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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 that 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 on January 31st, 2023, by Christine Mendoza: With the release of the highly anticipated Netflix series, Junji Ito Manic: Japanese Takes Of The Macabre, fans new and old have been itching for more horrific Ito content to get their hands on. While many fantastic works from Ito have been included in the animated series, many of Ito’s most popular pieces weren’t featured and didn’t have their time in the spotlight. Considering how long Ito’s amazing list of works is in his 30+ years as a manga artist, it’d be impossible to showcase every single notable piece in his arsenal. A few new entries were added for any fans (new and old) that were entranced by Ito’s beautifully animated Netflix series and are on the lookout for any other hidden gems of his to read in the dark.
18 Layers Of Fear
Publication Year : 2017 Collection : One-Shot
Layers Of Fear (not to be confused with the horror game of the same title) is a fantastic Junji Ito piece for any readers that love a good body horror tale. Layers Of Fear is a one-shot piece made in celebration of Ito’s 30-year career as a horror manga artist.
The story focuses on two sisters, Reimi, Narumi, and their mother, Mrs. Soya. After discovering that the two sisters were cursed from birth by their late father’s excavation of a ritual burial ground, misfortune begins to cloud their lives. Instead of aging and growing like normal human beings Reimi and Narumi both age in layers, simply having a new layer of skin grow on top of the previous layer. Aside from the body horror of the two sisters, their mother eventually suffers a breakdown one day, leading to the family’s bloody demise.
17 Lovesick Dead (Undying Love/ Intersection Fortune Telling)
Publication Year : 1997 Collection : Horror World Of Junji Ito, Lovesickness, Namuki
The story of Lovesick Dead is a five-chapter story about the young Ryuusuke Fukata and his journey back to the hometown he had left behind when he was a child. The young girls of his hometown, Nanchou-shi, have made a habit of playing a game they call “Intersection Fortune Telling” in which they approach a stranger while covering their face as they inquire about their fortune or ask for advice.
It is clear that this game isn’t as innocent as the school girls make it out to be as a mysterious handsome boy (nicknamed the “Intersection Bishounen”) begins appearing when playing the game, and it seems as if the young girls that meet him end up taking their own lives. The Intersection Fortune Telling game begins to take and ruin lives all around Ryuusuke, forcing him to take matters into his own hands to stop the dangerous Intersection Bishounen and his harmful influence once and for all.
16 The Den Of The Sleep Demon (Where The Sandman Lives)
Publication Year : 1997 Collection : House Of The Marionettes, Horror World Of Junji Ito, Museum Of Terror (Vol. 3)
The story of The Den Of The Sleep Demon follows Yuji, an author, plagued by a monster inside of him, trying to make its way out into the real world. Yuji calls on his old friend Mari for help and explains to her that the creature inside of him is only kept in concealment because he is conscious. The moment Yuji falls asleep, the demon will have the opportunity to climb out of Yuji’s body to escape.
Although Mari is hesitant and skeptical about Yuji’s story, assuming it to be the ramblings of a sleep-deprived and unsuccessful writer, she soon finds out that Yuji’s terrifying story was true all along.
15 Headless Sculptures
Publication Year : 1995 Collection : Flesh-Colored Horror
Headless Sculptures brings the fear many have of ersatz human statues to life. The eerie sight of a seemingly real human being, standing perfectly upright without a head on their shoulders is enough to keep certain readers shivering, but protagonist Rumi’s story gets even darker.
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After Rumi hears the horrible news about her art teacher, Mr. Okabe, getting killed and decapitated (just like his statues), she keeps quiet about her friend Shimada supposedly being with Mr. Okabe in the art room after class, in hopes to protect him. However, after meeting with Shimada at school the next day, she realizes he is not himself and discovers the terrifying truth behind all of Mr. Okabe’s headless sculptures.
14 The Hanging Balloons
Publication Year : 1998 Collection : Horror World Of Junji Ito (The Face Burglar)
The story and deeper meaning of The Hanging Balloons is very dark and isn’t for the faint of heart. The Hanging Balloons focuses on Kazuko, a young girl whose best friend is Terumi Fujino, a popular celebrity. After Terumi takes her own life by hanging herself one day, people notice a wave of suicides done in a similar fashion as Terumi’s.
Fans seemingly hallucinate Terumi’s ghost in the form of a giant floating head in the sky. While skeptical at first, Kazuko witnesses Terumi’s giant floating head above her house one day. It becomes clear that Terumi’s “ghost” had been luring citizens all over town to hang themselves.
As if things couldn’t get worse for poor Kazuko, more giant floating heads appear over town; but this time, with the faces of the living.
