What do you think?
Rate this book
Venus in the Blind Spot
This striking collection presents the most remarkable short works of Junji Ito’s career, featuring an adaptation of Rampo Edogawa’s classic horror story “The Human Chair” and fan favorite “The Enigma of Amigara Fault.” With a deluxe presentation—including special color pages, and showcasing illustrations from his acclaimed long-form manga No Longer Human—each chilling tale invites readers to revel in a world of terror.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published February 28, 2019
About the author
Junji Ito
244 books12.8k followersJunji Itō (伊藤潤二)
Born in Gifu Prefecture in 1963, he was inspired from a young age by his older sister's drawing and Kazuo Umezu's comics and thus took an interest in drawing horror comics himself. Nevertheless, upon graduation he trained as a dental technician, and until the early 1990s he juggled his dental career with his increasingly successful hobby — even after being selected as the winner of the prestigious Umezu prize for horror manga.
The most common obsessions are with beauty, long hair, and beautiful girls, especially in his Tomie and Flesh-Colored Horror comic collections. For example: A girl's hair rebels against being cut off and runs off with her head; Girls deliberately catch a disease that makes them beautiful but then murder each other; a woman treats her skin with lotion so she can take it off and look at her muscles, but the skin dissolves and she tries to steal her sister's skin, etc.
Ito's universe is also very cruel and capricious; his characters often find themselves victims of malevolent unnatural circumstances for no discernible reason or punished out of proportion for minor infractions against an unknown and incomprehensible natural order.
His longest work, the three-volume Uzumaki, is about a town's obsession with spirals: people become variously fascinated with, terrified of, and consumed by the countless occurrences of the spiral in nature. Apart from the ghastly, convincingly-drawn deaths, the book projects an effective atmosphere of creeping fear as the town's inhabitants become less and less human, and more and more bizarre things begin to happen.
Before Uzumaki, Ito was best known for Tomie, a comic series about a beautiful, teasing and eternally youthful high school girl who inspires her stricken admirers to murder each other in fits of jealous rage. Eventually, unable to cope with her coy flirtation and their desire to possess Tomie completely, they are inevitably compelled to kill her — only to discover that, regardless of the method they chose to dispose of her body, her body will always regenerate.
In 1998, during the horror boom that followed the success of Ringu, Tomie was adapted into a movie. Since Tomie, many of his works have been adapted for TV and the cinema.
Born in Gifu Prefecture in 1963, he was inspired from a young age by his older sister's drawing and Kazuo Umezu's comics and thus took an interest in drawing horror comics himself. Nevertheless, upon graduation he trained as a dental technician, and until the early 1990s he juggled his dental career with his increasingly successful hobby — even after being selected as the winner of the prestigious Umezu prize for horror manga.
The most common obsessions are with beauty, long hair, and beautiful girls, especially in his Tomie and Flesh-Colored Horror comic collections. For example: A girl's hair rebels against being cut off and runs off with her head; Girls deliberately catch a disease that makes them beautiful but then murder each other; a woman treats her skin with lotion so she can take it off and look at her muscles, but the skin dissolves and she tries to steal her sister's skin, etc.
Ito's universe is also very cruel and capricious; his characters often find themselves victims of malevolent unnatural circumstances for no discernible reason or punished out of proportion for minor infractions against an unknown and incomprehensible natural order.
His longest work, the three-volume Uzumaki, is about a town's obsession with spirals: people become variously fascinated with, terrified of, and consumed by the countless occurrences of the spiral in nature. Apart from the ghastly, convincingly-drawn deaths, the book projects an effective atmosphere of creeping fear as the town's inhabitants become less and less human, and more and more bizarre things begin to happen.
Before Uzumaki, Ito was best known for Tomie, a comic series about a beautiful, teasing and eternally youthful high school girl who inspires her stricken admirers to murder each other in fits of jealous rage. Eventually, unable to cope with her coy flirtation and their desire to possess Tomie completely, they are inevitably compelled to kill her — only to discover that, regardless of the method they chose to dispose of her body, her body will always regenerate.
In 1998, during the horror boom that followed the success of Ringu, Tomie was adapted into a movie. Since Tomie, many of his works have been adapted for TV and the cinema.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,399 reviews
September 11, 2021
4.5 stars
October 4, 2023
A 'best of' collection of Junji Ito, from fan favorites to his own personal picks. If you want to see some truly disturbing sights that you can't ever unsee, this is for you. The artwork is exquisite and deeply unsettling, and the stories are a bit of a mixed bag but overall this is a frightfully fun collection.
July 25, 2020
Viz Media’s blurb for Venus in the Blind Spot is really weird: it claims this is a “best of” collection of Junji Ito’s stories but, as far as I can tell, only one - maybe two - stories have previously appeared in print before: The Enigma of Amigara Fault and The Sad Tale of the Principal Post possibly both appeared in Dissolving Classroom. So this is a “best of” collection that features almost all-new stories!? The blurb also mentions special colour pages and illustrations from Ito’s latest book, No Longer Human, and it doesn’t. Also, it would’ve been good if the contents page listed in which collections the stories previously appeared, like most “best of” collections do, but seeing as this appears to be nearly all-new material then I can see why it didn’t!
Of the stories collected here - Billions Alone, The Human Chair, An Unearthly Love, Venus in the Blind Spot, The Licking Woman, Master Umezz and Me, How Love Came to Professor Kirida, The Enigma of Amigara Fault, The Sad Tale of the Principal Post, and Keepsake - none were very good.
So here’s the thing with Ito: like HP Lovecraft, Ito is great at producing haunting images of primal horror but, also like Lovecraft, he’s very clumsy, almost amateurish, in incorporating these images into traditional stories. What you’re left with is some genuinely disturbing visions of horror scattered amidst numerous quite dull, predictable and almost laughably goofy stories.
Take The Human Chair, one of two Ito adaptations of the Japanese writer Edogawa Ranpo (real name Taro Hirai - Edogawa Ranpo is the Japanification of “Edgar Allan Poe”): it’s creepy that a guy would sew himself into a chair to be sat on by a female writer for hours a day, but the design of the chair, when the back of it was peeled away, showed tiny shelves for cans of food and waste! It’s too silly.
And it’s like that throughout: like the hundreds of naked corpses sewn together in Billions Alone, the giant phallic-like tongue bouncing around the street in The Licking Woman, the man who just happens to find himself trapped under a supporting beam in The Sad Tale of the Principal Post - they’re just too daffy to take seriously. Ito’s stories seem to operate in their own kind of dream/nightmare logic that defies convincing storytelling. These things just are - don’t question them!
Which sounds like hack storytelling, and you could argue that too, but that’s what I like best about Ito: the visions/scenarios themselves are the point - everything else is window-dressing. Also, regardless of his plodding, predictable and absurd storytelling, you’ll never read any horror stories like Junji Ito’s - the stuff in them are unique and the man himself is a true original. And the accompanying art is always fantastic. Though his character designs are constantly recycled, and repetitive for that, the moments when the terror is revealed are almost always chilling to look at, which is great because that’s when they count the most.
If you’ve read Junji Ito’s previous short horror collections, Venus in the Blind Spot is more of the same - no worse, no better. So if you’re a fan, you’ll love this, and if you’re not, this one won’t convince you otherwise. Even though I didn’t think much of this one, I remain into Ito for the art and the quirky, fresh ideas behind the horror stories. Just ignore the bizarre blurb - this is basically a new Ito collection.
Of the stories collected here - Billions Alone, The Human Chair, An Unearthly Love, Venus in the Blind Spot, The Licking Woman, Master Umezz and Me, How Love Came to Professor Kirida, The Enigma of Amigara Fault, The Sad Tale of the Principal Post, and Keepsake - none were very good.
So here’s the thing with Ito: like HP Lovecraft, Ito is great at producing haunting images of primal horror but, also like Lovecraft, he’s very clumsy, almost amateurish, in incorporating these images into traditional stories. What you’re left with is some genuinely disturbing visions of horror scattered amidst numerous quite dull, predictable and almost laughably goofy stories.
Take The Human Chair, one of two Ito adaptations of the Japanese writer Edogawa Ranpo (real name Taro Hirai - Edogawa Ranpo is the Japanification of “Edgar Allan Poe”): it’s creepy that a guy would sew himself into a chair to be sat on by a female writer for hours a day, but the design of the chair, when the back of it was peeled away, showed tiny shelves for cans of food and waste! It’s too silly.
And it’s like that throughout: like the hundreds of naked corpses sewn together in Billions Alone, the giant phallic-like tongue bouncing around the street in The Licking Woman, the man who just happens to find himself trapped under a supporting beam in The Sad Tale of the Principal Post - they’re just too daffy to take seriously. Ito’s stories seem to operate in their own kind of dream/nightmare logic that defies convincing storytelling. These things just are - don’t question them!
Which sounds like hack storytelling, and you could argue that too, but that’s what I like best about Ito: the visions/scenarios themselves are the point - everything else is window-dressing. Also, regardless of his plodding, predictable and absurd storytelling, you’ll never read any horror stories like Junji Ito’s - the stuff in them are unique and the man himself is a true original. And the accompanying art is always fantastic. Though his character designs are constantly recycled, and repetitive for that, the moments when the terror is revealed are almost always chilling to look at, which is great because that’s when they count the most.
