Best Junji Ito Horror Manga

Highlights

• Junji Ito’s horror manga utilize stunning artwork to send chills down readers’ spines without relying on jump scares or loud sounds.
• Fans of Junji Ito can experience his distinct art style and explore his scariest works that blur the line between true horror and paralyzing beauty.

The world of manga is often a beautiful place, filled with fantasy, escapism, and endless possibilities. However, every once in a while it’s nice to take a break and delve into horror to get a fill of spooks and scares. Unlike the medium of film or television, manga can’t rely on loud sounds or jump scares to get the best of their audience. Horror manga artist Junji Ito is a master of utilizing his beautiful artwork in unique ways that send chills through readers’ spines after every flip of a page.

Ito’s works are well-known among many manga fans. His distinct art style and aesthetic are easily recognizable at a glance. For any new horror fans who may not know where to start, here are a few of Junji Ito’s scariest manga to witness first-hand how Ito ingeniously blurs the line between true horror and paralyzing beauty.

Updated April 29, 2024, by Christine Mendoza: With the ever-growing list of terrifying works by Junji Ito, come new fans that open the doors to an entire goldmine of new blood-curdling stories. Junji Ito’s signature style of imaginative body horror is a niche that fans all over the world find intriguing; resonating with both native Japanese readers and fans overseas. Having so many years under his belt as an author, Ito has published numerous books, short stories, collections, and one-shots that can make catching up with his work quite a difficult task. Whether it be newer Ito fans who are scoping out some of his most iconic stories or well-seasoned fans looking for a few reading recommendations, a few new entries of Ito’s chilling works have been added to keep late-night reading sessions interesting.

Disclaimer
: Some of the imagery used in Ito’s works tends to focus on body horror and may not be suitable for those who are sensitive to gore.

30 Love As Scripted

Love For False Perfection

• Publication Year: 1989
• Collection: Horror World of Junji Ito, The Bully, Museum of Terror (Vol. 3)

Love As Scripted follows the young (and naive) Kaori as she goes through a painful break-up with her boyfriend Takahashi. In a flashback, readers see Kaori’s good friend, Yoko, warning her about Takahashi and his playboy ways to no avail. To soothe her, Takahashi offers Kaori a video cassette tape of himself for her to watch whenever she misses him.

In a fit of rage, Kaori attacks him, leaving him for dead–until she watches the cassette tape. Love As Scripted shows the dangers of falling in love with the idea of a person rather than the person themself.

29 Scarecrows

Vengeful Reincarnations

• Publication Year: 1991
• Collection: The Face Burglar, Horror World of Junji Ito (Vol. 4)

Scarecrows is all about death; how people react to death, how they cope with death, and what happens when they can cheat death (or so it initially seems). In a small rural town lies a barren cemetery. One day, in an attempt to scare away other unwanted visitors, Mr. Numata steals a scarecrow from a nearby farmland and sets it by his late daughter’s grave.

Soon after Mr. Numata’s return to the cemetery, he finds that the scarecrow has begun to take on the facial features of his daughter, Yuki. The rest of the villagers begin to follow suit and place scarecrows near their loved one’s graves, now being entranced by the faux manifestations of the ones they’ve lost.

28 Dying Young

The Price for Vanity

• Publication Year: 1991
• Collection: Monthly Halloween,Flesh-Colored Horror

Dying Young follows schoolgirl Ayako and tells the story of how vanity can become a dangerous weapon in the hands of those who are greedy. One day, Ayako’s friend, Chizuru, has seemingly transformed overnight into a beautiful girl. Chizuru claims that she hasn’t done anything to change her appearance and doesn’t know why her face, hair, and figure changed so suddenly and so drastically.

Soon after her sudden transformation, Chizuru mysteriously dies. As the rest of the girls at Ayako’s school suddenly begin to turn pretty, they fear that they will suffer the same fate as the late Chizuru. The girls then begin to devise a plan to keep their newfound beauty, no matter how vicious the cost.

