This one was a bit of a letdown. I think changing up the expectations and format by making it primarily short stories with Junji Ito art featured was interesting; but it's not what I'm looking for when I reach for manga. However, it's nice that Ito is working collaboratively with other horror mangaka -- like in Mimi's and Betwixt.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was not what I originally expected, and I did not finish it. That being said, I do think that this book has really good qualities, and the Junji Ito art throughout made it that much better.

Juni Ito's artwork consistently impresses with its remarkable quality, standing out as the highlight of the book. However, the accompanying short stories by Hirokatsu Kihara leave something to be desired due to their brevity and lack of depth. While the overall experience remains enjoyable, a more balanced interplay between the narrative and the illustrations would have been preferable, allowing both elements to shine equally.

If you're going into this expecting a classic Junji Ito manga you may be disappointed, but hopefully, like me, you'll immediatly be delighted by the stories by Hirokatsu Kihara. Much like Mimi's Tales of Terror, the stories are more spooky and creepy than outright scary. The stories could be a bit longer, but the prose was a nice change from the format I've come to expect. Overall, this was a lot of fun--it may not be a new favorite, but certainly worth having in your horror collection.

The artwork and short stories were good. Some stories did fall a little flat but overall it’s a fast creepy little read.

Stitches continues the Ito horror but without the panels and character development. The stories left me wanting more, especially from this duo.

A great collection of creepy short stories with equally creepy illustrations to go with. It was really well put together and I enjoyed reading through them.

When I got this ARC I was expecting manga panels but when I was pleasantly surprised! I loved all the short stories and loved how all the creepy stuff was so easy to imagine.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me an advance reader copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I love to read a graphic novel after every couple of (regular?) novels. The artwork combined with a good story help making reading a graphic novel, a simple, relaxing, enjoyable experience. The different stories STITCHE[D] together to make Stitches kept me going from one tale to the next until I quickly finished the book. Will definitely recommend to my horror & GN fans.

Description
Horror manga giant Junji Ito teams up with spooky story writer Hirokatsu Kihara for the ultimate collection of fright-filled ghost tales!

A tumor shaped like a man’s face slowly moves across a woman’s body. The sea shoots glowing balls into the sky, much to the distress of beachgoers. And a girl dressed up for a holiday has no eyes, no nose, nothing—her face is a total blank.

Hirokatsu Kihara pens true stories of unsolved mysteries, stitched together with page after page of Junji Ito’s original illustrations in this collection of nine eerie tales and a bonus manga story.

Junji Ito not only is amazing at just art, but his choice in collaboration is always top tier. This book was amazing and perfect for fans of horror.

I initially thought that this was a manga but it's not and I was a little bit disappointed about that until I sat down and read this. It's a collection of spook stories with illustrations by Junji Ito with a bonus manga by him at the end. I really enjoyed this collection, some of them were creepy and some were pretty mild. If you're looking for something that's not super scary then check this book out!

Junji Ito's art was great as always, but I wasn't a fan of how the stories were written. I think they were meant to seem like they were being told around a campfire, but it felt a little too causal to be spooky. The bonus manga was cool, but definitely not meant for an eBook format. I thought the stories were interesting but could've been told in a way that built more tension.

Disappointingly underwhelming.

I am a massive fan of Junji Ito, and the artwork included for these short stories was brilliant (as always!), however the short stories really lacked any depth. Just as soon as I thought the story had any potential, the story would end, leaving me confused and let down.

Ito honestly has done an amazing job with the illustrations included, but the short stories were not what I expected them to be at all.

Thank you to Net Galley for giving me a copy of this one in exchange for an honest review.

Not at all what I was expecting seeing Junji Ito's name attached to a body of work. This title has been advertised as manga first and foremost and short stories second. I thought it would be more like Ito's work prior - short manga strips with really good plots. If you are a huge fan of Junji Ito as a stand-alone writer/illustrator then I do not recommend purchasing this. Hirokatsu Kihara short stories are underdeveloped leaving the reader unsatisfied. I don't find any of them to make much sense, either. I genuinely find this collection a bit lazy.

As always thank you publisher and Net Galley for a copy !

Stitches is a very small collection of short stories by Hirokatsu Kihara and illustrations by Junji Ito. Each story has a different kind of vibe, however, they felt like they had similar vibes. Same thing different font kind of font. Instead of being being over shadowed with light anxiety that horror usually gives me, these stories feel very cozy, much like scary stories you’d tell at a campfire. Each story also felt like something Junji would have came up with himself as well, so it was a very comforting read.

Two of my favorite stories, Stitch 4 and Stich 7, with out spoilers they felt really refreshing and on a more sweeter side than the others. They didn’t have such spooky vibe to me as they did a more familial comfort to them.

Overall, I deeply enjoyed them however only 4 stars for me because it didn’t have the horror elements I was looking for.

Stitches is a short anthology of horror stories written by Hirokatsu Kihara and Junji Ito. The pair have partnered up before with their creation of Mimi's Tales of Terror. Stitches feels like the equivalent of telling creepy stories around a campfire. The stories are short, give you a quick scare, and leave you hanging at the end. They are brief, but they don't really need to offer more. The stories give you the creeps and then move onto the next one. They're exactly what they need to be. I thoroughly enjoyed this anthology!

"I never knew bugs could be so loud. But thanks to all the noise they made, I felt like the whole thing was finally over"

it's always cool seeing Ito's artwork and most of these stories were pretty unpredictable to me and a few even creeped me out despite being fairly simple and really short. This is great if you have an hour or so to spare for some quick, little reads.

This short, quick read collects nine short horror stories (the "stitches”) with a bonus manga story. Originally published in Japan in 2010, the major appeal to English-speaking readers in 2024 is likely to be the ghastly illustrations by Junij Ito, famed for his critically-adored horror comics, such as Uzumaki, adapted into a highly memorable film at the peak of the J-Horror boom. (His cat comics, though possibly of less interest to our readers, are also much adored.) The bonus manga story is "Summer Graduation Trip", a fairly spooky and supposedly true story of two young women who go to a spa and find themselves in a spook-filled sauna.

[Full review for publication elsewhere.]

This book gets a very similar review to my other junji Ito books, with one notable difference - this book continuously had certain words or phrases blocked out in a way that made it impossible to understand some of the sentences. It really took away from my enjoyment of the arc, hence why I’m specifically rating this 4 stars, though the actual arc gets 3 stars from me. I think my favorite story was the one with the kimono, I didn’t expect it to be text, I thought it was manga, but overall it was enjoyable. The stories were not too long

While the stories could be interesting, the current way they're presented is less of a narrative and more of a basic plot summary. Overall it's not an engaging work, and while Junji Ito's illustrations are nice, they do not make up for the lack of storytelling.