I'm a huge fan of Junji Ito's works and this one didn't disappoint. His art-style is great at mixing beauty and horror. If you love creepy stories and don't mind grotesque images, this is a great read!

Highly unsettling rad, Ito is a master of the genre and I need to venture deeper into his catalogue. Highly recommended.

Overall I found these stories and artwork to be really creepy. This book is not for everyone. Some of these stories will keep you up at night. The book is a quick read. Fans of Junji Ito will enjoy it

Juni Ito is a fantastic artist, and a lot of these stories only succeed on the strength of his imagery. Unfortunately, more often than not, he doesn't quite stick the landing when it comes to storytelling. The most well-known story in this collection, The Enigma of Amigara Fault, is so iconic that it was turned into a meme, but its final image is absurd and laughable in a way that punctures the tension. Overall these stories are a mixed bag; the title story is another standout, and The Human Chair was generally creepy if absurd, but the long autobiographical story about Ito's love for the work of Kazuo Umezz overstayed its welcome.

Overall, this was a solid collection with several standout stories. This is well worth adding to anyone's collection.

It's another Junji Ito horror collection. You can't really go wrong! While not every story is a hit, there's still enough creepy, surreal, and grotesque tales and art to keep you engaged. As with any short story collection, there are a few forgettable tales, but overall it's a solid book. Definitely worth adding to your Ito collection.

I was interested in previewing this title to see if it would be appropriate for my library's ya collection. There is too much horrifying imagery and I do not believe it would be appropriate for ya.

As is often the case with short stories, they are hit and miss. This collection, is no different. There are some that are truly spectacular and some that were just, meh. I think anyone who is into horror should give this a read. Keep in mind this is manga, so while the book from top to bottom (it was a pdf on the Net Galley Shelf) each page reads right to left.

The Human Chair was by far my favorite. Totally creepy and perfectly paced.

Thanks to Net Galley and Viz media.

A great collection of short stories by a modern master of horror, Venus In The Blind Spot did exactly what you expect it to - shock and disturb. It's no secret that Junji Ito is a master of horror, a must-read for horror fans. I don't want to say much to spoil it, but if you're interested in visual horror, or haven't tried it before and would like to give it a try, this is a great place to start. The short stories are a good format as opposed to committing to a full novel.

This was classic Junji Ito. It had a blend of I believe old and new to me material. I had read several of them, but I always enjoy reading his works. The Enigma of Amigara Fault is one of my favorites and always look forward to seeing it again. The ones I hadn't read before were interesting and in line with what I expected. He always has interesting and twisted stories. This had some gross ones, but that is par for the course with Ito. It was a pleasant way to pass the time.

I like Junji Ito and I liked this collection. I thought the color additions were nice, though I would have liked to see more of the color work throughout. Like Fragments, this is a collection of horror short fiction selections put together in one book. It's about the same length as Fragments and much less of a time commitment than Uzumaki or Tomie.

This collection definitely fits as a great taster book for libraries looking to see if patrons will go for his works. It might not appease die hard fans as most of the stories are available in other collections. Still, even after reading many of his works, there were some present here (like his mini biographical story) that were new to me.

Something that Junji Ito does very well and carries on in this collection is look to the past authors who inspired him. He draws from horror and pop culture mangaka and other media creators. Featuring adaptions from Edogawa Ranpo (Tiro Hirai), a famous horror writer in Japan with limited international exposure/translations, the author shines a light on his heroes and inspirations while also allowing their stories to speak for themselves. He gives credit where it is due and, in his sincere way, shows his gratitude through adaptation. He also highlights the interconnection between the Western and Eastern literature and comics cross-pollination across time from Edgar Allan Poe to himself today.

I've read all of this author's other works and this was average. I am not a huge manga fan, to begin with. But this did have an interesting story related to the artist's influences, and his love for the art. This also included a story I had already read in another collection. Some of the stories were just kinda weird. I get it it's a different culture but still, the tongue one and the human chair were a bit much.

This is a collection of Junji Ito's shorter works, and each one packs a punch. The standouts (as mentioned in the blurb for this title, even) are "Human Chair", as creepy as it sounds, and "The Enigma of Amigara Fault". This last will stay with you to the point that you may as well write it down somewhere, because you'll go need to go back to it, worrying it like a scab, to make sure it's not as creepy as you remember. But it is. The feeling here is deja vu nightmare, and for those who enjoy terror that lingers, this book is a winner.

Junji Ito is having a moment. While long considered a household name for horror manga in Japan, the last few years have seen a new push to bring him to the forefront of North American anime fandom. Viz has done an incredible job bringing his books stateside and featuring him in video content (he seems like a great sport) while Crunchyroll has offered fashion and merch related to his stories. Now, my penchant for horror is hardly unknown at this point and I've bought all of his releases currently available in print (and at least three t-shirts). I've enjoyed, at varying levels, all of his manga works and was likewise one of the most disappointed by that anime adaptation a few years back.

