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Betwixt

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All-new horror anthology featuring cover art by international bestseller, Junji Ito!

All-new horror anthology featuring cover art by international bestseller, Junji Ito!

Manga creators from Japan and the US present an international showcase of horror. Collected for the first time in A Horror Manga Anthology , six short stories reveal the universal fear of the space between the known and unknown. Will anyone cross that border?

Featuring stories from a range of award-winning and popular creators, as well as a foreword and exclusive cover art by global phenomenon, Junji Ito.

Ryo Hanada (creator of Devil’s Line ), Aki Shimizu (creator of the Suikoden III manga), and Shima Shinya (creator of Lost Lad London and cowriter of Star The High Republic, The Edge of Balance ) each tell uniquely Japanese tales of ghosts and creatures who exist alongside us. American creative duo, Becky Cloonan and Michael Conrad (cowriters of Wonder Woman and Batgirls ) along with duo Leslie Hung (cocreator of Snotgirl ) and Sloane Leong (creator of A Map to the Sun ) and up and coming creator Hua Hua Zhu round out the anthology with tales that would make anyone paranoid about who they may encounter.

200 pages, Hardcover

Published October 10, 2023

33 people are currently reading
5558 people want to read

About the author

Ryo Hanada

55 books151 followers
Also known as Ryou Hanada and Ryoh Hanada.

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5 stars
149 (12%)
4 stars
320 (27%)
3 stars
518 (44%)
2 stars
160 (13%)
1 star
28 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 165 reviews
Profile Image for Gabby.
1,856 reviews30.1k followers
January 26, 2024
I like the idea for this collection, 6 short stories with 3 coming from Japan and 3 coming from America, so the Japanese stories are told in reverse like traditional manga, and the American stories are read forward, so by the time you get to the middle of the book, you have to flip it over and start from the other side! Super cool in theory. I just wish these stories were good! I didn’t really care for any of them, and I thought at least one would be by Junji Ito, but he only write the forward 😭🫠
Profile Image for Rachel (TheShadesofOrange).
2,916 reviews4,878 followers
May 4, 2024
3.0 Stars
The nature of anthologies means that some stories are stronger than others, which was definitely the case here. I appreciated the opportunity to experience horror manga from an author besides Junji Ito (who I love but dominates the translated market).

My favourite story was the first called Kamei. In my opinion it had the best creepy story, paired with a pleasing art style. The others stories were more inconsistent, either having weaker plots or weaker artwork or, in some cases, both.

That being said, I hope more of these collections get published in English so I can continue to expand my knowledge of Japanese horror manga authors.
Profile Image for Rebecca.
4,363 reviews69 followers
August 13, 2023
3.5 rounded up.

To be perfectly frank, I would buy this book on the sheer strength of it including a story by Shima Shinya alone. Shima's Lost Lad London was an excellent story making a point through the medium of mystery, and now "The Window" does the same, this time making a point about the feminization of ghost stories and fear through the medium of horror. The idea that every ghost is a woman killed or wronged by a man is quietly explored, and the tale gives you plenty to think about.

The rest of the anthology is a bit more mixed, but still very interesting. Containing three stories by American creators and three by Japanese, you can clearly see the difference in sensibility, with the closest to crossing the border being "Shadow" by Huahua Zhu, which is my second favorite; it also has the most distinct art style. "Kamei" by Ryo Hanada is the saddest, and it's interesting to see the same basic theme - what we owe the dead - used by "Never Left" on the U. S. side of the anthology. Junji Ito's introduction encourages us to make these comparisons and to really think about what scares us. On the whole, the book succeeds in doing just that.
Profile Image for Jenna.
342 reviews14 followers
November 24, 2023
Pretty mild but “Never Left” and “The Window” are creepy little surprises. Also I laughed out loud that one story is just a guy haunted by Being John Malkovich posters in his room.
Profile Image for Matthew Ward.
1,047 reviews26 followers
March 26, 2024
A fun horror anthology full of mostly creepy, but not scary, stories. Interesting to see the English and Japanese stories together in a book like this though.
Profile Image for Angela.
424 reviews42 followers
August 21, 2023
Thank you to NetGalley and Viz Media for my arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

"Betwixt" is a horror and weird fiction manga collection that brings together American and Japanese horror comic and manga writers. This collection of international horror also comes with a foreword from horror mangaka, Junji Ito. One thing I want to note is the reading order; for the American stories, they read left to right and then for the Japanese stories, you're prompted to flip the book and read right to left. In my digital arc, this was kind of confusing but I thought it was a cool indicator for which country the stories were from.

