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伊藤潤二恐怖博物館 [Ito Junji Kyōfu Hakubutsukan] #10
Lovesickness
Ryusuke returns to the town he once lived in because rumors are swirling about girls killing themselves after encountering a bewitchingly handsome young man. Harboring his own secret from time spent in this town, Ryusuke attempts to capture the beautiful boy and close the case, but…
Starting with the strikingly bloody “Lovesickness,” this volume collects ten stories showcasing horror master Junji Ito in peak form, including “The Strange Hikizuri Siblings” and “The Rib Woman.”
Starting with the strikingly bloody “Lovesickness,” this volume collects ten stories showcasing horror master Junji Ito in peak form, including “The Strange Hikizuri Siblings” and “The Rib Woman.”
408 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 28, 2011
436 people are currently reading
10785 people want to read
About the author
Junji Ito
223 books14.8k followersJunji 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,478 reviews
May 19, 2022
i love seeing evil skinny legends thrive
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April 25, 202119/1/21
This collection is similar to Ito's Frankenstein, in that it's split into two parts. The first is centred around a town in which people go to crossroads to ask people to tell them their fortune. The second is a collection of short stories. Both seem to be mostly older works of his. As expected with Ito's work, a lot of stuff goes unexplained lmao, but for me it's the absurdity combined with the grotesque imagery that I find enjoyable. In any way, I had a good time reading this one and I hope those who end up picking it up when it comes out will do so too :)
18/1/21
It's is probably not a good idea to read this at midnight... in the dark...
Will report back in about an hour or two lol!
update: fell asleep lmao
Also, thank you Viz for letting me read an online advanced copy of this one! :)
You can find me on
Youtube | Instagram | Twitter | Tumblr | Website | The Storygraph
This collection is similar to Ito's Frankenstein, in that it's split into two parts. The first is centred around a town in which people go to crossroads to ask people to tell them their fortune. The second is a collection of short stories. Both seem to be mostly older works of his. As expected with Ito's work, a lot of stuff goes unexplained lmao, but for me it's the absurdity combined with the grotesque imagery that I find enjoyable. In any way, I had a good time reading this one and I hope those who end up picking it up when it comes out will do so too :)
18/1/21
It's is probably not a good idea to read this at midnight... in the dark...
Will report back in about an hour or two lol!
update: fell asleep lmao
Also, thank you Viz for letting me read an online advanced copy of this one! :)
You can find me on
Youtube | Instagram | Twitter | Tumblr | Website | The Storygraph
July 3, 2022
Because of the captivating(lmao) cover and intriguing title, I was looking forward to reading this collection. I was eventually able to get my hands on it. Lovesickness and the strange hikizuki siblings are the two main stories in this book. We'll discuss them separately.
Lovesickness is a dismal story with horrific artwork, as is typical of Junji Ito. Fog adds to the ominous mood in the titular story, and it's frequently followed by the sight of the ghostly young man and the brutal suicide of a woman he claims will never find love. While the concept is intriguing, it appears to get somewhat monotonous as the story progresses. One of the motifs I've seen in many of his novels is that the protagonist is a young, pretty person who drives people insane, and Lovesickness is no exception. Nonetheless, the unravelling of the mystery and the revelation of Ryusuke's involvement to these catastrophes makes for a compelling read. (3 stars)
The strange hikizuri siblings are the subject of the second narrative. It was more enjoyable than lovesickness for me. In a different way, it was creepy. To me, dysfunctional families are the most appealing. There were eerie stares on their faces. The siblings have intense, psychotic personalities, making it one of the most dysfunctional families I've ever encountered in fiction. (4 stars)
The mansion of phantom pain It's unusual, but it's definitely intriguing.( 3 stars)
Ribs woman Wires were used in place of ribs to make music, and the picture of a woman revealing her ribs will stay with me for a long time. (4 stars)
Memories of real poop it flushed through my brain real quick (2 stars✨).
Lovesickness is a dismal story with horrific artwork, as is typical of Junji Ito. Fog adds to the ominous mood in the titular story, and it's frequently followed by the sight of the ghostly young man and the brutal suicide of a woman he claims will never find love. While the concept is intriguing, it appears to get somewhat monotonous as the story progresses. One of the motifs I've seen in many of his novels is that the protagonist is a young, pretty person who drives people insane, and Lovesickness is no exception. Nonetheless, the unravelling of the mystery and the revelation of Ryusuke's involvement to these catastrophes makes for a compelling read. (3 stars)
The strange hikizuri siblings are the subject of the second narrative. It was more enjoyable than lovesickness for me. In a different way, it was creepy. To me, dysfunctional families are the most appealing. There were eerie stares on their faces. The siblings have intense, psychotic personalities, making it one of the most dysfunctional families I've ever encountered in fiction. (4 stars)
The mansion of phantom pain It's unusual, but it's definitely intriguing.( 3 stars)
Ribs woman Wires were used in place of ribs to make music, and the picture of a woman revealing her ribs will stay with me for a long time. (4 stars)
Memories of real poop it flushed through my brain real quick (2 stars✨).
October 31, 2025
Finally finished this one. This is definitely my least favourite Junji Ito book so far, I just didn’t really vibe with it. It wasn’t bad by any means, it’s just that there’s better stories out there in my opinion.
April 18, 2021
In a small Japanese town, teenagers believe that if they wait in the street for a stranger to pass by, hide their face, and ask for their fortunes to be told, they will find out what love the future holds in store for them. Except a beautiful - but cursed - boy walks the streets and soon the town is dealing with a spate of teen suicides brought about by… Lovesickness!
Junji Ito’s Lovesickness collection is really more of a graphic novel with some short stories tacked on at the end because the stories that comprise the main story take up about 250 of the 400 pages in this book. Unfortunately the main story also isn’t among the better parts of the collection but it’s a decent book overall.
At the very least, Lovesickness is an original idea - I’ve never heard of hiding your face and asking strangers for fortunes - but it’s also a hella stupid one. Why would you put any faith in a stranger’s fortune? The identity of the beautiful boy at the crossroads is never fully revealed and doesn’t really make sense - it’s something to do with the main character returning to the town?
