As haunting and spooky as much of Ito's previous works, with plenty for stalwarts and newcomers alike. The longest story, "Town of No Roads" is particularly disturbing with themes of stalking and peeping turning supernatural. While, "Ice Cream Bus" is feels like an homage to W. Maxwell Prince and Martin Morazzo's American comic anthology "Ice Cream Man".

Enjoyable, but not his strongest collection (see Shiver for that). I knew the first story - maybe from the Netflix show? - and was worried this was a collection of stories I had already read - but that ended up being the only one I knew. I do constantly wonder about the man's mind.

You’re never too certain what to expect from a Junji Ito story. What you do know is that it’ll either be weird, or it’ll creep you the hell out! Alley, a collection of ten stories published in 2011, leans a lot more into the latter, with stories that will send you shivers and nightmares. It also knows when to mess with the audience, with a couple of twists that’ll leave you laughing maniacally.

There’s a bountiful of creepy tales here, beginning with the title narrative. A boy moves into an apartment, only to hear the sound of children playing late at night. The more he wonders about the sound, the closer to the truth he gets. And when he finds where the playful chattering is coming from, he winds up in a serious predicament. However, it’s not him that gets swallowed up by the madness, with the ending feeling like just desserts for a certain woman.

Speaking of desserts, “Ice Cream Bus” is one that’s both weird and hilarious! A mysterious ice cream man is the talk of the town, with all the kids eating his cold treats. They also have the habit of climbing in his truck and engulfing more frozen goodies than the average man could stomach. A divorced dad and his son are new to town, and when the boy is taken in by the ice cream man, the father’s world gets all too swirly. When the tale reaches its conclusion, it delivers a twist that’s both creepy and laugh-inducing, like one of the weirder Kids in the Hall skits.

Ito’s MO is leaving his readers still wondering what’s going on. “Descent” delivers exactly that, with a suicidal wife and a plethora of missing people. Slipping in and out of her slumber, the woman starts uttering about people falling from the sky. True to her word, humans plummet from above, with their faces showing that they’ve witnessed a true horror. It’s not exactly one that has a satisfying conclusion, but it has the right amount of weirdness that keeps it entertaining.

“Inn” also fits this motif. An old man claiming that a hot spring is below his family’s house results in him digging a hole for two months. When he actually hits a spring, it causes his wife and daughter to move out. A friend of the daughter overhears the tale, giving him enough curiosity to check it out himself. What follows is a dip in a springs that even a devil would be too cautious to enter!

“Town of No Roads” has its own fair share of weirdness, starting with a girl whose paranoia is justified. Her family is spying on her, to the point where they drill holes into her wall and ceiling to get a peek. It drives her bananas, to the point where she takes a trip to visit her aunt. From there, she is swallowed up by a maze of houses and alleyways, with townsfolk sharing their own sense of privacy and lunacy. A good story, but it does leave things a little too open-ended.

Where the weirdness shines in Alley is “The Ward”, the tale of two accident victims sharing a hospital room with four strange women. The narrative is all over the place, but the focus on the four mysterious women is what makes it shine. Their white eyes and cold mannerisms find ways to keep the skin crawling for any reader. Even if it has an open-ended conclusion, how it wraps things up is plenty unsettling!

The short “Smokers’ Club” involves tobacco grown near a crematorium. It’s not the most engaging, but the art work of Ito here shines whenever characters are taking a puff of these deadlier cancer sticks. “Mold” also shares some of that sentiment, with a weird tale about a home in disarray thanks to certain visitors. But where it succeeds is in its conclusion, with Ito’s visuals showcasing a man being swallowed up by the growth that’s overtaken his home.

Perhaps the best story in the pack is “Blessing”. It’s a simple tale of a couple who look to get married, but the girl’s father just won’t allow it. You never know where this story will go, as it goes back-and-forth between giving readers hope and deep, dark despair. Not only does it give you narrative whiplash from all the big left-turns, but it ends in a way that you’d never expect. There’s a reason why I’m keeping quiet about this particular tale, as it’s best to go in blindly to it to see for themselves.

Alley is more proof that no other manga author can touch Junji Ito. His works are truly unique, and this collection shows why he can bring about a funny feeling into anything he writes about. Whether it’s about having a smoke, enjoying a frosty treat, or taking a dip into a hot spring, Junji Ito will finds a way to make you wince and shriek over what his imagination is capable of. Forget Stephen King or R.L. Stine; Ito is the true king of the creep factor!

Junji Ito once again wows readers with their special brand of horror. While I’m not typically a horror reader, there is something about his stories that completely draws me in and makes me want to keep going, no matter how terrifying.

While I don’t think these stories are as ingrained in my memory like Tombs’ stories were, any new or old fan will enjoy this.

Overall, I loved this compilation! I had definitely read a few of them before online, but some were new to me. I felt a few of the stories were weaker than others, but definitely worth the read anyways. I love Junji Ito's art style, as well as the bite-sized stories.

Junji Ito stories always leave you wanting a little more. The stories are similar to what you would find it a Twilight Zone episode. If someone doesn’t mind vague endings, I would recommend this or any other Ito short story collections. My one complaint is that the characters all look the same and the older costumes and settings might be off putting for some people.

Alley is everything I want in a short story collection by Junji Ito! Impending doom, body horror, intriguing storylines. I absolutely loved it. Junji Ito always knows how to creep me out and leave me wanting more. My only critique is that there were a couple stories that I wish could be a full length manga!

Yet another absolute banger collection of Junji Ito's short spooky stories! Highly recommend and I'll definitely be picking up my own copy when it becomes published.

