The Circus is Here is the thirteenth volume of the Horror World of Junji Ito series. It was originally published in Japan in 1997. So far, none of the works in this collection have been released in English.
Stories collected:
The Circus is Here Street of Gravestones The Window Next Door The Bizarre Hikizuri Siblings: Narumi's Boyfriend The Bizarre Hikizuri Siblings: The Seance
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.
The circus is in town! The huge tent can be seen at a distance, on the very hillock of the shinto sanctuary. It is all the rage and a young woman known for her beauty is said to have joined its ranks. But accidents happen, one after the other... why do the numbers all feel so terribly wrong?...
A mixed bag one. Gravetown was really good, and so was The Window Next Door, but I could pass on the others. I'm not a big fan of "that one messed up family, yuk yuk," stories, though, so that could be a contributing factor.
The drawings in that story about that creepy woman from the window next door to the main character's house. Ew. Yay! Mr Ito, how can you be so talented?
3.0 stars the average volume to be fair. The Circus Is Here had a really good premise, I usually love things that take place in circus' but this one was a miss. there was barely any background information and the events just seemed to continuously occur. I find The Hikizuri Siblings kind of annoying so those were also not for me but Gravetown and The Adjacent Window were both really good.
Muy buen arte, enerio. Las ilustraciones de la ventana de a lado me perseguiran por siempre XD, sin embargo las historias no creo sean nada del otro mundo.
This lovely neighbour just wanted to introduce herself why everyone gotta be so mean. So when CATHY brings you an apple cobbler shes a good neighbour but when nighttime lady asks you to come over for snacks shes “creepy”?
Nada mal para ser la primera colección de mangas de este autor japonés y que no tiene la fama de otros de sus mangas como Uzumaki. Mi favorita fue El pueblo de tumbas, una historia que me pareció muy original, me pregunto si estará basada en alguna leyenda japonesa, me impresionó bastante.
Esta es mi valoración de cada historia:
El circo está aquí ⭐ Pueblo de tumbas ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ La ventana de al lado ⭐⭐⭐ Los Bizarros hermanos Hikizuri (El novio de Narumi) ⭐⭐⭐ Los Bizarros hermanos Hikizuri (La sesión espiritista) ⭐⭐⭐
The review is actually 3.5 stars but it's that weird Hikizuri family that bothered me a lot.
The Circus is Here - It wasn't scary, just slightly creepy. Sorry for all the fooled boys who joined the circus. Also sorry for the performers.
Gravetown - I quite liked the premise of this one. A town full of grave stones at every step is sure to be creepy. But it's even creepier when these grave stones grow out of the deceased people themselves.
The Window Next Door - A classic. Family moves in, house next door seems haunted. In the dead of the night, all you can hear is the voice of a peculiar woman. You look outside the window, and there she is: horrible and hideous, shapeless and disfigured, with a trembling voice calling out to you. Closer and closer, until she reaches the sill of your window...
Sleuth Kids: The Second Daughter's Lover & The Assembly of Fallen Ghosts - I didn't like neither of these two stories. I don't like the Hikizuris, they're weird and creepy but in such an icky, unenjoyable way. They feel greasy and dirty, ugly and full of fraud. An Addams family in the most unpleasant and repugnant way.
Me encantan las antologías de Junji Ito. No deja de sorprenderme.
The Circus is Here---- Buena introduction, pero una elección rara para iniciar la antología.
Street of Gravestones---- Historia compleja, pero buenísima, su desarrollo es una locura.
The Window Next Door--- Mi favorita, personalmente creo que debería abrir la antología. Es corta pero se te queda en la mente por mucho tiempo.
The Bizarre Hikizuri Siblings: Narumi's Boyfriend--------- La versión ¿Adams Ito? Me gusta, es algo absurda y loca, puedo comprender a los que no les guste, tiene bastante humor.
The Bizarre Hikizuri Siblings: The Seance------------ Otra patoaventura de los hermanos Adams ito, me gusta esa familia.
Much of this book felt like filler; the titular story held promise but ultimately didn't go anywhere all that interesting, and the two long stories of the sinister siblings veered too closely to Souichi rehashes to really suit me. But the stories in between worked for me. "The Window Next Door" is classic Ito, and that final image is a great haunting body-modification turned architectural folly. But best of all is "Gravetown," an under-appreciated classic that stands up to the best Ito stories like "The Enigma of Amigara Fault" or "Hanging Balloons," though it rarely gets as much love.
Aside from the circus story and maybe the one about the graves, I was pretty disappointed with this. In particular, I really didn’t like the two parts revolving around the siblings. I wasn’t unnerved or scared at all because I spent the entire time being straight up annoyed by them. The Soichi volumes were way worse, but the family here and their personalities just dragged down the end of the volume for me.
Buku ni memuatkan 5 komik seram pendek karya Junji Itou. 1) Sarkas di sini 2) Bandar perkuburan 3) Tingkap jiran 4) Cinta anak perempuan kedua 5) Pemujaan
Seperti biasa, komik2 karyanya tak seram mana pun. Plot2 komiknya lebih kepada misteri dan 'mind blow'. Tapi komik bertajuk Tingkap Jiran tu mengusik jiwa jugak. Ha3...
Me gustaron algunos relatos aunque de otros me hubiera gustado ver más, como el del circo. Sin embargo el que más me gustó y sí logró ponerme los pelos de punta, fue el de la señora de la casa de a lado, simplemente escalofriante.
The Circus Is Here and The Window Next Door are both ⭐⭐⭐⭐. My favorite one being The Window Next Door.
Gravetown and The Bizarre Hikizuri Siblings are both ⭐⭐⭐ for me. The Hikizuri siblings are so unlikeable and the stories are not my cup of tea but they're still decent.
The Circus is Here didn't like it , 1 star Street of Gravestones 3 stars The Window Next Door 3 stars The BizarreNarumi's Boyfriend 1 star The BizarreThe Seance 1 star
I really liked the concept behind Window Next Door but the rest was fairly boring really. As always I'm still enjoying the art, but the stories weren't executed very well.