While horror manga master Junji Ito is largely known for his long-form works—Uzumaki, Gyo, Tomie—I tend to think that he really shines in his shorter, punchier projects. VIZ Media has done a spectacular job collecting these desperate tales of curses, hauntings, and otherworldly transformations into a growing number of hardcover volumes, each combining Ito’s stark, evocative black-and-white illustrations with skillful English-language translations perfect for western horror fans and manga-lovers alike.
The newest release, Tombs: Junji Ito Story Collection, is easily the best in recent memory, boasting nine macabre tales that run the gamut from the already iconic to the relatively unknown. Most importantly, there’s not a stinker among them.
Things kick off with the titular “Tombs,” which savvy readers will no doubt realize was recently adapted as “Tomb Town” for Netflix’s Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre anime series. A modern morality tale with a typical western three-act structure, it’s a great entry point for fans just making their way into Ito’s wicked world.
At nearly 60 pages in length, it’s this volume’s most sizable offering, which makes its half-as-long follow-up, “Clubhouse,” seem particularly well placed. It begins with a simple premise—three friends enter a haunted house—before shifting its focus to interpersonal drama (with some noted political undertones) and, finally, tying things up with a dramatic supernatural ending.
“Slug Girl” and “The Window Next Door,” both featured in Crunchyroll’s 2018 Junji Ito Collection, are equally well known for their shocking visuals if not their equally disturbing plots. The former concerns a young woman whose tongue transforms into a slug, while the latter (also known as “The Neighbor’s Window”) starts as a family moves to a new neighborhood. Here our protagonist is a teenage boy who suffers nightly harassment from a lecherous old woman who peers in through his second-floor window. These stories serve as excellent examples of Junji Ito’s more ambivalent narrative arch—neither have what we in the States would think of as a proper, ties-up-all-the-loose-ends resolution—not to mention his fine eye for straight-up body horror.
The book’s mid-point, “Washed Ashore,” is another Maniac inclusion. Further, it returns to that deep, dark well of inspiration that Mr. Ito so adores—the ocean depths. With shades of cryptozoology and a vague whiff of cosmic horror, it’s tight, terse, and terrifying.
“The Strange Tale of the Tunnel” (retold as “The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel” in Junji Ito Maniac) is another lengthier piece, this one combining skeptical science and a more traditional view of cursed places into a uniquely satisfying story. However, in trademark Ito style, it forgoes explanation in favor of wonderfully creepy imagery, the final panels of which are sure to stay with readers long after they put this book down.
“Bronze Statue” begins the book’s final third with another example of an evil-doer getting her comeuppance; in this case, the murderous wife of a small-town mayor ultimately finds herself literally trapped in her own vanity. Like “Bronze Statue,” “Floaters” is another 50-pager, and it’s also the only story in this volume that feels overly long. A clever twist on the classic concept of what happens when our inner dialogs are suddenly broadcast to the masses, it incorporates all of Ito’s go-to story elements—a strange occurrence that starts off in a single community, unrequited teenage love, and the inevitable suicide—but it’s final twist still makes it worth the meandering ride.
Tombs wraps up with “The Bloody Story of Shirosuna.” In this closing tale, a doctor moves to a remote village (the name of which translates to “white sands”) and is quick to discover that the townspeople are all pale, sickly, and lethargic. What unfolds is a totally new take on the old town-full-of-vampires pastiche that ends on a creepy if not wholly unexpected note. Along with “Clubhouse,” “Floaters,” and “Bronze Statue,” this was one of the few inclusions that were wholly unknown to me, and it definitely closed the book out on a high note.
As a diehard Junji Ito fan, I’m always excited when VIZ brings a new volume of his manga to the American audience. While a couple of recent examples (specifically 2021’s Deserter and 2022’s The Liminal Zone) haven’t exactly hit the mark for me, Tombs easily took me back to the days of Shiver and Smashed, the story collections that made me such a fan of Ito’s horror manga in the first place.
Tombs’ blend of known characters (like the Slug Girl and the diabolical old woman across the alley), recently adapted content, and brand new entries to the American market combine to make it a satisfying read for existing fans, and its focus on dark, unexpected, and regularly gruesome stories is sure to attract a brand new crop of horror heads to the realm of manga.
Tombs: Junji Ito Story Collection is available now at your online, digital, or brick-and-mortar bookseller of choice. It retails for $22.50 at Amazon and is rated Teen Plus for content.
A digital sample was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review, but the publisher had no input in its written content. Of course, given that my entire forearm is covered in Uzumaki tattoos, they may have had an inkling that I’d enjoy it. This post contains affiliate links.
