When it comes to horror comics, creators can take many approaches. Some attack on a purely psychological level, frightening the reader with disturbing thoughts and ideas. Others go for shock value, creating terrifying images and disturbing scenarios that stay in the reader’s mind long after the story is over. And then there’s the work of Junji Ito, considered the master of horror comics within the world of Japanese manga.
Ito’s work is difficult to classify – the disturbing images he draws of body horror and torture are clearly designed to disturb and horrify. However, it’s also the frightening implications of the worlds he creates – where people fall victim to their own obsessions, fears, and disgust – that truly make him a master in the horror genre. While it’s difficult to spotlight the scariest stories in his collection, two of his most popular works – Uzumaki and Gyo – offer a glimpse into Junji Ito’s unique and terrifying approach to horror comics. Be warned – the work is not easy to stomach.
Uzumaki
Uzumaki is Junji Ito’s three-volume series about a town with a bizarre obsession and phobia. Originally published as a serial in the weekly manga magazine Big Comic Spirits, the manga series explores how a seemingly innocent interest in spirals can drive one to madness. It’s an odd premise, but one that shows that practically any idea can be twisted into grotesque horror.
When high school teen Kirie Goshima learns that her boyfriend’s father loves watching spirals – to the point where he skips work just to stare at the patterns in spiral-shaped bowls and toys – she finds the old man’s hobby amusing. But interest turns into a sick obsession as the man begins mutilating his eyes just to see spirals all the time, and eventually commits suicide in a horrendous way by literally contorting his body into a spiral.
Soon, the obsession begins infecting the entire town as others become obsessed or paranoid by spirals – to the point where they cut off their fingers and shave their heads to avoid confronting spirals. Soon, the apparently psychological curse ends up having a supernatural cause that continues to warp the town mentally and physically. Of all of Junji Ito’s works, Uzumaki may be one of the most difficult to digest for multiple reasons.
Gyo
A two-volume series, Gyo is possibly Junji Ito’s best (or worst) examples of the manga author’s expertise in body horror. The tale of Tadashi and his girlfriend Kaori, Gyo begins on the island of Okinawa where the two teenagers encounter a weird, rotting fish with legs that skitters onto land. Although the fish appears to be dead, it can still move and emits a disgusting “death stench.”
Tadashi’s scientist uncle gets involved and soon deduces that the fish may be related to an old government experiment involving biological warfare (by genetically altering animals to produce excess gas and attack an enemy with their stench) and his own father’s work, which involved creating mechanical legs fueled by the gas of the animals’ rotting corpses. Soon, the walking fish begin infecting humans, starting a plague. Given the current COVID-19 pandemic, what happens next is particularly horrific, as the infected swell into bloated, gas-filled creatures that end up getting attached to the mechanical legs and skittering around town. It’s a disgusting, unnerving body horror mess – but also one that’s hard to look away from, testifying to Junji Ito’s skill as a horror manga creator.