Slug Girl is volume seven of the Horror World of Junji Ito series. It was originally published in Japan in 1997. Only one story from this collection, Bio-House, has been officially released in English.
Stories Included:
Slug Girl (story) The Thing That Drifted Ashore Mold The Chill Ryokan The Groaning Drain Bio-House
Junji Itō (Japanese: 伊藤潤二, Ito Junji) is a Japanese cartoonist and illustrator, best known for his horror manga. Ito was born in Gifu Prefecture, Japan in 1963. He was inspired to make art from a young age by his older sister's drawing and Kazuo Umezu's horror comics. Until the early 1990s he worked as a dental technician, while making comics as a side job. By the time he turned into a full time mangaka, Ito was already an acclaimed horror artists. His comics are celebrated for their finely depicted body horrors, while also retaining some elements of psychological horror and erotism. Although he mostly produces short stories, Ito is best known for his longer comic series: Tomie (1987-2000), about a beautiful high school girl who inspires her admirers to commit atrocities; Uzumaki (1998-1999), set in a town cursed with spiral patterns; Gyo (2001-2002), featuring a horde of metal-legged undead fishes. Tomie and Uzumaki in particular have been adapted multiple times in live-action and animation.
1. La chica babosa: algo extraño comienza a ocurrir con la lengua de la protagonista, poco a poco, va convirtiéndose en lo que más odia una babosa. 2. Fuera de su elemento: un grupo de personas llegan a la playa atraídos por una extraña criatura prehistórica qué ha aparecido muerta. Mide más de treinta metros y harán un terrible descubrimiento. Tiene los intestinos llenos de personas. Cómo han llegado allí? Qué le ha ocurrido a la criatura? 3. Moho (terror funghi). Un hombre alquila su casa porque va a estar fuera un tiempo. Cuando vuelva, verá cómo poco a poco el moho invada su casa y mute todo. 4. El frío (trypophobia) la historia comienza con un chico mirando por la ventana la casa de su vecina. Allí vive una niña enferma, tiene la piel llena de agujeros y por la noche grita qué la invaden los insectos. Un día pasando el rato con un amigo, encuentran un diario de su abuelo, en esté relata cómo una extraña enfermedad llenó su piel de agujeros. Y de una extraña piedra llena de jade. 5. La posada (Ryokan): un padre de familia pierde la cabeza y empieza a cavar buscando una fuente termal, quiere montar una posada en casa. Sí mujer y su hija lo abandonan pensando que ha perdido la cabeza. Años después la hija contará la historia a un amigo. Y éste decidirá ir a buscar, esa extraña posada ... Una fuente termal roja y extrañas criaturas es lo que le espera en está dantesca posada. 6. Desagüe Gimiente: Reina tiene un extraño y apestoso pretendiente y quiere que la dejé en paz. Shinri su hermana tiene la idea de invitarlo a casa, consciente de que su madre fanática de la limpieza le prohibirá la entrada. Unos días más tarde, el desagüe de su casa, comienza a gemir y a oler como ese extraño chico. Qué estará sucediendo? 7. Bio-house: una secretaria llega a la casa de vacaciones de su jefe. Unas extrañas sirvientas qué tocan música, una cena a base de insetos crudos y una obsesión por la sangre es lo que le espera en esa casa.
This was... definitely one of the grossest works of Junji Ito. I have no idea whether this is good or bad. The reasoning behind my rating is that the stories weren't exactly scary as much as they were gross .
Slug Girl – I hate slugs, I hate slugs so much. They are absolutely disgusting and I would be horrified if I had one for a tongue.
The Thing That Drifted Ashore – This scared me not only because the creature was extremely gross, but also because the ocean is such a mysterious place. As one of the characters said, men managed to conquer the moon, but they are still unable to discover the enigmas of our planet's bodies of water.
Mold – Terrifying because mold, and fungi as a whole, are real things that exist in the biosystem of our planet. Even more terrifying if it starts spreading out.
