Hellstar Remina
Hellstar Remina is a 2005 single-volume manga by acclaimed horror artist and author Junji Ito, which combines elements of Apocalyptic science fiction with cosmic horror. In Hellstar Remina, a planet from another quantum universe enters Earth's universe and begins to move quickly, destroying all stars that it approaches. Unfortunately for the Earth, the planet eventually turns its gaze upon the Solar System. Also included in this volume is Okumanbocchi a tale where when groups of people gather, they frequently disappear and appear dead, naked, and stitched together.
Plot[edit]
Set in the future, where humanity has already established colonies on both Mars and the moon, Professor Oguro, an astronomer in a Japanese observatory, becomes the first person to witness a planet emerging from a wormhole. Oguro names the planet after his only daughter, Remina, and the world revels in the discovery which they believe will advance astrophysics. The planet and daughter become media darlings as talent agencies seek to recruit the beautiful Remina as a talent. She eventually gives in and accepts manager Yasumi Mitsumura's offer and becomes a celebrity.
The other Remina, the planet, remains an unknown as it moves at near light speeds and erratically. More disturbingly it appears to the astronomers that all stars that 'Planet Remina' comes near seem to wink out of existence. Since Remina was heading away from the Solar System, they merely find its behavior fascinating rather than disturbing. Years later though, things take a turn for the worse when one of the astronomers notices the planet stop, then turn towards the Solar System. Even worse, the astronomer is convinced the planet "looked at him."
The news of the approach of the star extinguishing planet sends Earth into panic. Reports later come in as the incoming 'Planet Remina' enters the Solar System, and to everyone's shock and terror, begins obliterating the outer planets. When 'Planet Remina' reaches Mars, the satellite feed shows a large tongue emerge and wrap around Mars. The people of Earth are horrified and start to believe that the approach of the 'Planet Remina' is some how related to the astronomer who first discovered it and the woman the planet was named after.
As the 'hellstar' comes closer and closer to Earth, Remina along with her father now become the subjects of persecution as the masses begin to believe that she is directly responsible for the coming cataclysm. Thus begins a brutal, worldwide witch hunt for the two, with the intent of killing them both as sacrifices in the desperate hope that it will somehow stop the otherworldly beast. Remina has no allies except her manager, the president of her fan club, and the son of one of her sponsors.
At the same time, Earth sends a probe to the planet to land on it and discover what they can. The probe crash lands on the planet surface and all but two astronauts perish. They explore the nightmarish landscape transmitting their findings only to suddenly disappear and never be heard from again. Before their disappearance though, they mention that it seems human survival may be possible on the surface of the planet. This transmission gets corrupted as the information is passed around leading some people believe that 'Planet Remina' is actually a paradise so several prominent members board a rocket to land on the planet. There they find out that the planet is anything but hospitable and that the atmosphere seems to melt people and the surface seems to absorb what's left.
In the end, Remina and a few others escape into a high security bomb shelter as the Earth is consumed by 'Planet Remina'. The Earth shatters, but the bomb shelter remains intact, floating off in space with enough supplies to last one year.
Okumanbocchi[edit]
Okumabocchi is another tale including in the same volume of Hellstar Remina. It begins with the gruesome discovery of two bodies naked and stitched together. The protagonist is a twenty-year-old named Michio who has shut himself in his room for the past seven years. Recently a creepy advertisement has started to play on the radio talking about Okumanbocchi (A boy of millions and millions). He gets an invitation to a class reunion but he has no real interest seeing there was only one person who seemed to care about him back then; a girl named Natsuko. To his surprise she stops by his house, and he leaves his room to talk to her. She asks him to attend the reunion and coming of age ceremony.
As time goes on though, more and more bodies are found stitched together. Each time the number stitched together is larger and larger. Okumanbocchi begins to advertise more and more aggressively, even dropping flyers from a plane. Underground discussion groups begin to notice it's groups of people that would disappear and later appear dead and stitched together and are pretty convinced this Okumanbocchi group is behind it. Later, the media also reports this. But even though the reports say large gathering are dangerous, the reunion and coming of age ceremony are not postponed. Instead security detail is heightened. Michio was thinking of skipping the event but is so worried about Natsuko's safety that he sneaks into the venue to check on her. A cop finds him and believes he is a suspicious character until Natsuko arrives late to the event and vouches for him.
The two of them enter the main gathering only to find the meeting hall completely empty and all the attendees gone. Days later hundreds of bodies appear stitched and strung up in trees. People begin to be horrified of being in any type of crowd, even of only two people and they all shut themselves in. Natsuko calls Michio since after being shut in for so long with no contact with others she's starting to feel extremely depressed and suicidal. Michio decides he'll risk his life and go see her and confess his love for her. On the way there, he sees an Okumanbocchi plane dropping flyers but sees military jets chase after it. He believes this will stop the murders so he happily rushes to tell Natsuko the good news only to find Natsuko under the spell of the Okumanbocchi, chanting their slogan while sewing together the corpses of her mother, father, and dog.
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