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Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection
Publisher: Viz Media
Story: Junji Ito
Art: Junji Ito
Translation: Jocelyne Allen

Another Junji Ito collection is out in time for spring. If you’re like me, these are a delight every time you see them come out. It’s nice to finally have one place on my shelves for all the horrors of Ito’s work. If you’re a fan of his work, then you know what you’re in for. If this is new to you, then let’s dive on in to see if this could be your new favorite horror creator.

There are thirteen, perfect number for a horror collection, short stories in this volume. The funny part about being a Junji Ito fan is you can love his work but have not read much of it since it’s often been fan translations or scattered across all manner of books and magazines until now. This book was filled with completely new to me stories.

In this you get Bloodsucking Darkness about a girl with an eating disorder who meets a boy and his bats. Ghosts of Prime Time in which some comedians get big with their killer jokes. Roar, did you know floods can be a haunting occurrence? Earthbound, people are appearing in places, mostly in t-poses, unable to leave their new location, but why? Death Row Doorbell, a family is haunted in more ways than one by the man who destroyed their family with violence. The Mystery of the Haunted House, a tacky haunted house comes to town and proves to be as scary as its hype. The Mystery of the Haunted House: Soichi’s Version, more about the haunted house from the prior story and its weird origins. Soichi’s Beloved Pet, Ito’s ongoing comedy series about a weird kid and his desire to curse any who oppose him, especially his family. In Mirror Valley, years ago two towns loathed one another so much then vanished, only the buildings and strangely placed mirrors remain, a news crew go to see if they can find out what happened. I Don’t Want to Be A Ghost is a twist on an old ghost story about finding a bloody faced girl on the side of the road at night, what would you do? Library Vision, a man’s obsession with his family’s collection of books takes its toll on his marriage. Splendid Shadow Song, you ever get a song stuck in your head? Smashed, there’s a nectar so good, it’s all you’ll ever want to eat, but be forewarned, you must not let anyone or anything notice you eating it.

These stories do a really good job of being creepy, I’ll say that the first few kind of end on a “Well I guess we’re done here” moment. Overall though, they’re all very creepy and only a few of them have that Ito body horror grotesqueness, so if those always were too much for you, you could skip the Haunted House stories and just get some very good horror. I think this might be my favorite of the Ito collections thus far and the Frankenstein one literally has my favorite story of all time, Frankenstein is a really good book. This was just a delight to read even with the lackluster ending to about two of the stories, they were still really good before that. Grab this one if you want some good, creepy stories and a couple of laughs too.

Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net