This isn't a huge collection and if I'm being honest, it wasn't my favorite. Most if not all of the stories were pretty forgettable and even now, I'm struggling to remember any of the stories. On top of that, I wasn't a huge fan of most of the art styles featured. Overall, I was left pretty underwhelmed.
Profile Image for Alyson Walton.
923 reviews22 followers
May 4, 2024
3.5⭐️ for these creepy tales with a foreword by Junji Ito. None of the tales particularly gripped me, but I very much enjoyed the artwork involved.
Profile Image for Dimitra.
589 reviews55 followers
December 29, 2023
I honestly don't understand the hate in the reviews...
First of all, it's clear that it's an anthology not a collection of works from a certain artist.
Second, yes, Junji Ito did the cover artwork but even on the spine of it there are the names of authors/artists.
I had a great time reading all stories and found fascinating the fact that you could read it both ways, respecting the tradition of manga as well.
All stories were spooky and loved how different they were, artistically. Even the Japanese ones!
Looking at the reviews really disheartened me but, thankfully, decided to give it a chance and it was worth it!
Profile Image for Books Amongst Friends.
705 reviews30 followers
October 3, 2025
I thought the execution and presentation of the anthology was a really cool concept. I enjoyed the individuality of each story while applying their own take on what it means to be “betwixt”. It really was fun thinking of each creators perspective of the word, and more intriguingly how I envisioned it.

The reading experience felt unique reading between both the American and Japanese sides. You find yourself permanently betwixt this collection that has no end. Sadly, that’s one of the more exciting aspects of the collection.

I think a lot of readers will be disappointed by the lack of Junji’s own entry. Additionally, the majority of the stories felt tame in comparison. Regardless, I definitely had my standouts reading these and would still recommend this anthology for those looking to read Ito’s catalog, explore horror manga that isn’t too scary, or just try something new.
Profile Image for Sam (superblomper) .
239 reviews91 followers
June 1, 2024
Shadow ⭐⭐⭐
Mirror, mirror ⭐⭐
Never Left ⭐⭐⭐
Kamei ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Film Ephemera ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Window ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Profile Image for Dr. K.
605 reviews101 followers
January 30, 2025
The concept was cooler than the execution, but the execution is still pretty cool.

This is a two-in-one:

Reading left to right, you get an intro by Junji Ito and then three western horror stories told as graphic novel vignettes. They were creepy, but essentially familiar and playing on tropes seasoned horror readers will readily recognize.

Reading right to left, you get the same intro by Junji Ito and then three manga horror stories. They were similarly creepy, but also familiar if you've been working your way through Ito's horror catalogue and know the recurring tropes.

As such, this book doesn't have a back cover.

All the stories were by authors and illustrators that I wasn't familiar with, so it was a nice platter. I appreciated the choice of limiting the collection to six stories, as it reduced repetition typically present in anthologies.

Recommended if you're looking for a quick and visual horror read that toys with themes of doubles, mirrors, voyeurs, watchers who are being watched, etc. 3.5 stars rounded down.
Profile Image for Raaven💖.
886 reviews45 followers
May 14, 2024
This was a super short read. 3 books from America & 3 from Japan. I loved the idea of flipping the book back and forth to change from the American stories and Japanese stories. Junji Ito’s artwork on the cover is prominent as always. I probably wouldn’t have read it if he hadn’t been involved somehow. I wished he had a story here. I didn’t connect with any of the stories. The set work was nice for them, but none of them made me amazed.
Profile Image for Suppi.
358 reviews12 followers
December 8, 2023
Okay so the best part of this was actually the cover and the thought behind the cover, and the concept of the whole thing. Junji ito explained it really well and I thought it was SO COOL and it would have truly been incredible if they actually did something with that where the two sides met in the middle but sadly no. I liked all the stories on the Japanese half but I only really cared about 1 of the stories on the English half. They weren't bad or anything, just okay!!
Profile Image for Jameson.
1,036 reviews15 followers
December 1, 2023
This is a funny little book. Not because it’s a collection of horror stories from both American and Japanese creators, but because of the reactions to it. Some people are Offended the publisher’s using Junji Ito’s name (and cover art and introduction) to sell the book, while others are deluding themselves that it’s practically a Junji Ito book itself.

