Selected Stories by Junji Itō
translated by Jocelyn Allen, Naomi Kokubo
edited by Masumi Washington
Published: 2017
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC
Genre: Short Stories, Horror, Graphic Novel, Japan
Hardback: 392
Rating: 5
Goodreads
A best-of story selection by the master of horror manga.
This volume includes nine of Junji Ito’s best short stories, as selected by the author himself and presented with accompanying notes and commentary. An arm peppered with tiny holes dangles from a sick girl’s window… After an idol hangs herself, balloons bearing faces appear in the sky, some even featuring your own face… An amateur film crew hires an extremely individualistic fashion model and faces a real bloody ending… An offering of nine fresh nightmares for the delight of horror fans.
1. Used Record or Second-Hand Record (from House of the Marionettes, Ayatsuri no Yashiki)
a story about people fighting over the ownership of a record that has a singer's singing as they died recorded on it.
2. Shiver (from Slug Girl, Namekuji no Shoujo)
a story about a cursed jade stone that causes holes to open up all over a person's body if they're around it.
3. Fashion Model (from Souichi's Diary of Curses, Sōichi no Noroi no Nikki)
a story about an oddly ominous fashion model.
4. Hanging Balloons (from The Face Burglar, Kao Dorobou)
a story about balloon headed dopplegangers out to hunt their counterparts the moment they go outside.
5. Marionette Mansion (from House of the Marionettes, Ayatsuri no Yashiki)
a story about a family who rather than deciding what they do or how they live, they instead hire puppeteers to control their actions via strings from the attic of their home.
6. Painter (from Tomie)
a story about a strange but beautiful woman named Tomie who wishes for an artist to accurately capture her beauty, and all the misfortune that happens as a result...
7. The Long Dream (from The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel, Ton'neru kitan)
a story about a man who claims that the length of his dreams are becoming longer and longer and about how he begins to change as his dreams extend farther and farther.
8. Honored Ancestors (from The Face Burglar, Kao Dorobou)
a story about an amnesiac girl and the encounter that caused her to lose her memories and about carrying on the family line. At all costs.
9. Greased (from Voices in the Dark, Yami no Koe
a story about oil and grease.
10. Fashion Model: Cursed Frame (bonus story)
a bit more of story #3, Fashion Model
PeekAbook:
My two-bits:
PERFECTLY creepy and twisted to give the shivers, indeed. Loved the notes and commentary after each story.
* monthly theme: True Crime, Hunger, Horror, Harassment
* part of the Blog All About It Challenge (here)
