Halloween is always in season, and what better way to celebrate the holidays of spooks and ghouls than with a review of a Junji Ito manga? The horror manga master is published in the west by esteemed publisher Viz, who recently released another work of Ito’s, No Longer Human, in December 2019. But first  — let’s take a look at his latest selection of scary stories: Smashed. 

Plot and Stories

Ito’s newest short story collection features a variety of disturbing, creepy, and oddly funny tales. You’ll be entertained by how he’s able to craft stories that go beyond his normal wheelhouse of unsettling plot lines, oddball characters, and nightmarish imagery. Here are the stories you’ll be encountering in this anthology: 

Bloodsucking Darkness follows a young woman desperate to lose weight after being dumped. She meets a classmate who offers to help her — with his bats, and at a bloody price, of course. 

In Ghosts of Prime Time, a man tries stopping two popular comedians from using their sinister powers to take over television by making people laugh uncontrollably. 

For a more dramatic story, you can check out Roar, which is about these two hikers who encounter a weird phenomenon where a group of people are swept away by a flood, this moment being captured on a loop.

Earthbound tells the story of Asano, a young woman moving from place to place who volunteers her time to help people who have suddenly become stuck in place.

In Death Row Doorbell, Noriko and her brother are victims of an attack that left their mother catatonic and their little brother and father dead. They’re slowly driven mad by a phantom of the perpetrator, who appears and begs them for forgiveness every night. 

It isn’t a horror manga without a haunted house, as a young boy and his friend find out in The Mystery of the Haunted House. The two children investigate a mysterious carnival that’s come to their town and are invited by a tall, lanky man into a haunted house. 

Junji Ito’s recurring character Soichi makes two appearances: one in a subsequent version of the haunted house tale (see above) and another in Soichi’s Pet Cat, where he makes some creepy modifications to his family’s new feline. 

In Mirror Valley takes us to distant forest valley where a group of travelers find a kaleidoscope that shows them visions of an angry mob and shattered glass. Things get spookier when the group starts hearing a strange sound in the air.

I Don’t Want To Be a Ghost tells us the story of a young man who rescues a mysterious girl on the road. He slowly realizes there’s more to her than it seems thanks to her deadly appetite for spirits. 

Ever feel overcome with compulsion? Library Vision follows a young wife and her husband, Goro, who is obsessed with keeping every book in his library intact. Things start changing when he loses one of them, however. 

If you hate listening to catchy songs played over and over, then you’ll definitely sympathize with the characters in Splendid Shadow Song. Witness a deceased man’s song infecting the brain of his ex-girlfriend and the general public. 

Lastly, the title piece Smashed ends things with a cautionary tale of chasing your pleasures. A group of people learn the hard way that anything delicious comes with a price.

Comments

Fans of Junji Ito are no doubt going to enjoy Smashed because of the impact and diversity of the selection of stories. I Don’t Want to Be a Ghost and Bloodsucking Darkness are pretty scary stories in their own right because of their shocking endings and horrific gory detail. They kept me up late at night after reading them. Be warned, as both tales use a lot of pretty gross concepts. Then you have a story like The Mystery of the Haunted House, which features a variety of scenes with ghouls and monsters. It feels like Ito paying homage to all the iconic movie monsters out there.

There are other stories in the collection that are commentaries about the human condition and everyday life. Using its own brand of dark humor, Ghosts of Prime Time pokes fun at the nature of comedy and the power televised media has on society. Meanwhile, Splendid Shadow Song turns something ordinary as a person liking a catchy song into a brilliant horror story that turns the concept against the reader. It reminds me of what Ito did with spirals in Uzumaki. 

Overall, there’s a nice mix of horror stories based on Ito’s artwork and devious premises alone. He adds in his own twisted sense of humor in some stories that are pretty funny if you look past the terrifying things being done to his characters. Junji Ito knows how to illustrate the fears and failures of people well and this skill is impressively demonstrated in the stories presented. 

Final Thoughts

Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection will make a nice read if you want a good book to keep the Halloween spirit and spook you all night ong. Junji Ito fans will be satisfied with the final product and the short stories selected. You might wanna keep your nightlight on after this one, though. Just to be safe.