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Where to Start Reading Junji Ito Books
Just in time for Halloween, Junji Ito follows up his latest collection of short stories — Alley — with a fascinating look into his creative process in Uncanny: The Origins of Fear. Uncanny gives us a window into the macabre master’s mind like never before. Mixing memoir with an overview of horror in manga, Ito is practically sitting beside you, talking you through all the fears and frights he’s created, and the inspirations that have helped him along the way.
What better time to get a little spooky — or a lot spooky — and revisit some of Ito’s best and most terrifying work? Here’s a run-down of some must-reads and must-re-reads.
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Ito’s most recent short story collection, Alley, continues to showcase how broad the spectrum of Ito’s horror is. Sometimes it’s just a stain, sometimes it’s raining dead people. There is simply no containing what Ito can use to terrify us. With a supreme and haunting sense of place, each story in Alley brings you somewhere new and creepy, whether it’s a back alley or a cursed town, Ito’s sense of place is unmatched.
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He sucks on nails, spits them at people, and occasionally gets up to some dark, possibly occult shenanigans. Maybe he’s capable of horrid things, maybe he’s just a kid struggling to adapt to adolescence. He is Soichi, an iconic recurring character from Junji Ito. This collection of stories starring Soichi masterfully blends hilarious and horrifying and, just like Soichi himself, there’s little else out there quite like it.
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Reimagining what being haunted even means, Uzumaki is set in a small town dealing with a rather unique curse. It’s not a monster. It’s not a ghost. It’s not even a person. This town is haunted by a shape — a spiral to be exact. And it finds new and creative ways to drive people to madness. Considered by many to be Ito’s masterpiece of masterpieces, Uzumaki is bizarre, terrifying and a prime contender to make your spine tingle.
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Junji Ito’s mastery of the short story is seen across many a title, but Shiver is one of the best collections, partly because he selected the included stories himself. Visually unnerving, like a disaster you can’t look away from, these are the kinds of stories that will stick with you, linger in the darkness of the night, and perhaps haunt your dreams too… if you’re lucky.
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If there is one thing Junji Ito does exceptionally well (among the slew of things he does exceptionally well), it’s vividly portraying creative ways for people to die. If the title didn’t give it away, Smashed introduces a particularly macabre flourish — characters getting smashed. But wait, there’s more! Soichi makes an appearance as an adult, and if you thought his young self was something else, then wait until you meet him as a grown-up.