Hi!

So I've now read seven books of highly regarded Horror manga artist Junji Ito, and I thought it would be nice to rank all of them in order of my favorite to least favorite along with some of my thoughts about each! To begin these are all my personal opinions and subjective in nature, as well as that I will be starting from least favorite to favorite, as well as that this list is under the assumption that you have read these books before so there will be spoilers for each. 

7. Tomie

This might come as a surprise to most people and up for some hate right off the bat as Tomie seems to be a beloved book in most people's eyes. This was objectively a hard decision to make but at the end of it all, has to be my least favorite I have read so far, but that is a big jump to say I hate it. I like Tomie a lot it's just not my style, Tomie (in my very biased opinion) is generally awful and I wish nothing but her downfall which makes it all the more frustrating when she comes back time and time again, and while yes I understand that is the point, it still infuriated me while reading it. The amount of gore in this book is pretty high but still normal for a junji ito complete collection, all in all it's still a great book even if I had personal trouble with it.

6. Gyo

Gyo, while low on the list I enjoyed immensely, the concepts in this book I have always seemed drawn to, the hubris of humanity in this work as well as others such as Mystery flesh pit national park continues to grab my attention. And while it is the next to last book on this list, it's only because I find the ones above it only slightly better. I believe that I came to the conclusion to put it lower because of the body horror featured in this one, it featured naked humans who have been puffed up with gas with tubes up their mouths and asses, which while horrific was more silly than anything, and Tadashi was somewhat insufferable as a character, the ending was great however, a somber and muted hopeful ending that like most of Mr. Ito's works is left open to interpretation on what may have happened afterwards.

5. Black Paradox

Like Gyo this features the glorious hubris of humanity in the name of progress, the cover initially caught my eye on how different it was to the previous covers I had seen for Junji Ito's works, and after reading this was more tame compared to other books. One thing I really enjoyed about this book was the concept of how souls and the "spirit world" works, it was very different compared to ideas typically portrayed in media which was a refreshing to see. One thing that still confused me about the book however is why the main characters were the ones who grew the portals to the spirit world in their bodies, I assume it was because they tried to kill themselves but it was never really clear if that would happen to anyone else who tried to commit suicide.

4. Shiver

Shiver is the newest addition to my collection and a highly regarded one at that, the stories featured in this book are both terrific and chocked full of body horror at that. Shiver (the short story) is a terrific example of trypophobia done well, it doesn't feel to fast pased and again leaves a very open ended ending. There was only one story that I felt was pretty weak compared to the others and that was Marionette Mansion while good physiological horror, it lacks a lot of substance compared to the other stories. The ones that stuck out the most to me in this book were (In no particular order) Shiver, Hanging Blimp, Grease, The Long Dream, and Honored Ancestors.

3. Uzumaki

Uzumaki absolutely blew me away, everything from the concept to the art to the characters was done exceptionally well in this book. Horror can be a difficult thing to craft, and with something as broad as a spiral pattern, initially it might seem like an impossible feat, but Mr. Ito blows it away in this book. One of the great things about this book is how it never got repetitive like Tomie did, it always brought out new spirals I had not previously thought about in a beautifully horrific light, everything from snails, and hurricanes to even snakes mating was shown in a spiraling trip down into the end. The ending is what makes this really strong as well, it's this bittersweet sense of hopelessness as Kirie and Shuichi lay down and accept their inevitable fates together, and the cycle restarts. If I had to give any criticism it would probably be the hospital scenes, the whole baby thing kinda felt out of left field and was more "what the fuck?" energy than horror, however this doesn't really effect how the rest of the book feels. All in all and amazing collection that only just comes behind-

2. Cat Diaries

I honestly debated including this in the list, as it is not a what would be considered a typical Junji Ito book, but I still felt it needed to be added. The amount of burst your gut laughing humor and just general wackiness in this book knows no bounds, Mr. Ito's style for horror still shows well and true in this book with over the top facial expressions that make the cats seem like the normal ones in this book. One thing I absolutely loved is how the collector's edition that I own shows photos of both Yon and Mu, but what makes this especially welcome is how Junji constantly describes Yon as "the Cat with the accursed face" and then the photo shows up halfway through and Yon has the most innocent "no thoughts head empty" face I have ever seen. This was one of the first books I have read by Junji Ito and was honestly a great time all around.

1. No longer Human

On a much more serious note, No Longer Human is the best book I have read by Mr. Ito, even as an adaptation. It was a hard debate with myself about the number one placement between Uzumaki, Cat Diaries, and No Longer Human, but at the end of it all I think this is the right choice. No book is more bleak, more hopeless, and more truthful than this one, it stares at humanity and shows all its flaws from a person who does not feel human themselves in an unapologetic way. It is one of the few books that I highly praise but would never just recommend to a person, this is a book you have to look at yourself first and ask "Do I think I can handle this?", it's a choice you have to make yourself. It's not as gory, or body horror related as Junji's other works but it's this sense of dread, and fear at other humans that is the true horror in these pages. Junji does a great job at portraying and adapting Osamu Dazai's original novel in a beautifully and horrifically illustrated light that left me shaking after I read it, a feat that no other book has managed to accomplish.







On that... uh.. note, those are all the books by Junji Ito I've read as of now! I'm planning to get more, as I work in a book store and what else am I gonna do lmao. I might make a new list when I've read all of them or I might not who knows, I review a lot of books on my personal friend group discord server so I could move some here for the heck of it but we'll see!
Anyways thats that, Kiwi OUT!