In Search of Takashi Itsuki’s Robotic Amputees

Welcome, IO9 readers who came here from Meredith Woerner’s excellent review of Coilhouse Issue 01. This one’s for you.

via Ectomo and Trevor “Don’t Click It, Mom” Brown, I discovered the android amputee bondage art of Takashi Itsuki. Completed over 20 years ago and originally published a Japanese magazine titled Bizarre (not the “extreme lad’s mag” UK Bizarre or the ye olde John Willie Bizarre), the drawings fascinate Brown in that they predate the EGL style by at least a decade (as is most evident in this image, with the loli-droid’s blunt bangs, lace headdress and oversize bow). Brown initially scanned and posted 5 of the 13 drawings from Itsuki’s “amputee robot doll bondage” series on his blog, and followed up with another post containing rare scans of Itsuki’s long-lost manga.

There’s not much more infromation than that. We know that in the mid-90s Itsuki put out a comic called Yoso no Himitsu (“Secret of the Worm”), based on a Cthulhu mythos story by Robert Bloch, the H.P. Lovecraft protégé best known penning Psycho. That’s where the trail grows cold – at least on the English-speaking Internet. Brown notes that the artist “is (and maybe was) pretty much unknown and unpopular and now forgotten” and that it is now almost impossible to find his manga.

If I never see the manga, I hope that at least the other 8 images from Itsuki’s bot-bondage set make their way onto the web. They’re creepy and hot and haunting all at once. Don’t know if the images’ lilac tone was the way they were printed or an effect added to the scans in Photoshop, but it adds just the right mood, like it’s all happening at dusk, the most magical time of the day. Please, whoever has these, scan more!

UPDATE: Trevor Brown has graciously scanned three more for everyone’s viewing pleasure. See them on his blog. Thank you kindly!

22 Responses to “In Search of Takashi Itsuki’s Robotic Amputees”

  1. Mer Says:

    ZOMGNSFWSTFUBBQ!!!!!!!???!!11!!1

  2. technex Says:

    These are amazing. I love the detail and the casual brutality, it gives them such sensual, visceral impact.

  3. Nadya Says:

    Mer, you know better than to read Coilhouse in the cubicle!

  4. David Forbes Says:

    The second image… with the straps…. Brain! Agh!

  5. Mer Says:

    Dude, the boss totally just caught me rubbing one out under my desk. ENABLER.

  6. trevor brown Says:

    these artworks have been surprisingly popular – or perhaps not so surprising?! – as they are so “rare” (i don’t even know exactly which issue of bizarre they came from now as i ripped the pages out) perhaps i should scan and upload the remainder of the images one day… – i’ve since collected a few of his manga but, with the exception of one i blogged about, they are not so exciting

  7. Nadya Says:

    @ trevor: Please, pretty please, scan them! The ones from the robot amputee set. I’d be so curious to see.

  8. Ruby Says:

    …!…

    this is a good morning.

  9. Stephanie Says:

    so is it really fucked up that i like work like this yet i still believe in dispelling fetishistic views of women/empowering women? what’s wrong with this picture?

  10. Nadya Says:

    Stephanie, I look at it this way:

    One time, Sociological Images, a blog about very serious business, made a post titled “FRENCH SAFER SEX ADS: ART, OBSCENITY, OR PUBLIC HEALTH?“.

    The first comment on this post was this:

    “You forgot a choice in your title. It should read:

    …Art, Obscenity, Public Health, or TOTALLY AWESOME!!1!?

    *ahem*

    Sorry for the outburst, but those are delightful and you really just made my morning. They’re like something from an HIV-conscious Heavy Metal magazine.

    So, yeah. They sure are hetero-normative, though.”

    That exchange above epitomizes my stance on enjoying “wrong” things. Allow yourself to enjoy it, maintain a healthy view, be able to see all aspects of it at once.

  11. trevor brown Says:

    a few more!
    http://www.pileup.com/babyart/blog/?p=202

  12. Ashiikankwe Says:

    Well, he’s got three more up now. Your internet powerz have borne fruit. Fuck yes!

  13. Jerem Morrow Says:

    ‘GASM.

  14. Stephanie Says:

    thanks nadya! this is why you ladies are so awesome. : )

  15. Jessica Says:

    mmmmmmmmm-mmmmmmmmmm!!!

  16. Tequila Says:

    Oh how wonderfully dirty…you can almost smell the mix of sweat, machine oil, and overheated high grade plastics and badly polished metals. Hell you can even almost feel the pull of frayed wires on flesh and hear the hum of internal parts skipping after constant smacks from an outside source.

    Gotta love the placement of the fuel cap too.

  17. freakyjapan.com Says:

    great stuff!

  18. Alice Says:

    Huh….

    Funny-feeling inducing and fascinating at the very same time…

  19. A.P. Stilwell Says:

    I’m going to be honest: these scans are some of the hottest shit I’ve seen on Coilhouse (which regularly posts some pretty hot shit). If Cameron’s adaptation of ‘Battle Angel Alita’ was this sexy, I might have to pull as “Paul Reubens”. Wow, thank you for making me admit to my “robot amputee fetish”!

    Thankfully I have the day off today.

  20. Ed Autumn Says:

    These are totally rad! Yay for cryptic goodies and their re-surfacing ;)

  21. Johnny The Anomaly Says:

    “Bot Bondage” Yum!!

  22. PLANETDAMAGE » [itsuki takashi の マンガ] を探している / amputee robot dolls Says:

    […] on a Cthulhu story by Robert Bloch. Itsuki’s been known in the past few weeks via Ectomo and Coilhouse for his amputee robot doll set, partially published on the baby art blog (link one, link […]