The story’s quite atmospheric though and the creepy fog makes the narrow Japanese streets seem claustrophobic. Ito’s art is first rate as always, even if his character designs get recycled from book to book - the woman with the full-body tattoo and some of the decayed ghosts look incredible and grotesque. And I appreciate that Ito never shies away from drawing crowd scenes. I know some writer/artists tend to avoid writing stories with big crowds because they don’t want to draw that many figures in each panel but Ito never cops out like that.
The imagery or the stories are never scary though - Ito’s horror is so absurdly over the top that it’s too silly to take seriously. Especially all the schoolgirl suicides - they all just happen to carry box cutters and they all decide to kill themselves within moments of the beautiful boy telling them a dumb fortune? It’s dark humour but that to me is more comedic than horrific.
My biggest issue with Lovesickness is how repetitive and overlong it is. Characters get driven mad by the beautiful boy, over and over and over again. It wasn’t that interesting to begin with but to read it for 250 pages is too much. Also the ending is very weak - as all of Ito’s endings tend to be - and just fizzles out anticlimactically.
The two stories of The Strange Hikizuri Siblings are the best in the book in part because Ito leans into the humour that’s more or less always there in his work, rather than try to make it seem only horrific. The Hikizuri family are a group of weird nutters, almost like a Japanese Addams family, who, in the first story, decide to mess with their sister’s new boyfriend, and, in the second, the younger brother tries to usurp the older brother’s role as head of the family by faking a seance. The stories are fun and unpredictable and the Hikizuri’s are amusingly bonkers.
The Mansion of Phantom Pain is also a decent story about a young man who gets a job at a rich person’s house where he has to relieve the man’s son’s pain that has somehow, invisibly filled the mansion. This one’s a good example of Ito’s unique imagination - it’s something only he could come up with. I was hooked waiting to see where he’d take the story, and it was mostly interesting, though, again the ending is weak.
The Rib Woman is the worst story of the collection. A young woman wants a more shapely figure so opts for rib removal surgery which somehow leads to a rib ghost?! And the book closes out with a short piece of nonfiction where Ito recalls the time he bought fake joke poop as a kid, which was rubbish and a pointless addition.
Ironically, Lovesickness is worth reading not for the titular story but for the others included in this collection. Still, despite the seemingly unavoidable crap (literal in one instance here) that crops up in every short story anthology, this was one of Junji Ito’s better collections.
Junji Ito’s Lovesickness collection is really more of a graphic novel with some short stories tacked on at the end because the stories that comprise the main story take up about 250 of the 400 pages in this book. Unfortunately the main story also isn’t among the better parts of the collection but it’s a decent book overall.
At the very least, Lovesickness is an original idea - I’ve never heard of hiding your face and asking strangers for fortunes - but it’s also a hella stupid one. Why would you put any faith in a stranger’s fortune? The identity of the beautiful boy at the crossroads is never fully revealed and doesn’t really make sense - it’s something to do with the main character returning to the town?
The story’s quite atmospheric though and the creepy fog makes the narrow Japanese streets seem claustrophobic. Ito’s art is first rate as always, even if his character designs get recycled from book to book - the woman with the full-body tattoo and some of the decayed ghosts look incredible and grotesque. And I appreciate that Ito never shies away from drawing crowd scenes. I know some writer/artists tend to avoid writing stories with big crowds because they don’t want to draw that many figures in each panel but Ito never cops out like that.
The imagery or the stories are never scary though - Ito’s horror is so absurdly over the top that it’s too silly to take seriously. Especially all the schoolgirl suicides - they all just happen to carry box cutters and they all decide to kill themselves within moments of the beautiful boy telling them a dumb fortune? It’s dark humour but that to me is more comedic than horrific.
My biggest issue with Lovesickness is how repetitive and overlong it is. Characters get driven mad by the beautiful boy, over and over and over again. It wasn’t that interesting to begin with but to read it for 250 pages is too much. Also the ending is very weak - as all of Ito’s endings tend to be - and just fizzles out anticlimactically.
The two stories of The Strange Hikizuri Siblings are the best in the book in part because Ito leans into the humour that’s more or less always there in his work, rather than try to make it seem only horrific. The Hikizuri family are a group of weird nutters, almost like a Japanese Addams family, who, in the first story, decide to mess with their sister’s new boyfriend, and, in the second, the younger brother tries to usurp the older brother’s role as head of the family by faking a seance. The stories are fun and unpredictable and the Hikizuri’s are amusingly bonkers.
The Mansion of Phantom Pain is also a decent story about a young man who gets a job at a rich person’s house where he has to relieve the man’s son’s pain that has somehow, invisibly filled the mansion. This one’s a good example of Ito’s unique imagination - it’s something only he could come up with. I was hooked waiting to see where he’d take the story, and it was mostly interesting, though, again the ending is weak.
The Rib Woman is the worst story of the collection. A young woman wants a more shapely figure so opts for rib removal surgery which somehow leads to a rib ghost?! And the book closes out with a short piece of nonfiction where Ito recalls the time he bought fake joke poop as a kid, which was rubbish and a pointless addition.
Ironically, Lovesickness is worth reading not for the titular story but for the others included in this collection. Still, despite the seemingly unavoidable crap (literal in one instance here) that crops up in every short story anthology, this was one of Junji Ito’s better collections.
March 7, 2021
The best horror bypasses your critical and/or intellectual faculties, pushing psychological buttons, some you may not even know you have. And that's what Junji Ito's work tends to do for me.
His horror is eerie, uncanny. It builds and builds. Oh sure, there's bloody gore now and then, but that's not what unnerves me. It's the drawn faces, hungering for something that can't possibly fix them.
In this collection, the largest part is dedicated to the Lovesickness storyline. There's a town, with a curious old custom - you stand at an intersection, and you ask the first person that comes along a question about your future. That person can then choose to answer you, and tell you your fortune.
Lately, school children have been following the custom. Sadly, some of those children have also been committing suicide - supposedly after having their fortunes told by an ethereal, dark haired, beautiful boy.
And there the madness begins. Swathes of the town's schoolgirls become obsessed with the dark haired boy. Our 'hero', a schoolboy called Ryusuke, returns to the town, and he is afraid he has a possibly supernatural connection to the beautiful boy. And so it all starts to spiral out of control.