If you’ve read Junji Ito’s previous short horror collections, Venus in the Blind Spot is more of the same - no worse, no better. So if you’re a fan, you’ll love this, and if you’re not, this one won’t convince you otherwise. Even though I didn’t think much of this one, I remain into Ito for the art and the quirky, fresh ideas behind the horror stories. Just ignore the bizarre blurb - this is basically a new Ito collection.
January 3, 2022
A little backstory: This was the first junji ito manga I accidentally discovered on GR one day and couldn't find anyplace else (free reading sites). As a result, I chose to read more of Mr. Ito's books. It's been a year and I've read 19 of his works; he's my favourite mangaka, and today I'm going to read Venus in the Blind Spot, the book that first exposed me to Junji Ito's magnificent world.
🪡🧵🎶 Billion alone :- 3.75 ⭐
You might not comprehend it right away, but if you think about it, you might be able to figure out what Ito is trying to say. Interesting. After reading this, I'm relieved that I can enjoy my own company and don't require outside entertainment on a regular basis.
💺✍️🥀 Human Chair :- 4.5⭐
One of my favourite short stories is "Human Chair." It's just so odd and bizarre, as is the notion. Perfect.
🥀🪆 An unearthly love :- 3.5⭐
An story of out of this world love, an unearthly love, an other love of this world. Something normally people won't experience or encounter.
♉🛸👽🧖♀️ Venus in the blind spot :- 4⭐
This was a science fiction story rather than a horror story. Mr. Ito has a unique perspective on the subject, which I admire. I knew what they were talking about right away because of my knowledge of blind spot, but that didn't stop me from being excited and enjoying the story.
👅🧍♀️ The licking woman :- 3⭐
Only one word. Gross
👩🏫✍️Master Umezz and Me :- 4.5⭐
I read somewhere that Master Umezz was Junji Iti's biggest inspiration, and this narrative is a dedication to him. I'm keen to read Master Umezz's works in order to learn more about Mr. Ito's inspiration.
♥️🦜✍️How love came to Professor Kirida :- 3.5⭐
Interesting but not captivating.
⛰️🚶♂️🚶♀️The Enigma of Amigara faults :- 4.5⭐
Already read this one before, still remains one of my fav.
🏚️ The sad take of principal post :- 2⭐
Already read this one as well and still can't quite comprehend it.
👶 Keepsake :- 4⭐
What an interesting story to conclude the collection with.
Overall 3.75 stars ~4 stars..🤩
🪡🧵🎶 Billion alone :- 3.75 ⭐
You might not comprehend it right away, but if you think about it, you might be able to figure out what Ito is trying to say. Interesting. After reading this, I'm relieved that I can enjoy my own company and don't require outside entertainment on a regular basis.
💺✍️🥀 Human Chair :- 4.5⭐
One of my favourite short stories is "Human Chair." It's just so odd and bizarre, as is the notion. Perfect.
🥀🪆 An unearthly love :- 3.5⭐
An story of out of this world love, an unearthly love, an other love of this world. Something normally people won't experience or encounter.
♉🛸👽🧖♀️ Venus in the blind spot :- 4⭐
This was a science fiction story rather than a horror story. Mr. Ito has a unique perspective on the subject, which I admire. I knew what they were talking about right away because of my knowledge of blind spot, but that didn't stop me from being excited and enjoying the story.
👅🧍♀️ The licking woman :- 3⭐
Only one word. Gross
👩🏫✍️Master Umezz and Me :- 4.5⭐
I read somewhere that Master Umezz was Junji Iti's biggest inspiration, and this narrative is a dedication to him. I'm keen to read Master Umezz's works in order to learn more about Mr. Ito's inspiration.
♥️🦜✍️How love came to Professor Kirida :- 3.5⭐
Interesting but not captivating.
⛰️🚶♂️🚶♀️The Enigma of Amigara faults :- 4.5⭐
Already read this one before, still remains one of my fav.
🏚️ The sad take of principal post :- 2⭐
Already read this one as well and still can't quite comprehend it.
👶 Keepsake :- 4⭐
What an interesting story to conclude the collection with.
Overall 3.75 stars ~4 stars..🤩
September 5, 2020
It's no secret that Junji Ito is a master of horror. This collection of short stories was marvellous, as to be expected. There's no doubt I'm going to be bingeing his content in the near future.
There was a great amount of variety in the type of horror Venus in the Blind Spot delivered. I found myself more closely glued to the pages than I've been in a long time. Ito's art is both lovely and haunting depending on circumstance; I could hardly turn away from his drawings, either.
While I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of this collection, The Enigma of Amigara Fault blew my mind. It's amazing to me how over the span of a few pages, Junji Ito was able to develop and deliver a chilling tale containing no supernatural forces, monsters or murderers. He puts the unaltered human mind on display, and demonstrates the horrors that can occur from urges phycologists call the "death drive". This was a stunning collection of horror. Ito is on his way to become my favourite manga author, without a doubt.
There was a great amount of variety in the type of horror Venus in the Blind Spot delivered. I found myself more closely glued to the pages than I've been in a long time. Ito's art is both lovely and haunting depending on circumstance; I could hardly turn away from his drawings, either.
While I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of this collection, The Enigma of Amigara Fault blew my mind. It's amazing to me how over the span of a few pages, Junji Ito was able to develop and deliver a chilling tale containing no supernatural forces, monsters or murderers. He puts the unaltered human mind on display, and demonstrates the horrors that can occur from urges phycologists call the "death drive". This was a stunning collection of horror. Ito is on his way to become my favourite manga author, without a doubt.
November 1, 2020
4.0 Stars
This was another solid collection from the brilliant and talented horror manga author, Junji Ito. Like all his previous work, the artwork was stunning, disturbing and disgusting… often at the same time. As with any short story collections, there were standouts and forgettable ones.
Personal Favourites:
Billions Alone… This was my favourite of the "new-to-me" stories in the collection. It one felt so timely, warning against the dangers of social gatherings and rewarding those who choose to self isolate.
The Enigma of Amigara Fault… This was technically a re-read because it was in a previous book. However, it is one of my all time favourites because it creates such an intense feeling of claustrophobia.
The Sad Tale of Principal Post… Another re-read from a different book. Short and depressingly dark.
Other Enjoyable Stories:
An Unearthly Love… I am always a sucker for creepy doll stories.
The Licking Woman… Very gross, so naturally I enjoyed it.
Keepsake… Another disturbing tale. I am also a sucker for creepy kid stories.
The collection also included a personal piece where Junji Ito explained how he got into horror manga as a child, which was interesting although not particularly relatable as a North American reader (since I didn't understand a lot of the books, celebrities & tv shows he was talking about).
Overall, this was a solid collection with several standout stories. This is well worth adding to anyone's collection.
Disclaimer: I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley.
This was another solid collection from the brilliant and talented horror manga author, Junji Ito. Like all his previous work, the artwork was stunning, disturbing and disgusting… often at the same time. As with any short story collections, there were standouts and forgettable ones.
Personal Favourites:
Billions Alone… This was my favourite of the "new-to-me" stories in the collection. It one felt so timely, warning against the dangers of social gatherings and rewarding those who choose to self isolate.
The Enigma of Amigara Fault… This was technically a re-read because it was in a previous book. However, it is one of my all time favourites because it creates such an intense feeling of claustrophobia.
The Sad Tale of Principal Post… Another re-read from a different book. Short and depressingly dark.
Other Enjoyable Stories:
An Unearthly Love… I am always a sucker for creepy doll stories.
The Licking Woman… Very gross, so naturally I enjoyed it.
Keepsake… Another disturbing tale. I am also a sucker for creepy kid stories.
The collection also included a personal piece where Junji Ito explained how he got into horror manga as a child, which was interesting although not particularly relatable as a North American reader (since I didn't understand a lot of the books, celebrities & tv shows he was talking about).
Overall, this was a solid collection with several standout stories. This is well worth adding to anyone's collection.
Disclaimer: I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley.
November 5, 2020
Over the weekend I finally got to reading Junji Ito’s manga, devouring all three volumes of Uzumaki in as many days. So while I haven’t exactly read enough of this horror master’s work to know what constitutes the “best” of his canon, I will say that the stories collected in Venus in the Blind Spot were mostly enjoyable—and rife with Ito’s trademark body horror ingenuity.
This collection reminded me quite viscerally of when I was a kid and I’d spend my evenings reading horror folklore anthologies at my local library (featuring stories like “The Green Ribbon,” about a girl also named Jenny whose fate freaked me out for years).
Similarly, I don’t think I’ll be forgetting some of the tales in Venus in the Blind Spot anytime soon.
Thank you NetGalley and VIZ Media for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️
Billions Alone (★★★½)
20-year-old Michio has been a recluse for the last 7 years when he’s approached by his former classmates to attend a class reunion and coming-of-age ceremony. Except that bodies keep turning up in his town—“group corpses” who’ve been grotesquely stitched together using fishing line.
What a parable about the perils of gathering in groups! (And the gruesome lengths to which a murderous vigilante group will go to enforce social distancing, if we wanna take a 2020 lens to the whole shebang 😅)
The Human Chair (★★★★★)
This is a classic Ito tale (based on the story by Edogawa Ranpo) that I hear about often and finally got a chance to read. A girl stops by a furniture store to request a comfortable, sturdy chair be made for her to work in. The shopkeeper begins to tell her a story within a story (within OUR story) about the origins of a “human chair”—one in which a man sat ensconced and concealed, in order to be close to a woman he had fallen in love with.