27 Blood-Bubble Bushes

A Gruesome Vampiric Nightmare

• Publication Year: 1993
• Collection: Monthly Halloween

Blood-Bubble Bushes is a much more traditional, American cinema take on horror, starting off with the classic trope of a couple getting lost in the woods in the dead of night. Ansai and Kana are a couple that ends up wandering into a seemingly deserted village after crashing their car in a nearby forest.

After being pursued by a group of young boys who attack Kana and drink her blood, the couple finally finds refuge in a man’s house who claims to be the only one who lives in the village. After hearing about the small village’s troubling (and bloody) past, Ansai has a sneaking suspicion that the mysterious stranger who helped them wasn’t as truthful as he first seemed.

26 My Dear Ancestors

Carrying The Horrific Burden Of Family

• Publication Year: 1987
• Collection: Horror World Of Junji Ito

After being found wandering on the streets with no recollection of her memories, Risa is brought back to her home, thanks to her friend, Shuichi. While recovering in her bed, she sees a giant caterpillar-like monster coming closer to attack her, but it flees before her parents arrive.

Risa then realizes that during her fugue state, she had agreed to marry Shuichi and is now summoned by his strange father. As Risa slowly understands what Shuichi’s intentions are, she finds out the terrifying secret Shuichi’s family had been hiding from her all along.

25 Long Dream

The Never-Ending R.E.M. Cycle

• Publication Year: Horror World Of Junji Ito, The Junji Ito Horror Comic Collection
• Collection: 1987

The Long Dream centers around the fear of sleep and tells the story of a patient in Dr. Kuroda’s hospital, named Tetsuro Mukoda. Tetsuro begins to have haunting nightmares that, although they last a single day in real-time, last for an entire year in his dream world. Each night, his nightmares become longer and longer, and eventually begin to affect his real-life body, aging him into an old man in a matter of a few days.

Dr. Kuroda then begins to make a connection between Tetsuro and another patient named Mami and tries his best to understand the curse (or blessing?) of the esoteric “endless dream.”

24 Dead Man Calling

Haunted By The Ghost Of Guilt

• Publication Year: 2002
• Collection: Voices In The Dark

Dead Man Calling follows the story of Noriko and the mysterious man, Furuhashi. One day when out with her family, Noriko was brutally attacked by a biker gang with Furuhashi in the lead, leaving her older brother severely injured, her mother in a coma, and her father and younger brother dead.

Noriko’s story explores the concept of being haunted by guilt, as the image of Furuhashi begins to appear to her every night, begging for forgiveness, even after Furuhashi’s death sentence.

23 House Of Puppets (House Of Marionettes)

Control Or Be Controlled

• Publication Year: 1987
• Collection: Horror World Of Junji Ito

House Of Puppets tells the story of Haruhiko’s family and their traveling puppet show. Due to their often cramped schedule and constantly moving, Haruhiko has trouble making friends at school. However, he manages to befriend a young girl named Kinuko and, after moving various times, they are reunited years later and begin to date.

After finally running away from home and the death of their father, Haruhiko begins to suspect that perhaps his parents weren’t pulling the strings all along and soon discovers a terrifying secret behind his family’s puppet show.

22 Weeping Lady Hill (Weeping Woman Way)

The Power Of Melancholy

• Publication Year: 2022
• Collection: The Liminal Zone

The story of Weeping Lady Hill (also titled Weeping Woman Way) centers on a newly engaged couple Yuzuru and Mako as they visit a mysterious rural village and come across a crying woman who appears to be a “professional mourner” who is hired for funerals.

After their encounter with the eerie woman, Mako finds herself unable to stop crying; overcome with a powerful melancholy that the couple must return to the village to seek out a solution. However, upon their return, the villagers don’t recall ever seeing a weeping woman as the tradition in their village hasn’t been practiced for years. The answers the couple then discover bring them more misfortune than good.

21 Slumber

Dare To Sleep

• Publication Year: 2022
• Collection: The Liminal Zone

This Ito story plays with the horrors behind something as seemingly innocuous as sleep. Slumber centers around Takuya as he moves into a new apartment to find a more peaceful place to study for his exams. As he settles into his new apartment, Takuya begins to wake up each morning with horrific memories of committing heinous murders.

