This is a story found in one of Ito’s earlier short story collections, known as the Slug Girl Collection (named after one of the book’s stories).

So! GITS-SAC_2045 ain't so great. It's okay, but it's too silly to reach the heights that the original Stand Alone Complex did. I blame two things here. Osamu Dazai’s name is often mentioned in the same breath as those of other 20th Century Japanese writers like Yasunari Kawabata, Kenzaburo Oe, and Junichiro Tanizaki.Then he watched The Exorcist and felt deflated because the filmmakers had done it before he had the chance to. Junji Ito’s Cat Diary is unique within his body of work for several reasons. First: it’s a piece of narrative nonfiction. Or perhaps autofiction is a better term? Or, as the name outright states, a diary. Dazai’s influence on Ito is apparent not only through the very existence of this manga adaptation, but also for the fact that Tomie Yamazaki — a woman with whom Dazai famously ran away from his wife and family, and who later committed suicide by drowning alongside Dazai — shares her name with Ito’s first manga publication.

What you’re getting here is the best of both worlds: Dazai’s original story with new life breathed into it through the art of Junji Ito. Junji Ito Manga Short Stories I can't help but feel for Yozo. As a kid, he had an uneasy, pessimistic streak that he tried to hide under a buffoonish exterior, a mask that he soon regarded as tiresome but which he felt he can never take off. The abuse he suffered from lecherous servants must have cemented in his mind how untrustworthy and scary people generally are. Eventually the narrative is reduced to hallucinations and an extended dream sequence as Oba becomes increasingly unhinged. Ito followed up on Shiverwith Smashedand, unfortunately, none of the stories in Smashedcan be found here because they simply don’t measure up to the quality of imagination on display in Shiver.When asked why, most of them plead, in a pathetic mumble, for the enquirer to leave them alone. But a charity has also been set up to provide them with comfort, food, and water; all of which the “earthbound” (or simply “bound”) choose to ignore. Ito shows a little self-restraint here when it comes to his monstrous depictions of horror, but his unique style still shines through.

This creature has simply washed up on the shore one day, and people wonder what it is; where it came from; how it came to even exist. It’s a story that truly sparks the imagination. I haven’t talked about this much so far but it’s Ito’s ability to draw the human form in distorted, monstrous, broken ways that really makes him stand tall as a master of horror.While his stories of terror share much in common with Lovecraft, Umezu, and even writers like Kobo Abe and Stephen King, it’s Ito’s distinct ability to bring what he imagines to life in staggering, chilling detail. Once again I am convinced that Mr. Ito has been drawing his home life all along through his career... These rituals and behaviours begin to make a kind of sense as secrets surrounding the principal and his wife come to light. For fans of Dazai, or newcomers to the narrative, Junji Ito’s No Longer Human is a truly engaging and unnerving experience. uniqueness 6.5/10 (Average Zombie plot, Humans bad or something, Level up stuff and somehow semi-cultivation)

Ito takes that Lovecraftian approach to the wide open unknown and runs with it in this story. The Thing That Drifted Ashore presents us with an enormous, impossible, strange creature. Derived from a web manga published by K Contents and seralized online via YouTube with voiced narration and dialogue since March 2019, this is what I can call: the dark side of the web, and seemingly so, because this show is the definition of edutainment. Sprinkling in real-life events, locations and the like in tandem with Satake's situation of finding out who is the mastermind behind this murder case that he obviously did not commit, takes a bunch of truth and facts that it just feels satisfyingly undeniable. In fact, I will go so far as to say that despite studio DLE's choppy Flash animation-like prowess (because the studio DID start off as one) in the veins of one of my favorite anime of all time (Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-san), it looks out of place and bad, but I assure you that please do not define a show by its animation, when the plot itself is so interesting and has many twists and turns that when you come around to realize it, it has already taken into effect of its own case study. This is another story found in Shiver. I should mention that one of the cool things about Shiver (as is common with many manga tankobon) is the inclusion of little notes and anecdotes from the author. They’re often about what inspired the story to begin with. This town is affected by a curse involving the symbol of a spiral. It’s a story that plays on the impact that symbols have in both modern and ancient societies, especially in Japan.

However, in spite of that, Honoured Ancestors still stands tall as one of Ito’s coolest concepts for a horror manga short story. Almost all of these Junji Ito manga short stories can be read in his magnum opus Shiver, a collection of Ito stories that is near perfect. Another reason that Junji Ito’s Cat Diary is so unique is that it is one of the most unique uses of Ito’s own imagination and approach to horror art. Uzumaki follows a young couple — Kirie and Shuichi — as they witness other townspeople fall victim to the curse of the spiral.