Summary
- Junji Ito's horror manga utilize stunning artwork to send chills down readers' spines without relying on jump scares or loud sounds.
- Fans of Junji Ito can experience his distinct art style and explore his scariest works that blur the line between true horror and paralyzing beauty.
The world of manga is often a beautiful place, filled with fantasy, escapism, and endless possibilities. However, every once in a while it's nice to take a break and delve into horror to get a fill of spooks and scares. Unlike the medium of film or television, manga can't rely on loud sounds or jump scares to get the best of their audience. Horror manga artist Junji Ito is a master of utilizing his beautiful artwork in unique ways that send chills through readers' spines after every flip of a page.
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Ito's works are well-known among many manga fans. His distinct art style and aesthetic are easily recognizable at a glance. For any new horror fans who may not know where to start, here are a few of Junji Ito's scariest manga to witness first-hand how Ito ingeniously blurs the line between true horror and paralyzing beauty.
Updated October 7, 2024 by Mark Sammut: Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror is already halfway through, and it is shaping up to be the best anime based on a Junji Ito manga. For people discovering the mangaka's work for the first time, they should check out the following stories.
Disclaimer: Some of the imagery used in Ito's works tends to focus on body horror and may not be suitable for those who are sensitive to gore.
32 Greased (Or Glyceride)
Stomach-Turning Horror
- Publication Year: 2002
- Collection: Voices in the Dark
For the most part, Junji Ito's stories do not tend to prioritize gross-out horror, except for the occasional monster reveal; however, Glyceride (or Greased in the Shiver book) is plain disgusting. Yui's life is defined by oil. Living over the family's BBQ shop, her house is covered in cooking oil, creating an uncomfortable hell that refuses to let her escape. To make matters worse, Yui is terrorized by her awful brother, who also loves to drink oil. Yes, this story is genuinely nauseating, and there is one specific moment that could trigger some people's gag reflexes.
Glyceride is one of those manga that will probably polarize readers. On the one hand, the concept is strong and emphasizes psychological horror over cosmic or supernatural. As always, the art is consistently great, both in the grotesque panels and the picturesque depictions of Mount Fuji. Conversely, this story is gross rather than scary.
31 Love As Scripted
Love For False Perfection
- Publication Year: 1989
- Collection: Horror World of Junji Ito, The Bully, Museum of Terror (Vol. 3)
Love As Scripted follows the young (and naive) Kaori as she goes through a painful break-up with her boyfriend Takahashi. In a flashback, readers see Kaori's good friend, Yoko, warning her about Takahashi and his playboy ways to no avail. To soothe her, Takahashi offers Kaori a video cassette tape of himself for her to watch whenever she misses him.
In a fit of rage, Kaori attacks him, leaving him for dead--until she watches the cassette tape. Love As Scripted shows the dangers of falling in love with the idea of a person rather than the person themself.
30 Scarecrows
Vengeful Reincarnations
- Publication Year: 1991
- Collection: The Face Burglar, Horror World of Junji Ito (Vol. 4)
Scarecrows is all about death; how people react to death, how they cope with death, and what happens when they can cheat death (or so it initially seems). In a small rural town lies a barren cemetery. One day, in an attempt to scare away other unwanted visitors, Mr. Numata steals a scarecrow from a nearby farmland and sets it by his late daughter's grave.
Soon after Mr. Numata's return to the cemetery, he finds that the scarecrow has begun to take on the facial features of his daughter, Yuki. The rest of the villagers begin to follow suit and place scarecrows near their loved one's graves, now being entranced by the faux manifestations of the ones they've lost.
29 Dying Young
The Price for Vanity
- Publication Year: 1991
- Collection: Monthly Halloween, Flesh-Colored Horror
Dying Young follows schoolgirl Ayako and tells the story of how vanity can become a dangerous weapon in the hands of those who are greedy. One day, Ayako's friend, Chizuru, has seemingly transformed overnight into a beautiful girl. Chizuru claims that she hasn't done anything to change her appearance and doesn't know why her face, hair, and figure changed so suddenly and so drastically.
