Highlights
- Cosmic horror explores humanity's insignificance in the face of unknown and powerful forces, like internet algorithms, creating feelings of paranoia and fear.
- Manga like Soil , Gantz , and Parasyte delve into cosmic horror themes, blending genres like crime drama and action to explore humanity's helplessness against unknown threats.
- Renowned horror mangaka, like Junji Ito , have crafted terrifying stories that embody cosmic horror, with themes of unpredictable futures, survival in desolate settings, and the manipulation of reality.
Some people are scared of chainsaw-wielding maniacs in masks; others get chilled from dramatic revelations about unassuming but ultimately dark figures; then there are those who are scared of humanity’s place in the universe, that people are more insignificant than they are and are more susceptible to powers bigger than they can imagine, like internet algorithms.
This is cosmic horror which, as the name suggests, could suggest space, other dimensions, or other places entirely. All it needs to make people paranoid is to make them feel weak next to phenomena they can’t and would never understand. It’s inspired classic novels, movies, TV shows, and manga.
8 Soil
Created by Atsushi Kaneko for Comic Beam, Soil refers to "Soil New Town," a town in the middle of nowhere that doesn't take kindly to outsiders. It’s here that the Suzushiro family suddenly went missing, leading detectives Yokoi and Onoda out of the city and into the sticks to investigate. At first, it seems like a simple investigation, but it only gets more complicated and dangerous from there.
As such, it does feel more like a crime drama at the start. Then it gradually sinks in that things aren't right. The Council President is hiding secrets, the Suzushiros didn't seem bothered by their neighbors or their daughters' "memory problems," and the town may have a connection to a case that got Yokoi demoted. One where a yakuza boss' organs suddenly went missing, along with his old partner.
7 Gantz
Hiroya Oku’s manga Gantz originally ran from 2000 to 2013 and caught on as an edgier take on shonen tales like Naruto. When Kei and Masaru are killed in a subway accident, they’re summoned to a room containing a sentient black sphere called Gantz. They're forced to take part in his “game,” which involves killing the aliens hiding in human society.
For each kill, they earn points, and once they get 100 of them, they can regain their normal lives, get a bigger weapon, or bring back a dead colleague. It’s more action-heavy, though its themes of humanity being helpless to the whims of a bigger threat are ever-present. After all, what is Gantz, and where did it come from? Only the manga really gives the answer, as the popular anime adaptation ended 9 years prior to it in 2004.
6 Parasyte
Hitoshi Iwaaki’s horror manga Parasyte is fairly well-known nowadays thanks to the 2014 anime. Before then, it was trickier to track down. Japanese readers were able to check out its original 1988-1995 run. US readers wrestled with two publishers, Tokyo pop until 2005, then Del Rey Manga until 2010, before Kodansha USA republished the series in 2011.
The manga is about Parasites, worm-like aliens that take over humans by burrowing into their heads. Shinichi gets lucky when one fails and takes over his right arm instead. He calls it "Migi" ("right"), and the two develop a bond as they fight off other Parasites. The gore and fleshy manipulations keep it from feeling too much like a shonen story. It even gets philosophical, as Migi and Shinichi wonder if humans and Parasites are all that different from each other.
5 God’s Left Hand, Devil’s Right Hand
What Osamu Tezuka is to manga and anime in general, Kazuo “Umezz” Umezu is to horror manga. Though he’s done other genres like gag stories and shojo (even having future manga legend Rumiko Takahashi as an assistant), he’s most famous for his scary stories. His stark, dark art style, with its grisly details and tense build-ups, would inspire other horror mangaka like Toru Yamazaki and Minetarō Mochizuki.
Umezz’s work, God’s Left Hand, Devil’s Right Hand, is an anthology of 5 stories connected by Sō, a young boy who can predict future events. Plot-wise, they can feel a little scattershot, yet they show off the unknowable side of cosmic horror. For example, “The Rusted Scissors” sees a cursed MacGuffin that leads to a serial killer, deformed killers, mysterious phenomena, and the abilities Sō gains that can grant mercy or exact punishment.
4 At the Mountains of Madness
When googling “cosmic horror,” people may find another term instead: “Lovecraftian Horror,” named after H.P Lovecraft. He essentially created the genre with works like "Call of Cthulhu" and "The Color Out of Space" before it was advanced by other authors like August Derleth and Neil Gaiman. That’s without getting into his influence on other creators like H.R. Giger and Guillermo Del Toro.
He also inspired Gō Tanabe, who, after making original works like Kasane and Mr Nobody, became the go-to guy for manga versions of Lovecraft’s work. The biggest of which was At the Mountains of Madness, a 2-volume piece illustrating how scientists discovered the remnants of alien civilizations in Antarctica, how they met their end, and how they may be responsible for humanity itself.
3 Hellstar Remina
It was only a matter of time before Junji Ito’s name would turn up. He’s essentially become the modern-day, manga-based version of Lovecraft, as nearly all his stories involve cosmic horror to some degree. The Enigma of Amigara Fault literally brought the term back to Earth with mysterious, human-shaped vents in the rock, while The Dissolving Classroom sees the worst siblings destroy everything they touch.
With Hellstar Remina, Ito decides to take the term “cosmic horror” literally as a new planet is discovered. It’s named after Remina, the daughter of the scientist who found it. But as the days pass, they learn the planet is heading towards Earth, devouring everything in its wake. A cult rises, thinking everyone can be saved if they sacrifice Remina to the planet. But there’s as much hope for them as for the unfortunate souls who try to land on the planet itself.
2 The Drifting Classroom
If Ito’s Dissolving Classroom sounded familiar, then it’s because he was also inspired by Umezz and his most famous work, The Drifting Classroom. While Ito’s art style shows some of Umezz’s influence, Umezz’s strip is a tale of survival and desperation as a whole school finds itself sent far into the future after the fall of humanity. Whatever the cause, there's no way for them to return.
The adults are driven insane, killing each other until only the grade school kids are left to fend for themselves. Some try to contact the past for help, like the telepath Nishi who has a psychic connection to his friend’s mother. Others try to form some kind of system, while others go semi-feral, competing for food and resources against the monstrous beasts that evolved after the apocalypse.
1 Uzumaki
The Drifting Classroom is arguably the most important manga in horror history, acting as the genre’s equivalent to Astro Boy. But in modern times, it’s hard to argue against Junji Ito’s Uzumaki. It feels more like an anthology of short stories, as the people of Kurōzu-cho fall to different phenomena relating to spirals (or 'uzumaki' in Japanese, hence the title), but they all come together as the spiral’s hold on the town gets stronger.
What starts as one man’s weird obsession with the pattern becomes something more. Kirie, a school student, has her hair naturally form mesmerizing spirals that almost kill her. Her friend Azami develops a moon-shaped scar that gradually devours her whole. Humans turn into snails that others, driven to desperation, eat. It’s an unending nightmare that only gets worse for its characters, which makes for a great, skin-crawling read.