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A review by xterminal
The Bug Boy by Hideshi Hino
4.0
Hideshi Hino, Hino Horror, vol. 2: The Bug Boy (DH Publishing, 1975)
...and now I know why the first Hino Horror volumes are so like Hino's early stuff: they actually are. DH was kind enough to drop the original pub date in this volume: 1975. That predates Panorama of Hell by nine years, and is very much still in Hino's “gross-'em-out!” phase. The Bug Boy, like The Red Snake before it, certainly fills the bill in that regard, with gratuitous dream vomit, human/centipede hybrids, mass murder... you know, all the standards. The story is simple: Sanpei, a youngster who is mercilessly bullied both at school and at home, is bitten by a strange bug and undergoes a metamorphosis, after which he realizes his new form will allow him to get revenge on those who caused him pain while he was still human. Very nasty, though with a surprisingly moral (for lack of a better term) ending; this is Hino through and through. Good stuff. *** ½
...and now I know why the first Hino Horror volumes are so like Hino's early stuff: they actually are. DH was kind enough to drop the original pub date in this volume: 1975. That predates Panorama of Hell by nine years, and is very much still in Hino's “gross-'em-out!” phase. The Bug Boy, like The Red Snake before it, certainly fills the bill in that regard, with gratuitous dream vomit, human/centipede hybrids, mass murder... you know, all the standards. The story is simple: Sanpei, a youngster who is mercilessly bullied both at school and at home, is bitten by a strange bug and undergoes a metamorphosis, after which he realizes his new form will allow him to get revenge on those who caused him pain while he was still human. Very nasty, though with a surprisingly moral (for lack of a better term) ending; this is Hino through and through. Good stuff. *** ½