Itou Junji Kyoufu Manga Collection: Ijimekko

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In my opinion, this is Ito at his absolute best. This short story collection primarily focuses on Psychological Horror, which just so happens to be my favorite (Check out MW if you enjoyed this). Now, this isn't to say that there aren't Supernatural scares in here; trust me, it's Ito we're talking about. It's just most of his stories aren't fear-provoking in this collection. If that's a turn off for you, you might not like this. I'll get into my thoughts on each of the separate stories below, in the order they appear:

1. The Bully (10/10): The Bully tells a horrific tale of Kuriko, who ... is about to break some news to her fiancé. She tells him that she was a horrible person, relentlessly bullying a kid named Nao during her childhood. And what a bully Kuriko was...where most bullies would have stopped, she pursued Nao. There's a whole scene where she makes him aggravate a tiger. Kuriko then tells her fiancé, that she's leaving him for Nao, who is now an adult. Eventually, Kuriko births a child with Nao, and then Nao ditches her. Kuriko, in her darkest hour yet, starts to realize how much her child looks like the kid Nao. She then puts on her old clothes and leads her child, now calling him 'Nao,' outside. The story ends on an open-note, but considering what we've seen her do to Nao, we can only imagine. Fantastic domestic abuse story.

2. House of the Deserter (10/10): The Deserter is a depressing tale about WWII and it's effects on Japan's citizens (before Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, of course). It follows this group of teens who are keeping Furukawa, a deserter of the war, hidden in their house. We are hit with the revelation that the teens are pulling tasteless pranks on Furukawa; they have a friend who is pretending to be an officer searching for deserters every night, in order to scare Furukawa. Why are they doing this? Well as it turns out, Adera's sister (her name doesn't come to me) was desperately in love with Furukawa, and Furukawa returned those feelings. Adera caught onto this; his fury prompted her to run outside in the middle of an air raid, killing her. It's been years since then, and the war is long over. One night, Adera and the others try to break down Furukawa's door in order to get his attention. They find his corpse, rotted away, with a suicide note left. The note was an apology for killing Adera's sister (Even though it was really Adera to blame), and he killed himself for it. Meaning Furukawa's ghost has been haunting the house all these years. It's a fantastic story, and my 2nd favorite of Ito's short stories; my favorite is next up.

3. Heart of a Father (10+/10): Heart of a Father is my #1 Ito story and is the best story of domestic abuse I think I've ever seen a manga cover. I'm sure most can relate to the struggles of having to live up to your parents' expectations, which makes the fear factor so real (maybe not as much as the bully, because there is a supernatural aspect to the story, which I'll get to in a moment). (I highly recommend you either read or re-read the story, since my synopsis cannot do it justice) The story is as follows: Mr.Todo has gone through hell when he was younger to achieve success, due to his poor upbringing, and constantly reminds his children that they will never have it harder than he did growing up. Todo always expects the most out of his children and starts to push his demands onto his eldest son. His eldest son commits suicide after having an argument with his father. It's at this point where the supernatural aspect of the story is introduced: these migraines/headaches that we see his children Miho (his only daughter) and Eichi (his second oldest son) go through. Eichi, after being fed up with his father, drives a unicycle into the highway and also commits suicide. With Miho being his only remaining child, the spotlight is then shine onto her. Previously, we saw Miho experience headaches and have somewhat of a split personality; just prior to Eichi's suicide. Mr.Todo starts to set up Miho with a local kid, Tsukasa, who was once a good friend of Eichi's. The three go to an amusement park, where Mr.Todo plops down on a bench and starts to space out. Meanwhile, Miho asks Tsukasa to take her to the ferris wheel ride, to which Tsukasa obliges. Miho starts having headaches and acts strangely; she tries to jump out of the carriage, but Tsukasa stops her. Not long after, she jumps off a building and Tsukasa catches her. Sometime after, Mr.Todo's wife claims that she is pregnant; Mr.Todo declares that there will be no need for Miho anymore. Miho has been getting love letters from boys at school, and she has thrown one of them down the stairs. When Tsukasa tries to confront Miho, he is warned to stay away from her and is then pushed down the stairs. Tsukasa, after hearing from Miho that she has no recollection of these events, starts to piece things together. As it turns out, Mr.Todo has been giving his children headaches and acting through their bodies, forcing his sons to commit suicide. Tsukasa devices a plan where Mrs.Todo and Miho can go live with his aunt in Hokkaido. Mr.Todo tries to stop then from leaving his clutches, but ultimately fails due to an unyielding Tsukasa. Miho and Mrs.Todo gone, Mr.Todo tells Tsukasa all he wanted was to live through his children's' lives, since he never had time for fun himself. Todo learns to let go of his children's lives, once it's too late. Mr.Todo goes to the same amusement park where he took Tsukasa and Miho, and jumps off the Ferris wheel carriage. It's a haunting story that sticks with me all the time, personally because of my own regret and guilt towards how I saw my parents when I was younger.