I GET THE HYPE.
An Unearthly Love (★★☆☆☆)
Based off another original story by Edogawa Ranpo (aka the seminal Japanese mystery writer who took pen-name inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe), this tells of a woman who marries an emaciated-looking man known to “hate women.” While it doesn’t appear that he hates her, he certainly is strange—sneaking off in the middle of the night to visit a woman who the narrator is convinced is his lover.
As with every Ito story, all is not as it seems! However, the twist to this one was surprisingly feeble. Colour me unimpressed. :(
Venus in the Blind Spot (★★★☆☆)
Mariko Shono is a UFO fanatic who quite literally disappears from view—but only the views of certain men in her life. The collection’s eponymous story describes how the lovely Mariko is as beautiful as the Venusian that George Adamski, renowned ufologist (can���t believe I just typed that word), claimed to have conversed with.
Something I’m starting to realize as a recurring theme in Ito’s work is obsessive men pining—and becoming violent—over beautiful women. This one was definitely cool but not really my cuppa tea; I’m not so hot on alien conspiracies.
The Licking Woman (★★★☆☆)
On warm and humid nights, the Licking Woman attacks unsuspecting travellers with a tongue that quite literally kills. (It makes me SHUDDER to look at, but you gotta appreciate the level of detail that went into capturing each slimy pustule.) Years after the woman’s capture, Miku, a victim who was licked and whose fiancé and dog died as result, is still traumatized.
I’m a little dissatisfied with the ending but utterly enamoured with how gross this story was!
Master Umezz and Me (unrated)
This one took me by surprise because it wasn’t so much a horror story as it was an autobiographical snippet about Ito’s experiences growing up with the work of Kazuo Umezu, a popular Japanese horror manga author, musician, and actor. When Ito grows up, he gets a chance to work with his idol.
How Love Came to Professor Kirida (★★☆☆☆)
This one’s based on the English-language story “How Love Came to Professor Guildea” by Robert Hichens. Obsessive love abounds once again; this time, though, we witness one woman pining after Professor Kirida and another lusting after Father Murchison, a white preacher that Kirida has recruited to teach him about Christianity.
I’m not sure I altogether followed the storyline with this one. Maybe it would’ve been more enjoyable if I’d read the source work?
The Enigma of Amigara Fault (★★★★★)
A great earthquake has left a kilometres-long fault line on Amigara Mountain. The chilling thing? It’s exposed thousands of mysterious, human-shaped holes in the solid rock face—holes that were clearly dug from the inside of the mountain thousands of years ago. Two hikers, Owaki and Yoshida, find themselves drawn along with dozens of others to the fault line and the holes.
Claustrophobia? ACTIVATED.
Creepiness? IMMACULATE.
Hotel? TRIVAGO.
The Sad Tale of the Principal Post (★★☆☆☆)
That’s it. That’s *basically* the story. 😂 Reminds me of those two-sentence horror stories people like to exchange.
A little underwhelming, imo!
Keepsake (★★★☆☆)
This one starts off with a bang: a baby has been discovered within the grave of young master Toyoji’s first wife—a woman who has been dead for nine months. In the time since her death, Toyoji has taken his mistress as his wife and welcomed their first child.
Three years later, the corpse baby—Manjuro—has grown into a creepy toddler with bulging eyes and shrunken lips when the circumstances of his strange birth finally come to light.
AVERAGE RATING: 3.2 stars.
This collection reminded me quite viscerally of when I was a kid and I’d spend my evenings reading horror folklore anthologies at my local library (featuring stories like “The Green Ribbon,” about a girl also named Jenny whose fate freaked me out for years).
Similarly, I don’t think I’ll be forgetting some of the tales in Venus in the Blind Spot anytime soon.
Thank you NetGalley and VIZ Media for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️◻️
Billions Alone (★★★½)
Being in a group is dangerous in and of itself now.
20-year-old Michio has been a recluse for the last 7 years when he’s approached by his former classmates to attend a class reunion and coming-of-age ceremony. Except that bodies keep turning up in his town—“group corpses” who’ve been grotesquely stitched together using fishing line.
What a parable about the perils of gathering in groups! (And the gruesome lengths to which a murderous vigilante group will go to enforce social distancing, if we wanna take a 2020 lens to the whole shebang 😅)
The Human Chair (★★★★★)
You must sink down deep into me and be held gently by my body.
This is a classic Ito tale (based on the story by Edogawa Ranpo) that I hear about often and finally got a chance to read. A girl stops by a furniture store to request a comfortable, sturdy chair be made for her to work in. The shopkeeper begins to tell her a story within a story (within OUR story) about the origins of a “human chair”—one in which a man sat ensconced and concealed, in order to be close to a woman he had fallen in love with.
I GET THE HYPE.
An Unearthly Love (★★☆☆☆)
A fiendish love… an unearthly love… those who feel such a love are numbed to their very souls by this mysterious pleasure…
Based off another original story by Edogawa Ranpo (aka the seminal Japanese mystery writer who took pen-name inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe), this tells of a woman who marries an emaciated-looking man known to “hate women.” While it doesn’t appear that he hates her, he certainly is strange—sneaking off in the middle of the night to visit a woman who the narrator is convinced is his lover.
As with every Ito story, all is not as it seems! However, the twist to this one was surprisingly feeble. Colour me unimpressed. :(
Venus in the Blind Spot (★★★☆☆)
Mariko Shono is a UFO fanatic who quite literally disappears from view—but only the views of certain men in her life. The collection’s eponymous story describes how the lovely Mariko is as beautiful as the Venusian that George Adamski, renowned ufologist (can���t believe I just typed that word), claimed to have conversed with.
Something I’m starting to realize as a recurring theme in Ito’s work is obsessive men pining—and becoming violent—over beautiful women. This one was definitely cool but not really my cuppa tea; I’m not so hot on alien conspiracies.
The Licking Woman (★★★☆☆)
On warm and humid nights, the Licking Woman attacks unsuspecting travellers with a tongue that quite literally kills. (It makes me SHUDDER to look at, but you gotta appreciate the level of detail that went into capturing each slimy pustule.) Years after the woman’s capture, Miku, a victim who was licked and whose fiancé and dog died as result, is still traumatized.
I’m a little dissatisfied with the ending but utterly enamoured with how gross this story was!
Master Umezz and Me (unrated)
This one took me by surprise because it wasn’t so much a horror story as it was an autobiographical snippet about Ito’s experiences growing up with the work of Kazuo Umezu, a popular Japanese horror manga author, musician, and actor. When Ito grows up, he gets a chance to work with his idol.
How Love Came to Professor Kirida (★★☆☆☆)
This one’s based on the English-language story “How Love Came to Professor Guildea” by Robert Hichens. Obsessive love abounds once again; this time, though, we witness one woman pining after Professor Kirida and another lusting after Father Murchison, a white preacher that Kirida has recruited to teach him about Christianity.
I’m not sure I altogether followed the storyline with this one. Maybe it would’ve been more enjoyable if I’d read the source work?
The Enigma of Amigara Fault (★★★★★)
A great earthquake has left a kilometres-long fault line on Amigara Mountain. The chilling thing? It’s exposed thousands of mysterious, human-shaped holes in the solid rock face—holes that were clearly dug from the inside of the mountain thousands of years ago. Two hikers, Owaki and Yoshida, find themselves drawn along with dozens of others to the fault line and the holes.
Claustrophobia? ACTIVATED.
Creepiness? IMMACULATE.
Hotel? TRIVAGO.
The Sad Tale of the Principal Post (★★☆☆☆)
Th-this looks like the principal post… If you move it just to rescue me, the entire house might fall over.
That’s it. That’s *basically* the story. 😂 Reminds me of those two-sentence horror stories people like to exchange.
A little underwhelming, imo!
Keepsake (★★★☆☆)
This one starts off with a bang: a baby has been discovered within the grave of young master Toyoji’s first wife—a woman who has been dead for nine months. In the time since her death, Toyoji has taken his mistress as his wife and welcomed their first child.
Three years later, the corpse baby—Manjuro—has grown into a creepy toddler with bulging eyes and shrunken lips when the circumstances of his strange birth finally come to light.
AVERAGE RATING: 3.2 stars.
July 6, 2020
I've read a lot of Junji Ito's work at this point, and it's generally a bit hit or miss for me, but thankfully, this was a huge hit. I absolutely loved this collection and can easily say it's one of my favorites of his works. It spans a grouping of short stories, some written by other authors, and altogether, while they certainly don't fit a theme or anything, they work well together and were almost all extremely well-done. There was one story I wasn't a big fan of near the end, and then I think it's worth mentioning that the collection involves 'The Enigma of Amigara Fault', which may disappoint some long-time lovers of his work as it's featured in at least one of his other collections (thankfully, it happens to be one of my all-time faves, so I was delighted to read it again).
Altogether, a really solid collection I think any Junji Ito fan will be pleased with. It may even be a good introduction to his work for anyone who's hesitant to pick up his stranger titles (like 'Uzumaki'), as this one felt rather tame comparatively. I enjoyed it a lot and would definitely be interested in purchasing a finished copy when it releases to keep on my shelf!
✨ Content warnings for:
Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!
Altogether, a really solid collection I think any Junji Ito fan will be pleased with. It may even be a good introduction to his work for anyone who's hesitant to pick up his stranger titles (like 'Uzumaki'), as this one felt rather tame comparatively. I enjoyed it a lot and would definitely be interested in purchasing a finished copy when it releases to keep on my shelf!
