read this book.

Beware the red snake! Told from the perspective of a young boy, The Red Snake (Hino Horror 1) is a story of the above boy, the house he inhabits, and the forest around his house that stretches on and on. The characters in the story are all mad: his grandfather, who sports a massive growth on his jaw; his grandmother, who believes she is a chicken; his father, who is vicious to the chickens he raises (except for his mother, to whom he provides eggs that so that she can claim she laid them herself); and his sister, whose affection for insects borders on the erotic. The story evolves into a classic nightmare.

Ever heard about the infamous Japanese pseudo-snuff films of the GUINEA PIG series (now available on DVD even from mainstream retailers like amazon)? The first two entries in the series (DEVIL`S EXPERIMENT and FLOWERS OF FLESH AND BLOOD)were directed by manga artist Hideshi HINO. Having seen the GUINEA PIG series (although I did not like it and would not recommend it to anyone) I picked up some of HINO`s manga work.
As was to be expected THE RED SNAKE turned out to be an exercise in gross out how-much-can-you-take-before-you-vomit horror. Don't let the innocent cover fool you!
The plot (so to speak) evolves about a weird family living reclusively in an odd desolated mansion. Now weird is actually an understatement: Grandmother thinks she is a hen and likes to sit atop a nest made of twigs in the middle of the room (!). Granddad has a weird lump in his face and his daughter has the unthankful daily task of squeezing the pus out of it (which is presented with rather obvious sexual overtones). Dad breeds chicken (when he is not busy slaughtering them). Needless to say that the children are dysfunctional, too: Our narrator, a small boy with a bizarrely disformed head, watches his sister playing with bugs. As if all of this mess was not enough, there is an evil presence in the mansion, sealed behind a mirror. Well, it is not a spoiler to mention that this evil force (in form of the red snake of the title) breaks loose and sets in motion a descent into madness, mayhem and disfigurement...

Well, I am not averse to bizarre and sick entertainment - quite on the contrary (check out my other reviews). However, THE RED SNAKE has little of merit beyond the savage imagery. It is all very degenerate and sick (and not in an entertaining way) with images of bizarre bodily transformations, pus, gore, bugs and gratitous scenes of cruelty against animals galore,relentlessly thrown at the reader. Truth be told I found even GUINEA PIG easier to stomach and a less sickening entertainment.
Admittedly it is competently drawn. The publisher has retained the original Japanese right-to-left reading format and made the rather odd choice of leaving the original Japanese sound effects untranslated. (I really wonder why they bothered even translating the dialogue, as there is not exactly much talk in this manga.)

First off, let me say I am a huge fan of all the following:
-David Cronenberg
-Thomas Ott
-David Lynch
-Takashi Miike
-Junji Ito
-Shinya Tsukamoto
-Jim Woodring
And all these can easily be categorized as "sick" or "extreme" or "nightmare-ish" art.

But this stuff is just wrong.
All I can figure is Hideshi Hino uses the comic medium to exorcize personal demons and vent his rage, anxiety and nausea.
This is a good example of someone who goes too far over the line.

It starts out great, with a frightened, wide-eyed little boy living in a big scary house surrounded by a vast woods. Then you get to meet his freaky family. And then you learn about a terrible secret hidden within the house. And then the fun begins.

I didn't enjoy this at all. It made me feel rattled and sick. But not in a cathartic way. Hino doesn't bring any spirituality or insight to the horror.

There are little moments of poetry (mostly in the writing, so its hard to tell if it is Hino or the translator) that peak through, but not enough to sweeten the nasty taste the book leaves behind.

I wouldn't recommend it. Not unless you're a pure pure pure hardcore gore hound who likes flesh and bone for itself alone

I read a couple of Hino's mangas at the bookstore, and I must say I was thoroughly disappointed. I am a huge fan of Junji Ito (and Japanese horror in general), and while I'm aware that artists like Ito and Umezu Kazuo don't write the deepest stories, they at least craft interesting stories. And often times their stories make you think. From what I read, Hino's stories were just typical ghost and monster stories that weren't particularly interesting or thought-provoking. Instead of scaring me, most of the stories just grossed me out.