Exploring Edritch Horror and Forbidden Love in 'The Summer Hikaru Died' and 'This Monster Wants to Eat Me'...
Love between human and other...
Two big series I’m looking forward to this year are The Summer Hikaru Died (『光が死んだ夏』) and This Monster Wants to Eat Me (『私を喰べたい、ひとでなし』). I’m a massive fan of eldritch horror in general and Japan-centric horror specifically so both of these stories hit the spot.
Both of these series are ones I got into during my last trip to Japan (both manga are published in English by Yen Press, the HikaNatsu novel too). Beyond that HikaNatsu and WataTabi1 don’t seem to have much in common except that they take slice-of-life series and turn them super dark.
Except that’s not quite the case as both have very deep undertones of love, even if what that is, is far from the usual in yuri (girls’ love) or yaoi (boys’ love) stories.
The Summer Hikaru Died, airing this summer, is set in a small town during a hot and humid summer. It follows two boys, Yoshiki and Hikaru. A while back Hikaru went missing for a week, only to suddenly reappear but… different. Yoshiki soon points this out and “Hikaru” (in the original, he is named using the kanji for his name, 光, while the ‘new’ Hikaru is referred to as ヒカル. In the English adaptation, this is noted with “”) reveals his eldritch form,
“Hikaru” eventually admits that he isn’t human and is just inhabiting Hikaru’s corpse, but also that ‘he’ just wants to belong and has an odd attachment to Yoshiki which, it is reasoned, must have lingered from feelings the dead boy had for his friend. Regardless, as the summer progresses the pair learn more about “Hikaru” and the truth of the village they live in.
This Monster Wants to Eat Me, airing during the upcoming winter anime season starting in October, has a similar concept of love between a human and something else. This time it is the grieving Yaotose Hinako, who lost her family in an accident and is hanging onto life by a thread.
Just as she’s pondering whether to throw herself in the sea, she is found by a monster who declares that it’s going to eat her, Only to be saved by a mysterious transfer student, Oumi Shiori. Who reveals herself to be a mermaid attracted by the succulent smell of Hinako’s flesh.
Initially saving her from another monster with views on eating Hinako, as the series progresses, we get to see a rich hidden world of Japanese monsters and humans who aren’t quite as they seem. With Shiori vowing to protect Hinako from them, as long as she gets to devour her when Hinako reaches her perfect ripeness, even going so far as to compare her to livestock like cows and pigs.
As forbidden love stories usually go, neither series is overt in its sexuality, even as the themes underlie both stories. Both dance around the idea of love, of having a deep unsatisfied need for another person, despite that person being fragile or a thing they desire (a trope which can be found, for example, in Western horror fiction, such as the modern incarnation of vampires).
Although both series deal with Japanese folklore in one way or the other, it is in this genre that we can seek the eldritch. It doesn’t have to be a cosmic evil, but instead is a force of nature, even if it’s different to the very human protagonists.
There is also this strong undertow of the forbidden, both of love between two people of the apparent same gender or between humans and non-humans. There is also something deliciously apt about, for example, an eldritch monster left with feelings that force ‘him’ to protect a human, or for a mermaid to want to keep her prey if only to eat her at a later date.
Because, as is the way with such stories, it’s the journey which is important and the revelations that have the protagonist realise they either don’t want to be eaten, or that all they want is to protect the other in turn.
Regardless, these are my two top upcoming series for this year. I can wait to walk with Yoshiki and Hinako to see where their journies go, beyond their manga adventures.
The Summer Hikaru Died will be streaming globally on Netflix this summer while This Monster Wants to Eat Me hasn’t yet confirmed Japanese or International streaming.
I’ve always loved the Japanese penchant for taking long titles and condensing them into two character nicknames: in this case 光夏 and わたたべ. It works brilliantly for instantly identifying the series but also allowing fans to follow hashtags online.