I love the claustrophobic ramping up of the madness. If I have any criticism, it's that this storyline ends quite suddenly, and not completely satisfyingly. I'm not expecting any answers, but it could've done with a more meaningful full stop.
Also included are several stories about the ghastly Hikizuri siblings, with some of the more disturbing characterisations I've seen from Junji Ito.
Another couple of stories fill out the book, including an especially weird one about a boy who is in constant pain, the pain being part of the house he lives in.
If your brain buttons are anything like mine, you'll love this book.
(Thanks to VIZ Media for providing me with an ARC through Edelweiss)
His horror is eerie, uncanny. It builds and builds. Oh sure, there's bloody gore now and then, but that's not what unnerves me. It's the drawn faces, hungering for something that can't possibly fix them.
In this collection, the largest part is dedicated to the Lovesickness storyline. There's a town, with a curious old custom - you stand at an intersection, and you ask the first person that comes along a question about your future. That person can then choose to answer you, and tell you your fortune.
Lately, school children have been following the custom. Sadly, some of those children have also been committing suicide - supposedly after having their fortunes told by an ethereal, dark haired, beautiful boy.
And there the madness begins. Swathes of the town's schoolgirls become obsessed with the dark haired boy. Our 'hero', a schoolboy called Ryusuke, returns to the town, and he is afraid he has a possibly supernatural connection to the beautiful boy. And so it all starts to spiral out of control.
I love the claustrophobic ramping up of the madness. If I have any criticism, it's that this storyline ends quite suddenly, and not completely satisfyingly. I'm not expecting any answers, but it could've done with a more meaningful full stop.
Also included are several stories about the ghastly Hikizuri siblings, with some of the more disturbing characterisations I've seen from Junji Ito.
Another couple of stories fill out the book, including an especially weird one about a boy who is in constant pain, the pain being part of the house he lives in.
If your brain buttons are anything like mine, you'll love this book.
(Thanks to VIZ Media for providing me with an ARC through Edelweiss)
March 8, 2023
This volume of Junji Ito short horror stories contains the Lovesickness series of tales; The Beautiful Boy at the Crossroads, A Woman In Distress, Shadow, Screams In The Night and The Boy In White. These are incredibly dark stories, both psychologically and with some gory, body horror, moments. Ito’s story-telling is at its best when it has that good balance. The main theme of these stories is that of fortune-telling. Young women are standing at a crossroads asking for their fortunes to be told, often answered by a mysterious, handsome young man to whom they become attached. However, if they don’t get the answer they want to hear, darkness falls upon them. Despair. They feel as though they have nothing left…
The main character Ryusuke told a woman’s fortune at the crossroad when he was asked as a young boy. That ended in tragedy and he is haunted by the guilt. Especially as he grew up to know her niece. But, is the past still haunting him at the crossroads?
I give the Lovesickness stories 4.5 stars.
Next up in this collection are the two Strange Hikizuri Siblings stories, Narumi’s Boyfriend and The Séance.
The Séance was my favourite of the two, and these stories do go to dark places, but I just cannot connect with the characters of the siblings. Something about them annoys me. I love all things ghostly though, and Ito’s signature style, so will give these stories 3 stars.
The three final stories are The Mansion of Phantom Pain, The Rib Woman and Memories of Real Poop. The first two stories are the usual dark, horror, excellence with some amazingly gory imagery in The Rib Woman. 4 stars for those two! The last was incredibly daft, about shit literally lol. Could have easily been left out.
tw:// suicide
The main character Ryusuke told a woman’s fortune at the crossroad when he was asked as a young boy. That ended in tragedy and he is haunted by the guilt. Especially as he grew up to know her niece. But, is the past still haunting him at the crossroads?
I give the Lovesickness stories 4.5 stars.
Next up in this collection are the two Strange Hikizuri Siblings stories, Narumi’s Boyfriend and The Séance.
The Séance was my favourite of the two, and these stories do go to dark places, but I just cannot connect with the characters of the siblings. Something about them annoys me. I love all things ghostly though, and Ito’s signature style, so will give these stories 3 stars.
The three final stories are The Mansion of Phantom Pain, The Rib Woman and Memories of Real Poop. The first two stories are the usual dark, horror, excellence with some amazingly gory imagery in The Rib Woman. 4 stars for those two! The last was incredibly daft, about shit literally lol. Could have easily been left out.
tw:// suicide
October 26, 2021
Horror Manga-ka Juni Ito is remarkably productive. This is just one of several short story collections out in English translation in the last couple years alone. I might say that the ten stories here are not appreciably better or worse than other collections (so, 3 stars?) but the art continues to be amazing.
True, the topics are grotesque/hideous/ludicrous, but this is horror. The first several stories on Lovesickness make up what is the length of a novel. It's (warning?) about suicide, multiple suicides, brought about by lovesickness, obsession to the point of madness. It's a little like the femme fatale Tomie stories that comprise large book collections, but in this one there's a beautiful boy/ghost leading girls to their doom.
The angle is a cultural event (in Japan? did Ito make it up?) I found interesting. People with problems stop on the street and ask the first person what their "fortune" is, in response to a question. This is called Crossroads Fortune, and people for some reason feel compelled to act on whatever is
suggested. Everyone is bombarded with these questions and they try to answer thoughtfully, but this guy creates mayhem with his answers. Bloody, even if it black and white.
Two stories that follow the title stories are ones about "The Strange Hikizuri Siblings," calling up the humor of the Addams family. Ito loves to go over the top with some of his stories, and these stories are of that ilk. One story, "The Rib Woman," is a kind of commentary on beauty, with body horror, a girl who wants to win a beauty contest so has ribs removed to gain a more curvy "hourglass" figure.
True, the topics are grotesque/hideous/ludicrous, but this is horror. The first several stories on Lovesickness make up what is the length of a novel. It's (warning?) about suicide, multiple suicides, brought about by lovesickness, obsession to the point of madness. It's a little like the femme fatale Tomie stories that comprise large book collections, but in this one there's a beautiful boy/ghost leading girls to their doom.
The angle is a cultural event (in Japan? did Ito make it up?) I found interesting. People with problems stop on the street and ask the first person what their "fortune" is, in response to a question. This is called Crossroads Fortune, and people for some reason feel compelled to act on whatever is
suggested. Everyone is bombarded with these questions and they try to answer thoughtfully, but this guy creates mayhem with his answers. Bloody, even if it black and white.
