I read pretty much everything that Junji Ito has published over his long career, but few of his stories made my skin crawl the way Greased (also known as Glyceride) did. It’s not his scariest, but it might be his most disgusting story. Every page, every panel, feels coated in filth. It’s grotesque, visceral, and even if you want to look away, you just can’t.
While many of Ito’s stories focus on supernatural forces or existential dread, Greased is entirely grounded in reality. Here the horror comes from one’s own home, and from family dynamics that slowly rot away.
Plot Overview – A Grease-Soaked Nightmare
The story follows Yui, a teenage girl who lives above her family’s yakiniku restaurant. Right from the beginning, the setting is oppressive, disgusting even. The walls are greasy; the air is heavy with oil fumes, and even the floor is covered in grime that has built up over years. While her father’s busy running the restaurant below, she’s at the whims of her sadistic and cruel older brother who seems to thrive in this environment.
When Goro hits puberty, he develops severe acne. Over time, however, their disgusting living situation worsens it markedly, transforming his acne into enormous, crater-like pustules. Before long, Goro’s face resembles nothing but a giant crater-landscape.
Eventually Yui realizes just how disturbing a place her home has become. Her father’s business has long been failing, but suddenly starts booming again, after he sells a new type of meat. At the same time, Goro has vanished. The implications are clear, but that’s not the end of the events at play.
What Makes Greased So Good?
The story invokes one and one emotion alone: disgust. Ito does it masterfully; the setting is oppressive, suffocating even. Every surface of Yui’s home, and even she herself, is covered in grease and filth, almost as if there’s no escape from it. Everything sticks, everything reeks, and to us, it all feels wrong.
Greased is a story that switches traditional monsters and the supernatural with filth, bodily decay and the corruption of family bonds. Goro’s horrible transformation upon hitting puberty is a metaphor for how a toxic environment can warp a person beyond recognition. This can especially be seen in his long rant shortly before his death, his hate of society, and him wanting to get revenge on everyone who looks down on him and sees him as disgusting.
Even Yuri changes, but differently. Not only her home and her body seem to be covered in grease, but slowly even her mind begins to warp. Her only solace, watching mount Fuji, dreaming of a better, cleaner existence, changes into a grease-erupting volcano as her mind continues to spiral.
Another point of interest is Ito’s inspiration for the story. While studying at a dental school, he had to sleep on disgusting futons, stained brown from the sweat of former students.
Deeper Themes – Domestic Abuse and the Horror of Decay
Beneath all the filth, Greased is ultimately the story of a dysfunctional family. Their home life is toxic, both literally and figuratively.
Domestic abuse and control are central themes, but also the decay of morality. Goro’s torment of his sister is unrelenting and unchecked, but also a direct result of their living condition. Even worse, their father’s cold, and seems to care more about his failing business than his family. The environment they live in mirrors the psychological horror of parental and social neglect. Layers of grease are coating the home, just as trauma and rot infest those living inside of it.
The body horror here is key, too. The infamous panel of Goro’s ‘crater face’ erupting is one of Ito’s most visceral and disgusting, but it shows more than just physical decay. Goro’s body might be changed by their disgusting living condition, but it’s neglect and self-abuse that twist his mind.
Yet there are other, even deeper metaphors that some readers have spun. Some question if the story is a metaphor for unhealthy eating, obsessive consumption and the effects it has on body and mind. It might be, it might not. What I stand by, however, is that Greased is a metaphor for how toxic environments can literally and figuratively erode both body and soul.
Final Verdict – One of Ito’s Most Viscerally Disturbing Stories
Greased is not subtle, and it doesn’t want to be. It’s gross and disturbing by design. It might lack the deeper cosmic or existential horror of such stories as Long Dream and Enigma at Amigara Fault, but it sticks with you in a different way.
Greased is an excellent entry point for those readers who want to explore Ito’s nastier, more visceral stories, and features some of his most iconic panels.
Looking for more Junji Ito? Check out my review of Long Dream, Uzumaki, or my full ranking of the best 40 Junji Ito stories.
Greased is available in Junji Ito’s Shiver collection, available on Amazon.
