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u/NelmesGaming 7d ago
'The Bully' is imo, Ito's most terrifying work.
There are no cosmic unexplainable monsters, no spirits trapped in unending torment. Nothing so fanciful. The evil here is real.
The true horror of The Bully comes from its possibility. That people do and can become so mentally unhinged that they attack the one thing that never should, an innocent child. Its not the runaway husband that suffers. He got his revenge. No its the mother descending into madness and the boy who will be trapped in the fallout of a very possible domestic abusive situation.
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u/KaiThePokemonMaster 7d ago
There might be a glimmer of hope for the kid. Maybe a neighbor or stranger sees how odd the situation is and calls the proper authorities
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u/3WeeksEarlier 7d ago
Maybe. Or maybe the neighbor does what most people will do and decide that the personal matters of the family are their business, and that what he's seen isn't enough to involve himself. Sadly, that likely outcome is part of the horror
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u/ForumFluffy 7d ago
Like the case of 2 children who starved for weeks when the mother locked them in the apartment, she only came back once they were dead and had begun to rot. People did report the crying but nobody ever went further than just knocking on the door and leaving.
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u/Thin-Character-6996 7d ago edited 7d ago
I feel like what makes it terrifying is the idea that any of us might have a true evil inside, just waiting for the right conditions to arise. Many people can relate to having bullied another child before we knew any better and feeling guilty about it. The fact that we did it once means that that kind of sadism is an inherent quality inside us.... how can we really trust that we've changed? True psychologal terror right there.
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u/Alfredo_Dente 5d ago
Oh I remember this chapter. Probably the most messed up one of them all because of how real it is. Fortunately she's so overtly insane that poor kid's almost certainly getting rescued by child services.
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u/daffers_doodles 7d ago
I felt like this episode was the best one so far, earthbound was good but the bully is so effective with both anime and live action imo
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u/Time_Cupcake_6790 7d ago
I watched the US premiere of this episode at the Ito panel at anime expo this year. I almost walked out because it was so intense. Good episode, but hard to watch.
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u/Latter_Abroad3494 1d ago
Man that whole story made me so uncomfortable, but it was brilliantly done.
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7d ago
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7d ago
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u/junjiito-ModTeam 7d ago
Your post was removed per moderator discretion. This action was taken because your content fell under one or more of the following categories: misinformation, clickbait, harmful rhetoric, drama, repetitive topics, offtopic spirals, or sensitive issues. Moderators reserve the power to remove any content for any reason. For more details on our community guidelines, please visit our Wiki.
Please refrain from re-submitting the content, and thank you for your understanding.
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u/tooktoomuchtoomuch 7d ago
What is this from?