I, Hiroshi Nohara, the star of Japanese cinema

Chapter 28 Film Critic Kato

In the vast and sophisticated urban machine that is Tokyo, when a gear starts to turn in a new and irrational way, there will always be some more sensitive nerve endings that are the first to sense the subtle vibration.

Kato Nobuyuki is such a nerve ending.

His office is on the seventh floor of the Nitto Shimbun newspaper building, a window seat.

Outside the window is a corner of Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden. The scenery changes with each season, which is a rare luxury in this steel forest.

However, Kato rarely looked at the green.

His world is confined to a small desk and is made up of words, ink and paper.

He is a film critic.

His job is to use the blade of words to dissect movies and TV series, and clearly present the flesh, blood, light, shadow, sound and color inside them to readers.

He can make a mediocre work appear lavishly illustrated and captivating, or he can refute a meticulously crafted work, rendering it worthless. This balance is his craft, the very basis of his survival in this city.

This afternoon, people from Tokyo TV delivered a rather thick information package and an equally thick envelope with a bank logo printed on it.

The mission is clear.

Write a review that is weighty enough and can guide public opinion for their major project, the animation "Oniibo Samurai", which will be aired at 10 o'clock next Monday night.

Kato brewed a cup of Darjeeling black tea, and the amber tea soup spread a warm light in the bone china cup.

He slowly opened the information bag, his professional numbness making him lose any real interest in the beautifully printed brochures and lineup introductions inside.

"Onibo Samurai".

He only glanced at the story outline and gave his assessment in his mind: cliché.

A warrior wrongfully killed transforms into a fierce ghost. A powerful onmyoji teams up with a compassionate monk to vanquish the demon, only to discover a poignant story of love, hate, and vengeance. This kind of story is like canned goods produced on an assembly line: no matter how gorgeous the packaging, once opened, they all taste the same.

But he didn't care. Sometimes, clichés can actually mean safety, and they can be more easily accepted by the public.

What's more, the "writing fee" given by Tokyo TV is generous enough for him to cover this cliché with a gorgeous coat of "profundity" and "emotion".

He had even thought of the opening line: "...In this cold urban jungle, have we long forgotten the tragic ode of loyalty, injustice, and redemption from the classical era..."

Kato picked up the teacup, prepared to moisten his throat, and then finished the work in one go.

But at this moment, the conversation between two new interns outside the office, like two untimely fallen leaves, floated into his somewhat lazy thoughts.

"Hey, Takahashi, did you hear? The ratings for 'Anzhiju' almost broke 3% last night!"

"I heard about it! It's so exaggerated! My girlfriend was so scared that she couldn't sleep all night. This morning she told me that she would never dare to use the copy machine alone to work overtime again. She said that animation was addictive!"

"That's right! I went to see it last night, too. 'Family Instructions' gave me a tingling sensation. Did you know that the planner and original drafter of this anime is none other than Mr. Hiroshi Nohara, the man behind 'Yu Yu Hakusho'? What a genius!"

"Really? The author of Yu Yu Hakusho? No wonder! I'm following that manga too, the fight scenes are so cool! I didn't expect he'd be so good at horror stories too!"

"Anzhiju"?
Nohara Hiroshi?

A TV Tokyo program?

Kato's brows furrowed slightly.

He has always kept his distance from the fighting comics in Shonen Jump.

In his opinion, those things are too straightforward and lack the aftertaste worth savoring, so they cannot be considered real "works".

As for the so-called "Anzhiju", he had also heard of it. It seemed to be a small production broadcast by Tokyo TV in the early morning time slot. It was crude and cheap, and it was an area that a self-proclaimed "cultured person" like him would never touch.

The two interns were still chattering away, their words filled with the naive excitement of youth. Kato shook his head, swallowing the little noise along with the tea in his cup.

There is never a shortage of cheap carnival in this world.

He scoffed at the two young men's compliments.

……

As the night deepened, Kato ended a boring social event and returned to his home in Suginami Ward, reeking of alcohol.

His wife and son had already gone to bed, leaving only a dim wall lamp in the living room, which made his shadow thin and long, revealing the fatigue and loneliness unique to middle-aged men.

He changed out of his armor-like suit, poured himself a glass of ice water, sat on the sofa, and prepared to enjoy the rare moment of peace and quiet that belonged entirely to him during the day.

His eyes inadvertently fell on the coffee table.

There was an open copy of the weekly Shonen Jump magazine, which was the favorite reading material of his middle school son.

He picked up the magazine. On the rough paper was printed a fighting scene with sharp lines. A young man in a white martial arts uniform was pushing a blue energy wave towards a hideous monster.

"Yu Yu Hakusho".

The conversation between the two interns in the afternoon suddenly flashed through Kato's mind.

He remembered the animation called "Anzhijuu" and the young man named Hiroshi Nohara, who they called a "genius".

I also remembered the thick envelope sent by Tokyo TV.

A strange emotion, a mixture of professional ethics and a little curiosity, quietly grew in his heart.