13 The Long Hair In The Attic
Publication Year : 1988 Collection : Monthly Halloween, Flesh-Colored Horror, Museum Of Terror (Vol. 3)
The Long Hair In The Attic begins with a distraught Chiemi, being broken up with by her boyfriend. Her ex-boyfriend breaks it off with poor Chiemi by telling her that despite her efforts to look good enough for him, he was never truly satisfied and decided they weren’t meant to be together.
Heartbroken, Chiemi returns home and is greeted by her sister, Eri, telling her about the mouse infestation in the attic. Chiemi goes to sleep, crying, remembering how she grew out her hair just for her ex and decided she should cut it.
The next day, she awakens to find a dead mouse, tangled in her long hair. As Eri runs off to find a pair of scissors for Chiemi to finally say goodbye to her long locks of hair, Eri returns to find Chiemi’s decapitated body on the ground, lifeless, with her head nowhere to be found.
12 Gyo
Publication Year : 2001-2002 Collection : Big Comic Spirits
Fully titled “Gyo Ugomeku Bukimi” and roughly translated into “Fish: Ghastly Squirming,” Gyo is one of the most prolific pieces in Ito’s arsenal and for very good reason. A simple, yet terrifying premise of sea creatures all around the city, slowly transforming, mutating, and evolving into horrific monsters that are clearly powerful and violent drives this story to incredible and surprising places.
It begins with a few strange sightings that protagonists Tadashi and Kaori notice on their scuba-diving vacation. Even the sight of a simple fish growing legs is enough to send chills down some readers’ spines but Gyo takes things much farther and, just like the fish, the plot also evolves into something more intricate and sinister.
Gyo involves a plethora of fears, from monstrous gore, abandonment, and even the end of mankind.
11 Remina
Publication Year : 2004-2005 Collection : Big Comics Spirits
Remina, sometimes translated into “Hellstar Remina”, is a fantastical science-fiction journey that follows the young protagonist of the same name, the daughter of a reputable scientist, and her slow descent into madness after discovering a new rogue planet in the solar system.
Upon the joyous discovery, her father proudly names the unknown planet after his daughter, Remina, in honor of her tremendous contribution. However, it is revealed that the mysterious planet Remina is on course for a horrific collision with planet Earth. While Remina was once praised by citizens for her relation to the newfound planet, the terrifying news of the collision begins to turn the public against her.
Remina is not only a story about the terrors of the unknown, but also the horrific effects pure/baseless superstition can have on the masses and how dangerous the fear of “the end” can be on vulnerable human minds.
10 Fixed Face
Publication Year : 2000 Collection : Frankenstein, Horror World Of Junji Ito
This story may be rather short but it taps into a very real fear many have had at least once in their lives when sitting in a doctor’s office. The mixture of body horror and the terrible sense of claustrophobia; one that comes from not being physically trapped in a small space but being confined to a small space instead.
Everyone’s had that moment of nervousness while waiting for the doctor while stuck in an unfamiliar apparatus. Junji Ito’s Fixed Face plays with that deep, intimate fear, and tells the story of a clear “worst-case scenario”.
This story is short and sweet yet still delivers the chilling scares in half the time and just a few pages.
9 Sensor
Publication Year : 2018-2019 Collection : Nemuki+
Sensor, also known by the name “Travelogue Of The Succubus” recently got its long-deserved stand-alone release in North America in 2021 with beautiful yet chilling cover art to greet its readers. While many of Ito’s stories are plot-driven, focusing on the happenings rather than the people involved, Sensor was Ito’s successful attempt at writing a more character-driven story instead.
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Initially follows the young and beautiful Miss Kyoko Byakuya and her curious trip to Sengoku Mountain where she meets a mysterious man that seems to know a little too much about her. Kyoko, uncertain of the purpose of her trip to the mountain herself, finds herself drawn to the mountain and the little town that resides there. Upon her arrival, she is greeted with the magical “angel hair” which the villagers refer to as “Amagami” and begins to uncover the secrets that lie within both the isolated village and the significance of her arrival.
This work from Ito has been praised for its captivating art and intriguing story and is often compared to the nightmarish works of fellow horror author, H.P. Lovecraft.
8 Tomie
Publication Year : 1987-2000 Collection : Monthly Halloween Manga Magazine, The Junji Ito Horror Comic Collection, Junji Ito Masterpiece Collection
One of Ito’s most popular works both within Japan and overseas, Tomie is a horrific tale that features all kinds of monsters. Tomie is a tragic yet terrifying story of a young girl that preys on men, luring them and taking advantage of their lust to lead them to their inevitable death in order to feed her cannibalistic tendencies.
While very similar to a succubus, Tomie herself is far from the only monster in the story. The horrific deeds others around her are willing to commit in order to have Tomie to themselves or in reaction to her rejection are equally as disturbing. Tomie is a chilling tale focusing on possessive lust, violent desperation, and the manipulation both humans and monsters are capable of.
