I had never been a manga reader, but I love horror. I have officially been converted. The stories were extremely compelling and scary and reminded me of episodes of The Twilight Zone. I love Junji Ito's finely detailed illustrations. This far exceeded my expectations.

<b>2.25</b>

<b>Not the best collection</b>, honestly, though there are some interesting back stories that aren't something Ito usually supplies, including him reminiscing over his love of horror manga as a kid. It's understandable to me why he holds Kazuo Umezu in such high regard, but (usually) I think Ito is way better himself. Umezu might just be too campy for me.

I like it when these collections feature the same characters in different stories - Ito does this often - but I wanted more with the female author and felt like her story just ... ended. The other stories are mostly ok but either not long enough or not particularly memorable. <b>The titular story to me was one of the weakest ones,</b> but <i>The Sad Tale of the Principal Post</i> was especially dumb and pointless.

<i>The Enigma of Amigara Fault</i> is still one of the most unsettling stories I've ever read but it's also included at the end of Gyo as a bonus story, though not with the color pages, so I'd already read it.

<b>I think this collection just fell short.</b> It wasn't terrible but if I wasn't a huge fan who reads everything he writes I don't think I would bother with this one at all.

I recently read The Shiver Collection and really enjoyed it a lot. So the moment I saw the new Junji Ito was on Netgalley, I jumped at the chance to read it early. I decided since this is a bunch of short stories I will review them one by one and then give my overall view.



Billions Alone - So this was such a great way to start off the short story collection. It's super eerie. It kinda made me think of today's situation in certain ways. Obviously it's completely different situations but had some similarities like not leaving the house and not going out in groups.


Human Chair - So I definitely liked this story more than the last one. I feel it's because chairs are such a big staple in people's lives so it just adds to the situation. I know this couldn't happen but I can see people having nightmares about this. I also couldn't help but think of a scene from the Always Sunny Christmas special.


An Unearthly Love - So this one I didn't feel was as creepy as the other two stories so far. I feel this is something you could see on the show my strange addiction except the ending. However I did like the lines on the last page of the story.


*This story is by Edogawa Ranpo. I just realized that the last story, Human Chair was also by him as well*


Venus In The Blind Spot - Damn this story was super interesting. This one had a sci-fi feel to it which I ended up really enjoying. I have only read one Junji Ito collection but I am curious if more stories involving sci-fi appear. I would say this one also isn't very creepy but is different from the others.


The Licking Woman - This story was a bit disturbing. Imagine a random person coming up and licking you only to cause a horrible disease that could kill you. That is seriously just freaky to think about. Especially with how everything is going on today. Thankfully this isn't real.


Master Umezz and Me - Wow so this was Junji Ito talking about Kauzo Umezu. I had never heard of him before this. I did enjoy that this was a real story drawn out. I thought it was very funny and entertaining. I am very curious about Kauzo Umezu. There was a mention that he made a movie and I'm interested in watching that. I do hope I can find it in America.


How Love Came to Professor Kirida -Well wow that was definitely an interesting story. It has to do with obsession and has a paranormal aspect to it. It's on the creepy but still not as creepy as some of the other stories that are included in this book. I do want to check out the story that this is based off of.


*Based on the story "How Love Come To Professor Guildea" By Robert Hichens*


The Enigma of Amigara Fault - I am actually familiar with this story. I've never read the comic but I think my boyfriend might have watched something reading this or talking about it. Boy is this one creepy. I just want to know where he comes up with these things. He takes something so beautiful, mountains, and makes them extremely terrifying.


The Sad Tale of The Principal Post - Well that was a super quick story. I honestly wasn't excepting it to be so quick but I guess it makes sense rather than have the story drag on. I do wish we got to find out how things actually happened but that's not the case. I feel like this was a little underwhelming and wanted a bit more out of it.


Keepsake - So I enjoyed this story. I felt like it has a very creepy premise. I mean just the thought of something like this happening is crazy and I know couldn't happened but still damn. Junji Ito always thinking up these wild stories. However I just didn't really like any of the characters in the story. There was only one real character I ended up liking.


Overall I enjoyed this collection. I thought it was such an interesting mix of stories. There were stories from another writer that he did the art for. There also was a story that was based off another author's work. He also did a personal story where he was asked to create the manga for a movie another manga artist. He even had a sci-fi story which I ended up enjoying a lot. I just didn't feel as creeped out which I excepting. However I still enjoyed the collection and can't wait to check it out when it officially comes out. I am excited to get a better look at the artwork in person.