✨ Content warnings for:
Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!
November 3, 2020
Just in time for Halloween we have a collection of stories by manga-ka of horror, Junji Ito, who creates a “best of” collection, much as Shiver was. I had read some of it before, but some of it I had never seen or heard of before. And like many short story collections it is a little uneven, but unlike “best of” collections which are supposed to be selections of his Very Best. Some of it appears to be fan favorites, some his personal choices, a kind of collage of a range of his work, most of which is creepy/ludicrous/scary. Not all his best work, though. All improbable, all the time, and pulpy creative fun. I much prefer the longer works such as Uzumaki, but there’s good stuff in here, for sure, and I enjoyed it.
*"Billions Alone” is about this serial killer (girl) who sends messages out about how important it is for people to "get together" and not self isolate too much, then kills people and sews them together. Successfully creepy.
*"The Human Chair” is just bizarre, about a guy who lives inside a chair so a woman will sit on him. An adaptation of a story by Edogawa Ranpo, the Japanese Edgar Allan Poe.
*”The Licking Woman,” is gross, about a woman with a huge thick infected tongue who licks people’s faces and hands and thus infects them, too.
*"Master Umezz and Me” is an homage to Manga-ka Kazuo Umezz, of the Drifting Classroom fame, an inspiration for Ito.
*”The Enigma of Amigara Fault” is maybe the best, a fan fave? About an earthquake that causes a fault, where we see the outlines of cutouts of human figures, and people are drawn to see it, and then are drawn to fit in these holes. Just weird.
Not all are really special, in the way of "best," unfortunately, but if you have never read Ito, this might a good collection to peruse. There are many coming out now in translation.
*"Billions Alone” is about this serial killer (girl) who sends messages out about how important it is for people to "get together" and not self isolate too much, then kills people and sews them together. Successfully creepy.
*"The Human Chair” is just bizarre, about a guy who lives inside a chair so a woman will sit on him. An adaptation of a story by Edogawa Ranpo, the Japanese Edgar Allan Poe.
*”The Licking Woman,” is gross, about a woman with a huge thick infected tongue who licks people’s faces and hands and thus infects them, too.
*"Master Umezz and Me” is an homage to Manga-ka Kazuo Umezz, of the Drifting Classroom fame, an inspiration for Ito.
*”The Enigma of Amigara Fault” is maybe the best, a fan fave? About an earthquake that causes a fault, where we see the outlines of cutouts of human figures, and people are drawn to see it, and then are drawn to fit in these holes. Just weird.
Not all are really special, in the way of "best," unfortunately, but if you have never read Ito, this might a good collection to peruse. There are many coming out now in translation.
February 12, 2023
Venus In The Blind Spot is yet another short horror story anthology by one of the masters of horror, Junji Ito. There are also two adapted stories originally by Edogawa Ranpo, and one by Robert Hichens.
The story contained in this series are;
- Billions Alone: Where corpses are being found in rivers and forests throughout Japan sewn together to make one corpse. Utterly frightening imagery and what a great start to this collection.
- The Human Chair (Edogawa Ranpo): Junji Ito’s adaptation of this 1925 horror story works well with his terrifying artwork. What happens if buying a new chair turns into a nightmare? That’s what happens when a young author enters into a furniture store and is told the tale of Togawa Yoshiko’s armchair which contained a deadly secret… This has made me want to read the original story aswell now! So creepy!
- An Unearthly Love (Edogawa Ranpo): This one is a disturbing re-telling. What happens when a man’s one true love… is a doll?
- Venus In The Blind Spot: The titular tale. What would you do if you couldn’t see the person you love up close but only from a distance? Could it be the work of aliens or something more human…?
- The Licking Woman: Some gross-out body horror goodness about a woman with a poison tongue.
- Master Umezz and Me: This is about Junji Ito’s love of his hero Kazuo Umezz’s work and how he draws inspiration from him.
- How Love Came to Professor Kirida (Robert Hichens): An adaption of the Hichens’ story ”How Love Come to Professor Guildea”: A ghost story about an ageing professor who doesn’t believe in love, nor want to be loved by another, but a student who keeps showing him her works appears to be. This one made me feel uncomfortable for a few reasons, as all good horror should.
- The Enigma of Amigara Fault: People start entering these holes that are shaped exactly like them inside of a mountain. But once they go in, they can never escape. Why have they appeared and why are they somehow the exact shape of the certain people that are finding them
- The Sad Tale of the Principal Post: A man is trapped under the principal post holding up a family’s new home. The entire house could collapse if it is moved. But, how did he end up trapped beneath it in the first place?
- Keepsake: This was by far the most disturbing tale. A corpse of a woman is found to have given birth to a fully alive baby. How could this be so!?
I really enjoyed this collection overall. The Master Umezz story was probably the only dud for me, but it was nice to see where some of Ito’s inspiration came from. And his relief that he didn’t produce the manga of one of Umezz’s movies because he got one of the characters completely wrong lol
Still awarding this 5 stars however! And would recommend most of these stories to any horror fan. Some truly shocking and terrifying moments throughout. 💀🖤
The story contained in this series are;
- Billions Alone: Where corpses are being found in rivers and forests throughout Japan sewn together to make one corpse. Utterly frightening imagery and what a great start to this collection.
- The Human Chair (Edogawa Ranpo): Junji Ito’s adaptation of this 1925 horror story works well with his terrifying artwork. What happens if buying a new chair turns into a nightmare? That’s what happens when a young author enters into a furniture store and is told the tale of Togawa Yoshiko’s armchair which contained a deadly secret… This has made me want to read the original story aswell now! So creepy!
- An Unearthly Love (Edogawa Ranpo): This one is a disturbing re-telling. What happens when a man’s one true love… is a doll?
- Venus In The Blind Spot: The titular tale. What would you do if you couldn’t see the person you love up close but only from a distance? Could it be the work of aliens or something more human…?
- The Licking Woman: Some gross-out body horror goodness about a woman with a poison tongue.
- Master Umezz and Me: This is about Junji Ito’s love of his hero Kazuo Umezz’s work and how he draws inspiration from him.
- How Love Came to Professor Kirida (Robert Hichens): An adaption of the Hichens’ story ”How Love Come to Professor Guildea”: A ghost story about an ageing professor who doesn’t believe in love, nor want to be loved by another, but a student who keeps showing him her works appears to be. This one made me feel uncomfortable for a few reasons, as all good horror should.
- The Enigma of Amigara Fault: People start entering these holes that are shaped exactly like them inside of a mountain. But once they go in, they can never escape. Why have they appeared and why are they somehow the exact shape of the certain people that are finding them
- The Sad Tale of the Principal Post: A man is trapped under the principal post holding up a family’s new home. The entire house could collapse if it is moved. But, how did he end up trapped beneath it in the first place?
- Keepsake: This was by far the most disturbing tale. A corpse of a woman is found to have given birth to a fully alive baby. How could this be so!?
I really enjoyed this collection overall. The Master Umezz story was probably the only dud for me, but it was nice to see where some of Ito’s inspiration came from. And his relief that he didn’t produce the manga of one of Umezz’s movies because he got one of the characters completely wrong lol
Still awarding this 5 stars however! And would recommend most of these stories to any horror fan. Some truly shocking and terrifying moments throughout. 💀🖤
Read
August 22, 2020
January 3, 2022
When I originally got this from the library, I thought that this was a long work. Instead it is a collection of shorts. A majority are original tales by Ito, one being autobiographical, and the rest--three in total--are adaptations, two originally written by Edogawa Ranpo, and one by Robert Hichens. Some didn't make much of an impression--they either felt incomplete, or they were too short to really have an impact--while others were truly terrifying. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be "The Licking Woman", with "The Enigma of Amigara Fault" as a close second. The one thing I would change is that I didn't like the autobiographical tale in the middle; I felt it would've been better in the beginning.
The artwork itself was superb. We even get a special treat rarely seen in manga--a few pages are in color! I love Ito's mastery of lines--especially the way he uses them when creating texture--and he does exaggerated facial expressions like no one I've ever seen. I highly recommend this for adults who like manga, horror, and/or short stories.
Here are my ratings for the individual stories:
Billions Alone - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Human Chair* - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
An Unearthly Love* - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Venus in the Blind Spot - ⭐⭐⭐
The Licking Woman - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Master Umezz and Me - ⭐⭐⭐
How Love Came to Professor Kirida* - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Enigma of Amigara Fault - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Sad Tale of Principal Post - ⭐⭐⭐
Keepsake - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
*Tales originally written by other authors but adapted by Ito for this collection.
The artwork itself was superb. We even get a special treat rarely seen in manga--a few pages are in color! I love Ito's mastery of lines--especially the way he uses them when creating texture--and he does exaggerated facial expressions like no one I've ever seen. I highly recommend this for adults who like manga, horror, and/or short stories.
Here are my ratings for the individual stories:
Billions Alone - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Human Chair* - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
An Unearthly Love* - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Venus in the Blind Spot - ⭐⭐⭐
The Licking Woman - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Master Umezz and Me - ⭐⭐⭐
How Love Came to Professor Kirida* - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Enigma of Amigara Fault - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Sad Tale of Principal Post - ⭐⭐⭐
Keepsake - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
*Tales originally written by other authors but adapted by Ito for this collection.