7 Uzumaki
Publication Year : 1998-1999 Collection : Big Comic Spirits Manga Magazine
Junji Ito’s Uzumaki is often regarded as Ito’s magnum opus. It tells the tale of a girl in a small town called Kurouzu-cho which roughly translates into “Black Vortex Town”. Protagonist Kirie and her boyfriend Shuichi notice bizarre happenings around their town and reluctantly attempt to unfold the secrets hidden within it.
Uzumaki, meaning “spiral”, follows the story of the supernatural and gruesome deaths of ordinary citizens of Kurouzu-cho, all involving the small population slowly developing obsessions/paranoia about spirals and spiral-like shapes or figures. Uzumaki is well known for its unique, horrifying yet oddly beautiful body horror involving intricate art and atmospheres.
6 Billions Alone (Army Of One)
Publication Year : 2004 Collection : Weekly Big Comics Spirits, Hellstar Remina, Venus In The Blind Spot
Although published in 2004, Billions Alone (also sometimes translated as “Army Of One”) is still relevant today. Billions Alone is the story of life in a world where being in the company of others leads to a mysterious and painful death.
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All over the city, it seems as if any kind of social gathering, whether it be two people or two hundred people, leads to perplexing mass murders, as citizens are found dead, with their corpses sown together. Billions Alone is a horrifying take on enforcing others to keep to themselves for the greater good.
5 Venus In The Blind Spot
Publication Year : 2013 Collection : Big Comics, Venus In The Blind Spot
Venus In The Blind Spot isn’t just about the horrors of the supernatural and the possible existence of aliens. Venus In The Blind Spot does feature some more conventional spooky themes but its true terror lies in the relationships between the characters and the crimes committed by everyday people. Mariko Shono’s beauty was too much for those around her to take and her controlling father turned to horrific means to keep his beloved daughter safe.
Venus In The Blind Spot’s truest source of horror lies within the hideous acts that raw human emotions like desperation, lust, and possessiveness can drive any individual to commit.
4 The Earthbound
Publication Year : 2003 Collection : Nemuki, Smashed
The Earthbound is a story about a mysterious, supernatural force that is controlling people all over protagonist Asano’s town. All of a sudden, sightings of people stuck in strange poses begin to become more and more frequent, so Asano decides to investigate these “Earthbound symptoms” and get to the bottom of her town’s mystery.
Each victim is forced to pose in a specific location, stuck and unable to move their bodies until their eventual decay. The Earthbound explores body horror, the supernatural, and the horrific prison the human mind can become under dire circumstances.
3 I Don’t Want To Be A Ghost (Anything But A Ghost)
Publication Year : 2005 Collection : Nemuki, Smashed
I Don’t Want To Be A Ghost focuses on a young man by the name of Shigeru and his eerie encounter with a mysterious young woman who seems to bring him misfortune. One night on the car ride home from work, Shigeru encountered a young woman on the side of the road, covered in blood. He discovered her name was Misaki and immediately took her to a doctor. To his surprise, Misaki was completely fine; not a scratch on her. The blood she was covered in was not her own.
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I Don’t Want To Be A Ghost is the unnerving tale of the mysterious Misaki, why she is so drawn to Shigeru, and how her presence eventually crumbles his life.
2 The Enigma Of Amigara Fault
Publication Year : 2000 Collection : Spirits Special IKKI, Venus In The Blind Spot
Yet another one of Ito’s most prolific (and also most meme’d) pieces, The Enigma Of Amigara Fault is a horror story featuring both cryptic questions left unanswered and terrifying body horror (and a dash of claustrophobia if that wasn’t enough). After a large earthquake had occurred, a massive fault was discovered on the northern slope of Amigara Mountain.
After being featured on the news, many citizens found themselves drawn to the newly discovered fault, as the fallen debris revealed human-like holes on the side of the mountain. Now revealed, citizens begin to feel strange compulsions to find and enter the human-shaped hole they believe to be “made for them”.
The Enigma Of Amigara Fault is about the baffling concept of nature revealing what is seemingly manmade and the morbid curiosity that stems from it.
1 The Human Chair (Original Story By Edogawa Ranpo)
Publication Year : 2007 Collection : Big Comic Original Special Edition, Venus In The Blind Spot
Although this particular piece was originally written by mystery/thriller author Edogawa Ranpo, this reiteration of his work proves that Ito’s artistic skill is truly what brings readers in for a chilling and immersive story. The Human Chair is almost a self-explanatory title when paired with its artwork, as the story features the dwellings of a woman and her paranoia about being followed or constantly surrounded by an unexplainable eerie presence.
Ito’s amazing skill as an artist and storyteller brings Ranpo’s story to life and his illustrations alone of the mechanisms found within the infamous armchair are enough to send chills down any reader’s spine.
The Human Armchair may seem like another story surrounding a protagonist and their bouts of paranoia; however, this story asks “what if their paranoid beliefs were true all along?”
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