If youre looking for a good demonstration of Itos range this is a book to try out. For one thing while his blackandwhite artwork is considered iconic Venus makes a case for his ability to use color. Billions Alone and The Licking Woman contain some damn beautiful moody pages in their beginnings and The Sad Tale of the Principal Post now contains a full pop art color rendering. But what of the actual content? Billions Alone: Originally included in Hellstar Remina which makes me wonder if Vizs printing of that book will be similar to Frankensteins by way of stuffing in around a volumes worth of bonus material. Either way youre smacked right in the face by Itos knack for detailed disturbing imagery and closeups and a premise that hits a bit close to home right now. Michio is a total loner who has stayed in his room for 7 years until his middle school sweetheart invites him to meet up in the midst of a mysterious group targeting gatherings by tying everyone in the given vicinity together with fishing wire. Itos work doesnt really traumatize me as much as it does intrigue me but this one had me wincing the whole way through. To not go too far into the story its mainly the juxtaposition of the jolly facade of this foreboding cult with the action of stitching together people as if they were fabric. It plays around with the natural human instinct to convene in the same way the pandemic has although here it gets to a point where people dont even want to be near their family in the same house. Escalating to apocalyptic proportions as Ito does and ending off with a chilling twist Billions Alone is a great opener and showing of how Ito tends to frighten. The Human Chair: Based off a story by Edogawa Ranpo. Rather than being a straight adaptation this story briefly summarizes it creates an aftermath for it and provides a presentday framing device. After author Yoshiko Togawa receives a letter about someone sneaking into a chair she assumes its a love letter the original story ends with the reveal that it was merely a manuscript and any correlation to her life was coincidental. Ito decides that the manuscript was sent from a fake address and puts the scenario right into her reality. What proceeds is an absolutely insane continuation where no one believes her. Someone on Goodreads called this one impossibly goofy for details such as the chair containing a foodandwater shelf but it really just goes to show how much attention to detail Ito puts into his work. Indeed this story is almost humorously absurd but it wouldnt be funny nor frightening if it didnt just run with it. That goes for many Ito works. An Unearthly Love: Another Edogawa Ranpo story. Here we have a simple scenario of a man sneaking off from his wife cheating with some entity the wife cannot see and can hardly parse. The standout of this story is simply how dynamic the entire thing is drawn as if it were the storyboard to an animated short. Character acting staging timing between panels poses. Chunks of the story here are pantomime. Oh and Id be remissed to mention facial expressions. Theres a particularly golden one here that you just have to see to believe. It really brings the story staying true to the dramatic roots of an Edgar Allen Poe tale Edogawa is a penname derived from such to life. I wish I had the expertise to comment on it in a smarter light but alas youre looking at someone who used Looney Tunes as a comparison point as to why Collection blew. Venus in the Blind Spot: A stark departure from the fine literature in the form of a classic scifi story. Essentially some alienobsessed boys get obsessed with an alienobsessed girl named Mariko too bad that they suddenly cannot see from if she gets close enough to them. This storys demonstration is Itos ambiguity. While this story doesnt contain eldritch imagery or explicit gore it does keep questions unanswered to give a sense of torment to the reader. This applies to a lot of Ito stories that do contain such imagery but Venus is content with being a scifi mystery that leads it up to the reader whether aliens exist within these particular boundaries and whether they play a role into the story. The element of invincibility is explained sure but the technology used and the final page certainly brings those questions into mind. I will say its somewhat bold to have a somewhat throwbackesque science fiction story headline this anthology considering it lacks much of the visceral traits of Itos art and storytelling. Like I said range. The Licking Woman: Starting off with some moody watercolored pages heres the first traditional Ito story of the bunch. Its a genuinely absurd and nonmelancholy piece starring a brave human protagonist pitted against a superhuman force balancing exaggerated expressions with gruesomelydrawn monsters. Billions Alone messed with the very real desire to gather up with people this story is about a killer poison tongue. Thats no detracting point either what you get is a story high in adrenaline and the same ambiguity demonstrated in the previous story. Quite the enjoyable horror romp if you can stomach the appearance of a giant blisterfilled cracked tongue. Master Umezz and Me: Whenever Ito talks about his own life he always does so in a purely humorous fashion see Uzumakis bonus chapters. His cat diary wasnt a parody of his horror works that is literally just how he makes manga. This story which would usually be the tail end of a book is no exception. Discussing Itos experience with Kazuo Umezzs work throughout his own childhood and even his career this story wastes no time with ballstothewall expressions and humor. Even when Ito grows from his Souichi Tusjiilike youth self the cartoonish flair doesnt exactly wear off. If one cant find the inner workings of a solid gag manga in Itos other stories theyll definitely find it here. How Love Came to Professor Kirida: Another literaturebased adaptation this time from the work of Robert Hichens. Like Human Chair this gives a framing device to a classic story though I cant tell how much is Itos invention and how much was devised by Hichens from the start. This one also has a more classical dramatic Poe feel to it no matter how silly the use of a mimicking parrot is. Its a traditional ghost story that is honestly elevated by the same sense of panel timing and character acting as Unearthly Love. Gyo reprints: If youve heard of Junji Ito I shouldnt have to explain The Enigma of Amigara Fault to you being arguably his most iconic story. A tale of a mountain that inexplicably has holes shaped exactly like particular individuals in the presentday forever beckoning their fleshandblood likenesses. Its overbearing claustrophobia and anxiety leading up to a frightening bombshell of an ending has forever seared into the minds of millions. Theres a good reason it has experienced mass cultural osmosis even before Junji Itos work had begun seeing much mainstream success outside Japan inspiring several lighthearted parodies and memes along the way. Its a fantastic story that I still wouldve rather seen replaced by something else in this context. If I wanted to read this Id buy Gyo considering the only difference here is the inclusion of two color panels. Not pages panels. As for The Sad Tale of Principal Post not much to say. Theres only four pages and its a rather standard unsolved horror mystery. Still theres something oddly satisfying about seeing a whole Ito story in color so it is an upgrade from the Gyo version. Keepsake: I notice some of the themes of No Longer Human seeping into this one. The plot point of an affair leading to a blight of a child certainly brings that book to mind. In general this one skews closer to the interpersonal drama of that adaptation than it does the usual Ito fare. I enjoyed this one and how batshit its twists could get but its not really a standout amongst Itos other works. As a whole this is a mustread. Even the worst ones are damn good and honestly it says a lot that the most damning inclusion is one of Itos best works anyway. If nothing else it respects Itos range in a way that people who only run into Tomie and/or Uzumaki usually dont see.