Manga
Description
My Gorilla Family is a collection of fourteen short manga stories created by Ichiro Iijima in the early 1970s. The collection is an anthology, meaning there is no single continuous plot but rather a series of standalone, mind-melting narratives linked by themes of horror, occult, dark fantasy, and surreal science fiction.
The title story, My Gorilla Family, presents a bizarre speculative scenario in which a woman finds herself living in a world where gorillas have become the superior race. The narrative follows her experience of being married to a gorilla, as her friend explains that gorillas are superior to all human races. The story builds toward a potential twist but concludes abruptly without offering clear explanations for its strange premise.
Other stories in the collection feature an even wider range of shocking concepts. One tale involves a satanic genie who grants twisted desires, while another depicts culinary aliens who demand child sacrifice. Body horror features prominently, including a story where a woman explodes into spiders that had been planted in her womb, and another where a woman shatters into ice after an encounter with a man of extraordinary size. Science fiction elements appear in stories like Women Planet, where powerful sexbots tear men apart during intimacy, and Homo Sexualis, which follows the bioengineering of an ideal man turned sex beast.
The collection includes recurring themes of supernatural punishment, sexual horror, and grotesque transformation. Many stories end on bleak or disturbing notes, with protagonists facing ironic fates. The art style reflects the era of its creation, with hulking, brutish male characters and expressive female figures. As an anthology from early 1970s Japan originally published in men's magazines, the stories are brief, typically running eight to ten pages each, with a few multipart tales. The collection serves as a showcase for Iijima Ichiro's notoriously unrestrained imagination, offering a glimpse into a fringe corner of vintage Japanese horror comics.
The title story, My Gorilla Family, presents a bizarre speculative scenario in which a woman finds herself living in a world where gorillas have become the superior race. The narrative follows her experience of being married to a gorilla, as her friend explains that gorillas are superior to all human races. The story builds toward a potential twist but concludes abruptly without offering clear explanations for its strange premise.
Other stories in the collection feature an even wider range of shocking concepts. One tale involves a satanic genie who grants twisted desires, while another depicts culinary aliens who demand child sacrifice. Body horror features prominently, including a story where a woman explodes into spiders that had been planted in her womb, and another where a woman shatters into ice after an encounter with a man of extraordinary size. Science fiction elements appear in stories like Women Planet, where powerful sexbots tear men apart during intimacy, and Homo Sexualis, which follows the bioengineering of an ideal man turned sex beast.
The collection includes recurring themes of supernatural punishment, sexual horror, and grotesque transformation. Many stories end on bleak or disturbing notes, with protagonists facing ironic fates. The art style reflects the era of its creation, with hulking, brutish male characters and expressive female figures. As an anthology from early 1970s Japan originally published in men's magazines, the stories are brief, typically running eight to ten pages each, with a few multipart tales. The collection serves as a showcase for Iijima Ichiro's notoriously unrestrained imagination, offering a glimpse into a fringe corner of vintage Japanese horror comics.
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- Story & ArtIchiro Iijima
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