Two stories that follow the title stories are ones about "The Strange Hikizuri Siblings," calling up the humor of the Addams family. Ito loves to go over the top with some of his stories, and these stories are of that ilk. One story, "The Rib Woman," is a kind of commentary on beauty, with body horror, a girl who wants to win a beauty contest so has ribs removed to gain a more curvy "hourglass" figure.
June 1, 2021
4.5 Stars
Another standout collection by the king of horror manga… Junji Ito. While collections are naturally hit or miss, I overall really enjoyed this one.
Standout Stories:
Lovesickness- the title story took a while to build but the payoff was completely worthwhile with one of my favourite endings
The Mansion of Phantom Pain - A creative story that expands the idea of phantom pain to become an out of body experience. I loved the psychological aspects to this one.
The Rib Woman - A wonderful story that blended themes of body image with a wonderfully creepy narrative.
Overall I really enjoyed the collection for the most part (just skip the poop story). This would be a great place for anyone to start with his work.
Another standout collection by the king of horror manga… Junji Ito. While collections are naturally hit or miss, I overall really enjoyed this one.
Standout Stories:
Lovesickness- the title story took a while to build but the payoff was completely worthwhile with one of my favourite endings
The Mansion of Phantom Pain - A creative story that expands the idea of phantom pain to become an out of body experience. I loved the psychological aspects to this one.
The Rib Woman - A wonderful story that blended themes of body image with a wonderfully creepy narrative.
Overall I really enjoyed the collection for the most part (just skip the poop story). This would be a great place for anyone to start with his work.
June 29, 2023
Pre-review:
Alright, I am gonna challenge myself by reading one more of Junji Ito's books, wish me luck!
Rating: 4.5 stomch turning stars.
(1) The Beautiful Boy at the Crossroads:
In the old Taiwanese translation, this story is dubbed 'A Love that Goes Beyond the Grave'.
This one is a short stories series in which the story takes place in a foggy small town. The mystery surrounding the seemingly inhuman, heartless beautiful boy is intriguing and I like how the story is played out with its own inner logic. Some of the plots and panels are rather over the top but in the end, they still look fitting and sense-making.
I fully enjoy this story and its twisted logic!
That's the spirit!
OMG that's so, so mean! LOL
(2) I can only read it very slowly because my sanity does not do well whenever I read Mr. Ito's stuff.
(3) I really like the story "The Mansion of Phantom Pain" , there is hardly anything gross in the story but the plot and the plot twists work out so well!!!
(4) As with the other times I read Mr. Ito's stories, my sanity seriously, honestly is not doing well and my level of mental health is also dropping.
(5) Whenever I got grossed out by the images, I asked myself: "why am I doing this to myself!?"
(6) The short story "The Rib Woman" is kinda interesting too!
(7) Some panels are just so gross that I must look away and quickly turn to the next page, so be alert!
My review for No Longer Human. Ito's manga adaptation: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Alright, I am gonna challenge myself by reading one more of Junji Ito's books, wish me luck!
Rating: 4.5 stomch turning stars.
(1) The Beautiful Boy at the Crossroads:
In the old Taiwanese translation, this story is dubbed 'A Love that Goes Beyond the Grave'.
This one is a short stories series in which the story takes place in a foggy small town. The mystery surrounding the seemingly inhuman, heartless beautiful boy is intriguing and I like how the story is played out with its own inner logic. Some of the plots and panels are rather over the top but in the end, they still look fitting and sense-making.
I fully enjoy this story and its twisted logic!
"I love you so much I could die!"
That's the spirit!
"You will never find love."
OMG that's so, so mean! LOL
(2) I can only read it very slowly because my sanity does not do well whenever I read Mr. Ito's stuff.
(3) I really like the story "The Mansion of Phantom Pain" , there is hardly anything gross in the story but the plot and the plot twists work out so well!!!
(4) As with the other times I read Mr. Ito's stories, my sanity seriously, honestly is not doing well and my level of mental health is also dropping.
(5) Whenever I got grossed out by the images, I asked myself: "why am I doing this to myself!?"
(6) The short story "The Rib Woman" is kinda interesting too!
(7) Some panels are just so gross that I must look away and quickly turn to the next page, so be alert!
My review for No Longer Human. Ito's manga adaptation: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
May 31, 2024
reread 5/30/24: i've come so far in my manga/junji ito journey since my first time reading this, so it was pretty cool comparing my experiences & seeing what I could recall. the very last story threw me off with its utter weirdness, but I think my favorite story in this collection definitely changed to one of the first couple ones in the book about the crossroads fortune.
2021: this was my first manga experience EVER, and I'm happy to announce that it was definitely a success. safe to say I enjoyed the ride that junji ito is known to take his readers on. i gasped, i screamed, i laughed, my eyes widened, my jaw dropped, & "ew" was said several times throughout this horror manga. i absolutely loved it, and my fave story was "Narumi's Boyfriend."
2021: this was my first manga experience EVER, and I'm happy to announce that it was definitely a success. safe to say I enjoyed the ride that junji ito is known to take his readers on. i gasped, i screamed, i laughed, my eyes widened, my jaw dropped, & "ew" was said several times throughout this horror manga. i absolutely loved it, and my fave story was "Narumi's Boyfriend."
February 6, 2022
I don't know...maybe I just don't "get" it.
Let me start off by saying the art is beautiful. Even during the gruesome scenes, I was captivated by the illustrations.
Despite the great art, I don't think the stories themselves were all that good. The first story, Lovesickness, started out intriguing with the unique concept where people follow this new trend where they stand on a street corner and wait for the first person to walk by and ask them to tell their fortune. Although the concept is unique in a book, it is also stupid. Even for high schoolers. Why would anyone ask the first random person who walks by you to tell your fortune.
Despite the stupidity of it, I was still initially hooked. However, as I kept going on, the story eventually became very repetitive and annoying. Some of the dialogues were also really cringey to read.
I did quite enjoy The Strange Hikizuri Siblings. A short story about a very creepy and dysfunctional family. Every sibling gave off an uneasy vibe, and watching each one of them unfold until they displayed their psychotic side had me on the edge. It was definitely entertaining.