Suffice to say, I'm a fan. Ito's manga regularly blends the comically absurd with unsettling horror but all of his stories have a through line of picking up on particularly common anxieties and blowing them up. At least I assume they're common; otherwise I'm just coincidentally easy mark for the topics Ito likes to focus on in his stories. Venus in the Blindspot runs the gamut of anxiety-inducing dread but many of the 10 tales within also focus on women and some of the unique struggles they face in society. This first becomes evident in "The Human Chair", a tried and true favorite by quintessential Japanese mystery author Edogawa Ranpo. The story has been adapted multiple times with variations on the theme; for example, Rampo Kitan: Game of Laplace opens with this story and exchanges the concept of a person inside a chair with chairs made of human body parts. This change in detail defeated what makes the original story so unsettling, and I'm glad to see Ito mostly stick with the original plot beats here even if his original, secondary twist at the end falls a bit flat.

In "The Human Chair", a female author begins receiving letters from an anonymous writer that initially appears to be a story draft until the details start to closely mirror the author's actual life. Her new penpal claims to be a fan of her work and she slowly begins to realize he's much closer to her than she thinks. Ultimately, "The Human Chair" could be considered a variation of "the calls are coming from inside the house" as the author becomes convinced that somehow there's a man living inside her large, plush office chair. This is, of course, alarming to her as it would mean a hitherto unimaginable violation of her privacy. She pleads with her husband to get rid of the chair and insists there is a man inside. He ignores her requests as nothing more than her imagination as if she's in a fit of hysterics.

Despite having a predictable ending, Ito's highly detailed and visceral style made the man-shaped indentation, complete with opened cans of food, disturbingly striking. Ito has a way of framing his page layouts so that just the right frames shock the reader the same way a horrifying revelation might in a movie.

I've read the original Rampo story, which is told from the perspective of the man in the chair instead of the woman like in Ito's version. This offers a completely different mood than the original which, while startling, still attempted to get readers to understand the man in the chair. Like many of Rampo's stories, there is an overtly sexual element and Ito's version casts the unwilling participant as the main character. However, his unique "twist" at the end undid much of the satisfaction I got from the story.

His second adaptation of Ranpo's oeuvre is less effective, focusing on the new wife in the Kadono clan, Kyoko. Through an arranged marriage, Kyoko is married to the slight and handsome Kadono. He by all appearances (and words) loves her dearly, yet for unknown reasons sneaks into a storeroom every night. His health appears to be waning and Kyoko, suspecting an affair, follows him on one of his outings where she learns that the object of his affections is an immaculate doll.

Rampo had at least three stories centering on the concept of doll love, including "Unearthly Love" that is included in Ito's collection. The story itself feels less like horror and more like a strange tragedy (with some excellent face renditions here by Ito). "Perversion" was a regular subject of Rampo's stories and while "The Human Chair" centers on a feeling of violation, "Unearthly Love" focuses on a sense of betrayal as Kyoko learns that her husband's amourous confessions are only to satiate her while he has trysts with the female doll. She has in fact discovered that she is Kadono's "beard" and the similarities and framing of her discovering her husband with a doll versus a male lover were likely intentional on Rampo's part, as homoeroticism was another common theme in his stories although the author regarded it positively. Ultimately, the story is not so much frightening as it is tragic, especially when taking its ending into consideration.

The titular story "Venus in the Blindspot" is one of the most effective as it grapples with an overbearing father and his desire to control his adult daughter and the terrible consequence of idolization. Mariko is a central figure in the UFO society where she and her like-minded male friends meet and discuss aliens while seeking out evidence of the truth. Her father founded the hobby group but it quickly becomes apparent that most of the members are more interested in potentially romancing Mariko than respecting her input on the topic. It's around this time that the members notice that they can no longer see Mariko: she starts to fade from view whenever she approaches them. This phenomenon causes mass hysteria in the group as the men become convinced they were subjected to an alien abduction and find scars hidden in their hair that suggests they were experimented on.

Of course the conclusion is more terrarian than otherworldly and the story suggests Mariko's Venusian looks, whether visible or not, drive men to madness. Her experience has more than a casual similarity to idol culture and its most fervent fans. The club members grow violent in their self-proclaimed right to possess Mariko while her father's actions remove her agency from the story further. She is never given the opportunity to decide for herself what she wants romantically and meets a sorrowful end due to the club's own misogyny.