The Chill – People with fear of holes, please stay away from this story. Although it is fascinating because it involves a mysterious artifact, the repercusions of its curse are more than horrifying - extremely blood-chilling.
Ryokan – Not as gross, but extremely weird. That man thought he was digging a hot spring, but little did he know that he had actually opened a portal that goes straight to Hell.
The Groaning Drain – Definitely the scariest out of the bunch. Just the mere thought of someone being stuck in the pipe drain, waiting to catch and drag you inside with them. No, no, no, no, no. I'm honestly afraid to use the bathroom.
Bio-House – The weirdest story in the volume. Involves a lot of blood and disgusting things like insects and reptiles. And a lot of blood. Like a lot. No joke. At least it had a fairly positive ending for the protagonist.
Decent but not brilliant. About half the stories here feel like, "I ran out of pages so I'm going to end it as best I can with the space I have." Slug Girl was really good, as was The Groaning Drain.
3.5 stars these stories shared a similar topic ranging from mold and fungi to sticky liquids and substances found in drains or in slugs. they also had a lot of body horror as Junji Ito's stories usually do. I definitely wanted more Souichi but I did miss his short stories as well so I'm fine with them continuing.
En este compendio de cuentos de terror me topo con el Junji Ito que me resulta más atractivo e interesante: el Junji Ito de las obsesiones patológicas, en el que lo sobrenatural es únicamente la hipérbole de las fijaciones humanas.
This was a mix of really good stories and others that were good up until a certain point. I wasn’t sure how interested I was in ‘Slug Girl’ at first or where it was going. That said, the ending panel was really good. Something about it made me feel super sad for some reason. ‘The Thing That Drifted Ashore’ was short, but it was probably my favorite in the entire volume. The entire premise with was pretty interesting. ‘The Groaning Drain’ was another stand out. Even though I’m not sure how realistic thing was.
As for ‘Bio House’, the plot was perfectly fine and something that I’m not surprised Junji Ito would write about. However, the artwork didn’t look like his style at all. I honestly thought someone else had drawn this. The main man in particular looked strange to me.
The other chapters in this could have been fun, but there was just something missing when it came to the resolutions. While they weren’t horrible by any means, once I finished them, I was kind of whatever about them.
Mi primera lectura a Junji Ito y me ha encantado, su estilo es fascinante, grotesco.
Este tomo contiene 7 relatos de manga...Los cuales son:
(El primero es el que más me ha gustado y así sucesivamente, pero realmente todos son fantásticos y no es que no disfrutara el último)
1- La posada / Ryokan (escalofriantemente divertida) 2- El Desagüe Gimiente / The groaning drain (abrumadora) 3-Fuera de su elemento / Out of its element (Breve e interesantísima) 4-La chica babosa / Slug girl (Que triste...agobiante) 5-Bio-House (no impacta tanto psicológicamente como las otras pero sangre <3, "clásica") 6-Moho / Mold (Aaah no) 7-El frío / The Chill (PESADILLA)
De narrativa horrorosa, psicológica, atrapante y variado, deberé visitar pronto otros trabajos de este mangaka.
decomposition into holes; mouths, intestines, pores, pipes; little tunnels through the body for air to blow through, or unwanted connections; gazes, touches, burrowing parasites; the body circled by its constituent surroundings and crushed.
This was a page-turner and a creepy one too, but as half of Ito's stories, it felt underdeveloped and short. I really wanted more to happen in the story or at least have a more intrigued story than what we literally got based on the title.
Himpunan kisah-kisah seram pendek karya Junji Ito yang diambil daripada 'Kyoufu collection'. Ada 8 cerita semuanya dan seperti biasa, semua ceritanya pelik-pelik dan mind-blowing...
Volume 7 has a more varied horror themed; natural horror, Lovecraftian horror and trypophobia. Disgusting and disturbing elements play a very important role in this volume. By the way, Slug Girl by far is the most disturbing horror stories made by Junji Ito.
