KANAKO INUKI
Or The Queen of Horror Manga, is the most outstanding female mangaka within shōjo terror. Her works are characterized by terror, folk traditions and an ironic and moralistic humor. Some of her most notable manga are Presents and School Zone.
Kanako was born on December 28, 1958 on the island of Hokkaido, although her family soon moved to Saitama prefecture.
She spent her entire childhood surrounded by manga, since her mother was a big fan of the great mangaka Osamu Tezuka and also because there was a bookstore specializing in manga near her house.
Inuki investigated various genres, but the one she liked to consume the most was horror. The mangakas that she liked the most and she was her main referents are: Kazuo Umezu, Moto Hagio, Mitsuteru Yokoyama, Hideshi Hino and the great Osamu Tezuka.
(Until the horror boom of the late 80s/early 90s, this genre was kind of "cancelled" because it was said to have a negative impact on children).
Little by little Kanako asked her parents to go see scary movies (they were "suitable" for children's consumption) and they didn't refuse, but this type of movies and manga were not a good influence for Kanako. She began to have nightmares, to question herself to death... she had a fever, couldn't sleep at night and sometimes had to miss class (to this day she continues to have traumas with a mummy). Solution: Ban her from watching those movies.
During her adolescence, Kanako put aside the horror genre to read romance manga, basically like the girls around her.
The years went by and finally she graduated from university with very good grades, got married, joined the world of work and had her first child. But she still loved her first love, the horror genre.
Asahi Sonorama began to publish what would be the first magazine specialized in the Horror genre, just shortly after Kanako had her first child. This made Inuki get the manga bug again. When she was a child, one of her dreams was to be a mangaka, but her mother forbade it for obvious reasons (mangaka are one of the social groups in Japan that have the most difficulty renting/buying a house, for example).
So she started to make doujinshi of the manga that were published in said magazine. One of the doujinshis that she had created was a finalist in a contest, this made the Kodansha publishing house notice Kanako and made her debut in 1987 as a mangaka in Sōjo Friend magazine with her first official manga, Orosuban. Kodansha, a year later, began publishing its first exclusive horror magazine (with a shōjo demographic), Suspense & Horror.
Inuki always occupied the covers and the magazine was a success and had more and more consumers, so the other publishers soon launched their own horror magazines (whose demographic was still shōjo, in the vast majority) and Kanako collaborated in all of them.
Horror House/ Horror M
Kanako Inuki during the 10 years that the boom of the genre that she headed lasted was named the Queen of Horror. She worked for 5 or 7 magazines every month, whether it was doing oneshots, double page color drawings, columns, etc. She was always very busy, so she developed a somewhat vampiric life habit: sleeping during the day and working at night, she went to bed at 6 a.m.
Inuki was inspired by two well-known mangaka in this genre, Kazuo Umezu and Hideshi Hino, to develop his own drawing style. The fact that it is inspired does not mean that it is copied and Kanako, the truth, has a very own and easily recognizable style. Her main characters with big round eyes have a very innocent appearance, which makes them have a greater impact in gore scenes. Inuki has a very unique style within the world of manga.
Kanako Inuki is currently a visiting professor at the Osaka University of the Arts and a professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts. She continues to dedicate herself to manga, but in a more relaxed way.
ʚĭɞ PRESENTS 1993-1998
- genre: horror
- demographic: shōjo
Kanako Inuki's manga are characterized by being short stories and this one is no exception. The most important detail is that all these stories are linked to each other or have a common point, Kurumi, the protagonist. Presents introduces us to an innocent-looking girl who can't have a birthday and therefore can't age. Kurumi has a peculiar sense of justice and as she wanders the world she will be handing out suspicious gifts and dispensing justice. Another of the main points of the story is the gifts that are denied to this girl, this shows us another very peculiar side of the protagonist, since she has never actually opened a gift. But let's not forget that there are many stories and in one of them nothing more and nothing less than Santa Claus appears, but a slightly different Santa Claus, who punishes those who in the future will be bad adults.
Never accept a gift from Kurumi.
ʚĭɞ SCHOOL ZONE 1996-1999
-genre: horror, supernatural
We continue with short stories linked together. In this case School Zone doesn't have a protagonist who is the cause of the misfortunes, what all these stories have in common take place in a school full of spirits and there is always a leader who is in charge of "protecting" his classmates. There are three elements that are also widely used: the Kokkuri-san, a Japanese game very similar to the Ouija board, a huge mirror and a spirit, Nanka, who appears from the first chapter.
In an interview Kanako said that mirrors have a mysterious, psychic vibe to her. That if you get close enough the background changes completely and that if we could enter them we would not only see our physique reflected but also our personality.
ʚĭɞ KUCHISAKE ONNA DENSETSU 1995-1997
- genre: horror
Once again we have a collection of horror stories, but in this case they have nothing to do with each other. The main story and the one that gives title to the manga is that of Kuchisake Onna, possibly the most deeply into Japanese culture will know her. Kuchisake Onna is a beautiful woman whose husband, a samurai, smashed her face when he found out that she was unfaithful to him. Now this youkai haunts a school looking for girls.
The other stories that appear are: Snail with no shell, Makeup and The Science Room's Baby. These three have nothing to do with Japanese folklore, they are Inuki's own invention. The only thing they have in common is that they all have high school girls as protagonists.
- Snail with no shell/ Makeup
ʚĭɞ OTHER MANGAS
— BUKITA-KUN 1988-1998
- genre: horror, supernatural, romance
- demographic: shōjo
Bukita is a boy who wants to find love, which is not easy because he is a heartless zombie, but it is even less easy for the girls he obsesses over. This character is inspired by Freddie, the protagonist of The Collector, an introverted boy who becomes obsessed with a girl to the point of kidnapping her. This movie had 3 Oscar nominations, but Bukita has the made in Inuki brand and two sequels.
— KANAERARETA NEGAI 1991
- genre: horror
- demographic: shōjo
Each chapter is a different story, but they all follow the same structure: girls who want to catch a demon in order to make a wish. The premise is simple, but making deals with a demon is never a good idea and it goes pretty deep as it shows how selfish people are. It is a manga that divides kanako fans, since it is a bit out of what we are used to seeing.
— KAGAMI HANASHI 2021
Kagami is a boy obsessed with mirrors and everything that is reflected in them. Are you what the mirror really reflects?
This is Kanako Inuki's new manga and she has been working on it since last year. You can read the first chapter for free on palcy (and if you know Japanese).
Kanako Inuki has managed to be crowned queen and have great popularity in horror, a genre dominated by men, and not only that, she also dominated the horror boom and magazine covers for an entire decade. Just say Long live the Queen.