*I would just like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free e-arc of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.*

I love Junji Ito. He is one of my favourite Manga artists and I haven't been disappointed by him yet, this short story collection is no different. Venus in the Blind Spot is a solid collection of short but sweet horror stories. Gory, creepy, disturbing, all that juicy stuff. With short story collections it is hard to get a complete collection where every single story is enjoyed equally and so of course I have a few favourites.

Billions Alone - the first story in Venus. This story is just so creepy from the start and I must say very well-timed as it warms about public gatherings. Because of this I found it much easier to be sucked into the story and the dangers of going outside and meeting up with people. I honestly could have read a whole book on that story and would have enjoyed it. I wanted more, but I think Junji Ito knows when to leave it as it is for the best impact.

Human Chair - Yes! This is what I am talking about, this is the kind of depravity I can imagine actually reading about in real life. It was just brilliantly written and the perfect sweet spot of creepy, disturbing and intriguing.

Those two were my top picks, but a mention has to go to some others like Keepsake and An Unearthly Love. Honestly, the title story Venus in the Blind Spot was good, but it wasn't my favourite and because it was the title story I expected it to be the stand out story. The more gruesome and disturbing, but it wasn't.

The collection also included a little autobiographical story about Junji Ito himself, and at first I didn't get that was what it was supposed to be so I kept waiting for it to get creepy before I realised.

In general it was a wonderful collection and I loved a lot of the stories and enjoyed them, all. A definite recommendation to add to your horror collection.

Lastly, thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

Thanks to Viz Media and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

A collection of stories from the master of Japanese horror, Junji Ito. This anthology is definitely not for the faint hearted or squeamish. Fans of Ito will find much to enjoy and those new to him will no doubt get a kick out of the weird and wonderful stories and his inimitable artwork.

An all round top class collection, I particularly enjoyed The Human Chair and the title story Venus in the Blind Spot.

Viz Media’s blurb for Venus in the Blind Spot is really weird: it claims this is a “best of” collection of Junji Ito’s stories but, as far as I can tell, only one - maybe two - stories have previously appeared in print before: The Enigma of Amigara Fault and The Sad Tale of the Principal Post possibly both appeared in Dissolving Classroom. So this is a “best of” collection that features almost all-new stories!? The blurb also mentions special colour pages and illustrations from Ito’s latest book, No Longer Human, and it doesn’t. Also, it would’ve been good if the contents page listed in which collections the stories previously appeared, like most “best of” collections do, but seeing as this appears to be nearly all-new material then I can see why it didn’t!

Of the stories collected here - Billions Alone, The Human Chair, An Unearthly Love, Venus in the Blind Spot, The Licking Woman, Master Umezz and Me, How Love Came to Professor Kirida, The Enigma of Amigara Fault, The Sad Tale of the Principal Post, and Keepsake - none were very good.

So here’s the thing with Ito: like HP Lovecraft, Ito is great at producing haunting images of primal horror but, also like Lovecraft, he’s very clumsy, almost amateurish, in incorporating these images into traditional stories. What you’re left with is some genuinely disturbing visions of horror scattered amidst numerous quite dull, predictable and almost laughably goofy stories.

Take The Human Chair, one of two Ito adaptations of the Japanese writer Edogawa Ranpo (real name Taro Hirai - Edogawa Ranpo is the Japanification of “Edgar Allan Poe”): it’s creepy that a guy would sew himself into a chair to be sat on by a female writer for hours a day, but the design of the chair, when the back of it was peeled away, showed tiny shelves for cans of food and waste! It’s too silly.

And it’s like that throughout: like the hundreds of naked corpses sewn together in Billions Alone, the giant phallic-like tongue bouncing around the street in The Licking Woman, the man who just happens to find himself trapped under a supporting beam in The Sad Tale of the Principal Post - they’re just too daffy to take seriously. Ito’s stories seem to operate in their own kind of dream/nightmare logic that defies convincing storytelling. These things just are - don’t question them!

Which sounds like hack storytelling, and you could argue that too, but that’s what I like best about Ito: the visions/scenarios themselves are the point - everything else is window-dressing. Also, regardless of his plodding, predictable and absurd storytelling, you’ll never read any horror stories like Junji Ito’s - the stuff in them are unique and the man himself is a true original. And the accompanying art is always fantastic. Though his character designs are constantly recycled, and repetitive for that, the moments when the terror is revealed are almost always chilling to look at, which is great because that’s when they count the most.