Subsequent chapters are less effective, with the weakest being "How Love Came to Professor Kirida," a story about the obsessive love of women that transcend death to terrorize the men that rebuffed them. Similarly, "Keepsake" also features a man haunted beyond the grave after an eerie child is found born from the corpse of his dead wife. "Master Umezz and Me" is a humorous autobiographical chapter about Junji Ito and his childhood and later work intersecting with his favorite horror manga creator, Kazuo Umezz (Kazuo Umezu), the creator of The Drifting Classroom and Cat Eyed Boy. The opening chapter "Billions Alone" feels exceptionally relevant given the current times but would function exponentially better as a short series ala Uzumaki than as a single chapter.

The final notable chapter is none other than "The Amigara Fault," a story that has perhaps been meme-ed to death at this point but still stands as a strong story about compulsion with an undercurrent of trypophobia. When an earthquake shifts the landscape, it reveals a series of human-shaped holes carved in the mountainside with no logical source. People from all around begin heading to the faultline after seeing its footage on television, each convinced they have found the hole made just for them. One after another, individuals begin filling their respective voids – seemingly compelled the moment they became aware of its existence.

"The Amigara Fault" is a perfect example of "less is more," as no rhyme or reason is ascribed to the millenia-old holes or how they could be silhouettes of humans living in current time. Readers don't need that information to understand the inherent compulsion that begins affecting the people near the fault. It's a simple question, really. If you found some kind of hole or shape and knew you could fit in it, would you climb inside? Let's say it is only the size of your hand, would you reach in? Perhaps that desire to know and explore doesn't affect everyone, but it can nevertheless be simultaneously strong and terrifying .

Venus in the Blindspot isn't a perfect collection. It presents a fear of women and the emotions associated with them just as much as it looks at how that fear can destroy lives. Still, there are enough spine-tingling tales within paired with Ito's continually outstanding art to warrant adding it to your horror library.

I received an ARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A "best of" collection of creepy tales from Eisner award winner and legendary horror master Junji Ito.

This was my first foray into the world of Junji Ito and I was impressed with his art and his story telling. I think this was a good book to start with, since it was a collection of his short stories, including a feature adaptation of Edogawa Rampo's classic horror story "Human Chair" and fan favorite “The Enigma of Amigara Fault.”

The artwork included special color pages and showcased some illustrations from his acclaimed manga, "No Longer Human".

The terror begins with "Billions Alone", where bodies of couples and groups of people are being sewn together like quilts and left throughout the city. I found it a deep and horrifying look into the human psyche. It was delivered and illustrated nicely and left me with a bit of the heebie jeebies after reading it.

I enjoyed "The Human Chair". This is a chilling story, about a story of obsessive love, being told to a budding writer in a shop as she views a chair that once belonged to a famous writer, who in turn was being stalked by a man who had sewn himself into a chair in her home. This was eerie and well done, leaving one looking twice before setting down.

"Venus in the Blind Spot", this volume's namesake, is a story surrounding a young woman who disappears when men who adore her get to close. Then, there's "The Licking Woman," a monster woman who has a long, poisonous tongue. The story of "Master Umezz and Me" gives us a glimpse into Ito's own life and his inspiration for writing horror stories. In "How Love Came to Professor Kirida", an obsessed student violates Kirida's privacy and wishes. "The Enigma of Amigara Fault" tells of weirdly alluring holes that are shaped for specific people who are drawn to them. This collection is rounded out with "Keepsake", where a baby is mysteriously born to a dead woman inside her casket.

Not all these stories instilled terror within me; they were all decent but not of equal power, though I still found them all engaging.

I enjoyed stepping into the world of Junji Ito and will happily do so again. If you like a good horror manga then I'd recommend this book.

Warning: this volume is definitely more suitable to mature audiences. There is necrophilia, stalking, corpse mutilation, and sexual assault..

Great collection of some of Ito's best works. Junji Ito seems to be a polarizing figure, as some of his works can sometimes be a bit too wild, pressing into goofy territory. Personally, I find the absurd horror just as enthralling as the grotesque and shocking. Ultimately, he's not an author to miss, and Venus is not a collection to miss either!

I really liked this manga book set in Korea, focusing on young adults coming of age. There was some real sickness in this story, with people being sewn together, and the woman who was doing it was just out there. Fun story though, with some really good graphics.

Im a bit sad, I have loved every single one of his books before this but this one could not capture me in the way the other ones did. maybe 2 of the stories had me turning the pages frantically but the rest of the book left me wanting more.

In an attempt to give Junji Ito a fair shot after not liking , I looked at what manga I could read through Viz Media access. This one seemed like an interesting choice to get a good sampling of Ito’s horror ideas and maybe something would click for me. Venus in the Blind Spot is a collection of ten, short horror stories from the man himself. Some of them are his more infamous on shots like the Human Chair, which is a Ramp Edogawa story, and his The Enigma of the Amigara Fault story featuring an area of land where human shaped holes are drawing people into them. A very Close Encounters of the Third Kind kind of deal.