August 26, 2020
2.25
Not the best collection, honestly, though there are some interesting back stories that aren't something Ito usually supplies, including him reminiscing over his love of horror manga as a kid. It's understandable to me why he holds Kazuo Umezu in such high regard, but (usually) I think Ito is way better himself. Umezu might just be too campy for me.
I like it when these collections feature the same characters in different stories - Ito does this often - but I wanted more with the female author and felt like her story just ... ended. The other stories are mostly ok but either not long enough or not particularly memorable. The titular story for me was one of the weakest ones, but The Sad Tale of the Principal Post was especially dumb and pointless.
The Enigma of Amigara Fault is still one of the most unsettling stories I've ever read but it's also included at the end of Gyo as a bonus story so I'd already read it, though not with the color pages.
I think this collection just fell short. It wasn't terrible but if I wasn't a huge fan who reads everything he writes I don't think I would bother with this one at all.
ARC provided by NetGalley
Not the best collection, honestly, though there are some interesting back stories that aren't something Ito usually supplies, including him reminiscing over his love of horror manga as a kid. It's understandable to me why he holds Kazuo Umezu in such high regard, but (usually) I think Ito is way better himself. Umezu might just be too campy for me.
I like it when these collections feature the same characters in different stories - Ito does this often - but I wanted more with the female author and felt like her story just ... ended. The other stories are mostly ok but either not long enough or not particularly memorable. The titular story for me was one of the weakest ones, but The Sad Tale of the Principal Post was especially dumb and pointless.
The Enigma of Amigara Fault is still one of the most unsettling stories I've ever read but it's also included at the end of Gyo as a bonus story so I'd already read it, though not with the color pages.
I think this collection just fell short. It wasn't terrible but if I wasn't a huge fan who reads everything he writes I don't think I would bother with this one at all.
ARC provided by NetGalley
September 22, 2020
Just in time for your Halloween reading, yet another Junji Ito short story collection. This one is billed as a "best of," so like me you might have already seen some of these stories if you've been keeping up with all the Junji reprints coming out lately. And it almost lives up to the hype, as these are some pretty solid tales of horror with Ito's trademark body horror and creepy tone. Three adaptations of stories from Edogawa Ranpo and Robert Hichens are included.
One story is an autobiographical tribute to Ito's big influence growing up, the manga horror legend Kazuo Umezu of Drifting Classroom and Cat Eyed Boy fame.
My favorite in the bunch is the dark and compelling tale of obsession and torture, "The Enigma of Amigara Fault." Chilling every time I see it.
One story is an autobiographical tribute to Ito's big influence growing up, the manga horror legend Kazuo Umezu of Drifting Classroom and Cat Eyed Boy fame.
My favorite in the bunch is the dark and compelling tale of obsession and torture, "The Enigma of Amigara Fault." Chilling every time I see it.
April 25, 2022
Junji Ito all'ennesima potenza! Qui son raccolte alcune delle storie più inquietanti mai lette, le illustrazioni sono sempre stratosferiche, riescono a rendere la tensione e la fantasia innata dell'autore, creano quello stato agghiacciante, ma allo stesso tempo così ricco di sfumature delle psicosi, del degrado e tutto ciò che caratterizzano le fobie umane, principalmente della cultura giapponese, ma quanto li ho sentiti vicini anch'io qui a molte migliaia di chilometri di distanza?
Vi sono storie tratte da autori culto giapponesi, come Edogawa Ranpo e uno dedicato all'autore che Junji Ito vede come suo maestro assoluto: Kazuo Umezz, il tutto è arricchito da poster di altre sue opere.
Un pezzo da collezione! Ito è un assoluto maestro del body-weird-horror e della suspense, in salsa fantastica e fantascientifica, che affonda le radici nel folklore e nella mitologia antica e moderna.
Imperdibile!
Vi sono storie tratte da autori culto giapponesi, come Edogawa Ranpo e uno dedicato all'autore che Junji Ito vede come suo maestro assoluto: Kazuo Umezz, il tutto è arricchito da poster di altre sue opere.
Un pezzo da collezione! Ito è un assoluto maestro del body-weird-horror e della suspense, in salsa fantastica e fantascientifica, che affonda le radici nel folklore e nella mitologia antica e moderna.
Imperdibile!
June 4, 2021
I've been trying for months to get Junji Ito books but whenever I find them they are very expensive. When Viz media accepted my request on Netgalley for this book I felt it was Christmas day. I read the entire book on the same day.
Venus in the Blind Spot includes a collection of 10 creepy horror stories.
The illustrations are terrifying, and some are a bit disturbing. I admit that after finishing reading the book I even had nightmares but
Overall I loved it. If you are a fan of Junji Ito or you love to read or see horror things, you are going to love this collection.
Trigger warnings: necrophilia, animal death, torture, murder, sexual assault violence
Thanks to Netgalley and Viz Media for this amazing arc copy.
Venus in the Blind Spot includes a collection of 10 creepy horror stories.
The illustrations are terrifying, and some are a bit disturbing. I admit that after finishing reading the book I even had nightmares but
Overall I loved it. If you are a fan of Junji Ito or you love to read or see horror things, you are going to love this collection.
Trigger warnings: necrophilia, animal death, torture, murder, sexual assault violence
Thanks to Netgalley and Viz Media for this amazing arc copy.
September 9, 2023
A decent read but not as good as previous Ito books I've read. My favorite by far was The Licking Woman which was deliciously gross and freaky at the same time.
The artwork, as always with Junji Ito was amazing, but most of the stories didn't work that well for me.
The artwork, as always with Junji Ito was amazing, but most of the stories didn't work that well for me.
January 30, 2021
A terrifying collection of Japanese stories. These graphic novel short stories are all classics in Japan; and I can definitely see why.
I had two struggles with this book of stories:
1) Forgetting to read right to left. It's a bit odd as the pages flip right to left (like English books); but the pages themselves are read right to left (not left to right as most are used to). So I had to keep reminding myself. I think I'd have preferred the book was bound 'backwards' where you read back to front as then I wouldn't have been so likely to forget which place to start on each page.
2) Some of these stories are burned into my brain. Like weeks after having read some of the early ones I'm still seeing them and remembering them. Given how much I read; and that I'm generally not awesome at details, it disturbs me how ingrained a few of these are on my brain. The only things that truly ever stick in my brain like that normally are terrifying or horrific. Although I suppose it supports my thought that this is an intense horror collection!
Please enjoy some quick notes/words about each story:
Story #1 - Billions Alone
Well that was truly scary. Like disturbing scary. Love it! (please don’t judge me, lol). This is so creepy to read while on lockdown from a pandemic (March 2020). It could be the story of the virus; if instead of getting sick you got sewn together dead... *shudder*
Story #2 - The Human Chair
I can barely concentrate on this story because I’m still thinking about the first...
Yep if I was home alone I’d be freaked right out. The chair I sit in at home is a laz-y boy and so it’s large and cushy like the one in this story. Even with my husband home I have shivers down my back reading this one. So well done.
Story #3 - An Unearthly Love
More disturbing than creepy I think... although the more I consider the story the creepier it becomes.
These first 3 stories are all amazing so far. Now it may also be that my husband playing a creepy video game with creepy music is enhancing the experience... I’m not very smart some days (lol!)
Story #4 - Venus in the Blind Spot
Not nearly as scary as the other stories so far. Interesting perhaps but feels out of place with the other 3 so far. Although it does have a great title.
Story #5 - The Licking Woman
There is something deeply unsettling about this one. It’s got an ick factor for sure; but also just feels too close to how humans do transmit disease. Especially in our current covid world.
Story #6 - Master Umezz and Me
I’m definitely missing something here. Perhaps because I don’t know manga tropes?
Story #7 - How Love Came to Professor Kirida
I feel like this was missing a critical piece but of something. Yet I can’t quite figure out what that might be...
Story #8 - The Enigma of Amigara Fault
No word of a lie I am shaking after reading this one. If you are claustrophobic in any way at all this story is an absolute nightmare.
My main two fears are generally spiders and water (yes all water, but especially dark lakes and the ocean). I think climbing into a mountain-side rock hole might have just shot near the top. *nervous laugh*
Story #9 - The Sad Tale of the Principal Post
You know an artist and writer are good when in four pages, just four pages of panels they can make you shiver. There's a whole other story to be discovered in these four panels; and we will never know what it was...
Story #10 - Keepsake
Maybe it's because I cannot have a child of my own; but I did not find this story nearly as disturbing as some of the others. It's creepy and icky to a certain degree; but not quite as shiver inducing as many of the other stories are.
Overall
A fantastic collection of translated 'illustrated' short stories. What do you call a graphic novel when it's not novel size? I honestly don't know.
If you like horror, are interested at all in a taste of Japanese culture, or love good ol' black and white artistry then this collection is for you.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
I had two struggles with this book of stories:
1) Forgetting to read right to left. It's a bit odd as the pages flip right to left (like English books); but the pages themselves are read right to left (not left to right as most are used to). So I had to keep reminding myself. I think I'd have preferred the book was bound 'backwards' where you read back to front as then I wouldn't have been so likely to forget which place to start on each page.
2) Some of these stories are burned into my brain. Like weeks after having read some of the early ones I'm still seeing them and remembering them. Given how much I read; and that I'm generally not awesome at details, it disturbs me how ingrained a few of these are on my brain. The only things that truly ever stick in my brain like that normally are terrifying or horrific. Although I suppose it supports my thought that this is an intense horror collection!
