Summary
- Not all horror manga comes from Junji Ito; other mangaka like Umezz, Mizuki, and Hino excel in inducing terror.
- Be it gothic horror from Kaori Yuki, or brutal body horror from Shintaro Kago, the genre offers diverse styles.
- Rising stars like Tomoki Izumi and Sui Ishida bring fresh, unique takes on horror manga, showcasing modern terrors.
With short stories like The Enigma of Amigara Fault, and longer works like Uzumaki and Hellstar Remina, Junji Ito has become synonymous with horror manga. Anyone who’s gotten into the genre in the past decade or more likely did so via Ito’s work, or inevitably came across it online.
Scariest Junji Ito Manga Stories
Junji Ito has crafted some of the most terrifying horror manga ever, and these are his scariest stories.
However, Ito didn’t create horror manga, and he isn’t the only one in the field. As great as he is, there are other artists whose work rivals his in invoking terror and might even exceed it for some. But fear lies in the beholder. If anyone wants to test their nerves, here are some great horror mangaka who aren’t Junji Ito.
Updated November 10, 2024 by David Heath: Junji Ito hasn't had much luck with adaptations of his work. The recent Uzumaki anime came close to being the first, truly decent Ito-based animation. That is, until its production woes came to light, which explained why it ended up being fantastic for some scenes, and a fiasco that makes the Junji Ito Collection series look like Redline for the rest. Still, that first episode is still gold compared to spottier examples like the Gyo and Tomie movies.
Still, he isn't the only horror mangaka out there. Others have also made a splash in the genre, from old school pioneers who inspired Ito himself, to contemporaries who tell spooky stories in their own, unique ways. If anyone's already checked out this list's original entries, it's now been updated with a few more top mangaka who'll keep them busy with their works.
1 Kazuo "Umezz" Umezu
The Godfather Of Horror Manga
- Debut: 1955
- Notable Works: God's Right Hand, Devil's Left Hand, Orochi, The Drifting Classroom
Perhaps one of the more obvious alternatives to Ito is the man who inspired him in the first place. Kazuo “Umezz” Umezu practically invented the genre when he began adding paranormal horror elements to his shojo stories. It resulted in his monster tales Reptilia and Nekome no Shojo. His most iconic horror story, The Drifting Classroom, saw a school sent through time to the post-apocalypse, where the students fight to survive Lord of the Flies-style.
Nearly every horror manga today can trace its stark, dark artwork to Umezu’s style, including Ito. He got his start reading Umezu's Mummy Teacher comics, which eventually led him to submit his debut work, Tomie, for Monthly Halloween magazine's Kazuo Umezu prize for horror manga. Umezu himself, alongside other judges, deemed it worthy of an honorable mention and ran the story in full in the magazine.
2 Shigeru Mizuki
Yuks with Youkai
- Debut: 1957
- Notable Works: GeGeGe no Kitaro, Akuma-kun, NonNonBa
Shigeru Mizuki sticks out a bit from the crowd compared to Ito, Umezz, Hino, etc, as his work is unlikely to tingle spines or churn stomachs like Umezu and Hino. Not unless they were checking out his starker historical stories like Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths. However, if any manga reader enjoyed stories about the youkai, ghouls and ghosts from Japanese folklore, they have Mizuki to thank for popularizing them .
His most famous work, GeGeGe no Kitaro, followed Kitaro's quest to bring peace between humanity and youkai is more like The Addams Family than the Manson Family, but it brought Japan's classical creatures back into style in an age when sci-fi and robots were all the rage. As (relatively) lighthearted as it gets, it would inspire later creators to use his youkai for darker works, with Berserk's Kentaro Miura and Ito himself referencing them for their own tales.
3 Hideshi Hino
Master Of Monstrosities
- Debut: 1967
- Notable Works: Panorama of Hell, Town of Pigs, Hino Horror series
Umezz's work could get bloody and terrifying, but Hideshi Hino made his name illustrating deformed monsters and out-and-out gore. Whether it’s armed creatures murdering and kidnapping villagers in The Town of Pigs, or an evil demonic twin with a taste for claret in Hell Baby, Hino isn’t one for the squeamish.
Best Body Horror Anime, Ranked
These anime all depict sickening, horrific mutations and deformations happening to the human body.
His seminal work, Panorama of Hell, even featured an artist painting pictures with his blood in between relating his brutal life story (one loosely based on Hino’s own experiences). Hino made his name with his Hino Horror short stories in the alt-manga magazine Garo. But he’s also dabbled in live-action horror, writing & directing two entries in the infamous Guinea Pig series of torture flicks.
4 Suehiro Maruo
The Ero-Guro Maestro Behind Shojo Tsubaki
- Debut: 1980
- Notable Works: Shojo Tsubaki, The Laughing Vampire, The Strange Tale of Panorama Island
Rivaling Hino is his fellow Garo-published artist Suehiro Maruo. While Hino reveled in blood, Maruo combined it with more adult content to become one of the first artists behind the revival of the “ero-guro” (erotic-grotesque) movement. His work, from his stories to his novel and album cover commissions, combined gore with suggestive figures to put it mildly.
The most notorious of which was Shojo Tsubaki, aka Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show, a story about a young girl who’s taken in by the circus when she’s left orphaned. It managed to get an anime adaptation called Midori, which was banned worldwide (bar a DVD release in France) for its depictions of physical and psychological abuse. However, he did take a break from gore to adapt the suspense mystery The Strange Tale of Panorama Island, showing how his art could be pretty while still being terrifying.
