Remina

October 26, 2020
Eisner winner Ito (Uzumaki) builds relentless tension that explodes into chaos in this nightmarish science fiction manga epic. An astronomer discovers a new planet and names it after his teenage daughter Remina, turning both the planet and the girl into international sensations. Then the planet begins hurtling toward Earth, devouring the rest of the solar system along the way. The wealthy formulate escape plans, the rest of the population panics, and Remina becomes the most hated person in the world. The narrative opens with Remina being crucified by hooded cultists convinced that her sacrifice will placate her namesake planet, and the action only escalates from there, reaching a fever pitch of cosmic horror and mass hysteria. Less carefully structured than Ito’s greatest works, it nonetheless has a hypnotic energy, combining the frantic inventiveness of Osamu Tezuka with the dream logic of Kazuo Umezu—and an homage to H.P. Lovecraft, especially as Remina approaches Earth and is revealed to be something incomprehensibly alien. In Ito’s sleek, atmospheric art, even the most attractive characters have the haunted eyes, and he’s well up to the task of rendering disaster on a cosmic scale. With natural disasters, terrors from space, mountains of corpses, and swarms of screaming killers, there’s something here for every horror fan.

Starred review from December 1, 2020

In an unspecified future, a brilliant scientist identifies a new planet and names it Remina, after his teenage daughter, who reluctantly embraces her newfound celebrity. Suddenly, the planet careens across the solar system, destroying everything in its path only to stop in proximity to Earth, revealing a gargantuan eyeball and horrific tentacle-like tongue large enough to enwrap and destroy the moon upon its surface. When a panicked populace embraces the idea that sacrificing the girl might banish her namesake, a relentlessly paced battle for survival ensues, as Remina and a homeless man dedicated to her defense endure endless waves of attackers who only become more bloodthirsty as sandstorms, earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions rage across the globe. VERDICT Ito (Venus in the Blind Spot) is internationally renowned as a master of creeping terror and surrealistically nightmarish imagery, and while this new volume lacks in the former, it raises the bar when it comes to the latter, presenting unforgettable images that range from a gruesome crucifixion to a lascivious tongue lashing a continent-sized groove across the planet. A berserk thrill.

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