HA I can't believe that friggin machine exists. When I was a senior in hs (circa 2003) a dude in my art class was constantly drawing this thing. He worked it into every project, labeled it like that, too. "Junji Ito Pinball Machine." I always assumed it was a band. Or a bit. He had that "edgy for the sake of being edgy" kinda thing going on. Now that I think about it, he did tell me his parents took him to Tokyo all the time. I think he had family there. To be clear, Pinball Mike and I were not friends but I think he assumed we were because I wore a lot of black and had a Nine Inch Nails patch on my messenger bag. Love how that works. High school in the midwest suburbs, baby!
I guess Pinball Mike is excused (a little) now that I know this machine inspires such, uhh devotion
It's funny, the overall association with his weird shit was a lot of what kept me from getting into Junji Ito later, in college. And yes, he did eventually get in trouble with the teacher for "not adhering to the spirit" of the assignments