The story Slug Girl will always be one of Junji Ito classics. The storyline and the art possess that quality of sticking in one's psyche — Any of Junji Ito's works, for that matter.
There a lot of variety in the 7th volume of Junji Ito's horror collection, something for everyone. So dive in and enjoy yourselves.
Slug Girl - this is some creepy insect inspired body horror. Thing That Drifted Ashore - a Lovecraftian tale with a twist. Mold - a homeowners worst nightmare comes true. The Chill - curses, diseases, more insect imagery. Ryokan - an obsessed man wants to turn his home into a traditional Japanese inn. The Groaning Drain - one the creepiest pervert stalker stories ever. Biohouse - an earlier story, this one again deals with insects but throws some vampires in for fun.
Ratings on each chapter ⭐: Slug Girl- 3.5 stars I pity the girl because she can't eat, drink and speak. She just hates slugs in return her tongue becomes one.
Out of its Element- 4.3 stars A strange creature appears full of people. They feast on it and they'll never explain what they've seen from the ocean floor.
Mold- 4 stars This chapter makes me itchy. I'm so angry for the younger brother for allowing the teacher and his family to stay in his brother's new home.
The Chill- 4.5 stars Beware of the jade insect! A mysterious doctor will visit you every night and your body is going to become hollow.
Ryokan- 4 stars Man digs a hole to create a hot spring ♨️ instead he creates a portal to hell.
The Groaning Drain- 4 stars The guy is smelly and ugly but the girls shouldn't be mean to him. He plots his revenge. Pretty disturbing.
Biohouse- 3 stars Guy likes to eat creepy crawlies. Forces the girl to drink his blood and it's weird.
Short anthology Ito is my favorite form of Junji Ito, and the "Slug Girl" collection, despite not having any of Ito's most famous stories, comes across as exemplary if not perfect. "Slug Girl" and "The Thing that Drifted Ashore" are well-developed takes on Ito's "body transformation" and "force from outside human understanding" tropes, but it's "The Groaning Drain," the longest story here, that makes the biggest impact.
There is no clear protagonist in this story, just a huge collection of deeply unpleasant characters. The story twists and turns, and the blend of deeply sick humor and genuine grotesquerie shows up here in well-developed form for the first time in this series.
4'5. 7 historias de Ito no dejan indiferente a nadie. Critica social, ironía y karma abundan en las páginas. Encontraremos sangre, vísceras, moho, insectos, una criatura mitológica que alberga un montón de cuerpos humanos, una puerta al infierno, etc. Muy muy bueno y disfrutable.
Mis favoritos fueron:
- La Chica Babosa (Slug Girl) - Fuera de su Elemento (Out Of Its Element) - El frío (The Chill) - La Posada (Ryokan) - El Desagüe Gimiente (The Groaning Drain) - Bio-house
Como véis todos me fascinaron. El que menos me gustó de todos estos fue el de Moho (Mold).
Slug Girl: ⭐⭐⭐⭐. Absolutely disgusting. Thing That Drifted Ashore: ⭐⭐⭐⭐. Nightmare fuel. The Chill: ⭐⭐⭐½. I don't have tripofobia but this made feel like I did for a moment. Ryokan: ⭐⭐⭐⭐. Chef's kiss. The Groaning Drain: ⭐⭐⭐. Nerve-wracking. Bio House: ⭐⭐⭐. Good for her 😂.
Junji Ito continues to unsettle me with nearly everything I read by him. Not every story in this is all that great, but the way he can take pretty simple objects, fears or situations and magnify them to his weirdness is surely consistent.
4 🌟 Tan peculiar y grotesco como son los relatos de Junji Ito, siempre me saca de un bloqueo lector. Amé Slug Girl, hay un relato mejor que otro pero siempre con el toque de horror que el autor sabe manejar muy bien.
This particular anthology was not scary at all, It was not even creepy. It was a collection that just grossed me out. 'Mold' in particular was pretty harrowing and my favorite of the lot.