Hello! I’m Callie Kazumi, author of cannibal novel Greedy. Set in rural Japan and exploring themes of wealth, classism, and race, I was more than happy to delve into research by gobbling up (excuse the pun) as many dark Japanese novels as possible.
Writing Japanese fiction from a mixed-race Western perspective was really exciting for me. I loved taking the elitism we see in the West and carrying it over to the East, exploring it through horror and dark humor.
It will come to no surprise to anyone that Japanese fiction is my favorite genre—particularly if it’s disturbing. I find that they push the boundaries of horror and satire in a fresh and daring way, and the storytelling in their culture—whether it’s anime or fiction—is always multi-layered, complex and thought-provoking.
These are my top five dark Japanese fiction titles that I will always recommend:
*
Koushun Takami, Battle Royale
I’d be remiss not to mention this modern-day classic, which has inspired countless adaptions such as gamer favorite, Fortnite. The concept, as often compared to The Hunger Games, is simple: you are trapped on an island and forced to slaughter everyone else until only one victor remains.
What sets Battle Royale apart is the intricate characterization as we follow a class of schoolmates who each have their pre-existing cliques and histories, leading to betrayals, revenge kills, and edge-of-your-seat drama. It’s an examination of totalitarian government, of the complexity of teens, and what it means to be an angry adolescent in Japan. Plus, it’s super gory, with absolutely no apologies.
Uketsu, Strange Pictures
An international bestseller for a reason. I’ve never read a mystery novel so intricately plotted and cleverly considered. It’s structured as a collection of short stories which all tie together in the end to reveal a dark secret….Each story focuses on a different image, exploring where it came from, who created it, why, and the hidden meaning behind it.
Macabre and disturbing, the reader gets to play detective as they work their way through the clues, illustrations, and dark narrative, resulting in an ingenious reveal to who is behind a grisly set of murders. Like nothing I’ve ever read before—I devoured it.
Ryu Murakami, In the Miso Soup
A delicious horror story set in the sex-club district of Tokyo. Kenji, a Japanese nightlife guide, ends up agreeing to spend three days with an American tourist called Frank. The story is short, a one-sitting-wonder, as we follow an increasingly disturbed Kenji on his daily excursions with Frank.
A refreshingly honest highlight of the darker side of Japan, it delves into consumerism and a sex industry driven by loneliness. Oh, and Frank? Yeah, he may just be a psychopathic serial killer hidden in plain sight, if Kenji’s suspicions are correct….
Sayaka Murata, Earthlings
Don’t let the adorable hedgehog on the cover fool you—this novel packs one hell of a punch! An exploration of alienation and feeling trapped in a society that values conformity: as a neurodivergent woman, this resonated with me deeply.
What resonated with me slightly less were the inclusions of incest, cannibalism, and aliens. But these strands of the story do provide some absolutely unputdownable gore and viscerally disturbing scenes that you won’t ever forget. It’s about rebelling against the natural order of things, about finding your own path, and about the depravity of lingering trauma.
Mieko Kawakami, Heaven
Different from the others on this list, Heaven is arguably the most terrifying of them all, because it highlights the cruelty of humanity with brutal candidness. The protagonist is a teenage boy with a lazy eye who is suffering from extreme bullying. The character is reduced to his perceived fault by the fact that we never find out his name; he is only referred to as ‘Eyes’.
He befriends Kojima, a girl at his school who is also targeted by bullies due to her poor family background and low social status. The two have conflicting views on their situations, with Eyes becoming increasingly nihilistic—his inner thoughts are where this novel’s darkness lies.
The bullying scenes are painful reads, filled with barbaric torment and vicious brutality. The sadism, for me, was harder to swallow than many of the gorier scenes in the other books on my list. Teen misery drenches the pages as the reader is forced to endure the suffering alongside Eyes, and prompted to question whether his only friend will be his savior or his downfall.
***
