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!
September 20th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
ZOMGNSFWSTFUBBQ!!!!!!!???!!11!!1
September 20th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
These are amazing. I love the detail and the casual brutality, it gives them such sensual, visceral impact.
September 20th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Mer, you know better than to read Coilhouse in the cubicle!
September 20th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
The second image… with the straps…. Brain! Agh!
September 20th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Dude, the boss totally just caught me rubbing one out under my desk. ENABLER.
September 20th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
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
September 20th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
@ trevor: Please, pretty please, scan them! The ones from the robot amputee set. I’d be so curious to see.
September 20th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
…!…
this is a good morning.
September 20th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
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?
September 20th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
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:
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.
September 20th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
a few more!
http://www.pileup.com/babyart/blog/?p=202
September 20th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Well, he’s got three more up now. Your internet powerz have borne fruit. Fuck yes!
September 20th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
‘GASM.
September 21st, 2008 at 9:44 am
thanks nadya! this is why you ladies are so awesome. : )
September 21st, 2008 at 10:56 am
mmmmmmmmm-mmmmmmmmmm!!!
September 21st, 2008 at 8:54 pm
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.
September 22nd, 2008 at 4:24 am
great stuff!
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:43 am
Huh….
Funny-feeling inducing and fascinating at the very same time…
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:51 am
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.
September 22nd, 2008 at 9:17 pm
These are totally rad! Yay for cryptic goodies and their re-surfacing ;)
September 26th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
“Bot Bondage” Yum!!
September 28th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
[…] 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 […]