Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Deserter by Junji Ito

25 reviews

nosferatofu's profile picture

nosferatofu's review

5.0
dark emotional funny mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is my new favourite collection from Junji Ito; all stories are a 5/5, The Long Hair In the Attic taking first place. 

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perth_is's profile picture

perth_is's review

4.0
dark fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Classic Junji Ito. Just for some reason this one didn’t hit as hard as some of his others..

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dot_evergreen's profile picture

dot_evergreen's review

3.75
dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Really cool, nice to read Ito’s earlier work. Some had unsatisfying conclusions. The deserter story at the end was great, tho! Some stories were just really silly. Overall, good fun 

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: N/A
Strong character development: N/A
Loveable characters: N/A
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

This might be my least favorite Junji Ito collection. There's a couple really good stories but most of them were just okay and a couple were really not for me.

Bio House - A young woman visits her employers home for dinner, to find that he has incredibly peculiar tastes. 4/5. This one was fine - a little gross, but fine. The ending was good.

The Face Thief - A girl starts at a new school where she notices a set of twins. The other students warn her against befriending one of the twins who's taken an interest in her. 4/5 stars. This one was a really interesting concept.

Where The Sandman Lives - A boy confides in his friend that when he goes to sleep, his dream self tries to break out into the real world. 5/5 stars. This was possibly my favorite in the collection. The visuals are excellent.

The Devil's Logic - A boy investigates why his friend committed suicide. 1.5/5 stars. I think I'm getting sick of suicide as a main theme in Ito's work. This one just didn't do it for me.

The Long Hair In The Attic - A young woman wants to cut her long hair off after her boyfriend breaks up with her. 3/5 stars. This one is super weird. I can't decide if this was spooky or goofy.

Scripted Love - A boy breaks up with his girlfriend, but gives her a videotape of him to watch if she ever misses him. 2/5 stars. I don't even know what to say about this one. The characters are all just so unlikeable.

Sword of The Reanimator - A young man investigates some spectral orbs he sees in the sky. 4/5 stars. This one was fun. There were a couple surprises.

A Father's Love - A businessman's children seem to all become possessed by a unique affliction. 2.5/5 stars. This one was mostly upsetting and weird.

Unendurable Labyrinth - Two friends stumble upon a mysterious temple while hiking deep in the mountains. 3.5/5 stars. This one started so strong but felt like it ended too soon! I needed more out of this story.

Village of the Siren - A young man returns to his hometown to find that everyone is behaving strangely. 2.5/5 stars. This one was pretty dark.

Bullied - A woman confesses to her sinister behavior towards another young boy in her youth. 1/5 stars. I hated this so much. It wasn't scary or mysterious - just cruel.

Deserter - A family houses an army deserter for years, making him beleive the war is still ongoing. 2/5 stars. This one was mostly just depressing. There's some cool visuals but it's also the cover art of the book, so it ruins the surprise a bit.

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jully_bean's profile picture

jully_bean's review

4.75
dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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danimacuk's profile picture

danimacuk's review

4.0
dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Some super good stories and some okay ones. Mix mix.  A few delightfully creepy images to stick with you. 

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urezia's profile picture

urezia's review

5.0
dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: N/A
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Putting aside Ito's classics like Tomie or Uzumaki, I think Deserter is a good book to start reading his work if you've never read Junji Ito before. It's based on short stories, but each of them has the dark intense and crazy plot-twists only a guy like Junji Ito can come up with! Besides the uniqueness of his illustrations, each story is very entertaining and it's hard to guess where it's gonna go until you get to the last page. I think it was so well thought of! There's definitely a little bit of everything so please make sure to check the content warnings before you give this one a try.  

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haleybre's profile picture

haleybre's review

3.0
challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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doomluz's profile picture

doomluz's review

5.0
dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This is a collection of some of his earlier stories. I had read "The Face Thief" in an older collection, which reminded me of why I fell in love with his stories to begin with.
The art is still good, though not as a refined. The stories feel less connected, but interesting and show how creepy and weird his stories are.

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