5 Ochazukenori
Murder And Death For The Josei Crowd
- Debut: 1984
- Notable Works: Zangekikan, Ankoku Jiten, Fear Infection
If Hino and Umezz made horror for shojo magazine readers, what would horror for their older josei counterparts look like? It depends on the artist, but one of the most famous examples is Ochazukenori (an alias taken from a rice dish). His explicitly gory stories rival Hino's, with Zangekikan containing a range of short stories covering parasitic infections and water demons, to Ankoku Jiten's killer bees and cursed books.
His art leaned closer to Hino's crude ghastliness than Ito and Maruo's more refined figures, which were enough to make him a cult favorite among horror fans in Japan. Much like Ito, his stories could take unusual premises and make them horrifying . For example, Zangekikan's 'The Mystery of the Vanishing Heads' is akin to Ito's 'The Hanging Balloons,' in that both tales involve inexplicable forces going after the innocent via their heads.
6 Hitoshi Iwaaki
Invasions, Infections, And Intrigue
- Debut: 1985
- Notable Works: Parasyte, Look Me in the Eyes When You Talk, Sound of Bones
Since his 1985 debut, Hitoshi Iwaaki has switched between horror and historical tales. Fans of the latter may be familiar with Historie, about Eumenes' life with Alexander the Great, and his female samurai drama Reiri. Yet his most famous work is the sci-fi body horror tale Parasyte, where the titular aliens take over human brains and turn them into body-distorting monsters, a la The Thing. Shinichi got lucky when a Parasite got trapped in his right hand. Together, they defend themselves and others while figuring out who has the right to exist.
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What's scarier than an alien parasite? When you take a look at this list, you'll find that question hard to answer.
Sound of Bones compiled his one-shot stories that continued many of Parasyte's themes, like Sea of Garbage's look into the value of life , and Dreams That Kill's twist on the Freddy Krueger murder-within-dreams concept. Look Me in the Eyes When You Talk is about a man who can't look people in the eyes, who then gets knocked out and wakes up unable to see people's eyes at all. It's like a neat Twilight Zone-style strip, complete with an ambiguous twist. If all readers know of Iwaaki is Parasyte, then they should check out his other works too.
7 Kaori Yuki
Gothic Shojo Style
- Debut: 1987
- Notable Works: Earl Cain, Angel Sanctuary, Boy's Next Door
Some fans might be surprised that iconic horror mangaka like Umezz and Hino either started in shojo comics or made a name for themselves in the genre. It just shows that women have liked horror of different varieties for decades. But if their more blatant monstrosities seem like a rather blunt take on horror for readers, they might find the skin-crawling work of Kaori Yuki more their speed.
Her specialty is gothic horror, making readers dread her story's outcome rather than focusing on the page turn like Ito. For example, her Cain Saga sees its titular character deal with family drama on top of zombies, spiders, and torture. Her most notorious work is Angel Sanctuary, where its lead is caught at the heart of a battle between angels and demons, alongside handling a doomed romance.
8 Kanako Inuki
The Queen of Horror Manga
- Debut: 1987
- Notable Works: School Zone, Kuchisake Onna Densetsu, Be Very Afraid of Kanako Inuki!
If shojo producing 'the godfather of horror manga' in Umezu wasn't enough, it also introduced the world to the genre's queen in Kanako Inuki. Inspired by Umezu, alongside Osamu Tezuka and Moto Hagio, she got her big break when Umezu himself included her debut work, Orusuban, in a special edition of Shojo Friend. Since then, her mix of folklorish horror and wry humor has seen her work pop up in standalone releases, and in compilations with Ito, Hino, and other top names in the genre.
Many of Inuki's stories focus on how women and girls can be just as capable of vicious depravity, if not more so. Which she can show with just her artistic flourishes, like giving her characters big eyes, but keeping the irises small so they look more demented than cute. That's without getting into their actions, like the sadistic bullies in Big Sis Sasori and The Birthday Present. As tricky as her work can be to track down, it's worth tracking down. Particularly for fans who fancy urbane wit to go with the skin crawling.
9 Matsuri Akino
Urbane Modern Horror
- Debut: 1988
- Notable Works: Reiken Shōhō Kabushikigaisha, Pet Shop of Horrors
Speaking of urbane wit, Matsuri Akino is known for her debonair dialogue to go with her alluring, expressive artwork. Her mix of dark humor and horror helped her catch on with the older josei crowd than the younger shojo readers Yuki and Umezu wrote for. Her breakout work, Reiken Shōhō Kabushikigaisha (“Psychic Business Corporation”), saw a substitute science teacher deal with the spirit world and whatever they'd inhabit.
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Horror and josei aren't the most obvious pairing, but as these manga prove, it's a combination that can be frighteningly effective.
It combined horror and mystery very well, though it was arguably perfected in her most famous work, Pet Shop of Horrors. Where the store’s owner, Count D, sells rare pets to people, provided they stick to their contract. They each come with three conditions, and if they’re broken, the consequences can be dire. Also ironic, as they're often tailored around their personal foibles, which they often can't overcome.
10 Shintaro Kago
Brutal Body Horror With A Satirical Edge
- Debut: 1988
- Notable Works: Fraction, Dementia 21
The ero-guro field is a busier one than people would think, as while Maruo is one of its more notorious artists, the most famous is Shintaro Kago. His use of extreme brutality, sexuality, and body modification express his satirical takes on Japanese politics and society on top of getting shocks out of people.
For example, Fraction sees a serial killer called “The Slicing Devil” deal with a copycat killer, where Kago appears as himself to inform the reader about how manga are made. Dementia 21 pushes care worker Yukie to the brink with bizarre tests as everything at her workplace is automated. Then A Lot of Sweets Jammed in the Head of a Girl is an art book featuring gut-quivering sights of depravity like someone's head being literally stuffed with candy.