Her Frankenstein is a truly twisted tale of obsession and murder. It is quite possibly one of the greatest manga horror stories ever written by a man you have probably never heard of. A man, who has clearly been influential to some of the most well-known names in Horror Manga, Junji Ito included.
Her Frankenstein follows the story of a man from an abusive family who is bullied and teased by not just his own parents but the children in his area. One day he meets a girl who just happens to be one of the richest in the city she decides to make him her "friend". I use that term loosely. The two of them develop a game where the young boy wears a Frankenstein mask allowing him to become her monster but for him more importantly confront his abusers. After the young girl tires of this game she drops him like a hot potato and their friendship turns into madness.
This was amazing for several reasons, the way the story is told jumps us back and forward in time, allowing us to see how the MC Tetsuo's abusive past, his current issues with his wife, and the guilt that he has for how his friendship ended (brutally) has transpired into him losing his mind (if he ever had it to begin with). Norikazu is brutal in his portrayal of how boys are treated the expectation that they are "tough" and do not cry is a theme found throughout the story. Testsuo ends up marrying a woman who is just as emotionally manipulative as his parents and while in many cases the kneejerk reaction is feel for the man who has been trapped in this abuse cycle as the story goes on that feeling dissipates rather quickly. Tetsuo is 100% a narcist and an incel, as far as he's concerned none of this is his fault. People, but women especially are far too judgmental and harsh on him. This of course is not the case he seems to have zero motivation to fix any of the problems in his life and also seems to be well aware that he enters into toxic relationships with women.
Now, what makes this truly interesting isn't just that this is a prime example of Japanese Horror, because it is, it is that Kawashima simply disappears from the record in terms of manga creation and he did it of his own violation. We know this because after the manga there are two remarkable essays that discuss Kawashima, his work, and his long-lasting influence on the genre. After his type of horror manga sees a lag in popularity, he opts to disappear burning all of his original works, this manga itself is painstakingly recreated using images from collectors who still had their own original copies. Making this a true labor of love and dedication to a creator whose influence I can once again not understate. It's almost a horror story in itself that he didn't live long enough to see that while yes, his style of manga grew out of popularity there were still collectors out there that supported him, and today thanks to this reprint his work is now being introduced to new generations.
I hope we continue to see reprints of his work as Her Frankenstein is a masterpiece of psychological horror. It lacks much of the gore that we see from other creators during this time frame but is still as equally terrifying, possibly even more so, than series that relied heavily on depicting graphic violence. Even if Kawashima had not been hugely influential on the genre itself Her Frankenstein is worth the read simply because it's a good story.
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