Lovesickness: Junji Ito Story Collection

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The two stories of The Strange Hikizuri Siblings are the best in the book in part because Ito leans into the humour that’s more or less always there in his work, rather than try to make it seem only horrific. The Hikizuri family are a group of weird nutters, almost like a Japanese Addams family, who, in the first story, decide to mess with their sister’s new boyfriend, and, in the second, the younger brother tries to usurp the older brother’s role as head of the family by faking a seance. The stories are fun and unpredictable and the Hikizuri’s are amusingly bonkers. The angle is a cultural event (in Japan? did Ito make it up?) I found interesting. People with problems stop on the street and ask the first person what their "fortune" is, in response to a question. This is called Crossroads Fortune, and people for some reason feel compelled to act on whatever is Junji Ito has got to be my favourite horror person. Everything he creates is so cryptic and interesting, with concepts wild enough to snag my attention without much effort. As expected, this story collection marks another of Ito’s works I adored. A book covering the work of Junji Ito, released to commemorate his 30th anniversary as a mangaka. Contains interviews, unpublished works, and pictures of paintings and illustrations.

Lovesickness: Junji Ito Story Collection - Wikipedia

Another creepy Junji Ito collection, taking aim this time at suicide, phantom pain, and body image. The usual body horror is present, but nothing that really gripped or repelled too much. Overall the characters were too generic, bland, detached, and prone to unreasonable decisions for me to care about the mental and physical torture to which Ito subjects them. Fukuda, Rika (April 12, 2013). "ネムキ後継誌Nemuki＋創刊記念、「百鬼夜行抄」今市子インタビュー". Comic Natalie (in Japanese). Natasha, Inc . Retrieved May 22, 2022. Born in Gifu Prefecture in 1963, he was inspired from a young age by his older sister's drawing and Kazuo Umezu's comics and thus took an interest in drawing horror comics himself. Nevertheless, upon graduation he trained as a dental technician, and until the early 1990s he juggled his dental career with his increasingly successful hobby — even after being selected as the winner of the prestigious Umezu prize for horror manga. Sherman, Jennifer (July 3, 2020). "Viz Media Licenses Dr. Stone Reboot: Byakuya, Asadora!, Beast Complex, Call of the Night Manga". Anime News Network . Retrieved May 22, 2022. r/junjiito is dedicated to legendary award-winning horror mangaka Junji Itō (伊藤潤二) and friends like Kazuo Umezz (楳図かずお), Hideshi Hino (日野日出志), and other horror mangaka.

The French series Tomié, from Tonkam, now Delcourt / Tonkam, is apparently made up of the first two volumes of this series along with Tomie Again. Tonkam also released a Junji Ito Collection following the volumes of this series, only skipping the two Tomie volumes that they already released. I love the claustrophobic ramping up of the madness. If I have any criticism, it's that this storyline ends quite suddenly, and not completely satisfyingly. I'm not expecting any answers, but it could've done with a more meaningful full stop. I love Junji Ito, in case you haven't been following along, and having any complaints about getting hardcover editions as nice as the ones from Viz feels a little like the very definition of looking a gift horse in the mouth but also the decisions that Viz keeps making about what, exactly, the bring out remain frequently perplexing.

MEGATHREAD] Lovesickness - April 20, 2021 : r/junjiito - Reddit [MEGATHREAD] Lovesickness - April 20, 2021 : r/junjiito - Reddit

The story’s quite atmospheric though and the creepy fog makes the narrow Japanese streets seem claustrophobic. Ito’s art is first rate as always, even if his character designs get recycled from book to book - the woman with the full-body tattoo and some of the decayed ghosts look incredible and grotesque. And I appreciate that Ito never shies away from drawing crowd scenes. I know some writer/artists tend to avoid writing stories with big crowds because they don’t want to draw that many figures in each panel but Ito never cops out like that.Finally, there’s ‘Memories of Real Poop’ (yes, really – also known as ‘A Shit to Remember’, which is a much better title, come on!), and it’s one of those short slice-of-life stories that sometimes make their way into these collections; a (possibly autobiographical?) account of a boy obsessing over buying fake plastic shit. The best horror bypasses your critical and/or intellectual faculties, pushing psychological buttons, some you may not even know you have. And that's what Junji Ito's work tends to do for me.

Lovesickness: Junji Ito Story Collection by Junji Ito Lovesickness: Junji Ito Story Collection by Junji Ito

Another couple of stories fill out the book, including an especially weird one about a boy who is in constant pain, the pain being part of the house he lives in. Horror master Junji Ito explores a new frontier with a grand cosmic horror tale in which a mysterious woman has her way with the world! This one is a short stories series in which the story takes place in a foggy small town. The mystery surrounding the seemingly inhuman, heartless beautiful boy is intriguing and I like how the story is played out with its own inner logic. Some of the plots and panels are rather over the top but in the end, they still look fitting and sense-making.

I did quite enjoy The Strange Hikizuri Siblings. A short story about a very creepy and dysfunctional family. Every sibling gave off an uneasy vibe, and watching each one of them unfold until they displayed their psychotic side had me on the edge. It was definitely entertaining. Oct 28 NBA Star Rui Hachimura Gets Animated and Possibly Saves the World in New Crayon Shin-chan Episode The imagery or the stories are never scary though - Ito’s horror is so absurdly over the top that it’s too silly to take seriously. Especially all the schoolgirl suicides - they all just happen to carry box cutters and they all decide to kill themselves within moments of the beautiful boy telling them a dumb fortune? It’s dark humour but that to me is more comedic than horrific. The most common obsessions are with beauty, long hair, and beautiful girls, especially in his Tomie and Flesh-Colored Horror comic collections. For example: A girl's hair rebels against being cut off and runs off with her head; Girls deliberately catch a disease that makes them beautiful but then murder each other; a woman treats her skin with lotion so she can take it off and look at her muscles, but the skin dissolves and she tries to steal her sister's skin, etc. Based on Kaidan Shin Mimibukuro (怪談新耳袋), a story anthology series based on stories collected throughout Japan, by writers Hirokatsu Kihara and Ichiro Nakayama.

Junji Ito’s Lovesickness - CBR The Real Message of Junji Ito’s Lovesickness - CBR

Two standalone stories, ‘The Mansion of Phantom Pain’ and ‘The Rib Woman’, are the high point of the book. The latter – about a girl who has ribs removed to achieve a perfect waistline, only to find herself haunted by plaintive music – is particularly gripping and creepy. It also does a wonderful job of bringing together seemingly unrelated phenomena in dramatic, terrifying style.My only complaint is that some of my questions are still left unanswered. Open ends can be fun in this genre, but I’m still so curious about a lot that was left ambiguous!