Tickling in Junji Ito's "The Gost of Golden Time"

Tickling is an activity often depicted in manga because of its peculiarity of forcing the recipient to laugh even if he or she does not want to.

Depending on the context, it is used as actual torture to force the victim to provide information against his or her will, as punishment in friendly contexts, as an endurance contest, or simply to make a grumpy person laugh.

Tickling is often portrayed with exaggerated effects, in order to generate a comic situation for the spectator.

It is usually all about the ambiguity of the laughter produced by the tickler. If the spectator is unaware that someone is being tickled, he mistakes his laughter for an expression of well-being and amusement. So the victim suffers, even though others think he or she is having fun and is therefore happy.

This is precisely the focus of the manga “The Ghost of Golden Time” by Junji Ito, celebrated Japanese horror master author of uzumaki and many other disturbing stories.

Tickle scenes in “The Ghost of Golden Time”

Keisuke (a boy who never smiles) and his friend Tsuguo discuss the fact that a comedian has been found dead from an explosion of uncontrolled laughter.

The two go to see the show of “Twilight Pacific Peace,” two girls who are a big hit with their comedy skits. Although the show is terribly corny, the audience starts laughing thunderously. None of them, including Tsuguo, can stop laughing, except for Keisuke, who is very worried.

The next night Tsuguo shows up at Keisuke’s house with the Twilight Pacific Peace and starts laughing nonstop. The girls want to know why Keisuke was not laughing during their performance. Keisuke brings Tsuguo into the house and explains that he has always been able to see spirits.

Last night, he saw that astral projections were coming out of the girls on the stage who were in charge of tickling the spectators. In this way everyone was forced to laugh at the comedians’ bad jokes, and they gave the impression that they were good artists, since no one but Tsuguo could see the spirits.

At this point the girls appear in the house in the form of spirits and decide to eliminate the witnesses to preserve their secret. They will made them laugh to death!

The ghosts start tickling Tsuguo, who starts laughing like crazy. Keisuke tries to help him and the spirits try to tickle him under his armpits, but apparently he is not ticklish.

Unfortunately, attracted by the commotion, Keisuke’s mother also arrives. She cannot see the spirits reaching for her and they start tickling her mercilessly, making her laugh unrestrainedly.

The woman and boy laugh without being able to stop for a moment to breathe, while Keisuke tries futilely to save them, since he cannot touch the spirits. The laughter is loud enough to be heard outside the dwelling. Keisuke loses consciousness, and the next day his mother survived, but Tsuguo died of asphyxiation from too much laughter. The boy knows he will not be believed and does not tell the truth to the police.

Twilight Pacific Peace finally gets its television debut. The fact that there is no audience present in the theater is not a problem. Their spirits are able to move through the power grid and reach everyone who watches them, tickling them into laughing at their shows.