Anyway, I’m glad I didn’t pre-order the physical book because there’s nothing here I see myself going out of my way to read again. However, there is one story I’d buy physically if it were part of a collection containing other stories from the same creators.

Believe it or not, there’s still a lot of non-Junji Ito horror manga waiting to be published in English. In future, I’d rather Viz focus on bringing us whole collections from those authors instead of this kind of thing.

Note: allegedly the physical book is reversible. Half the book reads left to right, vice versa. The digital edition, unless I missed it, just had the first three stories American-style left to right, followed by Japanese style right to left, without explanation.

STORY TIME

The first story, at least in the digital edition, Never Left by Michael Conrad and Becky Cloonan, is a good opener. This is the best one, and I’d definitely buy a whole book of horror comics by Conrad and Cloonan.
Two friends ice fishing catch something strange. (I love doppelgänger stories.) Cloonan’s art looks great in black and white—less goofy or tweeny. It actually reminds me of Gou Tanabe’s Lovecraft work.

Next up: Mirror, Mirror by Sloane Leone and Leslie Hung. A reflection gets sick of the loser looking back at her and takes over. Story-wise okay, but the art was too cutesy. The backgrounds were also vague and undefined, with lots of white space. I love scary mirror stories, but this one reminded me too much of Emi Ishikawa’s Zekkyō Gakkyū stories. There’s an audience for that—young girls—but it’s not for me.

Shadow by Huahua Zhu reminds me of Ochazuke Nori. Both art and story here remind me of him. Less expressive and more contained, but still leaving me thinking “not bad, not great.” I don’t know why that is exactly. Maybe because there’s little light or levity to contrast with the darkness.

Kamei by Ryo Hanada: boy meets girl, girl’s dead though because when a water demon went to possess her she turned the tables. Ya know, the usual story. Not bad but nothing special. I wish more of these stories were meatier. Even shorter stories can have denser plotting than these. (The empty, blah backgrounds don’t help.)

Film Ephemera by Ali Shimizu
Mieruko-chan meets Being John Malkovich. Cute. Not hindered by minimalism like half the other stories here.

The Window by Shims Shinya
Here we have a Japanese ghost story examining Japanese ghost stories. There aren’t any new observations here. At this point it would be more novel for someone to suggest that female ghosts are likely to be based not on wronged or mentally ill women but on genuinely evil human women. The misshapen figures in the art look like Larry Stroman’s stuff, and again, the sparse minimalism of the art does it no favors. It’s hard to convey dread with so much white space, openness, and flourishy pencils. Maybe the fact that Junji Ito and Kazuo Umezu do the opposite is part of the reason why they’re so successful.
Profile Image for The Leppy.
261 reviews19 followers
January 26, 2024
The cover and forward are by Junji Ito whom I adore and I liked his musings on the theme for this anthology "In between". The covers are *awesome* and I can't stop flipping it over and over soaking in the details.

The gimmick of having an American side and you need to flip the book over for the Japanese side is just *chefs kiss*. I love it so much and I don't care if anyone thinks it's silly.

I'll do a little ranking of each story out of 5 for each of these: Art, Story, Theme (how does it measure up to the Betwixt), Scare (did it creep me out) and intrigue (did I want MORE). Here we go~

Kamei (heck yeah a Kappa story): Art= 5 Story= 4 Theme=4 Scare= 2 Intrigue= 2 I didn't need more but the concept was super cool.

Film Ephemera: Art= 5 Story= 3 Theme=5 Scare=5 Intrigue=3 This was a perfect capsule of a story. it didn't need more.

The Window: Art=2* (i feel the style was possibly an attempt to mimic American comic books which is a shame because I could tell by the framing on some panels was great but the hyper undetailed style wasn't great but it made the last reveal POP. Story=4 Theme=3 Scare=4 Intrigue=5 I want to know more. This felt like it was just starting when it ended and I wanted more.

Shadow: Art=4 Story=3 Theme=3 Scare=3 Intrigue=3 This needed to be so much longer then it was because it felt like a beginning.

