Reviews with content warning for Murder - Tombs: Junji Ito Story Collection

Tombs is good, a simple and strong concept. I like the themes of tradition, and the weight of guilt carried by those who break it even if the tradition isn’t a positive one.
Clubhouse isn’t as strong. A fun idea, two groups of ghosts warring over the living, but I don’t feel it was as strongly executed.
Slug Girl is great, short and sweet. Classic Junji Ito body horror and grossness.
The Window Next Door is the same; these weirdly specific short stories feel like they popped straight out of Ito’s head while going about his daily life doing mundane things and I love it.
Washed Ashore is a fascinating little creature flick, love seeing that from Ito. I get so used to his stories about ghosts and phantasms that I sometimes forget how stellar his monster work is.
Strange Tale of the Tunnel was a left hook, it ended up way more interesting than I was prepared for. This man is the king of unique ideas.
Bronze Statue is almost Poe-like, not just in the Amontillado sense. Unreliable narrative, erratic characters, and eschews supernatural for a purely human horror.
Floaters was a pleasant surprise, very timely themes of over-exposing people’s thoughts and emotions for the public to see and the psychological damage that comes from it.
The Bloody Story of Shirosuna is peak “this place is wrong” style horror, alongside the Strange Tunnel. Not as goofy as Ito’s other work, and that is to its benefit.

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urezia's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

In this Manga you will find one of Ito's most classic stories and characters, Slug Girl!
The stories aren't connected. This manga just holds a collection of stories but each of them contains such a unique plot, how is he coming up with these things? It's the type of stories you don't see anywhere else. He continues to provide his very clever plot-twists! I found them very entertaining.
This has been the most Gore I've seen from his work yet! So keep that in mind, mostly on

The Bloody Story of Shirosuna

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sandramarinis's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I loved the first story, but the rest weren't as good as Uzumaki and the other short stories I've read from Ito. I wish the first one was a whole book as I got super invested. A lot of the stories ended abruptly unfortunately. The one with the statue, the one with the tunnel and the one with the exposure of inner thoughts were good. As always the drawings are amazing! Several of these stories made me feel very disgusted (like the snail one) which unfortunately is not the kind of horror I'm into.

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hue's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense

4.25

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mar_gier's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I've been trying to get back into horror, so I chose to start with some Junji Ito, whom I've never had the pleasure of reading. And it didn't disappoint. Tombs was wonderfully creepy, macabre and strange, and I'm looking forward to reading more of Ito's works in the future. It also gave me a lot of Twilight Zone vibes.

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