The one thing I've learned in reading more of Junji Ito is that he is sincerely not a very strong storyteller. He is an artist first and foremost, one who absolute nails horror in a way that basically no other creative person on the planet quite can. The visuals and the concept of Remina is unparalleled. Evil planet comes into existence, seemingly in tandem with the birth of a young and now budding pop-idol who is boosted to fame due to the planet being named after her. When the planet decides to destroy all of existence though, things don't go well for anyone involved.
Sounds awesome right? Here's the rub. Similar to Uzumaki, while Remina excels in concept and artistic representation, it completely flops in execution of its narrative. A lot of criticism I have seen of the novel is that there seems to be no purpose to any of the central premises of the story. The planet just exists, and it's doing all these terrible things? And why? No reason is given. I believe this is the strongest part of the story, however. Because it catches this intangible, Lovecraftian, nihilistic view of the world: sometimes horrific things happen for no reason, and there are no happy endings. That's the part I love about Remina.
The part I hate about Remina is literally all of the rest. Why does the entire global society suddenly become insane? Because plot! How does an evil cabal of witch hunters who seek Remina's death suddenly gain instant power over all humanity? Because someone needs to be the antagonist! Why do these people think that killing Remina will somehow stop the advance of the planet, with no evidence? Because it gives the main cast something to do! Why is Remina caught in a love triangle between the people trying to save her? Well, the story would be a lot shorter without that, and it gives a reason for people to betray her. So plot!
This is the issue: a concept is only good until the story gets rolling. If the concept is great, but the narrative is mediocre, then the entire story suffers. The most interesting parts - learning about the evil death planet, watching society collapse, empathizing with the protagonists - that falls to the wayside by brutalist depictions of random violence and basically people just acting kinda loopy.
This is compounded by the characterization of the central cast. The "damsel in distress" trope that many Ito stories rely on is back in full force. Remina is the main character, but lacks any agency in the story. She is thrust into pop-stardom against her will, even actively expressing she doesn't want this; she is targeted by literally the entire world for death; and for the majority of the plot, she is literally pulled around by the men in her life. At no point does Remina DO anything herself. She never has a heroic moment, she never fights back against the forces that intend to harm her; she's just kinda there, as the central protagonist, getting yanked around by literally everyone around her.
In a story about loss of control and agency, maybe you could rationalize that style of protagonist. Unfortunately, all the other characters are one-dimensional. Guess what the cowardly fanboy does? He acts cowardly and is a fanboy. Guess what the mature and brave guy does? He acts bravely and maturely. Guess what the defensive and obsessive guy does? Acts defensively and obsessively. If there were more nuance to the people surrounding Remina, maybe you could say that Remina lacking agency is fine. But the reality is that all the central characters in the story have no change throughout the story, and are little more than vehicles for Remina to get from one plot point to the next.
In short, man, Junji Ito is a very messy author. I can still sort of recommend this book, because at least it's short and to the point, rather than meandering and long such as Uzumaki. But I wish the story about an evil death planet had more to do with the evil death planet, rather than gratuitous violence of a helpless protagonist I can't relate to or empathize with.