Please enjoy some quick notes/words about each story:
Story #1 - Billions Alone
Well that was truly scary. Like disturbing scary. Love it! (please don’t judge me, lol). This is so creepy to read while on lockdown from a pandemic (March 2020). It could be the story of the virus; if instead of getting sick you got sewn together dead... *shudder*
Story #2 - The Human Chair
I can barely concentrate on this story because I’m still thinking about the first...
Yep if I was home alone I’d be freaked right out. The chair I sit in at home is a laz-y boy and so it’s large and cushy like the one in this story. Even with my husband home I have shivers down my back reading this one. So well done.
Story #3 - An Unearthly Love
More disturbing than creepy I think... although the more I consider the story the creepier it becomes.
These first 3 stories are all amazing so far. Now it may also be that my husband playing a creepy video game with creepy music is enhancing the experience... I’m not very smart some days (lol!)
Story #4 - Venus in the Blind Spot
Not nearly as scary as the other stories so far. Interesting perhaps but feels out of place with the other 3 so far. Although it does have a great title.
Story #5 - The Licking Woman
There is something deeply unsettling about this one. It’s got an ick factor for sure; but also just feels too close to how humans do transmit disease. Especially in our current covid world.
Story #6 - Master Umezz and Me
I’m definitely missing something here. Perhaps because I don’t know manga tropes?
Story #7 - How Love Came to Professor Kirida
I feel like this was missing a critical piece but of something. Yet I can’t quite figure out what that might be...
Story #8 - The Enigma of Amigara Fault
No word of a lie I am shaking after reading this one. If you are claustrophobic in any way at all this story is an absolute nightmare.
My main two fears are generally spiders and water (yes all water, but especially dark lakes and the ocean). I think climbing into a mountain-side rock hole might have just shot near the top. *nervous laugh*
Story #9 - The Sad Tale of the Principal Post
You know an artist and writer are good when in four pages, just four pages of panels they can make you shiver. There's a whole other story to be discovered in these four panels; and we will never know what it was...
Story #10 - Keepsake
Maybe it's because I cannot have a child of my own; but I did not find this story nearly as disturbing as some of the others. It's creepy and icky to a certain degree; but not quite as shiver inducing as many of the other stories are.
Overall
A fantastic collection of translated 'illustrated' short stories. What do you call a graphic novel when it's not novel size? I honestly don't know.
If you like horror, are interested at all in a taste of Japanese culture, or love good ol' black and white artistry then this collection is for you.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
December 12, 2021
Venus in the Blind Spot is a collection of ten horror tales from Junji Ito
My unsettling foray into Junji Ito continues with Venus in the Blind Spot. Like Shiver, it's a collection of unsettling tales. Also like Shiver, some of them are pretty revolting, but in a good way. The Licking Woman and The Human Chair were favorites.
My unsettling foray into Junji Ito continues with Venus in the Blind Spot. Like Shiver, it's a collection of unsettling tales. Also like Shiver, some of them are pretty revolting, but in a good way. The Licking Woman and The Human Chair were favorites.
September 2, 2020
(3.5) Venus in the Blind Spot is described as a 'best of' collection, featuring 'the most remarkable short works of Junji Ito's career'. Standouts from the book are 'An Unearthly Love' (unpredictable and tense), 'How Love Came to Professor Kirida' (incredibly entertaining) and the classic 'The Enigma of Amigara Fault' (disturbing as hell). However, I found the selection here less compelling than the previous collection
Shiver
(which incidentally is also described as a best of!) and the complete Tomie.
Unfortunately, the format didn't help: I'm not a book-as-physical-object fetishist at all, but a heavily watermarked PDF is simply not the best way to read such beautifully drawn and atmospheric comics. Also, there are completely random full-colour pages throughout; sometimes the first few pages of a story, sometimes just one page, while the rest are in standard black and white. I initially thought the colouring hadn't been finished in time for the review copy to be sent out, but the blurb actually mentions 'special colour pages', so it may be intentional. It seems pointless in a digital version; again, I assume the presentation will be more impressive in a physical copy.
---
At the beginning of 'Billions Alone', the bodies of a missing couple are found, with a gruesome twist: their corpses have been stitched together with fishing wire. In true Junji Ito style, the murders soon escalate, and ever-larger groups of bodies are discovered stitched together. Meanwhile, Michio, who has not left his home in seven years, is tempted out after being visited by his old crush Natsuko. Gatherings are banned, but a mysterious group called Billions Alone seems intent on encouraging people to meet one another... The story can be read as an ironic critique of the hikikomori phenomenon, but of course it takes on a rather different meaning in the age of coronavirus.
'The Human Chair', based on a famous story by Edogawa Ranpo, opens with a young writer (who rather resembles Tomie, and is not the last female character in the book to do so) hearing the story of Yoshiko Togawa, a well-known author in the early 20th century. Yoshiko receives a peculiar manuscript in which a man claims to have concealed himself inside a chair and fallen in love with the woman who uses it. She then grows increasingly paranoid about the chair in her study. It's a great combination of creepiness and melodrama.
'An Unearthly Love' is also adapted from an Edogawa Ranpo story. Kyoko marries the enigmatic Kadono, who 'was rumoured to be quite moody and a hater of women'. At first, she finds him to be quite the opposite: he is so affectionate that it verges on suffocating. Yet – of course – Kadono has a secret, one that seems to be draining the life from him as well as torturing Kyoko. This story builds tension very effectively; I really didn't know where it was going (which, brilliant as they are, is very often not the case with these manga) and the ending is great.
In 'Venus in the Blind Spot', a girl called Mariko disappears into thin air when she gets too close to Iwata or a few of his friends, all of whom are members of a UFO research society. One of the men claims to have been abducted by aliens; could this strange phenomenon be their work, or is Mariko herself an extraterrestrial? This is another story that reminded me of the Tomie series (especially 'Gathering'). It's drawn in a slightly different style from the others, very clean and stark, and the climax is truly horrifying and haunting.
'The Licking Woman' has a similar structure to 'Billions Alone' as well as a similarly (weirdly timely) message about the dangers of human contact. It begins with Tsuyoshi being followed by a woman who licks his face and hand. The effects prove damaging, and when the attacks continue, the 'licking woman' is chased down by a mob. That's not the end of the story, however. The typically odd premise veers between disturbing and silly. The ending was too outlandishly gory for me, though I did laugh at the final caption.
'Master Umezz and Me' is something completely different: an autobiographical story about the young Junji Ito's adoration of horror manga, and particularly his lifelong admiration for the artist Kazuo Umezz. It feels a bit out of place in the middle of the book and would perhaps have worked better at the end. Due to the ways in which expressions are drawn, it's not without its unnerving moments.
'How Love Came to Professor Kirida' is the third and final adaptation in the book, based on a story by Robert Hichens. Like 'The Human Chair', it has a framing device in which a young woman comes across a historical account. This concerns the dour, misanthropic Engai Kirida and a priest, Father Murchison, who visits him. Given that the original is a Victorian ghost story written by a British author, it's unsurprising that the plot turns out to be a rather traditional tale of haunting, but it's portrayed in bombastic/hilarious/terrifying style that I'm sure has to be a vast improvement on the original.
'The Enigma of Amigara Fault' was the first thing I ever read by Junji Ito, and is a classic of horror manga for good reason. An earthquake reveals that the side of Amigara Mountain is covered in thousands of holes in the shape of human figures. People start to believe that the holes are made for them specifically – and they go into them, and don't come back out. The whole thing is a claustrophobe's nightmare. I think I like this more now than when I first read it; I'm used to how inscrutable these manga often are, and the premise hasn't lost its power to shock.
'The Sad Tale of the Principal Post' is... an odd inclusion to say the least, considering that this collection is billed as a 'greatest hits'. There's no point in describing what happens as I'd give the whole thing away. Its whole reason for existing seems to be that it's a horrifying visual pun on the phrase 'man of the house'.
The opening scene of 'Keepsake' depicts a macabre discovery: a baby found in a tomb, seemingly born to a dead woman. The birth is declared legitimate, but the father, Toyoji, has already remarried and had another child with his former mistress. Honestly, I was a bit underwhelmed by this. Sure, it's macabre, but it's also a bit messy with all the different elements: baby born to corpse, people rising from the dead, very creepy kid, conspiracy to murder... For me, it made a weak closing story.
I received an advance review copy of Venus in the Blind Spot from the publisher through NetGalley.
TinyLetter | Linktree
Unfortunately, the format didn't help: I'm not a book-as-physical-object fetishist at all, but a heavily watermarked PDF is simply not the best way to read such beautifully drawn and atmospheric comics. Also, there are completely random full-colour pages throughout; sometimes the first few pages of a story, sometimes just one page, while the rest are in standard black and white. I initially thought the colouring hadn't been finished in time for the review copy to be sent out, but the blurb actually mentions 'special colour pages', so it may be intentional. It seems pointless in a digital version; again, I assume the presentation will be more impressive in a physical copy.
---
At the beginning of 'Billions Alone', the bodies of a missing couple are found, with a gruesome twist: their corpses have been stitched together with fishing wire. In true Junji Ito style, the murders soon escalate, and ever-larger groups of bodies are discovered stitched together. Meanwhile, Michio, who has not left his home in seven years, is tempted out after being visited by his old crush Natsuko. Gatherings are banned, but a mysterious group called Billions Alone seems intent on encouraging people to meet one another... The story can be read as an ironic critique of the hikikomori phenomenon, but of course it takes on a rather different meaning in the age of coronavirus.
