She’s two or three years younger, but she has holes riddling her arm. It opens with a high school-aged boy noticing a neighbor looking out the window.

It puts you in the headspace of the lead character and introduces a concept that is impossible, yet is easy to fathom. Not only because of the terrifying imagery it implores, but because this story will literally make you shiver. “Shiver” is the second story in Junji Ito’s Shiver and it’s a story that will linger with you. Not a bad way to start the collection off. While it’s not the best written story (again, this is clearly Ito’s early days), it’s definitely one of the most interesting stories he has ever produced. When the end does hit, the art isn’t so over the top or overdrawn, making the surprise feel more eerie and dreadful. It makes the story more interesting, relying more on the slow buildup and world-building to provide the atmosphere. That smaller and more subtle approach is actually rather refreshing for Ito. However, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s almost like a story I would expect to see in the original Twilight Zone. It’s very subtle and quiet, with such a small layer of eeriness to it. Given the style of the art, it was probably made very early in Ito’s career. There’s nothing particularly horrifying or shocking within its art like you might expect for a Junji Ito title or any particular intensity in the story. “Used Records” is such an odd, reserved title in a collection full of the macabre and nastiness.

However, there’s more to this album than meets the eye and it’s one that leads her down a supernatural, uncomfortable route. The singer’s voice and the melody of it is just so enrapturing and moving that she wants the record badly. Unfortunately, many of these themes of bodily harm are a major hallmark of the Horror genre, so any Ito collection should be carefully considered to make sure it is good for your collection and your students.Our collection of horror and mayhem begins on a lighter tale, probably the lightest tale here, “Used Records.” A young woman named Nakayama is utterly entranced by this mysterious record a friend of hers, Ogawa, has. In 'Honored Ancestors', as in the short story of 'Venus in the Blind Spot', there is some uncomfortable implied rape in the reveal that isn't dealt with before the ending. Some readers are fine with this, but it can leave some of the stories with really unsettling (not in the intended way) consequences. One of the hallmarks of an Ito scary story is to have the shocking reveal within the last few pages, leaving little room for any sort of closure or resolution. As story collections go, this focuses more on the horror aspect with the people turning into horrific monsters, rather than the psychological horror that was in many of the stories of Venus in the Blind Spot.

Shiver ito junji