Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection

So Junji Ito ... my wife is addicted to his writing and manga ... so when he was at SDCC ... I knew I was in trouble.So we went to his speaking engagement and the man is really brilliant (honestly I had no idea who he was prior to this) ... I felt bad for him because his hands are very badly gnarled because of years of drawing. But no one can take away the horror he inspires with everything he writes and draws.He creates horrors that give nightmares horrors ... the things he writes and draws is amazing and terrifying and beautiful at the same time. The stories are all enthralling and tell tales that will give you nightmares but you will soon realize that even your nightmares pale in comparison to the nightmares he is writing. It's truly awe inspiring to be honest.One day we will lose this horror genre master but for now, I recommend everyone buy his books and be both inspired and terrified.

If you like horror or manga or especially both then you can not go wrong with Junji Ito. It doesn't really even matter which book or collection you start with. You will love what you get. BUT if you buy books from Amazon that you don't intend to read immediately(I bought Smashed, Shiver, Sensor and Frankenstein all in the same order after reading and loving Tomie), do yourself a solid and THOROUGHLY INSPECT YOUR BOOK BINDING, particularly on the inside where you wouldn't catch any damage immediately if you don't read it right away.My copy of Smashed came with the inner binding being pretty mangled, mangled in such a way as ut would get worse over time without rubber cement or something. I ordered in August so what I'm sure would have been a hassle free exchange had I caught it in time is instead a loss for me at this point. Viz Media really goes out of their way to make Junji Ito's books sturdy and beautifully presentable but once they hit Amazon's warehouse they seem to treat them with reckless abandon somwtimes. So inspect it before you shelf it to wait its turn in line because you'll likely want to read these books more than once and amazon is pretty good about fixing issues if you actually catch them in a timely manner. The book itself is a five star but Amazon warehouse's treatment of it is a one star.

Junji Ito writes some of the most original horror stories I’ve ever read. They’re also often some of the most grotesque. If you can stomach them, you know you’re always in for a treat with his work, and I’m just sorry I’m a little bit late to the party.Smashed is another stand out collection, featuring some truly impeccable stories. I’m not always a huge fan of Ito’s Soichi stories, but two here, “The Mystery of the Haunted House” and its companion, “The Mystery of the Haunted House: Soichi’s Version” were two of my favorites. I especially loved what appeared to be the return of another Ito character, one featured in one of my favorite stories from his Shiver collection.Other standout stories include the oddly eerie “Roar” and “Earthbound,” which featured a satisfying twist. “I Don’t Want to Be a Ghost” was another gruesomely fun favorite.Highly recommended for Ito fans, Smashed is also an excellent introduction for newcomers to his work.

I read this collection twice now; I wanted to take in the stories and dig deeper. And I found some scary stuff. Junji-Ito uses normal human beings as the monsters in some stories. I applaud him for that, sometimes we tend to forget how horrifying one person could be or how one person could cause so much destruction. And Junji Ito's art pushes that to the max. Brilliant stuff.Not everything is perfect. Some stories are duds. I reread them multiple times, never found anything scary or interesting like the rest are. They lack punch. A few end abruptly, which is disappointing. To end this, Smashed is a wonderful collection that I could recommend to anyone. It's placed high up there with Junji Ito's best works.

Like the Frankenstein collection before it VIZ media publishes another great Junji Ito story collection. This collection is definitely one of the more meatier entries you get over 412 pages and over 13 short stories. Now if you compare it to Frankenstein collection as much as I enjoyed that one the last 3-4 stories were 1-3 pages. In this collection all stories are over 20-30 pages or more. There are no 1-3 page stories in this collection. He uses all 412 pages for longer stories.So what do you get if you buy this collection? The stories (no spoilers) you get are:Blood sucking darknessGhosts of prime timeRoarEarthboundDeath Row DoorbellThe Mystery of the haunted houseThe Mystery of the haunted house Soichi's versionSoichi's beloved petIn mirror valleyI don't want to be a ghostLibrary VisionSplendid shadow songSmashedI know some fans are a little upset about how some of the titles of the stories are translated but I don't mind them too much.Each story is pretty great and unique. None of them share the same concept/creature/protagonists(except the haunted house). Some stories will make you feel disgusted, others will make you feel confused, others will just gross you out. It really is a great collection that shows off how he can take wildly different concept and make them scary or unsettling. I could babble on more about it but I would start spoiling the stories and I don't want to do that. All I am going to say is I just really enjoyed this collection a hell of a lot more than I thought I was. The stories here are just great self contained experiences.Finally I have to say VIZ media keeps knocking it out of the park. I rarely mention it but the quality of the books are pretty amazing. The paper is great, the hardcover always has great art, and they all look great on my bookshelf together. I eagerly await the next story collection.

After watching the anime Junji Ito Maniac I decided to check out the manga starting with this one. It's great

The illustrations are obviously incredible and there are a few particularly terrifying drawings but a lot of the stories had pretty subpar writing although some of them i thought were really good, my favourite being "Death Row Doorbell"

I’m a huge fan of Ito but this particular book didn’t quite sit well with me. If you are just starting, try Tomie or Uzimaki first.

Great book

Ich habe jedes Buch von Junji Ito, das im Deutschen oder Englischen verfügbar ist. Dieses Buch war wieder einmal, wie alle Werke meines Lieblingsmangakas für meinen Geschmack perfekt.Junji Ito perfektioniert japanischen Horror mit seiner ganz eigenen Note. Vom beunruhigenden Wahnsinn her, der von den Geschichten ausgeht (nicht von der Visualisierung), erinnert mich Meister Ito stark an Ralph Steadman. Er ist im Stande, alltägliche Themen in Albträume zu verwandeln.Albträume treffen den Stil von Junji Ito wohl am besten. Keine perfekt gegliederte Horrorgeschichte, wie wir sie aus westlichen Ländern kennen, mit Anfang, Mitte, Ende - sondern sehr plötzlich, verstörend und bizarr.Ich liebe Horror, seit ich ein Kind war, grusle mich aber vor Fiktion nicht mehr, seit ich ca. 13 Jahre alt war (bin jetzt 31). Junji Itos Geschichten sind aber NIEMALS vorhersehbar und beunruhigen mich, wie mehrfach erwähnt, wie es sonst höchstens Albträume können.Ich kann das Buch nur empfehlen, es ist von Umfang und Qualität gut mit SHIVER (Junji Ito) zu vergleichen, Einbände sind auch im selben Stil gehalten.Ich schau schon täglich, wann der nächste Sammelband rauskommt...

I loved the artwork and the eerie stories. It's not jump-scare worthy, but it's definitely gorey and unsettling!I'm a fan of his work and enjoyed the stories a lot🖤