Maybe... I should watch this early morning show?
He was moved.

After all, it seems a bit unreasonable to take such a huge sum of money from Tokyo TV and only write an article praising "Onibo Samurai".

If you can also write a few good words for their other program, even if you just mention it, it will be considered a favor.

We can meet each other in this circle in the future.

Furthermore, a show that can skyrocket its ratings overnight must have something special about it. As a professional reviewer, exploring what that special quality is is part of my job.

So, Kato walked over to the TV and turned it on.

The hands of the clock are quietly sliding towards midnight.

He had no expectations.

In his view, this was more like an after-dinner pastime, a condescending examination of self-important young people and the blindly following masses. And most importantly, it was a gesture of goodwill towards his biggest financial backer, TV Tokyo!
……

12:20 AM.

When the strange nursery rhyme and drum sounds sounded, Kato was leaning on the sofa, his posture relaxed.

He even chuckled softly when the masked man appeared on screen.

"Pretend to be a ghost."

He gave the first evaluation.

Then, the story of the fourth episode begins.

【Anzhiju Paper】

A female teacher working overtime late at night and an old printer.

Kato's expression remained unchanged. This scene was too ordinary, too bland to pique the interest of a gourmet like him.

When strange black lines appeared on the printed paper, he just thought calmly: Printer failure, this is a cliché used in horror movies.

When the female teacher lifted the cover for the first time and saw the pale face, he didn't even raise an eyebrow.

"An illusion, another illusion. Next, it must be the second time I opened it, and there was nothing. Then the teacher breathed a sigh of relief, and then the real horror appeared."

Like a chess player who knew all the moves, he watched his opponent's clumsy layout with cold eyes, and even felt a little bored.

Sure enough, everything was as he expected.

The female teacher lifted the cover for the second time, and there was nothing on the glass plate.

She breathed a sigh of relief and smiled to herself.

Kato was also ready to change to a more comfortable position. He felt that the story was over, and what would happen next would be nothing more than the teacher returning home tired, or some insignificant follow-up.

However, it is this moment.

Just when the female teacher raised her hand to rub her eyes, as if nothing happened, and when everyone relaxed their vigilance, the screen fell into darkness.

A grimace.

A rotten, twisted face with black pus oozing from its eyes suddenly appeared on the screen without any warning, in a violent manner that tore through his vision! It suddenly appeared before his eyes!
"Fuck-"

The face was so close and so clear, as if it carried a great terror, penetrating the screen and hitting Kato's retina hard!

"Well!"

Kato's body suddenly leaned back and hit the back of the sofa hard. The water cup in his hand slipped out of his hand and fell on the carpet with a dull sound.

His heart seemed to be gripped tightly by an ice-cold hand, then suddenly released, beating wildly, almost jumping out of his throat.

The brain is blank.

It took more than ten seconds before he finally recovered from the extreme, physiological shock, gasping for breath.

He looked at the black screen and the cold words "The End" on it, his eyes filled with unprecedented shock and... confusion.

what is this?
This was not any kind of horror he was familiar with.

It has no logic and no foreshadowing. It is like a madman who, when you are most relaxed and defenseless, brandishes a bloody knife and stabs it into your eyes.

Simple, crude and unreasonable.

Yet... it's terrifyingly effective.

Kato slowly sat up straight and felt his back was already cold.

He began to recall.

He was no longer a passive spectator, but replayed the short three minutes in his mind from the perspective of a professional commentator.

Then he discovered something even more terrifying.

That wasn't the sudden grimace at the end.

But the conception of the whole story.

Office, overtime, printer...

What an accurate capture of the living conditions of modern urbanites!

Isn't that female teacher the epitome of the millions of office workers toiling away late into the night to make ends meet? Isn't that printer, which works intermittently and always breaks down at crucial moments, their biggest nightmare at work?
This young man named Hiroshi Nohara is not telling a traditional ghost story at all.

He planted a time bomb called "fear" in the most familiar and daily scenes of every urban white-collar worker.

From tonight on, every night when people work overtime, when they walk towards the cold printer, they will subconsciously think of the episode "Paper". They will feel a hint of hesitation when they lift the cover; they will feel a palpitation when they see unknown marks on the printed paper.

This fear will not disappear with the end of the animation. It will penetrate into people's daily lives like a virus and become an inescapable psychological shadow.

"……genius."

Kato Nobuyuki, a man who has analyzed countless works with the sharp edge of words and whose heart has long been as calm as an ancient well, uttered these two words from the bottom of his heart at this moment.

He looked at the deep night sky outside the window and felt for the first time that an unprecedented storm was quietly brewing on the cultural landscape of this city.

And he was fortunate enough to be one of the first people to witness the eye of the storm with his own eyes.

He stood up, walked to his study, and turned on the newly updated word processor.

He deleted the gorgeous but empty beginning he had written for "Kibo Samurai".

Then he typed out a brand new title.

——"Anzhiju: A Gentle Horror Ritual Dedicated to the Modern City".

(End of this chapter)