If you’ve read Junji Ito’s previous short horror collections, Venus in the Blind Spot is more of the same - no worse, no better. So if you’re a fan, you’ll love this, and if you’re not, this one won’t convince you otherwise. Even though I didn’t think much of this one, I remain into Ito for the art and the quirky, fresh ideas behind the horror stories. Just ignore the bizarre blurb - this is basically a new Ito collection.

A chilling, unsettling collection of horror stories told by a master writer and illustrator of the comics medium.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me a free copy of this in return for a review.

Venus in the Blind Spot is a series of short stories. They were haunting and spooky and the art capsulated the creepy vibes of the story.

Enjoyed some of the stories more than others but that was to be expected.

I have been a fan of Junji Ito's work for a couple of years now. I was impressed with the new short stories in this collection, however, due to the nature of his stylized illustrations, this would not be appropriate to teach in a class for high school. However, as a fan of his work, it very much hit the spot for my dark, psychological reading kick!

Junji Ito is one of the many mangaka that a lot of people recognize. Just after hearing the name, a slew of associated words just pops up into our heads. Well, most of those are related to horror and gore. After all, Ito-sensei is a master of creating skin-crawling scenes and stories. We mean, the stuff that will surely remove our capacity to have a peaceful night’s rest as we shiver and hug our knees for our dear lives. Funny thing is we’re not even exaggerating. Junji Ito is a horror connoisseur if such a profession even existed.

Great collection of Junji Ito's personal horror stories, as well as three adaptations of mystery and horror writers from the turn of the century and one lovely autobiographical snippet where he describes his earliest influences. Some of the panels have been colored -- mostly at the beginning of each tale -- and the contrast between the gentle polychrome of "normal life" and the stark black and white of surreal horror brings out the best in Junji Ito.

The Enigma of Amidara Fault has appeared in many other anthologies, but it fits the tone and theme of this one, focusing on societal pressure, so well that it would have been missed.

Many thanks to NetGalley and VLZ Media for allowing me to read an advanced reader copy of this graphic novel for my honest review.

Venus in the Blind Spot by Junji Ito is an amazing "best of" story collection from a true master of horror/ horror manga. I have read some of Junji Ito's collections in the past, so I was very excited to see this and it was an automatic pre-order for me because I love his work. I was familiar with a couple of the stories already, but most of them were new to me. This contains a total of 10 short stories , including a wonderfully adaptation of Rampo Edogawa’s classic horror story “Human Chair.". The first story is "Billions Alone and it was a macabre tale that opened this collection with a bang. The illustrations in this story alone were pretty terrifying. Other notable stories include An UnEarthly Love, Venus in the Blind Spot, The Licking Woman, The Enigma of Amigara, and Keepsake. There were a couple of stories that didn't hold my interest and fell a bit short for me, but that is to be expected when you're reading a collection of short stories. Overall, this is a solid collection with some beautifully horrific images and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys horror. I rate this a 4/5 stars.

There are several tales within this collection that I know are going to stay with me for a while and are going to make me look at normal things differently from now on, such as shopping for a new chair and cracks within the sides of a mountain. The illustrations' within this manga just add to the overall creepy atmosphere and are perfect additions to the story!!  I received an e-Arc version thanks to NetGalley, so there were sections that were in colour and other sections that were in black and white and honestly, both of these were basically perfect. The added definition and detail in the ones I was able to see in colour just added to the realism to certain aspects, which intensified the overall felling, but the basicness with the black and white, if that's how they're staying, did not take away from the overall felling I got from this.

I am always overjoyed when I see another Junji Ito collection being brought over to English, Ito has such a large body of work and there are so many gems that there is always a wealth of great stories to read. Venus in the Blind Spot really is a “best of” collection and includes some of Ito’s strongest and most famous works as well as some one-shots that were published as standalone works in various magazines.

This collection includes some of Ito’s most incisive critiques of Japanese culture. The Sad Tale of the Principal Post is a short but clear portrait of the traditional family structure, and the weight carried by the patriarch. This is especially relevant given the high rate of suicide amongst middle-aged males in Japan, crushed by the pressures of society.

Fan favorites such as The Enigma of Amigara Fault and Billions Alone (also known as Army of One) are critical of the Japanese isolationist society, and the way that society entrances and warps people. My absolute favorite story, the titular Venus in the Blind Spot is a literal horror about the male gaze and the violence that is wrought on young women.

More than anything, I also really love when Ito writes autobiographical stories that give the reader a look into his personal life. His admiration for Kazuo Umezu and his first experiences with horror manga had me laughing out loud. Ito also adapted works by Robert Hichens and Edogawa Ranpo which helped to introduce me to great authors.