'The Human Chair', based on a famous story by Edogawa Ranpo, opens with a young writer (who rather resembles Tomie, and is not the last female character in the book to do so) hearing the story of Yoshiko Togawa, a well-known author in the early 20th century. Yoshiko receives a peculiar manuscript in which a man claims to have concealed himself inside a chair and fallen in love with the woman who uses it. She then grows increasingly paranoid about the chair in her study. It's a great combination of creepiness and melodrama.
'An Unearthly Love' is also adapted from an Edogawa Ranpo story. Kyoko marries the enigmatic Kadono, who 'was rumoured to be quite moody and a hater of women'. At first, she finds him to be quite the opposite: he is so affectionate that it verges on suffocating. Yet – of course – Kadono has a secret, one that seems to be draining the life from him as well as torturing Kyoko. This story builds tension very effectively; I really didn't know where it was going (which, brilliant as they are, is very often not the case with these manga) and the ending is great.
In 'Venus in the Blind Spot', a girl called Mariko disappears into thin air when she gets too close to Iwata or a few of his friends, all of whom are members of a UFO research society. One of the men claims to have been abducted by aliens; could this strange phenomenon be their work, or is Mariko herself an extraterrestrial? This is another story that reminded me of the Tomie series (especially 'Gathering'). It's drawn in a slightly different style from the others, very clean and stark, and the climax is truly horrifying and haunting.
'The Licking Woman' has a similar structure to 'Billions Alone' as well as a similarly (weirdly timely) message about the dangers of human contact. It begins with Tsuyoshi being followed by a woman who licks his face and hand. The effects prove damaging, and when the attacks continue, the 'licking woman' is chased down by a mob. That's not the end of the story, however. The typically odd premise veers between disturbing and silly. The ending was too outlandishly gory for me, though I did laugh at the final caption.
'Master Umezz and Me' is something completely different: an autobiographical story about the young Junji Ito's adoration of horror manga, and particularly his lifelong admiration for the artist Kazuo Umezz. It feels a bit out of place in the middle of the book and would perhaps have worked better at the end. Due to the ways in which expressions are drawn, it's not without its unnerving moments.
'How Love Came to Professor Kirida' is the third and final adaptation in the book, based on a story by Robert Hichens. Like 'The Human Chair', it has a framing device in which a young woman comes across a historical account. This concerns the dour, misanthropic Engai Kirida and a priest, Father Murchison, who visits him. Given that the original is a Victorian ghost story written by a British author, it's unsurprising that the plot turns out to be a rather traditional tale of haunting, but it's portrayed in bombastic/hilarious/terrifying style that I'm sure has to be a vast improvement on the original.
'The Enigma of Amigara Fault' was the first thing I ever read by Junji Ito, and is a classic of horror manga for good reason. An earthquake reveals that the side of Amigara Mountain is covered in thousands of holes in the shape of human figures. People start to believe that the holes are made for them specifically – and they go into them, and don't come back out. The whole thing is a claustrophobe's nightmare. I think I like this more now than when I first read it; I'm used to how inscrutable these manga often are, and the premise hasn't lost its power to shock.
'The Sad Tale of the Principal Post' is... an odd inclusion to say the least, considering that this collection is billed as a 'greatest hits'. There's no point in describing what happens as I'd give the whole thing away. Its whole reason for existing seems to be that it's a horrifying visual pun on the phrase 'man of the house'.
The opening scene of 'Keepsake' depicts a macabre discovery: a baby found in a tomb, seemingly born to a dead woman. The birth is declared legitimate, but the father, Toyoji, has already remarried and had another child with his former mistress. Honestly, I was a bit underwhelmed by this. Sure, it's macabre, but it's also a bit messy with all the different elements: baby born to corpse, people rising from the dead, very creepy kid, conspiracy to murder... For me, it made a weak closing story.
I received an advance review copy of Venus in the Blind Spot from the publisher through NetGalley.
TinyLetter | Linktree
March 25, 2023
im glad this wasnt as sci-fi as i expected because i absolutely loved every single story! maybe one or two were meh but still had solid creepy elements! happy to have another junji ito under my belt♡
January 25, 2021
Pero, este tío, ¿de dónde se saca estas historias tan turbias, tan truculentas, tan perturbadoras? ¿Cómo puede tener esa imaginación malsana? Dicen que en terror ya está todo inventado, pero no es cierto. Este hombre se pasa dicha afirmación por... ahí. Y por allá. Junji está más loco, mucho más loco, que las maracas de Machín. Y que siga así.
June 23, 2021
I died when I saw the colored pages.
July 31, 2021
Libro con varias historias cortas, de las cuales no conoCia ninguna a excepción de una que sí que la había leído en otro tomo ya. Escalofriante como siempre
November 6, 2023
I first read this years ago when I got an eARC. It was my first time reading Junji Ito and it was an experience I'll never forget. This collection spurned me towards reading more manga again but also sparked a love for horror manga in me. I think there are still some absolutely wonderful tales in Venus in the Blind Spot. Shockingly, most of my ratings are the same with only a few major star rating changes. This is still a solid 3.75 stars for the overall collection and it's good to know that some of these remain favorites in Junji Ito's collection of macabre tales.
New ratings upon reread:
5 stars: Billions Alone (rating went up), The Human Chair (rating went up), The Enigma of Amigara Fault
4 stars: An Unearthly Love (rating went up), The Licking Woman, Keepsake (rating went down)
3 stars: Venus in the Blind Spot (rating went down), How Love Came to Professor Kirida
2.5 stars: The Sad Tale of the Principal Post (rating went down)
2 stars: Master Umezz and Me
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Venus in the Blind Spot by Junji Ito
3.75 stars for the overall collection
Billions Alone- 4.5 stars Like I said above this story is like Sally from that season. We follow a guy who has agoraphobia and an old friend reaches out to him and encourages him to come back outside. While this is going on people meeting in organized settings are being kidnapped, murdered, and sewn together in giant intricate spiral patterns all over the city. The main reason I’m not giving this a full five stars is because 40 pages was not long enough and this deserves an entire novel to flesh out the beauty, frustration, and spiraling of a city as well as the main character who is becoming more comfortable going outside amidst the end of the world (at least for this town).
The Human Chair- 3.5 stars This is a chilling story about a story being told to a woman in a shop as she views a chair that once belonged to a famous writer who was being stalked by someone who had sewn themselves into a chair in her home. Horrifying. No, thanks. I liked the concept, but this story was missing a certain something really that makes my horror heart skip some beats.
An Unearthly Love- 3 stars Doll obsessions are not my thing and this one follows a woman married to a man who she thinks is cheating on her. It turns out to be a doll which leads to some complications in their marriage as one would expect. I felt bad for the woman, but like I said, not my kind of story.
Venus in the Blind Spot- 5 stars This story was perfect. It has the allure of being a creepy a UFO story, but it is much more sinister than a simple UFO. This is a story that I barely want to explain because even talking too much about it would give away its brilliance.
The Licking Woman- 4 stars I should’ve disliked this, but it was so weird and tragic. It follows a woman with a giant tongue licking people in the face and causing them to die and the effects this woman has on one woman after her boyfriend and dog die from the encounter. The level of weirdness and that horrifying tongue worked so well for the story.
Master Umezz and Me- 2 stars I didn’t care for the art in this one and I wasn’t a fan of the story. It was a biographical reflection on Juji Ito’s love for the writer Umezz and I appreciated the story, but the art was not good.
How Love Came to Professor Kirida- 3 stars This story follows a writer who is being haunted by a girl who loved and respected his feedback. His constant rejection leads to tragedy and her spirit teaches him love. It’s not as uplifting as it sounds lol. I didn’t care for this one, but I liked the plot.
The Enigma of Amigara Fault- 5 stars This story was so horrifying. I can still see the outline of the bodies being stretched in the fault lines for miles. It follows the story of fault shaped bodies being found in a mountain that are the exact shape of people. Horrifying and creepy.
The Sad Tale of the Principal Post- 3 stars This is the most forgettable story in the collection. The concept is there, but the execution isn’t fleshed out for it to be memorable or groundbreaking in the horror genre.
Keepsake- 4.5 stars This story is so gross because it’s about a child who is born from a dead woman and if you get grossed out by SPOILER necrophilia SPOILER then skip this one. I loved the story and how it unfolded. It felt dramatic in the most twisted way.
Cover Thoughts: OBSESSED. Love it and every time I see it pop up on my Goodreads for an add, I get excited.
Thank you, Netgalley and Viz Media, for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
New ratings upon reread:
5 stars: Billions Alone (rating went up), The Human Chair (rating went up), The Enigma of Amigara Fault
4 stars: An Unearthly Love (rating went up), The Licking Woman, Keepsake (rating went down)
3 stars: Venus in the Blind Spot (rating went down), How Love Came to Professor Kirida
2.5 stars: The Sad Tale of the Principal Post (rating went down)
2 stars: Master Umezz and Me
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Venus in the Blind Spot by Junji Ito
3.75 stars for the overall collection
Hi, this is my first time reading Junji Ito and experiencing his horror manga and I am a fan. Like why did I think his stuff would be so disgusting and traumatizing that I couldn’t read it. Well, I won’t lie the opening story in the horror manga collection will leave some readers traumatized. Think Sally from the Hotel season of American Horror Story when she sews her two lovers to her body because she loves them so much and they die. Yea, the first story is like that but more intense, so if you think that will make you throw up then maybe skip this collection or Junji Ito altogether. I, however, totally am hyped by this new discovery and I’m obsessed. I loved it. The experience was visceral and now I will break down my thoughts on all of the stories.
