Oninbo and the Bugs From Hell

Hideshi Hino’s Morality Tale

Oninbo may be the cutest demon around, but his table manners can be downright revolting!

His favorite snacks are grotesque Bugs from Hell; creatures that live in the hearts of people, where they grow fat and hideous until they are ready to devour the souls that nourish them. Oninbo can smell a bug a mile away, and will risk anything to get his hands on a ripe, juicy specimen. He’s not the only one with a bug appetite, however. Mamushinbo, his demon rival, is also after the Bugs from Hell.

(Bizarre … there was a time I thought Kafka and his Metamorphosis was over the top … ed.)

Book Review by Mike Philbin

I love these cute little books from Japan. I love the way you read them from the back. I love the way DHP has lovingly amended the text into English. And I love Hino’s wry outlook on life. I particularly love the way Oninbo, the star of Oninbo and the Bugs From Hell, uses his retractable eyeball to first capture and suck into his brain the evil bugs from Hell.

He’s Such a Cute Little Demon, Oninbo

As in all these Hino Horror comics, the Demon wanders about noticing those unfortunate humans who have a Bug from Hell inside them and finally extracts the bug from them a) ridding the human of the Satanic infestation and b) getting a good Bug meal in the process. Demons love to eat Bugs.

Oninbo and the Bugs From Hell, A Morality Tale

Bug eating aside, these comics are mostly morality tails about Japanese life and the stresses and strains parents and industry put on their offspring to be successful and to rise to the top of the heap – it’s tough being a kid in Japan and this series of books really disgorges its worst visualisations out into the readers’ psyche.

This is really full-on demon possession material for adults only – some of the highlights involve a demon-drowned swimming tale, a wonderful axe-murderer sequence, a baby’s cot that emanates pure fear for its poor, suffering mother and lots of yummee shrinking down to the size of a microbe to enter the eyeball of possessed victims to check on the ripeness of their fattening Hell Bugs.

It’s all good stuff and like the intro says, Oninbo isn’t alone.

Enter Mumashino and he’s after the same Demon Bugs as our little cute hero Oninbo. Mumashinbo is mister nasty though and takes no prisoners, he certainly isn’t gonna share a Bug he believes is rightly his with any other Demon. He sends his caterpillar army out of his cracked forehead and they devour the screaming Oninbo before he can retaliate with magic of his own. But surely Oninbo isn’t that easily defeated.

External Links

• Hideshi Hino, Author Website
• Interview with Hideshi Hino at The Comic Journal
• Hideshi Hino, Wikipedia Entry
• Mike Philbin, Reviewer/Writer/Artist

Hideshi Hino Reviews at The Open Critic

• Hideshi Hino: Horror, Pathos and the Master of Manga
• The Red Snake
• The Bug Boy
• Oninbo and the Bugs From Hell
• Oninbo and the Bugs From Hell Two
• Living Corpse
• Black Cat

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