Book ReviewsAs I’ve noted several times elsewhere, collections of horror master Junji Ito manga seem to come in two distinct, but flavorful servings these days: compilations of older, more obscure stories and collections of entirely brand-new ones. Earlier this year fans were blessed with The Liminal Zone, Vol. 2, a good example of the latter as it featured new stories created specifically for the AERA dot website.
With Moan, Ito’s second collection this year, it’s back to the past with 6 stories culled from his earlier days that appeared in various Japanese publications. For those curious about where each originally hailed from, godspeed, though you’ll be interested to know they all hail from the early to mid 1990s and were first republished (again, in Japanese) in a series of collections labeled the Horror World of Junji Ito. As much as I love these newer collections from Viz, they really make you do a scavenger hunt to track down the details.
Chronology aside, all 6 stories collected here have been cleaned up and have never looked better, and a fine translation by Jocelyne Allen means English-reading fans are finally able to enjoy this especially grotesque collection of tales featuring some of Junji Ito’s most disturbing artwork and visuals. And if you’re a longtime fan, just reading that last sentence probably has you salivating over what’s to come. You won’t be disappointed.
As for reviewing the stories, I’ve tried to list their original Japanese titles alongside the freshly translated English ones, if only because the OG versions are usually much, much cooler.
“Supernatural Transfer Student” (orig. Occult Transfer Student) starts off innocently enough; a group of friends start a ‘Supernatural Club’ at school, eager to share the fun of the unexplained with the world. When a new transfer student arrives, one eager to experience what he calls the town’s “bizarreness”, the friends immediately offer him a chance to join their group, and before long there’s more to the club’s activities than bending spoons. Waterfalls and lakes appear out of nowhere, and when one of their friends disappears the others begin to suspect their new classmate may be hiding a secret. They would be right. Despite its abrupt ending, this is among Ito’s longer tales and features a very creepy undead corpse.
The titular “Moan” (orig. Groaning Drain Pipes) combines nearly everything fans love about a good Junji Ito story; vicious schoolgirls, grotesque body-shaming, and a payoff that really delivers the goods. Two sisters live with their cleanliness-obsessed mother, an older divorcee who runs the household like a tyrant, berating anyone who dares question her obvious mental illness. Her latest obsession is plumbing, something we can all relate to. While the story is a little disjointed, there’s no denying the brutality of its conclusion, where the villain’s comeuppance is more go-downance. Trust me, it’ll make sense after you read it. Fun fact: a live-action adaptation of his story was released back in 2004. Less fun fact: it’s pretty terrible.
“Blood Orb Grove” (orig. Blood-Bubble Bushes) is a new take on vampirism, one wrapped in a familiar Ito setup. After a bloody object strikes their car, a young couple finds themselves stranded in the middle of nowhere. After being chased by what seems to be a gang of crazed children, they come across an abandoned city, the only remaining resident still living there is a mysterious man with his own sad story of lost love. The setup is predictable, but the visual depictions are especially unnerving examples of Ito’s exquisite body-horror.
“Flesh-Colored Mystery” (orig. Flesh-Colored Horror) is perhaps this collection’s highlight, if for no other reason because the ultimate reveal would make Clive Barker jealous. After getting assaulted by a glue-like substance on the street, a young teacher is exasperated by the violence of one of her students, a creepy little boy with piercing eyes who threatens to tear the skin off other kids’ faces. Our teaching heroine attempts a family intervention, though in classic horror fashion her dedication soon takes the meaning of ‘skin in the game’ to a whole new level. As mentioned above, this one has some particularly gruesome artwork, some of which are great candidates when you’re looking for something to qualify as ‘Ito-esque’.
“Near Miss” isn’t just the shortest entry in the collection, but the least consequential. After seeing a report that a commercial airline that was carrying their friend had gone missing, a group sets out in their own private plane to track him down. A minor story with some nice artwork that fans will appreciate having access to.
“Under the Ground” (orig. Inside the Earth…) turns what should have been a joyful occasion, the long-awaited unearthing of a time capsule buried under the school twenty years prior, into a surprise more shocking than anyone could have predicted. It’s the classic setup of a nasty person getting what’s coming to them, and not even children are safe in Ito’s perverse universe. The ending is telegraphed long before the final panel, but Ito’s cinematic pacing and drawn-out dialogue makes the big reveal very satisfying.
Conclusion
There’s something about the earlier manga from Junji Ito that really lands hard, if only because his artwork can feel more visceral and threatening than most of his modern output, even when his actual storytelling can seem a little lackluster by comparison. Moan has many examples that could rank among his most disturbing imagery, some of which are truly horrifying in concept and execution. I still wish these collections contained more linear notes or commentary, but I’d be the last to complain about having more properly translated Junji Ito stories to snuggle up with.
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