But every other story was either boring or made no sense. Can someone explain that last one about poop? Because I was confused. And I don't think anyones deep dive explanation into this one is going to change my mind about how I feel about this one. But I'd be interested to see how someone else looked at it.
Let me start off by saying the art is beautiful. Even during the gruesome scenes, I was captivated by the illustrations.
Despite the great art, I don't think the stories themselves were all that good. The first story, Lovesickness, started out intriguing with the unique concept where people follow this new trend where they stand on a street corner and wait for the first person to walk by and ask them to tell their fortune. Although the concept is unique in a book, it is also stupid. Even for high schoolers. Why would anyone ask the first random person who walks by you to tell your fortune.
Despite the stupidity of it, I was still initially hooked. However, as I kept going on, the story eventually became very repetitive and annoying. Some of the dialogues were also really cringey to read.
I did quite enjoy The Strange Hikizuri Siblings. A short story about a very creepy and dysfunctional family. Every sibling gave off an uneasy vibe, and watching each one of them unfold until they displayed their psychotic side had me on the edge. It was definitely entertaining.
But every other story was either boring or made no sense. Can someone explain that last one about poop? Because I was confused. And I don't think anyones deep dive explanation into this one is going to change my mind about how I feel about this one. But I'd be interested to see how someone else looked at it.
May 19, 2022
rooting for the bad guy? ✔
September 22, 2021
I've been missing Junji Ito's work lately, and damn, this did NOT disappoint! Lovesickness is easily one of my favorites of his works that I've read so far.
The primary portion of the manga follows a multi-chapter story of a boy who moves back to his childhood town, only to find his past is haunting him through the spirit of a beautiful boy, targeting young girls at crossroads and leading them to drastic ends. This story was unsettling, disturbing, and altogether really enjoyable, with an ending I didn't quite see coming. In typical Junji Ito fashion, shit gets weird on more than one occasion and there is some violence and gore that might not be for everyone.
The latter portion of the manga follows a separate storyline of a very bizarre set of orphaned siblings who like to play pranks and mentally torture the people in their lives, and while I didn't enjoy this story as much as I did the Lovesickness plot, it was still fun, weird, and highly entertaining.
If you're a Junji Ito fan, I highly recommend grabbing a copy of Lovesickness as soon as you can, because you're not going to want to miss this one! If you're new to the author's works or horror manga, this would be a solid introduction to his bibliography or the genre as a whole.
✨ Content warnings for:
Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!
The primary portion of the manga follows a multi-chapter story of a boy who moves back to his childhood town, only to find his past is haunting him through the spirit of a beautiful boy, targeting young girls at crossroads and leading them to drastic ends. This story was unsettling, disturbing, and altogether really enjoyable, with an ending I didn't quite see coming. In typical Junji Ito fashion, shit gets weird on more than one occasion and there is some violence and gore that might not be for everyone.
The latter portion of the manga follows a separate storyline of a very bizarre set of orphaned siblings who like to play pranks and mentally torture the people in their lives, and while I didn't enjoy this story as much as I did the Lovesickness plot, it was still fun, weird, and highly entertaining.
If you're a Junji Ito fan, I highly recommend grabbing a copy of Lovesickness as soon as you can, because you're not going to want to miss this one! If you're new to the author's works or horror manga, this would be a solid introduction to his bibliography or the genre as a whole.
✨ Content warnings for:
Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!
April 15, 2021
Lovesickness is about a town obsessed with having its fortune told. The local lore is that you stand at an intersection and ask the first person you meet for your fortune. Now there's a Sandman looking teenage boy who is telling fortunes that go horrible wrong. Junji Ito's stories have a lot of similarities to one another. They are a lot about people's obsessions and descent into madness. Most of the horror comes from watching characters waste away into shells of their former selves.
The book contains a few other unrelated horror short stories as well in the second half.
Received a review copy from Viz and Edelweiss. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.
The book contains a few other unrelated horror short stories as well in the second half.
Received a review copy from Viz and Edelweiss. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.
April 27, 2021
Ratings for individual sections/stories:
Lovesickness: 4*
The Strange Hikizuri Siblings: 2.5*
The Mansion of Phantom Pain: 3.5*
The Rib Woman: 3*
Memories of Real Poop: 1*
2.8* rounded up to 3*
Overall pretty enjoyable, though I’m a little disappointed that it was just downhill after such a great start. Genuinely baffled by the decision to end on such a worthless story though.
Lovesickness: 4*
The Strange Hikizuri Siblings: 2.5*
The Mansion of Phantom Pain: 3.5*
The Rib Woman: 3*
Memories of Real Poop: 1*
2.8* rounded up to 3*
Overall pretty enjoyable, though I’m a little disappointed that it was just downhill after such a great start. Genuinely baffled by the decision to end on such a worthless story though.
October 3, 2021
Most people who read my reviews aren't aficionados of horror manga and I'm hoping to convert some of you to the unique and compulsively creepy world of Junji Ito, and to convince you to give his work a try.
Ito's stories always center on a strange compulsion that takes over one person, and then a whole lot of people at once: be it an obsession with spiral shapes ("Uzumaki"), or an obsession with the cracks in the side of a mountain ("The Enigma of Amigara Fault") or, in this latest collection "Lovesickness," an obsession with following a stranger's cryptic love advice to the most horrific and self-destructive outcomes possible.
There is always a feeling of eerie dread in Ito's stories. Sometimes the feeling builds to some shocking revelation when you turn a page, but soon the shock will be followed by a panel or scene that's almost-hopeful. In the way of the best eerie stories the moods shift under your feet and you never know what to expect next.
Like Ito's story "Uzumaki"--which I'm guessing is the most widely known in the English-speaking world of Ito's works--"Lovesickness" anchors its many-faceted story by returning frequently to the story of a young couple who seem braver and better than the other characters, and who give hope, to the reader, that maybe not all is lost. It's a lovely human way to tell a supernatural story even if you know from the beginning that, being a horror manga, the heroes are also doomed in the end.
