A long time ago I saw a single-page scan of what looked like a one-off doujin Death Note parody where a kid made it his mission to masturbate daily in a girls’ toilet at school. His triumphant “Just as planned!” was amusing enough but I assumed it was a throwaway piece of toilet humour so after forgetting what blog I saw the pic on I thought nothing more of it. That was until the community word-of-mouth thing featuring Ghostlightning, David and Samshiel among others jogged my memory. The doujin in question was Onani Master Kurosawa and it proved to be more than just dirty jokes and a parody or two. A hell of a lot more.
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Make no mistake: this is a story with strong language and shows events and behaviour that are liable to offend some. It has some wonderful bits of humour though, including neat jabs at not only Death Note but Haruhi Suzumiya and Code Geass, but what makes this something I’d recommend so strongly is the fact that the superficial lulz accompany something more memorable and moving. If you excuse the pun, I never saw it coming.
As far as fans of sharp, contemporary Japanese psychological thrillers are concerned, Ryu Murakami is often the first names that spring to mind. Quite rightly too considering he wrote the original novel of Audition and has several of his other works published in English in recent years: I have to say I 
[Moved from my soon-to-be defunct side-blog because 1. I still haven't had time to write anything new and 2. it's more Relevant To Your Interests on this one.]
Here’s something that confused me at first: there are not one but two acclaimed writers by the name of Murakami. Haruki Murakami (my hero) is well-known for a quirky, contemplation-filled writing style and a quietly introspective look on contemporary Japanese society; Ryu Murakami also takes an interesting and occasionally controversial approach to social commentary and has quite a following among fans of modern fiction too. The similarities end there though: Haruki’s prose dabbles in metaphysics and a dreamlike, melancholic vibe (reminiscent of the philosophy that’s the namesake of this very blog) but Ryu’s work is darker and edgier.
I must admit that I’m not a huge fan of horror stories; they’re often derivative and/or dumb teen-orientated efforts so it takes a real classic of the genre to get my attention. I much prefer something more psychological than supernatural anyway because the nature of what’s frightening is more convincing – generally speaking the closer it is to reality, the scarier I find it to be. I’ve 