Contemplating Reiko

Contemplating Reiko is a webcomic by New York born artist Vincent Grisanti. With a focus on dark humor, the Contemplating Reiko comics primarily consist of single-panel, black and white cartoon gags, with the notable addition of the sparing use of the color red. There are also some Contemplating Reiko animated flash cartoon shorts, very similar in style to their comic strip counterparts.

Reiko Mouryou is the primary character of the webcomic. She is a tiny six-year-old demon girl with a sadistic nature and dry wit.

Characters

The Family Mouryou

Reiko's family name is Mouryou, which in the Japanese language refers to an assortment of spirits and demons. Although they have very different personalities, those in the Mouryou family each share an unapologetic and casual sadism and even cannibalism. It seems they'd kill a man and devour his heart as matter-of-factly as anyone else would unwrap a candy bar.

Being a demon girl, Reiko bears many unusual physical characteristics including: large pointed ears, unusually long arms, red eyes, a forked tongue, and horns concealed beneath her bangs. Reiko's family members share similar, though not identical, physical characteristics.

• Mitsugu Mouryou – The father. An imposing figure in a pinstripe suit, Mitsugu is a chain-smoker with a pair of katana at his side. Two missing fingers on his left hand suggest he has performed yubitsume, a ritual associated with the yakuza.
• Fumiko Mouryou – The mother. She's into booze, tattoos, and guns. Fumiko wears a black kimono decorated with red momiji.
• Shihoka Mouryou (18) The eldest sister, Shihoka is into art and witchcraft. She wears dark glasses which mysteriously cover her eyes. Shihoka has the serpentine neck of a rokurokubi.
• Shirabe Mouryou (14) The second sister, Shirabe is the popular girl who likes cheerleading. Boys who go on a date with her generally don't survive the experience.
• Shinobu Mouryou (10) The third sister, Shinobu is the tomboy who is into athletics and is willing to kill the competition. She has a scar below her left eye, and usually has a katana sword in hand.
• Reiko Mouryou (6) The youngest sister and the main protagonist of the comic. She spends most of her time in the first grade dispatching of her classmates and often feeding them to Lucy.
• Lucy – Reiko's enormous pet crocodile. ("Lucy" is short for Lucifer, and the crocodile is actually male.)
• Uncle Ken – Reiko's uncle Kenzo who is a red Oni.

Other characters

• The Tweeling Sisters (11) – Zeni and Nadi Tweeling are a pair of conjoined twin sisters with opposing personalities. Zeni is short for Zenith and Nadi is short for Nadir.
• Irving H. Horseman Junior (7) – Whose name derives from Washington Irving, author of the short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Irving's character known as the Headless Horseman, is a boy with no head. To fill in for a head, young Irving uses a jack-o-lantern.

Trivia

Notes

• Reiko (pronounced Ray-ko) is a popular girl's name in Japan. Typically this name means "beautiful child". However, Reiko's name is spelled in an atypical way, with one kanji character referring instead to "spirit" or "ghost", making Reiko's name mean "ghost child".
• "Shinobu", while also a common Japanese girl's name, is phonetically similar to shinobi, a word commonly associated with ninja.
• The number 4 in Japanese, pronounced "shi" is considered bad luck in Japanese superstition because of the word's phonetic similarity to the word for death, "shinu". For this reason there are 4 Mouryou sisters, each 4 years apart. Also in one comic strip a blushing Reiko is seen offering four roses to the Grim Reaper.
• Reiko has a one-eyed plush rabbit doll named Usataro, or Usa-kun for short. "Usa" refers to usagi, which means "rabbit" in Japanese.
• Jonathan Ian Mathers, aka illwillpress, creator of Foamy the Squirrel and the "Neurotically Yours" flash cartoon series, created three Contemplating Reiko flash cartoons, "Captive Audience", "Chop Schtick", and "Lost in Translation".

Sightings

• The Contemplating Reiko comic strip has been published in Lollipop Magazine.
• Contemplating Reiko has been published in Zoinks! Magazine.
• The Tainted-Ink.com website appeared in one of illwillpress's "Neurotically Yours" flash animations titled "Bra Bashing".

External links

• Contemplating Reiko – A Wicked Little Strip about a Wicked Little Girl
• The Tainted Playground – The Contemplating Reiko Fan Community
• Killboredom.com Reiko review and interview with reiko creator
• Alternative Eye interview with Reiko creator
• Shvoong.com Contemplating Reiko summary