(9/18) What starts as a fairly straight-forward (if exceptionally bleak!) ghost story from Ito, grows with each story, into a minor saga of a cursed town with its own deeply compelling mythology. The stakes grow with each tale until the body count is rising at a staggering pace..

(11/18) The attention to detail in these stories, especially the exceptionally gruesome and rotting teenage revenants that begin to populate the town, are wonderful. Junji Ito is as well-versed in rendering the ever-present fog as he is a putrid skull or gouged neck.

(12/18) While initially carrying over some of the same themes of obsession and suicide as the "Lovesickness" stories, the "Hikizuri Siblings" stories slowly mutate into a strange and wonderfully goofy riff on tales of morbid families.

(13/18) The "giant cloud of amorphous horror" is a Junji Ito staple that pops up often, and I'm always overjoyed to see it! It never stops being an effective show-stopper. The use of it in this story, showing the undiscovered supernatural powers of a little boy, is a great one!

(14/18) In the story "Phantom Pain", Ito explores the concept of a pain so great it actually exists outside of the person feeling it, and how that pain can lead to the ruination of all those caught in it. A truly unique concept executed wonderfully.