No review would be complete without mentioning the art--so effective and evocative here, as always, with Ito's style, where panels of inchoate lines representing fog and shadow add beats and suspense between the action and dialogue, in such a perfectly paced way. I also love the artfully big letters of sound-words, sprawled across a given panel, for the way they add an onomatopoeic representation of very creepy noises in your mind's ear, as you read along. It's a wonderful and unique reading experience. Many thanks to VIZ media for giving me an early look of this latest Ito collection.
Ito's stories always center on a strange compulsion that takes over one person, and then a whole lot of people at once: be it an obsession with spiral shapes ("Uzumaki"), or an obsession with the cracks in the side of a mountain ("The Enigma of Amigara Fault") or, in this latest collection "Lovesickness," an obsession with following a stranger's cryptic love advice to the most horrific and self-destructive outcomes possible.
There is always a feeling of eerie dread in Ito's stories. Sometimes the feeling builds to some shocking revelation when you turn a page, but soon the shock will be followed by a panel or scene that's almost-hopeful. In the way of the best eerie stories the moods shift under your feet and you never know what to expect next.
Like Ito's story "Uzumaki"--which I'm guessing is the most widely known in the English-speaking world of Ito's works--"Lovesickness" anchors its many-faceted story by returning frequently to the story of a young couple who seem braver and better than the other characters, and who give hope, to the reader, that maybe not all is lost. It's a lovely human way to tell a supernatural story even if you know from the beginning that, being a horror manga, the heroes are also doomed in the end.
No review would be complete without mentioning the art--so effective and evocative here, as always, with Ito's style, where panels of inchoate lines representing fog and shadow add beats and suspense between the action and dialogue, in such a perfectly paced way. I also love the artfully big letters of sound-words, sprawled across a given panel, for the way they add an onomatopoeic representation of very creepy noises in your mind's ear, as you read along. It's a wonderful and unique reading experience. Many thanks to VIZ media for giving me an early look of this latest Ito collection.
June 1, 2021
Another creepy Junji Ito collection, taking aim this time at suicide, phantom pain, and body image. The usual body horror is present, but nothing that really gripped or repelled too much. Overall the characters were too generic, bland, detached, and prone to unreasonable decisions for me to care about the mental and physical torture to which Ito subjects them.
The opening stories are part of a five-part arc called "Lovesickness" about a fortune telling tradition in a little Japanese town that goes incredibly awry. The next two tales are about "The Strange Hikizuri Siblings," a weird and off-putting family of nasty and spiteful orphans. The book is filled out with three random short stories.
The opening stories are part of a five-part arc called "Lovesickness" about a fortune telling tradition in a little Japanese town that goes incredibly awry. The next two tales are about "The Strange Hikizuri Siblings," a weird and off-putting family of nasty and spiteful orphans. The book is filled out with three random short stories.
July 8, 2025
i very much enjoyed this one! the lovesickness stories were solid writing and illustrations, like wow some of the panels were completely horrifying in their depiction. the girls an their descent into madness, mixed with the suicides and haunting visuals. it was a great read. and i always enjoy a dysfunctional family that are absolutely insane and unhinged LOL
May 26, 2021
He is just the best when it comes to horror. 🖤
December 31, 2022
Junji Ito has got to be my favourite horror person. Everything he creates is so cryptic and interesting, with concepts wild enough to snag my attention without much effort. As expected, this story collection marks another of Ito’s works I adored.
My sister bought me Lovesickness for Christmas, making this the first time I’ve read something by Ito completely oblivious to it is premise. I honestly think that added to my enjoyment!
Lovesickness takes place in a town obsessed with fortune-telling, where citizens ask strangers at the crossroads what their fate will be. When a mysterious boy begins possessing these fortune-seekers, eventually driving them to suicide, a high school student takes it upon himself to uncover the growing mystery behind the phenomenon sending his small town into chaos.
The entire atmosphere of the main story is what really held me; it was eerie and unsettling in a very subtle way, with brief bursts of that in-your-face horror some people love. I really enjoyed the main character and his crush as they tried piecing together the clues behind the boy at the crossroads (competent horror leads are the best!!)
My only complaint is that some of my questions are still left unanswered. Open ends can be fun in this genre, but I’m still so curious about a lot that was left ambiguous!
The other short stories after Lovesickness were pretty entertaining as well. ‘The Strange Hikizuri Siblings’ was incredibly creepy solely due to the character designs, and ‘The Mansion of Phantom Pain’ had an awesome concept where characters where less important. Another great story collection! I honestly love anything Junji Ito touches.
My sister bought me Lovesickness for Christmas, making this the first time I’ve read something by Ito completely oblivious to it is premise. I honestly think that added to my enjoyment!
Lovesickness takes place in a town obsessed with fortune-telling, where citizens ask strangers at the crossroads what their fate will be. When a mysterious boy begins possessing these fortune-seekers, eventually driving them to suicide, a high school student takes it upon himself to uncover the growing mystery behind the phenomenon sending his small town into chaos.
The entire atmosphere of the main story is what really held me; it was eerie and unsettling in a very subtle way, with brief bursts of that in-your-face horror some people love. I really enjoyed the main character and his crush as they tried piecing together the clues behind the boy at the crossroads (competent horror leads are the best!!)
My only complaint is that some of my questions are still left unanswered. Open ends can be fun in this genre, but I’m still so curious about a lot that was left ambiguous!
The other short stories after Lovesickness were pretty entertaining as well. ‘The Strange Hikizuri Siblings’ was incredibly creepy solely due to the character designs, and ‘The Mansion of Phantom Pain’ had an awesome concept where characters where less important. Another great story collection! I honestly love anything Junji Ito touches.
December 29, 2022
I loved so much this book that now I want a physical version of it... However I have to save money first.
April 7, 2021
The first half of Lovesickness is the five-story cycle, also known as ‘Lovesick Dead’, that gives this collection its title. In ‘The Beautiful Boy at the Crossroads’, teen Ryusuke and his family move back to their hometown of Nazumi, where the ‘crossroads fortune’ is a popular pastime: a person stands at a crossroads and asks the first stranger that passes to tell their fortune (usually, what they actually want is an answer to a question about their love life). Ryusuke is haunted by a childhood incident in which he dismissed a woman seeking her fortune; he believes that by doing so he inadvertently caused her suicide. Following Ryusuke’s return, many fortune-seekers encounter a mysterious figure – the ‘beautiful boy’ of the title – whose answers are always cruel, and a new wave of suicides begins.