Billions Alone- 4.5 stars Like I said above this story is like Sally from that season. We follow a guy who has agoraphobia and an old friend reaches out to him and encourages him to come back outside. While this is going on people meeting in organized settings are being kidnapped, murdered, and sewn together in giant intricate spiral patterns all over the city. The main reason I’m not giving this a full five stars is because 40 pages was not long enough and this deserves an entire novel to flesh out the beauty, frustration, and spiraling of a city as well as the main character who is becoming more comfortable going outside amidst the end of the world (at least for this town).
The Human Chair- 3.5 stars This is a chilling story about a story being told to a woman in a shop as she views a chair that once belonged to a famous writer who was being stalked by someone who had sewn themselves into a chair in her home. Horrifying. No, thanks. I liked the concept, but this story was missing a certain something really that makes my horror heart skip some beats.
An Unearthly Love- 3 stars Doll obsessions are not my thing and this one follows a woman married to a man who she thinks is cheating on her. It turns out to be a doll which leads to some complications in their marriage as one would expect. I felt bad for the woman, but like I said, not my kind of story.
Venus in the Blind Spot- 5 stars This story was perfect. It has the allure of being a creepy a UFO story, but it is much more sinister than a simple UFO. This is a story that I barely want to explain because even talking too much about it would give away its brilliance.
The Licking Woman- 4 stars I should’ve disliked this, but it was so weird and tragic. It follows a woman with a giant tongue licking people in the face and causing them to die and the effects this woman has on one woman after her boyfriend and dog die from the encounter. The level of weirdness and that horrifying tongue worked so well for the story.
Master Umezz and Me- 2 stars I didn’t care for the art in this one and I wasn’t a fan of the story. It was a biographical reflection on Juji Ito’s love for the writer Umezz and I appreciated the story, but the art was not good.
How Love Came to Professor Kirida- 3 stars This story follows a writer who is being haunted by a girl who loved and respected his feedback. His constant rejection leads to tragedy and her spirit teaches him love. It’s not as uplifting as it sounds lol. I didn’t care for this one, but I liked the plot.
The Enigma of Amigara Fault- 5 stars This story was so horrifying. I can still see the outline of the bodies being stretched in the fault lines for miles. It follows the story of fault shaped bodies being found in a mountain that are the exact shape of people. Horrifying and creepy.
The Sad Tale of the Principal Post- 3 stars This is the most forgettable story in the collection. The concept is there, but the execution isn’t fleshed out for it to be memorable or groundbreaking in the horror genre.
Keepsake- 4.5 stars This story is so gross because it’s about a child who is born from a dead woman and if you get grossed out by SPOILER necrophilia SPOILER then skip this one. I loved the story and how it unfolded. It felt dramatic in the most twisted way.
Overall, this collection is super strong and full of intense and gripping stories. There were a couple that stood out and really stole the show. I think many readers will enjoy this horror short story collection.
Cover Thoughts: OBSESSED. Love it and every time I see it pop up on my Goodreads for an add, I get excited.
Thank you, Netgalley and Viz Media, for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
September 14, 2020
Review coming soon
December 16, 2021
So weird. So good.
March 16, 2021
enus in the Blind Spot is my first ever Manga novel. It isn’t something that I would have necessarily picked up but I received it in an Abominable Book Box. It certainly won’t be the last. The artwork and the storytelling is both horrific and awe inspiring. There is tales of misadventure, Japanese lore, and the undercurrents of love and suffering constantly being the backbone of the collection. Darkness has seeped into these stories and it’s a set of stories that aren’t likely to be forgotten in a hurry.
The characterization was spot on. On first meet you think these people have the perfect lives, perfect families and perfect lifestyles but on the flip side the reader peels back the multiple layers of perfectville and are left with a stripped back corpse; the rotten remains spilling out and infecting all those that come across them. Each story has a catalyst, an implosion point that sets the tone for the remainder of the story. Violence has the capability of ruining the victims contained within. Mental illness for many of these haunting stories become and inevitable conclusion.
Some of my favourite stories within Venus in the Blind Spot were, An unearthly love. A story that features a new husband that seems disconnected with reality. A new marriage is supposed to be filled with joy and peace, but the husband keeps leaving the marital bed in the middle of the night. A worried wife follows her husband and hears him uttering words to another woman, she vows to get to the bottom of it but is she really prepared for she finds in a locked box?
Another story I absolutely loved was The Human Chair. My god this was so many levels of fucked up and perverted. The implication is a hellish nightmare. Its an experience that no-one would believe or indeed, would want to. A writer is having a serious case of writer’s block and her husband purchases her a luxurious writing chair. It does indeed help with the blockage, but it quickly becomes apparent that someone is living within the chair. This story did chill my blood. There is just something so sinister about someone being that close, they can hear you breathe, they can hear you move. Its just so damn perverted.
Billions Alone creeped the hell out of me. A story about seriously screwed up murders being committed if you gather in groups. Seriously relevant with the world in which we are currently living in. victims are chosen who do not partake in a lifestyle that can only be described in self isolating. Raw and poignant.
This collection of stories felt like opening up pandora’s box. Its an art form. Ridiculously suspenseful. Its opened me up to reading more Manga.
The characterization was spot on. On first meet you think these people have the perfect lives, perfect families and perfect lifestyles but on the flip side the reader peels back the multiple layers of perfectville and are left with a stripped back corpse; the rotten remains spilling out and infecting all those that come across them. Each story has a catalyst, an implosion point that sets the tone for the remainder of the story. Violence has the capability of ruining the victims contained within. Mental illness for many of these haunting stories become and inevitable conclusion.
Some of my favourite stories within Venus in the Blind Spot were, An unearthly love. A story that features a new husband that seems disconnected with reality. A new marriage is supposed to be filled with joy and peace, but the husband keeps leaving the marital bed in the middle of the night. A worried wife follows her husband and hears him uttering words to another woman, she vows to get to the bottom of it but is she really prepared for she finds in a locked box?
Another story I absolutely loved was The Human Chair. My god this was so many levels of fucked up and perverted. The implication is a hellish nightmare. Its an experience that no-one would believe or indeed, would want to. A writer is having a serious case of writer’s block and her husband purchases her a luxurious writing chair. It does indeed help with the blockage, but it quickly becomes apparent that someone is living within the chair. This story did chill my blood. There is just something so sinister about someone being that close, they can hear you breathe, they can hear you move. Its just so damn perverted.
Billions Alone creeped the hell out of me. A story about seriously screwed up murders being committed if you gather in groups. Seriously relevant with the world in which we are currently living in. victims are chosen who do not partake in a lifestyle that can only be described in self isolating. Raw and poignant.
This collection of stories felt like opening up pandora’s box. Its an art form. Ridiculously suspenseful. Its opened me up to reading more Manga.
March 24, 2021
These were actually pretty good stories. I especially liked the last story, "Keepsake" which had a pretty funny ending, even though it was a horror story.
Loved the artwork throughout and there were a few stories in color that gave the black and white book a pop. I really liked the beautiful posters included within the book.
Loved the artwork throughout and there were a few stories in color that gave the black and white book a pop. I really liked the beautiful posters included within the book.
September 28, 2023
Junji Ito is easily my favorite Horror manga writer ever, and so this summer I decided I would go through a lot of his works and enjoy them! Venus in the Blind Spot is a collection of stories that are both spooky and beautifully grotesque to read. A lot of these stories really stick with you after you’ve read them, and it makes you wonder…what if this was all real?
In this collection, the one that stands out the most to me is The Human Chair. Although I would argue it is one of the tamer stories within this collection, the concept really freaks me out. There is a lot to unpack in that one, and I think that’s part of the charm with Junji Ito’s work…it sticks with you in a creepy way for life.
Junji Ito is a master artist. In one panel he can show you the most disgusting, gory images that will stick in your brain for years, and in the next panel have a gorgeous, beautiful landscape that would easily belong in a museum alone. What he doesn’t actually say or describe in written text, he does easily enough through his artwork. His style of horror artwork is always shocking, sometimes hard to even look at…but that’s what makes it powerful.
I know there are many people out there that complain about his works, or even about how some of his collections have repeat stories in them, but I don’t think I could ever complain about more Junji Ito to devour. As a true fan of his, they’re all great !
In this collection, the one that stands out the most to me is The Human Chair. Although I would argue it is one of the tamer stories within this collection, the concept really freaks me out. There is a lot to unpack in that one, and I think that’s part of the charm with Junji Ito’s work…it sticks with you in a creepy way for life.
Junji Ito is a master artist. In one panel he can show you the most disgusting, gory images that will stick in your brain for years, and in the next panel have a gorgeous, beautiful landscape that would easily belong in a museum alone. What he doesn’t actually say or describe in written text, he does easily enough through his artwork. His style of horror artwork is always shocking, sometimes hard to even look at…but that’s what makes it powerful.
I know there are many people out there that complain about his works, or even about how some of his collections have repeat stories in them, but I don’t think I could ever complain about more Junji Ito to devour. As a true fan of his, they’re all great !
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,399 reviews