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.

Lovesickness: Junji Ito Story Collection | Book by Junji Ito Lovesickness: Junji Ito Story Collection | Book by Junji Ito

Horror Manga-ka Juni Ito is remarkably productive. This is just one of several short story collections out in English translation in the last couple years alone. I might say that the ten stories here are not appreciably better or worse than other collections (so, 3 stars?) but the art continues to be amazing. 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 Contains interviews, unpublished works, and pictures of paintings and illustrations.Then the two best stories of the collection: The Mansion of Phantom Pain and The Rib Woman. Both stories are excellent in terms of spooky atmosphere, body horror, and punchy plots.

Lovesickness: Junji Ito Story Collection - Waterstones Lovesickness: Junji Ito Story Collection - Waterstones

Ito’s influences include classic horror manga artists Kazuo Umezz and Hideshi Hino, as well as authors Yasutaka Tsutsui and H.P. Lovecraft. Ribs woman Wires were used in place of ribs to make music, and the picture of a woman revealing her ribs will stay with me for a long time. (4 stars) Despite the stupidity of it, I was still initially hooked. However, as I kept going on, the story eventually became very repetitive and annoying. Some of the dialogues were also really cringey to read.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. 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. I really like the story "The Mansion of Phantom Pain", there is hardly anything gross in the story but the plot and the plot twists work out so well!!! The main character Ryusuke told a woman’s fortune at the crossroad when he was asked as a young boy. That ended in tragedy and he is haunted by the guilt. Especially as he grew up to know her niece. But, is the past still haunting him at the crossroads?

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

The Mansion of Phantom Pain is also a decent story about a young man who gets a job at a rich person’s house where he has to relieve the man’s son’s pain that has somehow, invisibly filled the mansion. This one’s a good example of Ito’s unique imagination - it’s something only he could come up with. I was hooked waiting to see where he’d take the story, and it was mostly interesting, though, again the ending is weak.Lately, school children have been following the custom. Sadly, some of those children have also been committing suicide - supposedly after having their fortunes told by an ethereal, dark haired, beautiful boy.