Alley's collection of horror seems a bit more themed this time around. Locational horror is a big theme in this book and for the most part, it works strongly in its favor! Some of the stories, like the titular Alley, are more subdued, but there is still plenty of shlock and awe to go around as well. It's one of the reasons I like reading Junji ito's work. It's a fun, spooky, variety that hits more than it misses!

Published by Viz and available July 23, 2024, Alley is a collection of short stories by the modern master of Japanese horror, Junji Ito. This was my first time reading something by Ito, and while I can definitely see his skill, I wish I had been introduced to him via one of his other works, like Uzumaki, since this was just okay. Ito's style of horror may just not be mine-- things simply happen and there isn't a sense of rising terror or suspense in these short stories. This may just not be his best work, as I've seen other reviewers have similar opinions as mine on this volume. This should appeal to fans of supernatural and urban horror, as many stories are centered around town locations, as well as body horror-- while the writing may be a bit weak at times, the art is always atmospheric and captivating.

Alley is one of the stronger collections of Ito’s work where every story fits into a fairly cohesive package. The collection provides a decent intro to ito as well and really showcases his range as an artist and writer. If you have even a passing interest in Japanese horror this one is worth a read.

O.M.G!!!!

This was brilliant - everything you want and expect from a book by Ito. Creepy, gory, short stories which make your skin crawl and question everything you think you know.

I would absolutely recommend this one to any fans of horror, even if they don’t usually read manga. Learning the format of manga is worth it, just so you can enjoy these ones!

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

Another Junji Ito collection, and I was very happy to receive it. My favorite of the stories is "Town With No Roads'. I like that it was a bit longer and let you spend a little more time wondering what was going on. I feel that sometimes Ito stories wrap up fairly quickly, which can take away some of the spook factor. I like when he lets a plotline simmer a bit. Overall a great collection of creepypasta-esque weirdness.

This was my first Junji Ito, and it was fine? I guess I was expecting slightly more original stories overall - this felt more like the kind of Tales From the Crypt comics I read in 80s and 90s. There were a few stories that I was genuinely surprised by, but overall I felt like this was solid if predictable. I would recommend checking it out from the library before purchasing unless you are a die hard fan.

This isn’t Junji Ito at his best. But it is Junji Ito at his very good. There’s a ton of spooky stuff in here. Bizarre oddities on every page. Body horror. All the stuff you expect. This one just didn’t stick with me the way some of his other work has.

A real mixed bag of Junji Ito stories. A few of them were well told and very creepy but overwhelming this collection left me underwhelmed. The stories dragged on with a creepy climax at the end but it didn't make up for the less than exciting prelude. As always the creepy illustrations were out of this world, but this time they didn't make up for the lack of overall scares.

This was a fun and scary shorts collection. Some of the stories were definitely better executed or more interesting than others, and I didn’t feel like there was much of a thread in terms of the reason these specific stories were collected together. I think the plots were pretty unique though and kept me guessing a lot of the time as to what was actually going on (if we ever found out at all). I felt most satisfied with the ones where we got some sort of explanation, but I definitely don’t think that’s a requirement just a personal preference.

Another eerie and addicting read by one of the best horror authors of all time. The art is just spectacular and is always the thing I look most forward to when I start a new story of his. This volume doesn't fail to contain panels that make you want to stare at every little detail even though you're looking at something disturbing or uncanny. All of his stories deliver this, but the one with the most impact for me was Mold, and with a name like that, you can guess what kind of fun awaits. 4/5 stars.

ALLEY by Junji Ito
Page Count: 344 pages
Publisher: VIZ Media
Other Books I Enjoyed by This Author: Smashed, Shiver, Tombs, Uzumaki, Remina, etc.
Affiliate Link: https://bookshop.org/a/7576/9781974736034
Release Date: July 2023
General Genre: Horror Manga/Graphic Novel/Translated
Sub-Genre/Themes: Body horror, ghost stories, supernatural
Writing Style: gross-out, spare, fully illustrated horror stories/urban legends/ghost stories
What You Need to Know: Junji Ito does seem to explore themes of suicide, so that's really the only CW (a dead kid too)
My Reading Experience:
April 16, 2024 – page 34
"The first story “Alley” is so good. Classic Junji Ito— a seemingly innocent & sweet character with a secret"
April 16, 2024 – page 66
"“Descent” absolutely brutal and disturbing. CW for suicide and violent carnage. Terrifying! This one is nightmare fuel"
April 16, 2024 – page 98
“The Ward” so good. So unsettling and disgusting"
April 26, 2024 – page 133
"The Inn-super dark and disgusting. A man open an inn and digs too far down to find a hot spring"
April 26, 2024 – page 163
"A ghost story—no gore or shocking illustration and I kept waiting for it hahah"
April 26, 2024 – page 183
"Smokers Club was ok. But I’m excited for the next story MOLD"
April 26, 2024 – page 223
MOLD- That was horrific. I loved all the spores and parasites and the final frames"
April 26, 2024 – page 292
"Town of No Roads-a really weird tale about privacy and one young woman’s quest to be free from prying eyes"
April 26, 2024 – page 316
"Memory-not sure if I missed something here or what lol I didn’t really get it"
April 26, 2024 – Finished Reading
Final Recommendation: Ok not the total banger that Shiver, Smashed, and Tombs are but definitely very good. Like if this was your introduction to Junji Ito, this would do the trick! You’d get hooked!
Great artwork, totally disgusting with lots of full-page creepy gross outs. I loved the first handful of stories the most. Need this one for the growing collection! Read my updates for story-by-story notes.
Comps

Junji Ito is back with another gruesome short story collection. I can never get enough of his storytelling and grotesque artwork. Review forthcoming for Monster Librarian.