Content Warning: This list contains gruesome images and graphic descriptions
As one of Japan's most preeminent horror mangaka, Junji Ito is responsible for conjuring some of the scariest and most disturbing creatures ever imagined. The celebrated scribe and artist most known for his work on such esteemed titles as Tomie, Gyo, and Uzumaki recently won a 2019 Eisner Award for his adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
Later this year, Ito's famed manga series Uzumaki is set to be adapted by Adult Swim's Toonami programming slate as an all-black-and-white anime series. With a wealth of options to help prepare ardent fans and casual readers alike, Junji Ito's most terrifying killer creations to date are ranked by how disturbing they are.
The Hanging Balloons
According to grapee.jp, Ito drew inspiration for "The Hanging Balloons" from a childhood dream. The deadly creatures from the eponymous story are comprised of severed heads that float like balloons and haunt their real-life counterpart.
In the story, every living person has a hanging balloon that mirrors their own face. These balloons are attached to long ropes that are used to hunt the person they resemble and try to kill them. If a person kills one of the floating balloons, they also die in a horrid and hideous fashion.
The Doll Disease - Hell O'Dollies
In addition to directly imperiling children, the odious Doll Disease in Ito's "Hell O'Dollies" short story becomes scarier with each turned page. The reason why is the disease slowly morphs innocent and adorable-looking children into ultra-freakish monstrosities.
A mysterious disease begins turning young Maria into a wooden doll that slowly devolves into a mutated creature defined by cracked skin, large sharp fangs, swollen eyeballs, gaunt appendages, overgrown hair, and tentacular tongues jutting from its evil maw.
Head With Long Hair - Long Hair In The Attic
While The Peeping Toms and Woman at the Window are worth a wicked mention, there's something extra terrifying about the Head With Long Hair seen in Ito's "Long Hair in the Attic."
The story concerns a young girl whose long jet black hair grows wildly out of control and viciously accosts people. After her death, the soulless disembodied zombie head with spider-like strands of hair scurries around the ceilings and walls like a predatory arachnoid. The idea itself is just as mortifying as the creature's physical appearance.
The Dreamer - The Long Dream
One of the most disturbing things about The Dreamer in Ito's "The Long Dream" is how horrible things happen to the title character at his most innocent and vulnerable moment of rest. The story entails a man who falls asleep for a few hours, while his brain ages 10 years in the process.
While asleep, the man has no idea that his body is continually mutating into a grotesque otherworldly creature with an oblong tumescent head, wormlike neck, sunken eyeballs, and eerie dermatological growth. Worse yet, the longer he dreams, the more he mutates.
Caterpillar Of Ancestors - My Dear Ancestors
Somewhat similar to the Giant Seaworm from "Out of its Element," the Caterpillar of Ancestors from "My Dear Ancestors" takes the insectile terror to a whole new level. The highly disturbing imagery is matched by the monster's manipulative M.O.
The creature consists of all of the disembodied heads of Japan's wisest ancestors, connected as one long human-centipede-like monstrosity. while the human end of the caterpillar and slither around like a snake, the ancestral heads have the ability to pass down knowledge from one to another.
Tomie Mutation - Tomie
As one of Ito's most notorious monster creations, Tomie is a terrifying succubus in her own right. However, the mutated Tomie abomination caused in the wake of a scientific experiment increases the terror quotient by tenfold.
The experiment comes when a doctor decides to test Tomie's regenerative properties. The result backfires and transmutes Tomie into a gigantic amorphous blob with more than 10 heads, rearranged limbs, and a frightening sectional larvae-like tail that resembles a mutated insectoid.
The Conjoined Women - The Town Without Streets
In the story "The Town Without Streets," Ito mortifies readers with the introduction of The Conjoined Women - a deeply disturbing creature that appears to be multiple hospital patients connected by a mouthful of repulsive eel-like tentacles with spiky tips used to impale victims.
The creature is a sentient, hive-minded monster connected by a series of nerve fibers that it uses to kill victims and suck their blood. If one of the freaky white-eyed female patients is disconnected from the nerves, they will die.
The Walking Shark - Gyo
Considering how Galeophobia, the fear of sharks, is one of the most ubiquitous fears in human history, Ito's creation of The Walking Shark in Gyo is the stuff of legitimate nightmares. Just as it sounds, the killer Great White Shark can walk on four legs and stalk human victims on land and by sea.
Using artificial four spiderlike legs to walk, the relentless killing machine and unstoppable alpha predator fuses the menacing iconography of an ancient sea creature with that of an exotic arachnoid, the combination of which terrifies readers to no end.
Cannibal Boy - Haunted House
The fiendish and maniacally cackling visage of Cannibal Boy is among Ito's two scariest creatures to date. Appearing like the Babadook's evil zombified offspring, the innocence of childhood is subverted to sick and sinister ends.
Left alone in a creepily condemned farmhouse, Cannibal Boy will gorily devour any interloper brave or unwitting enough to cross his path. Marked by long rows of sharp fangs, extruding eyeballs, a freakishly long triangular tongue, and sharp filthy claws,
Fuchi - Fashion Model
According to Ito's own admission during an interview with comicbook.com, Fuchi from The Fashion Model is the famed mangaka's most disturbing creature to date.
Appearing as the main villain in Rumors and Fashion Model, Fuchi is a cannibalistic serial-murdering seductress defined by a maniacal grin, bloodstained face, razor-sharp claws, fangs, and her insatiable penchant for human blood. Her tall emaciated figure and bony cheeks give her a deceptively weak appearance that she uses to prey on her victims.