The story progresses through ‘A Woman in Distress’, ‘Shadow’ and ‘Screams in the Night’; Ryusuke, sometimes joined by his would-be girlfriend Midori and friend Tejima, attempts to identify the ‘beautiful boy’, and is eventually suspected of telling the fateful fortunes himself. He doesn’t appear in ‘The Boy in White’, which is instead narrated by a man who comes to the city having heard rumours of its multiple suicides.
As much as I enjoy Junji Ito, and will keep reading these collections as they get translated, I never quite get used to just how abrupt some of the stories’ endings are. ‘Lovesickness’ is especially galling in this respect, as it spends a whole multi-story arc creating a detailed and intriguing world, only for much of that to be waved away with what’s effectively a deus ex machina. Several elements of the plot get no payoff whatsoever. I liked it, and the illustrations are, of course, great, but it’s not satisfying, nor is it the author’s most innovative work.
Two standalone stories, ‘The Mansion of Phantom Pain’ and ‘The Rib Woman’, are the high point of the book. The latter – about a girl who has ribs removed to achieve a perfect waistline, only to find herself haunted by plaintive music – is particularly gripping and creepy. It also does a wonderful job of bringing together seemingly unrelated phenomena in dramatic, terrifying style.
There’s also a pair of manga about ‘the strange Hikizuri siblings’ – ‘Narumi’s Boyfriend’ and ‘The Séance’ – which have to rank among my least favourites of all the Ito I’ve read; this type of humour either works for you or really doesn’t, and I’m in the latter camp. (The loose ends left by ‘The Séance’ led me to assume there are further Hikizuri tales, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, making this another case of an oddly inconclusive ending.)
Finally, there’s ‘Memories of Real Poop’ (yes, really – also known as ‘A Shit to Remember’, which is a much better title, come on!), and it’s one of those short slice-of-life stories that sometimes make their way into these collections; a (possibly autobiographical?) account of a boy obsessing over buying fake plastic shit.
Taken together, the stories in Lovesickness don’t fit particularly well as a collection. It’s hard to avoid the feeling that the guiding principle was, ‘hmmm, ‘Lovesickness’ is a bit short to publish by itself, what else can we cobble together to make this a full book?’ I enjoyed it, but I stand by my previous recommendations of Shiver and the complete Tomie as better places to start for Ito newbies.
I received an advance review copy of Lovesickness from the publisher through NetGalley.
TinyLetter | Linktree
The story progresses through ‘A Woman in Distress’, ‘Shadow’ and ‘Screams in the Night’; Ryusuke, sometimes joined by his would-be girlfriend Midori and friend Tejima, attempts to identify the ‘beautiful boy’, and is eventually suspected of telling the fateful fortunes himself. He doesn’t appear in ‘The Boy in White’, which is instead narrated by a man who comes to the city having heard rumours of its multiple suicides.
As much as I enjoy Junji Ito, and will keep reading these collections as they get translated, I never quite get used to just how abrupt some of the stories’ endings are. ‘Lovesickness’ is especially galling in this respect, as it spends a whole multi-story arc creating a detailed and intriguing world, only for much of that to be waved away with what’s effectively a deus ex machina. Several elements of the plot get no payoff whatsoever. I liked it, and the illustrations are, of course, great, but it’s not satisfying, nor is it the author’s most innovative work.
Two standalone stories, ‘The Mansion of Phantom Pain’ and ‘The Rib Woman’, are the high point of the book. The latter – about a girl who has ribs removed to achieve a perfect waistline, only to find herself haunted by plaintive music – is particularly gripping and creepy. It also does a wonderful job of bringing together seemingly unrelated phenomena in dramatic, terrifying style.
There’s also a pair of manga about ‘the strange Hikizuri siblings’ – ‘Narumi’s Boyfriend’ and ‘The Séance’ – which have to rank among my least favourites of all the Ito I’ve read; this type of humour either works for you or really doesn’t, and I’m in the latter camp. (The loose ends left by ‘The Séance’ led me to assume there are further Hikizuri tales, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, making this another case of an oddly inconclusive ending.)
Finally, there’s ‘Memories of Real Poop’ (yes, really – also known as ‘A Shit to Remember’, which is a much better title, come on!), and it’s one of those short slice-of-life stories that sometimes make their way into these collections; a (possibly autobiographical?) account of a boy obsessing over buying fake plastic shit.
Taken together, the stories in Lovesickness don’t fit particularly well as a collection. It’s hard to avoid the feeling that the guiding principle was, ‘hmmm, ‘Lovesickness’ is a bit short to publish by itself, what else can we cobble together to make this a full book?’ I enjoyed it, but I stand by my previous recommendations of Shiver and the complete Tomie as better places to start for Ito newbies.
I received an advance review copy of Lovesickness from the publisher through NetGalley.
TinyLetter | Linktree
April 30, 2021
I love Junji Ito, in case you haven't been following along, and having any complaints about getting hardcover editions as nice as the ones from Viz feels a little like the very definition of looking a gift horse in the mouth but also the decisions that Viz keeps making about what, exactly, the bring out remain frequently perplexing.
Like Ito's Frankenstein, the lion's share of this volume is given over to one multi-part story, in this case the eponymous "Lovesickness," which I originally read under its alternate title "Lovesick Dead." It's a solid bit of Ito that reads a lot like a flip of his Tomie script, in more ways than one, and makes good use of lots of fog, which Ito draws better than maybe anybody. There are a couple of backup stories that are also fine, alongside weirdo inclusions like the two-part "Strange Hikizuri Siblings" story (that are reminiscent of the much better Soichi stories) and the presumably semi-autobiographical "Memories of Real Poop."
Just translate Mimi's Ghost Stories already, you cowards!
Like Ito's Frankenstein, the lion's share of this volume is given over to one multi-part story, in this case the eponymous "Lovesickness," which I originally read under its alternate title "Lovesick Dead." It's a solid bit of Ito that reads a lot like a flip of his Tomie script, in more ways than one, and makes good use of lots of fog, which Ito draws better than maybe anybody. There are a couple of backup stories that are also fine, alongside weirdo inclusions like the two-part "Strange Hikizuri Siblings" story (that are reminiscent of the much better Soichi stories) and the presumably semi-autobiographical "Memories of Real Poop."