This volume also included a lot of color pages which I was surprised about. I had mixed feelings about them overall, colored images don’t have the same pop that black and white does for me, but they are still very beautiful and brought some panels to life. In all, this was another strong collection for Ito that I feel would be a great in

Venus in the Blind Spot is a 'best of' short story collection from manga horror maestro Junji Ito. Of the 10 stories in the collection, two are based on stories by 20th Century Japanese horror writer Edogawa Ranpo, one on a story by British author Robert Hichens, while the rest are original creations - including an autobiographical story about Junji Ito's love of the work of manga legend Kazuo Umezz. The book kicks off with the eerily apt Billions Alone (in which a serial killer targets groups of people, leading to everyone self-isolating).

The artwork is beautiful, creepy, terrifying and (occasionally) funny. Some of the art in this edition has been coloured, which bring the images to life. Distractingly, some of the stories start in colour and then revert to black and white part way through. Switching so jarringly from colour to black and white within a story gave the book an unfinished air.

As with most short story collections, there are some stories that resonate more than others. While I found something to enjoy in most of the stories, there were only a few that I loved. Seeing as how this is billed as a best of, I was hoping for a slightly better hit rate.

Overall, I enjoyed my first dip in to the works of Junji Ito, and there are definitely images from this collection that will be staying with me for a long time.

This was another solid collection from the brilliant and talented horror manga author, Junji Ito. Like all his previous work, the artwork was stunning, disturbing and disgusting… often at the same time. As with any short story collections, there were standouts and forgettable ones.

Personal Favourites:
Billions Alone… This was my favourite of the "new-to-me" stories in the collection. It one felt so timely, warning against the dangers of social gatherings and rewarding those who choose to self isolate.

The Enigma of Amigara Fault… This was technically a re-read because it was in a previous book. However, it is one of my all time favourites because it creates such an intense feeling of claustrophobia.

The Sad Tale of Principal Post… Another re-read from a different book. Short and depressingly dark.

Other Enjoyable Stories:
An Unearthly Love… I am always a sucker for creepy doll stories.

The Licking Woman… Very gross, so naturally I enjoyed it.

Keepsake… Another disturbing tale. I am also a sucker for creepy kid stories.

The collection also included a personal piece where Junji Ito explained how he got into horror manga as a child, which was interesting although not particularly relatable as a North American reader (since I didn't understand a lot of the books, celebrities & tv shows he was talking about).

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

Disclaimer: I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley.

I have only recently been reading Junji Ito's horror manga and have consumed his long running series. This is the first collection of his stories that I have read and I don't feel that there is a weak one in the bunch. The memoir-esque story of his admiration and the influence of Kazou Umezu was a bit slow in comparison to the other tales, but I liked getting to see one of his inspirations (along with Edogawa Ranpo). Great collection.

While this isn't my favorite Ito collection, the adaptations of Edogawa Ranpo's work are fascinating. I especially like (and respect) his take on "The Human Chair" - it serves as both a retelling and a sequel to the original 1925 short story, and it's tonally faithful. I'm definitely going to have to find a way to use it when I teach the original short story in class.

Beyond that, this is strong in the usual ways - creepy, emphasis on the fear of things just shy of ordinary - and otherwise a perfectly good collection. If you're already a Junji Ito fan, there's no reason you won't enjoy this book.

I want to thank NetGalley, the publisher, and author Junji Ito for providing me with an ARC of Venus in the Blind Spot.

I could not get into this one. The chance for spooky was there, but nothing made sense to me. I"m super disappointed!

Thank you again to those named above for providing me with this ARC!

“𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘥. 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘬𝘰 𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸?”

𝕍𝕖𝕟𝕦𝕤 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔹𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕕 𝕊𝕡𝕠𝕥 is a "best of" collection of creepy tales, presenting the most remarkable short works of Junji Ito’s career, and featuring an adaptation of Rampo Edogawa’s classic horror story "Human Chair" and fan favorite "The Enigma of Amigara Fault." In a deluxe presentation with special color pages and color illustrations from his most recent long-form manga No Longer Human, every page invites readers to revel in a world of terror

I’m definitely an auto-read with everything Junji Ito. His ability to craft uniquely imaginative tales mixed with shocking imagery is unparalleled, and this particular collection is no different. Literally every single story has a concept or a series of images that are burned into my brain (in a good way) and I’ll never forget

What if someone started capturing groups of people and sewing their bodies together (hence my pic)? What if a woman every young man lusted after started disappearing from view? What if there was a person living inside your favorite chair? What if human-shaped holes suddenly appeared in the mountain, and you could go inside of them? All these horrifying questions and more are answered inside!