The details of the murders begin to surface on the news and Takuya is now unsure of himself. It is up to him and his girlfriend, Kanami, to get to the bottom of the murders and why Takuya is haunted by vivid visions of bloodshed.

20 Lovesick Dead (Undying Love/ Intersection Fortune Telling)

Misfortune Telling Game

• Publication Year: 1997
• Collection: Horror World Of Junji Ito, Lovesickness, Namuki

The story of Lovesick Dead is a five-chapter story about the young Ryuusuke Fukata and his journey back to the hometown he had left behind when he was a child. The young girls of his hometown, Nanchou-shi, have made a habit of playing a game they call “Intersection Fortune Telling” in which they approach a stranger while covering their face as they inquire about their fortune or ask for advice.

It is clear that this game isn’t as innocent as the school girls make it out to be as a mysterious handsome boy (nicknamed the “Intersection Bishounen”) begins appearing when playing the game, and it seems as if the young girls that meet him end up taking their own lives. The Intersection Fortune Telling game begins to take and ruin lives all around Ryuusuke, forcing him to take matters into his own hands to stop the dangerous Intersection Bishounen and his harmful influence once and for all.

19 The Face Thief/Burglar

The Seemingly Innocent Impostor

• Publication Year: 1998
• Collection: Horror World Of Junji Ito

The Face Thief (also titled The Face Burglar) tells the chilling (yet somber) story of Kamei, a young girl who has the eerie power to “steal” people’s faces. As the main character, Machida meets Kamei as she settles into her new school.

As Kamei decides to stick around Machida (to her dismay), complimenting her appearance and how pretty she is, Machida finds that Kamei’s face has already begun to morph and transform, stealing Machida’s appearance. Kamei is first painted as a malicious monster, but by the end of the story, it is unclear who the true villain is.

18 Layers Of Fear

The Literal Shell Of A Human Being

• Publication Year: 2017
• Collection: One-Shot

Layers Of Fear (not to be confused with the horror game of the same title) is a fantastic Junji Ito piece for any readers who love a good body horror tale. Layers Of Fear is a one-shot piece made in celebration of Ito’s 30-year career as a horror manga artist.

The story focuses on two sisters, Reimi, and Narumi, and their mother, Mrs. Soya. After discovering that the two sisters were cursed from birth by their late father’s excavation of a ritual burial ground, misfortune begins to cloud their lives. Instead of aging and growing like normal human beings Reimi and Narumi both age in layers, simply having a new layer of skin grow on top of the previous layer. Aside from the body horror of the two sisters, their mother eventually suffers a breakdown one day, leading to the family’s bloody demise.

17 Bio House

Disingenuous Dinner Date

• Publication Year: 1987
• Collection: Halloween Night 2, Slug Girl, Museum Of Terror (Vol. 3)

For any fans of Resident Evil (RE7 in particular), Bio House is the perfect short story to relive the true Biohazard (RE‘s title in Japan) experience. Bio House tells the story of Kubota, a young girl who decides to visit the lavish vacation house of her unnamed boss.

They are first greeted by beautiful architecture and lovely live music played by Kubota’s boss’ maids/servants. However, it is at dinner time that Kubota’s visit begins to take a grim turn. She notices that the dinner table is filled with dead insects, lizards, and blood, all carefully plated. Kubota realizes that her boss has something sinister planned for her visit and that if she wants to escape with her life, she must confront him.

16 The Den Of The Sleep Demon (Where The Sandman Lives)

They Only Come Out At Night

• Publication Year: 1997
• Collection: House Of The Marionettes, Horror World Of Junji Ito, Museum Of Terror (Vol. 3)

The story of The Den Of The Sleep Demon follows Yuji, an author, plagued by a monster inside of him, trying to make its way out into the real world. Yuji calls on his old friend Mari for help and explains to her that the creature inside of him is only kept in concealment because he is conscious. The moment Yuji falls asleep, the demon will have the opportunity to climb out of Yuji’s body to escape.

Although Mari is hesitant and skeptical about Yuji’s story, assuming it to be the ramblings of a sleep-deprived and unsuccessful writer, she soon finds out that Yuji’s terrifying story was true all along.

