Junji Ito as a Neo-Gothic writer

The subject of this research is the creative work of the mangaka Junji Ito, examined within the context of the development of Gothic, Neo-Gothic, and horror literature. The study aims to substantiate the continuity of Junji Ito’s work with European and North American Gothic and Neo-Gothic traditions by analyzing several elements of his oeuvre through the lens of Western Gothic and Neo-Gothic literature, cinema, and video games, as well as horror literature and film. The article explores how Ito’s work inherits features of the Gothic canon and further develops it through Neo-Gothic tropes, images, and motifs. The work provides a definition of the Gothic novel, elucidates the phenomenon of Neo-Gothicism, and traces their evolution into the horror genre. Subsequently, Junji Ito’s creative output is analyzed using the established concepts of Gothic, Neo-Gothic, and horror. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that Junji Ito’s work is practically unrepresented in the Russian academic field; furthermore, the study proposes a definition of the “Neo-Gothic canon” as a significant phenomenon of modern popular culture. For the first time, Junji Ito’s oeuvre is examined through the prism of the Gothic tradition and the horror genre in cultural history, and his works are analyzed as part of the contemporary Neo-Gothic canon of mass culture. The findings demonstrate that Junji Ito’s work is heavily influenced by the tropes and clichés of European horror, the formation of which can be traced back to the origins of the Gothic novel in Europe.