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Soon after her sudden transformation, Chizuru mysteriously dies. As the rest of the girls at Ayako's school suddenly begin to turn pretty, they fear that they will suffer the same fate as the late Chizuru. The girls then begin to devise a plan to keep their newfound beauty, no matter how vicious the cost.
28 Blood-Bubble Bushes
A Gruesome Vampiric Nightmare
- Publication Year: 1993
- Collection: Monthly Halloween
Blood-Bubble Bushes is a much more traditional, American cinema take on horror, starting off with the classic trope of a couple getting lost in the woods in the dead of night. Ansai and Kana are a couple that ends up wandering into a seemingly deserted village after crashing their car in a nearby forest.
After being pursued by a group of young boys who attack Kana and drink her blood, the couple finally finds refuge in a man's house who claims to be the only one who lives in the village. After hearing about the small village's troubling (and bloody) past, Ansai has a sneaking suspicion that the mysterious stranger who helped them wasn't as truthful as he first seemed.
27 My Dear Ancestors
Carrying The Horrific Burden Of Family
- Publication Year: 1987
- Collection: Horror World Of Junji Ito
After being found wandering on the streets with no recollection of her memories, Risa is brought back to her home, thanks to her friend, Shuichi. While recovering in her bed, she sees a giant caterpillar-like monster coming closer to attack her, but it flees before her parents arrive.
Risa then realizes that during her fugue state, she had agreed to marry Shuichi and is now summoned by his strange father. As Risa slowly understands what Shuichi's intentions are, she finds out the terrifying secret Shuichi's family had been hiding from her all along.
26 Long Dream
The Never-Ending R.E.M. Cycle
- Publication Year: Horror World Of Junji Ito, The Junji Ito Horror Comic Collection
- Collection: 1987
The Long Dream centers around the fear of sleep and tells the story of a patient in Dr. Kuroda's hospital, named Tetsuro Mukoda. Tetsuro begins to have haunting nightmares that, although they last a single day in real-time, last for an entire year in his dream world. Each night, his nightmares become longer and longer, and eventually begin to affect his real-life body, aging him into an old man in a matter of a few days.
Dr. Kuroda then begins to make a connection between Tetsuro and another patient named Mami and tries his best to understand the curse (or blessing?) Of the esoteric "endless dream."
25 Dead Man Calling
Haunted By The Ghost Of Guilt
- Publication Year: 2002
- Collection: Voices In The Dark
Dead Man Calling follows the story of Noriko and the mysterious man, Furuhashi. One day when out with her family, Noriko was brutally attacked by a biker gang with Furuhashi in the lead, leaving her older brother severely injured, her mother in a coma, and her father and younger brother dead.
Noriko's story explores the concept of being haunted by guilt, as the image of Furuhashi begins to appear to her every night, begging for forgiveness, even after Furuhashi's death sentence.
24 Shivers
The Consequence Of Greed
- Publication Year: 1997
- Collection: Horror World Of Junji Ito
Referenced as the title of a 2015 short story compilation book, Shivers is a straightforward but creepy Junji ito manga that slowly builds towards a horrifying final image. A boy looks towards his neighbor, fixating on a confined girl who appears to suffer from a rare disease that causes holes to form around her body.
As always, Junji Ito uses this fairly simple concept to craft quite a few unsettling visuals, all the while touching upon a core human vice that ends up causing all this misfortune. While not one of his most terrifying stories, Shivers can make a reader's skin crawl, particularly thanks to one reveal near the conclusion. The ending is also great.
23 House Of Puppets (House Of Marionettes)
Control Or Be Controlled
- Publication Year: 1987
- Collection: Horror World Of Junji Ito
House Of Puppets tells the story of Haruhiko's family and their traveling puppet show. Due to their often cramped schedule and constantly moving, Haruhiko has trouble making friends at school. However, he manages to befriend a young girl named Kinuko and, after moving various times, they are reunited years later and begin to date.
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After finally running away from home and the death of their father, Haruhiko begins to suspect that perhaps his parents weren't pulling the strings all along and soon discovers a terrifying secret behind his family's puppet show.