15 Headless Sculptures

Fear Frozen In Place

• Publication Year: 1995
• Collection: Flesh-Colored Horror

Headless Sculptures brings the fear many have of ersatz human statues to life. The eerie sight of a seemingly real human being, standing perfectly upright without a head on their shoulders is enough to keep certain readers shivering, but protagonist Rumi’s story gets even darker.

After Rumi hears the horrible news about her art teacher, Mr. Okabe, getting killed and decapitated (just like his statues), she keeps quiet about her friend Shimada supposedly being with Mr. Okabe in the art room after class, in hopes of protecting him. However, after meeting with Shimada at school the next day, she realizes he is not himself and discovers the terrifying truth behind all of Mr. Okabe’s headless sculptures.

14 The Hanging Balloons

Disembodied Heads Running Rampant

• Publication Year: 1998
• Collection: Horror World Of Junji Ito

The story and deeper meaning of The Hanging Balloons is very dark and isn’t for the faint of heart. The Hanging Balloons focuses on Kazuko, a young girl whose best friend is Terumi Fujino, a popular celebrity. After Terumi takes her own life by hanging herself one day, people notice a wave of suicides done in a similar fashion as Terumi’s.

Fans seemingly hallucinate Terumi’s ghost in the form of a giant floating head in the sky. While skeptical at first, Kazuko witnesses Terumi’s giant floating head above her house one day. It becomes clear that Terumi’s “ghost” had been luring citizens all over town to hang themselves. As if things couldn’t get worse for poor Kazuko, more giant floating heads appear over town; but this time, with the faces of the living.

13 The Long Hair In The Attic

Luscious Killer Locks

• Publication Year: 1988
• Collection: Monthly Halloween, Flesh-Colored Horror, Museum Of Terror (Vol. 3)

The Long Hair In The Attic begins with a distraught Chiemi, being broken up with by her boyfriend. Her ex-boyfriend breaks it off with poor Chiemi by telling her that despite her efforts to look good enough for him, he was never truly satisfied and decided they weren’t meant to be together.

Heartbroken, Chiemi returns home and is greeted by her sister, Eri, telling her about the mouse infestation in the attic. Chiemi goes to sleep, crying, remembering how she grew out her hair just for her ex and decided she should cut it.

The next day, she awakens to find a dead mouse, tangled in her long hair. As Eri runs off to find a pair of scissors for Chiemi to finally say goodbye to her long locks of hair, Eri returns to find Chiemi’s decapitated body on the ground, lifeless, with her head nowhere to be found.

12 Gyo

Gorey Monsters Of The Sea

• Publication Year: 2001-2002
• Collection: Big Comic Spirits

Fully titled “Gyo Ugomeku Bukimi” and roughly translated into “Fish: Ghastly Squirming,” Gyo is one of the most prolific pieces in Ito’s arsenal, and for very good reason. A simple, yet terrifying premise of sea creatures all around the city, slowly transforming, mutating, and evolving into horrific monsters that are clearly powerful and violent drives this story to incredible and surprising places.

It begins with a few strange sightings that protagonists Tadashi and Kaori notice on their scuba-diving vacation. Even the sight of a simple fish growing legs is enough to send chills down some readers’ spines but Gyo takes things much further and, just like the fish, the plot also evolves into something more intricate and sinister.

Gyo involves a plethora of fears, from monstrous gore to abandonment, and even the end of mankind.

11 Remina

When Dangerous Worlds Collide

• Publication Year: 2004-2005
• Collection: Big Comics Spirits

Remina, sometimes translated into “Hellstar Remina”, is a fantastical science-fiction journey that follows the young protagonist of the same name, the daughter of a reputable scientist, and her slow descent into madness after discovering a new rogue planet in the solar system.

Upon the joyous discovery, her father proudly names the unknown planet after his daughter, Remina, in honor of her tremendous contribution. However, it is revealed that the mysterious planet Remina is on course for a horrific collision with planet Earth. While Remina was once praised by citizens for her relation to the newfound planet, the terrifying news of the collision begins to turn the public against her.

Remina is not only a story about the terrors of the unknown, but also the horrific effects pure/baseless superstition can have on the masses and how dangerous the fear of “the end” can be on vulnerable human minds.