Just translate Mimi's Ghost Stories already, you cowards!
September 28, 2023
Junji Ito is easily my favorite Horror manga writer ever, and so this summer I decided I would go through a lot of his works and enjoy them! Lovesickeness is a collection of stories that are both spooky and beautifully grotesque to read. A lot of these stories really stick with you after you’ve read them, and it makes you wonder…what if this was all real?
I really enjoyed the idea behind The Mansion of Phantom Pain, and I was creeped out by The Rib Woman. Funny enough, The Beautiful Boy at the Crossroads just made me want to try and find him myself, as if he were real.
Junji Ito is a master artist. In one panel he can show you the most disgusting, gory images that will stick in your brain for years, and in the next panel have a gorgeous, beautiful landscape that would easily belong in a museum alone. What he doesn’t actually say or describe in written text, he does easily enough through his artwork. His style of horror artwork is always shocking, sometimes hard to even look at…but that’s what makes it powerful.
Like all of his works, I just can’t get enough. Whenever a Junji Ito comes out, I will always be there to read it! He is such a wonderful artist and I love gaining access to what’s inside his head through this stories!
I really enjoyed the idea behind The Mansion of Phantom Pain, and I was creeped out by The Rib Woman. Funny enough, The Beautiful Boy at the Crossroads just made me want to try and find him myself, as if he were real.
Junji Ito is a master artist. In one panel he can show you the most disgusting, gory images that will stick in your brain for years, and in the next panel have a gorgeous, beautiful landscape that would easily belong in a museum alone. What he doesn’t actually say or describe in written text, he does easily enough through his artwork. His style of horror artwork is always shocking, sometimes hard to even look at…but that’s what makes it powerful.
Like all of his works, I just can’t get enough. Whenever a Junji Ito comes out, I will always be there to read it! He is such a wonderful artist and I love gaining access to what’s inside his head through this stories!
May 29, 2021
A superb collection of Ito stories.
The titular “Lovesickness” shows Ito in top form. Clever, atmospheric, and beautifully creepy, “Lovesickness” highlights Ito’s conceptual genius, his ability to squeeze seemingly endless permutations of horror from a single concept. The flavor is reminiscent of the best eerie tales of Algernon Blackwood, only in graphic form. The other stories are mostly quite good too. “The Strange Hikizuri Siblings” is a darkly humorous tale of a weird family. “The Mansion of Phantom Pain” is another example of Ito’s conceptual brilliance, with a starkly brutal ending.
The titular “Lovesickness” shows Ito in top form. Clever, atmospheric, and beautifully creepy, “Lovesickness” highlights Ito’s conceptual genius, his ability to squeeze seemingly endless permutations of horror from a single concept. The flavor is reminiscent of the best eerie tales of Algernon Blackwood, only in graphic form. The other stories are mostly quite good too. “The Strange Hikizuri Siblings” is a darkly humorous tale of a weird family. “The Mansion of Phantom Pain” is another example of Ito’s conceptual brilliance, with a starkly brutal ending.
April 12, 2023
What starts as an innocent game of fortune telling by the crossroads takes a turn for the horrific when an evil entity disguised as a bewitchingly handsome boy begins telling cursed fortunes that lead people to unfortunate dooms. Ryusuke returns to the town where this phenomena began only to discover that it's gotten even worse than when he was a child. By entering the strange underworld of mystical fortune telling, can he make up for the sins of his past or will he inadvertently make the situation even worse?
Lovesickness is quite a mixed bag. I think the concept of "lovesickness" being a literal type of transmitted disease that drives young girls violently insane with lustful obsession is fascinating. The way a seemingly innocent phenomenon is turned into a real horrific series of grotesque tragedies reminds me a lot of Ito's best horror manga Uzumaki; which made something as innocent as the shapes of spirals driving people insane and warping reality into repulsive abominations. While the premise and concept are very cool and similar to that of Uzumaki, I don't think the execution is nearly as good. It feels like a diet version of Uzumaki with less interesting set pieces, less scary horror elements and a far less satisfying conclusion. I liked it and it had a few good disturbing moments, but I don't think the ending met the expectations of the slow buildup.
The short stories included with Lovesickness were also a mixed bag. I think the story about a group of twisted siblings trying to make contact with the spirits of their dead parents was pretty neat, but all of the other ones were quite forgettable in my opinion.
A good book by Ito, but not one of my favorites.
My rating: 3.0/5
Lovesickness is quite a mixed bag. I think the concept of "lovesickness" being a literal type of transmitted disease that drives young girls violently insane with lustful obsession is fascinating. The way a seemingly innocent phenomenon is turned into a real horrific series of grotesque tragedies reminds me a lot of Ito's best horror manga Uzumaki; which made something as innocent as the shapes of spirals driving people insane and warping reality into repulsive abominations. While the premise and concept are very cool and similar to that of Uzumaki, I don't think the execution is nearly as good. It feels like a diet version of Uzumaki with less interesting set pieces, less scary horror elements and a far less satisfying conclusion. I liked it and it had a few good disturbing moments, but I don't think the ending met the expectations of the slow buildup.
The short stories included with Lovesickness were also a mixed bag. I think the story about a group of twisted siblings trying to make contact with the spirits of their dead parents was pretty neat, but all of the other ones were quite forgettable in my opinion.
A good book by Ito, but not one of my favorites.
My rating: 3.0/5
August 22, 2021
After reading this I now fully understand the Junji Ito hype, because this was creepy as heck, y'all. The art has so much depth and he is able to transition to just bonkers intense horrifying scenes and concepts after filling you with dread (see Alexander's excellent review for examples of the art). The main storyline is ostensible about fortune telling and creepy mysterious charismatic identity confusion, but the themes of grief, secrets, letting others pick your destiny, and the effort it takes to fight against callousness and evil are really powerful. The other short stories included are more disturbing than creepy but round out a very good horror collection.
**Thanks to the artist, publisher, and NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
**Thanks to the artist, publisher, and NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
April 7, 2024
The title story arc Lovesickness is definitely worth reading but the second half of this collection left a lot to be desired for me.
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