I can’t help but feel like I shot myself in the foot by choosing this one. None of these stories really clicked for me. Some were just obvious and didn’t have the time of actually making some interesting development. Others just outright told you what was going on and left it at that, like the Human Chair. Very much like “this is certainly a strange thing going on, isn’t it? Yes, yes they are. What else are you trying to say to me? Something tells me a reason why Junji Ito made it big in the west, besides some obvious works that I haven’t read, are that it’s “this is weird and its from Japan” kind of angle? I could be completely wrong about that.

Pushing the nature of the short story aside, it could be the combination of media that didn’t work for me either. I am not a big horror fan beyond Psychological horror, so body and shock horror doesn’t really do much for me by itself. There is also the nature that manga and anime generally are strange in general? So just having strange incidents happen without any sort of meat or characters I can get attach to doesn’t work for me. This is why things like Jujutsu Kaisen, Fullmetal Alchemist, and D Gray Man have clicked with me. I like the cast and I want them to be ok. Venus in the Blind Spot suffers from this. This is why a collection of stories doesn’t work, but maybe it will work for you?

I’m going to give Venus in the Blindspot an ok. There were some eh stories that I enjoyed more then others, some classic stories that reminded me of what I’ve read from English class like TheTell-Tale Heart, and things like that. So there is a lot of potential that is unrealized and maybe the reader can do all of this themselves. The art work is also, like usual, very unique and very pretty to look at and such. I’ve got a way for you to read if it this does sound interesting.

A terrifying collection of Japanese stories. These graphic novel short stories are all classics in Japan; and I can definitely see why. I had two struggles with this book of stories:
1) Forgetting to read right to left. It's a bit odd as the pages flip right to left (like English books); but the pages themselves are read right to left (not left to right as most are used to). So I had to keep reminding myself. I think I'd have preferred the book was bound 'backwards' where you read back to front as then I wouldn't have been so likely to forget which place to start on each page.
2) Some of these stories are burned into my brain. Like weeks after having read some of the early ones I'm still seeing them and remembering them. Given how much I read; and that I'm generally not awesome at details, it disturbs me how ingrained a few of these are on my brain. The only things that truly ever stick in my brain like that normally are terrifying or horrific. Although I suppose it supports my thought that this is an intense horror collection.

Please enjoy some quick notes/words about each story:
Story #1 - Billions Alone
Well that was truly scary. Like disturbing scary. Love it! (please don’t judge me, lol). This is so creepy to read while on lockdown from a pandemic (March 2020). It could be the story of the virus; if instead of getting sick you got sewn together dead... *shudder*

Story #2 - The Human Chair
I can barely concentrate on this story because I’m still thinking about the first...
Yep if I was home alone I’d be freaked right out. The chair I sit in at home is a laz-y boy and so it’s large and cushy like the one in this story. Even with my husband home I have shivers down my back reading this one. So well done.

Story #3 - An Unearthly Love
More disturbing than creepy I think... although the more I consider the story the creepier it becomes.
These first 3 stories are all amazing so far. Now it may also be that my husband playing a creepy video game with creepy music is enhancing the experience... I’m not very smart some days (lol!)

Story #4 - Venus in the Blind Spot
Not nearly as scary as the other stories so far. Interesting perhaps but feels out of place with the other 3 so far. Although it does have a great title.

Story #5 - The Licking Woman
There is something deeply unsettling about this one. It’s got an ick factor for sure; but also just feels too close to how humans do transmit disease. Especially in our current covid world.

Story #6 - Master Umezz and Me
I’m definitely missing something here. Perhaps because I don’t know manga tropes?

Story #7 - How Love Came to Professor Kirida
I feel like this was missing a critical piece but of something. Yet I can’t quite figure out what that might be...

Story #8 - The Enigma of Amigara Fault
No word of a lie I am shaking after reading this one. If you are claustrophobic in any way at all this story is an absolute nightmare.
My main two fears are generally spiders and water (yes all water, but especially dark lakes and the ocean). I think climbing into a mountain-side rock hole might have just shot near the top. *nervous laugh*

Story #9 - The Sad Tale of the Principal Post
You know an artist and writer are good when in four pages, just four pages of panels they can make you shiver. There's a whole other story to be discovered in these four panels; and we will never know what it was...

Story #10 - Keepsake
Maybe it's because I cannot have a child of my own; but I did not find this story nearly as disturbing as some of the others. It's creepy and icky to a certain degree; but not quite as shiver inducing as many of the other stories are.

Overall
A fantastic collection of translated 'illustrated' short stories. What do you call a graphic novel when it's not novel size? I honestly don't know.
If you like horror, are interested at all in a taste of Japanese culture, or love good ol' black and white artistry then this collection is for you.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.