Mirror, Mirror: Art=4 Story=4 Theme=5 Scare=3 Intrigue=5

Never Left: Art=5 Story=5 Theme=5 Scare=5 Intrigue=5 This was a slam dunk all the way!

I enjoyed my time with this. It's a very quick read and I liked seeing the possible influence of Junji Ito. Kamei reminded me of a Tomie story and omg the amount of Ito stories involving windows that traumatized me to this day.

Time will be the test on if anything sticks to me!
Profile Image for The Book Dragon.
2,523 reviews38 followers
November 6, 2023
This is two books in one.

There are three stories by Ryo Hanada (author of Devils' Line), Aki Shimizu, and Shima Shinya that you read R-to-L. And there are three stories by Michael Conrad & Becky Cloonan, Sloane Leong, and Huahua Zhu that you read L-to-R. Good news is there are reminders to flip the book around.

Out of the six, Kamei was the ones I liked best.
Mirror, Mirror and Shadow were nice and spooky too, but they were difficult to follow.
Film Ephemera and The Window were... a little blah?
Never Left has... next to no explanation. Just the ambiguous question of which one was really the monster.

Overall, not a bad read, just... more suspense than horror, I'd say.
Profile Image for claudia.
45 reviews3 followers
March 11, 2024
the most mid manga at the libraries always has the longest hold waitlist 😭
Profile Image for Paulo "paper books only".
1,482 reviews76 followers
December 19, 2023
I was thinking of buying this thinking that this was done by Junji Ito and Junji is one of those writers isntantly buy anything he releases. Thank the lords this was expensive and I Ddin't bought it.

first story was interesting, about a dopelganger, of course there is much to it but tellign will spoil for you. The second story I couldn't get into because I truly disliked the art. The third was okay. About a cat, shadow, about pressure , about exams. the fourth is pretty simple draw but interesting in scope. is inbetween realms. The sixth was another one I truly disliked the art. OH well..

Overall, week. two good stories, the rest are meh to bad.
Profile Image for Nicole.
3,661 reviews19 followers
July 5, 2025
I thought this was a pretty solid collection of stories. Nothing that was 5 stars...but i enjoyed them all and thought the premise for each story was really good even if some of the endings were just ok. The artwork was good for each story too...I felt like the style for each story was a perfect fit. And I didn't realize it when I bought this...but the gimmick of 3 Japanese stories read right to left and 3 US stories read left to right and they meet in the middle...so theres no back cover...that was so fun! Definitely one i would recommend.
219 reviews
January 18, 2024
This horror manga anthology is extra fun due to the split format. There is no back to the book, only the English story front and the Japanese story front, and you have to flip half-way through. All of the stories are intriguing ones, and I believe this is one of the better horror manga books I have read recently. Fans of Junji Ito will be thrilled with this anthology.
Profile Image for Hannah.
61 reviews
April 8, 2025
I’ve only read horror manga by Junji Ito so I was excited to find this at the library, it’s got his stamp on it (he did the cover art and foreword) but would introduce me to new authors. However, most of the stories were pretty mediocre. I liked Window on the Japanese side and Shadow on the American side. Cool way to format a book, and Junji Ito’s cover art is fantastic.
7,052 reviews83 followers
August 16, 2023
2,5/5. Interesting ideas to bring forward both American and Japanese manga artist. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy most of the story, they were not bad, they had a little bit of strangeness in them, which I like, but the ending was not satisfying or surprising enough to my taste. I really enjoy two of them which is too few. Not really worth it!
Profile Image for Shae Weir.
81 reviews4 followers
April 16, 2024
Like a lot of anthologies, some stories were good with satisfying endings, and others were just ok. I liked the theme, the layout of the book, all of the art styles, and the cover and foreword by Junji Ito.
Profile Image for Victoria.
412 reviews2 followers
November 21, 2023
What a fun and interesting set of stories! The art was all great and all of the stories were great.
Profile Image for Virus Visal.
Author 7 books8 followers
November 28, 2023
Cómo en cualquier antología hay historias que me agradan y otras que no tanto. Quería está principalmente por la historia de Becky Cloonan "Never Left" y en efecto esa vale la pena.
La otra grata sorpresa fue "The window" de Shima Shinya que fue mi historia favorita.
En las otras historias hubo conceptos interesantes pero que no me terminaron de atrapar.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 165 reviews

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