Goth
'We each had detected what the other was hiding from those around us'
Story: Kamiyama Itsuki has been drawn to Morino Yoru since he first saw her in high school. Obsessed with death and corpses, Kamiyama is at once drawn to Morino’s pale complexion that likens more a corpse than a living person. On the other hand, Morino is curious about the cheerful facade Kamiyama puts on when he is around other classmates while she clearly senses a dark fascination lurking inside him. Connected by six different stories that are extravagant in their graphic descriptions of murder and torture, Kamiyama and Morino strike up an unusual friendship. Together with Kamiyama investigates each case where his involvement in particular somehow alters the outcome.
My Take: Goth explores the dark recesses of human atrocities and self-alienation within a society where to be cheerful and sociable means to function well. The two main characters find themselves in the periphery because of their peculiarity that is juxtaposed with the idea of ‘normality’. They are weird, and because of their weirdness, they don’t seem to fit well, although Kamiyama does try to be accepted by the others by pretending to be social.
Because Kamiyama and Morino are more interested in corpses and the scenes of murder, we never get a clear picture into the head of the killers. We never quite understand the motive behind the murders because the characters themselves don’t seem interested in understanding the killers' main reasons.
All the stories are striking in their own way, but Dog and Memory/Twins were the darkest and most arresting and therefore my favourites.
The stories in Goth really delve into the act of killing rather than revealing the killer's psyche. This particular aspect set the book apart from other investigative crime thrillers, and I think that was the ultimate intention of the writer – to view the killer as an outsider and see only the tangible traces he leaves behind, sparking the juvenile interest of young minds who themselves are alien of sorts.
Creepy teenagers have long been a recurring subject in Japanese literature and media and, Goth is no exception, with similar themes appearing in the more recent Astral Season, Beastly Season by Tahi Saihate. In many ways, these depictions symbolise the truth of our times. Stories about the younger demographic veering towards a tendency for madness, cruelty, perversity and obsession also represent our fear of the future we are leaving in the hands of our younger generation.
Favourite Quotes:
'Her lack of outward expression was similar to the way a thermos is never hot on the outside: No matter what was going on inside, it never affected the surface'
'Things that were merciless and cruel always captivated me. The conversations my classmates enjoyed and the warmth I exchanged with my family never really resonated with me. They were just static, like a radio that wasn't tuned properly.'
'Human beings are liars. I knew that. Which is why I sought the face in death. The face with no forced smile, no performance, no deliberately composed expression.'
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