Toru Oshikiri
Toru Oshikiri, better known mononymously as Oshikiri, is a character from the Japanese horror manga and film of the same name created by Junji Ito. Oshikiri was introduced in Ito's 1997 manga Hallucinations, all subsequent manga about versions of the character being collected in the ninth Horror World of Junji Ito collection, entitled Hallucinations after the first story included; the Oshikiri series (also known as Tales of Oshikiri) was also later collected into the 2018 Viz Media story collection volume entitled Frankenstein, with Oshikiri also appearing in the anime Junji Ito Collection.
| Toru Oshikiri | |
|---|---|
| Oshikiri character | |
 Toru Oshikiri alongside their alternate selves in the 2018 Frankenstein collection | |
| First appearance | Hallucinations (manga; 1997) |
| Last appearance | Partition (film; 2000) |
| Created by | Junji Ito |
| Portrayed by | Hidenori Tokuyama Hiro Shimono (voice) Micah Solusod (English voice) |
| In-universe information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Nationality | Japanese |
Oshikiri is a high school student who gets caught up in strange events which he initially believes to be hallucinations caused by the cabin fever induced from living alone in the large family home whilst his parents are away working overseas, before quickly realizing that his house is a convergence point for the multiverse, where-from an alternate version of himself tortures and experiments upon his other alternate selves and their friends and acquaintances for the purposes of increasing their own height; later chapters switch between both versions of Oshikiri, amongst others.
History
Hallucinations was written and illustrated by Junji Ito. Ito was inspired to create the Oshikiri series by “basically [the concept of] alternate dimensions – this series of parallel worlds. For each episode, each Oshikiri is of a different world – there’s many Oshikiris in many worlds. So it is a series that kind of has its own sci-fi elements involved in it.”[1] Ito described Oshikiri’s creation as him “wanting to bring out the atmosphere of Western gothic horror, so I decided to make him a lonely little boy who lives by himself in a Western-style mansion [...] I wanted to draw something like the little boy in The Omen, and I used him when I came up with ideas for stories that would feature a lonely protagonist.”[2]
When asked if he was also inspired by Shigeru Mizuki’s legendary boy-raised-in-a-graveyard manga GeGeGe no Kitaro, Ito demurs, “Not intentionally, but I’ve loved the character of Kitaro since I was a child, so it’s possible I was unconsciously influenced.”[2] Developing the story, Ito has described the series as a reflection of his creative process.[1]
In 1999, during the casting process of the first film adaptation, Ito picked actor Hidenori Tokuyama for the role and coached him for the audition.
Characteristics and abilities
Toru Oshikiri
Of particularly dour personality, Toru Oshikiri is a high school student who gets caught up in strange events that may or may not be hallucinations. He has a short temper and is especially sensitive about his height. His family is very wealthy, proven by the fact that they can afford a somewhat remote, large detached house away from others. Throughout the Hallucinations story chapters, Oshikiri lives alone in the large family home whilst his parents are away working overseas. When his hallucinations begin he shows fear when confronted by them as any typical person would, however, despite experiencing a number of terrors within his own home he often copes with them by purposely stifling his own fear, such as when passing the area where he discovers a petrified body located within a wall cavity, proving something other than mere hallucinations to be occurring.
Evil Oshikiri
Another Oshikiri from an alternate dimension travels to Oshikiri's world and wreaks havoc. There are many versions of him from different dimensions, however, only one is seen during the Hallucinations series. Alternate Oshikiri commits several murders and experiments on people from Oshikiri's dimension in order to perfect a chemical formula that will result in increasing his own height by the perfect degree, however, his experiments invariably cause them to mutate horrifically, after which he disposes of the evidence of his murders by discarding the mutants into Oshikiri's dimension. Alternate Oshikiri claims to be the "real" Toru Oshikiri, and perceives Oshikiri as an alternate Oshikiri.
Referring to the evil Oshikiri, Junji Ito described him as “an evil murderer. It’s not so much that there’s a change, that this Oshikiri became another Oshikiri, but rather ‘that’ Oshikiri was always like that. He was always an evil murderer. They exist independently of one another.”[1]
References
- Jonathan Encarnacion (June 17, 2017). "JUNJI ITO on Life, Death, and Using Reality to Scare You". Newsarama. Retrieved 2017-06-17.
- Tom Speelman (October 26, 2018). "Manga legend Junji Ito reflects on the power of Frankenstein". Polygon. Retrieved 2018-10-26.