4. Memory (7/10): Probably the weakest story in this collection, but still an alright one. Memory follows Rie and her quest to restore her memories from years back. She often has flashbacks of staring the mirror with her mother, but she has an ugly face. When confronting her parents about this, they tell her that it's all in her head. Rie decides she needs to start writing down her memories in case she forgets again. One night, she overhears her parents talking and is lead to a photograph of the ugly woman from her memory. The way this story is building up so far, you believe that she two different personalities. In fear of turning ugly, she tries to kill her parents (don't ask me how this makes sense). She is stopped and snapped out of her trance. Her parents reveal to her that she had a twin sister, who was hideous. Rie envied her for some reason and feared her ugliness rubbing off on her. She killed her sister and forgot everything. Great plot twist.

5. The Back Alley (7/10): The Back Alley begins with Mr. Ishida moving into a new house, which he shares with a woman named 'Shinobu' and her family. At night, he hears voices, possibly kids playing outside. He notices the voices are coming from a sealed off alley next to his window, and goes out to check. He can't see anything, because it's dark, but he's sure that the voices were coming from that alley. The next day, Shinobu introduces him to her room and brings attention to her bookcase, which he can use anytime he wants. The voices persists, and eventually he meets a passerby who tells him of strange dreams he's been having. Apparently, 3 kids were murdered in that back alley and their corpses were never given a proper burial. There was also a window which you could see the whole alleyway, but apparently Ishida couldn't find one. Initially, Ishida laughs it off, calling him crazy. He is tempted to search for the window. He finds it behind the bookcase in Shinobu's room. As he climbs down a rope, the rope is cut by Shinobu. She reveals to him that she killed 6 (3 Adults, 3 kids) people in this alley (2 of which being friends, and one of which being her own father), and that her father suspected it was her and sealed the alley off. Ishida is now trapped in the alley. Shinobu accidently slips and is trapped in the alley, gazing in horror at her victims as their spirits stare back at her. Good story, but I predicted that it was Shinobu.

6. Love as Scripted (9/10): Love as Scripted is a fantastic Psychological Horror short story. The story actually starts in medias res, meaning the first events we see actually take place towards the middle of the narrative. The story begins with Takahashi dumping Kaori and giving her a VHS tape to make up for it. Kaori, isn't exactly too happy about this, and kills him with a kitchen knife. The story then flashes back to when they first met. Kaori was a struggling actor and Takahashi wrote the script for the play she was working on. She starts to gravitate towards Takahashi romantically. Her friend warns her that Takahashi sleeps with all the girls in his plays and breaks up with them, before giving a VHS tape of himself. Kaori is unconvinced that Takahashi actually does this, and continues to date him. Eventually, Takahashi cheats on her and then apologizes and tells her to meet up with him. This is when the scene shifts back to the beginning scene, with Takahashi dead. Kaori finds a script that he left behind, which contained 6 FULL HOURS of conversation that she would say back to the Tv (used in conjunction with the VHS tape). At first, Kaori is annoyed by this, before she becomes quickly adjusted to it and starts responding in real time to the Tv. It's then when Takahashi emerges from the hallway to beg Kaori to call an ambulance, and in return he wouldn't press charges. Kaori simply tells him that she doesn't need him anymore, and alludes to the Tv. Takahashi calls her crazy, and is then swiftly killed by Kaori. It's a fantastic story which illustrates how we value our own romanticized pre-conception of others, above their genuine selves.

7. In the Soil (7/10): In the Soil is highly confusing and the shortest, but still a decent read. The plot revolves around a high school reunion from 20 years ago, and how everyone buried something in their time capsule. After 20 years, they all return to their school to dig up this capsule. Our protagonist (can't remember her name) talks with her friend about their past years and their treasured experiences, before recalling the one stain on their high school legacy: a girl named 'Shinoda.' Shinoda always exuded great negative energy and looked down on everyone out of pure jealousy. The protagonist claims that she actually sent a letter to her and buried it in the time capsule, and that she was searching for Shinoda, but couldn't find her. She does say that Shinoda has been calling her for the past few days, just lamenting her high school experience and hating on the same classmates 20 years later. It's all as if nothing has changed, in all honesty. When uncovering the time capsule, they find Shinoda's corpse, along with all the letters ripped and objects destroyed. Shinoda is still clutching a phone, however, from her lifeless corpse. Good story about hatred.

This is another collection of one-shots, mostly dealing with ghosts or other supernatural occurrences.

Story, 8: I enjoyed mostly every chapter, which was nice after the underwhelming experience of the past few volumes. There was more of a focus on expanding on the setting and overall premises, rather than jumping right into the horror. The stories weren't very "scary" per se, but they did a great job in establishing captivating plotlines.

Art, 7: There weren't as many chances to show off Ito's biological horror prowess, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Characters, 8: Almost every character had some sort of motivation or development that was expanded upon throughout the ... chapters. I was particularly impressed with this aspect of the volume, as the characters are generally fairly two-dimensional.

Enjoyment, 9: Every premise was fascinating, and I thought every chapter had its merits.

Overall, 8: I would highly recommend this particular volume of the collection to any horror fans. Fans of Ito's biological or occult horror stories may be a little disappointed, given that this volume primarily deals with ghosts, but I think the volume as a whole is one of the strongest in the Collection.

Favorite Chapter: "Heart of a Father"
Honorable Mention (Favorite): 'The Bully" (this was a really strong chapter as well but had a few more flaws (in my opinion) compared to "Heart of a Father")
Least Favorite: "in the Soil"