[TW: Gore] Artists who do extremely messed up things, purely for the sake of art
For clarification: the trope isn’t just an artist who does evil things. Their motivation for those acts must purely be artistic expression/inspiration. If they are an artist who does messed up things with separate motives, then it doesn’t count into the trope.
1-2) Todo Shuichiro and Kyoko Yamashiro from Nameless Monster (there are two mangas with the same name. This is the less known one)
The two characters are a couple of serial killer artists who work together, yet have very contrasting tastes in art that complete one another. Todo wants to depict death in his art. When he kills his victims, he cuts up and re-arranges his victims bodies in extremely gruesome ways, then paints them on his canvas.
Kyoko (who is the main character’s girlfriend) on the other hand, wants to depict “life”. She extracts certain organs from Todo’s victims, and uses their body fluids to paint a landscape image of nature. It’s a very interesting concept that one killer paints his victims deaths, while the other uses the victims’ bodies to paint life.
It’s honestly a big shame that they were early villains, and a misdirection from the main plot about alien spiders. Todo dies shortly after his introduction, and Kyoko becomes one of the primary antagonists, but she loses the “artist” part of her character, just being reduced to a psycho ex. While the main plotline isn’t that bad, I would have loved a whole other crime thriller comic series, with those two characters as the main villains, and no further supernatural elements included. Extremely underutilized antagonists overall.
3-7) Members of the Ring Syndicate from Limbus Company / Library of Ruina (3 is Jumsoon, 4 is Callisto, and 5, 6, 7 is Callisto’s “art”).
The Ring is one of the 5 syndicates in the City. Every syndicate has its own specific defining trait, with Middle’s being vengeance, and the Thumb’s being hierarchy. The Ring’s defining trait is art. The syndicate is made up of various powerful artists, all with their own separate tastes, who have extremely gory methods. While it varies a lot, it usually involves re-arranging their victims’ bodies in very gruesome ways, often keeping them alive dıring the whole process. However, (at least in Limbus Company), we only got a look at Callisto’s art. And he is a former Maestro (the rank of a high ranking member of the ring), who most likely got kicked out due to his art being soulless, and gore for the sake of gore. Though, this doesn’t mean that any other ring art is less gorey, it just means that other Ring artists have more purpose and a desire for expression in the “art” they create.
8) Rohan Kishibe from Jojo’s bizarre adventure
He is the least messed up of all the examples, as he’s not a serial killer, but he was a terrifying character in his introduction. He is a globally famous mangaka who has moved to the small suburb of Morioh for inspiration. I don’t 100% remember his introduction, since it’s been a long time since I watched season 4.
His stand allows him to literally open people up like a book, and read, remove or manupilate their memories, and write in commands for them to follow. He takes interest in Koiichi, who is a member of the main cast. So, he starts forcing him to come to his house every day, and tears off his pages, causing his personality to change, and making him loose weight. He makes it so that Koiichi can’t remember anything about what happened when he’s outside of Rohan’s house, so that he cannot ask for help from anyone else. He later gets defeated by Josuke, and becomes an ally to the main crew.
Compared to the mostly lighthearted tone of early season 4, Rohan in his introduction was a terrifying and messed up antagonist, in the ways he could control his victims, and how he would do anything for the purpose of “artistic inspiration”.
1-2) Todo Shuichiro and Kyoko Yamashiro from Nameless Monster (there are two mangas with the same name. This is the less known one)
The two characters are a couple of serial killer artists who work together, yet have very contrasting tastes in art that complete one another. Todo wants to depict death in his art. When he kills his victims, he cuts up and re-arranges his victims bodies in extremely gruesome ways, then paints them on his canvas.
Kyoko (who is the main character’s girlfriend) on the other hand, wants to depict “life”. She extracts certain organs from Todo’s victims, and uses their body fluids to paint a landscape image of nature. It’s a very interesting concept that one killer paints his victims deaths, while the other uses the victims’ bodies to paint life.
It’s honestly a big shame that they were early villains, and a misdirection from the main plot about alien spiders. Todo dies shortly after his introduction, and Kyoko becomes one of the primary antagonists, but she loses the “artist” part of her character, just being reduced to a psycho ex. While the main plotline isn’t that bad, I would have loved a whole other crime thriller comic series, with those two characters as the main villains, and no further supernatural elements included. Extremely underutilized antagonists overall.
3-7) Members of the Ring Syndicate from Limbus Company / Library of Ruina (3 is Jumsoon, 4 is Callisto, and 5, 6, 7 is Callisto’s “art”).
The Ring is one of the 5 syndicates in the City. Every syndicate has its own specific defining trait, with Middle’s being vengeance, and the Thumb’s being hierarchy. The Ring’s defining trait is art. The syndicate is made up of various powerful artists, all with their own separate tastes, who have extremely gory methods. While it varies a lot, it usually involves re-arranging their victims’ bodies in very gruesome ways, often keeping them alive dıring the whole process. However, (at least in Limbus Company), we only got a look at Callisto’s art. And he is a former Maestro (the rank of a high ranking member of the ring), who most likely got kicked out due to his art being soulless, and gore for the sake of gore. Though, this doesn’t mean that any other ring art is less gorey, it just means that other Ring artists have more purpose and a desire for expression in the “art” they create.
8) Rohan Kishibe from Jojo’s bizarre adventure
He is the least messed up of all the examples, as he’s not a serial killer, but he was a terrifying character in his introduction. He is a globally famous mangaka who has moved to the small suburb of Morioh for inspiration. I don’t 100% remember his introduction, since it’s been a long time since I watched season 4.
His stand allows him to literally open people up like a book, and read, remove or manupilate their memories, and write in commands for them to follow. He takes interest in Koiichi, who is a member of the main cast. So, he starts forcing him to come to his house every day, and tears off his pages, causing his personality to change, and making him loose weight. He makes it so that Koiichi can’t remember anything about what happened when he’s outside of Rohan’s house, so that he cannot ask for help from anyone else. He later gets defeated by Josuke, and becomes an ally to the main crew.
Compared to the mostly lighthearted tone of early season 4, Rohan in his introduction was a terrifying and messed up antagonist, in the ways he could control his victims, and how he would do anything for the purpose of “artistic inspiration”.
