The Fall 2017 Manga Guide

Shiver

What's It About? 

A curated selection of short tales and graphic novella gathered from across Junji Ito's decades-spanning oeuvre by Ito himself, Shiver presents an assemblage of absurdist horrors immediately familiar to those already accustomed to their creator's distinctly grotesque style and a perfect jumping-on point for those curious about his work. Whether charting the bloody trail left by a cursed record, examining the fate of a family of puppeteers who find themselves questioning the line between marionette and master, or showcasing life in a Japan under assault by floating disembodied heads, these nine stories showcase a vision of a world unhinged as could only come from artist responsible for Uzumaki, Gyo, Tomie and hosts of other classical horror manga.

Shiver will be available from Viz as a hardcover addition to their Viz Signature line for $22.99 on 12/19/2017.

Is It Worth Reading?

Austin Price

Rating: 3.5

Junji Ito has long struck me more as a historically essential creator more easily studied than enjoyed. While there's no denying his importance – amongst horror manga artists and authors only Kazuo Umezu can claim similar global popularity and influence – his work has always seemed too campy to inspire real dread. The plots to his comics read like the plots of B-movies; his characters are not people one worries over so much as sponges designed to soak up the cosmos' malice. There's an interesting and comprehensive philosophy about the absurdity of life unifying everything he's written that makes him as interesting to dissect as horror mainstays like Campbell or Lovecraft, and his art is undeniably striking, capable of rendering the most haunting imagery, but even these facets inspire not so much terror as admiration.

The first half of the stories collected here in Shiver (which Viz touts as a kind of “best-of” selection put together by Ito himself) do little to disabuse that belief. “Used Record,” which concerns the familiar Ito theme of obsession, plays out like a cautionary tale inspired by the most boring episodes of The Twilight Zone; “Fashion Model” is a particularly ugly joke in desperate want of a punchline or a purpose. There's potential in “Hanging Blimp,” which at first seems prepared to lampoon cultural vanities, but at 65 pages it's bloated and without direction. Only the titular “Shiver” stands out for its suggestions of a larger, stranger mythology and images of body horror that rank amongst Ito's finest, but it ends just as it should start opening up.

It's difficult to tell why these would strike Ito's fancy so much that he would privilege them over worthier selections. They feel too distinctly like the efforts of a young artist still trying to make sense of his talents. By contrast, the latter half of the collection presents works that show an Ito in complete control of the same. It's not only that he's better learned how to pace or compose his stories: he's finally discovered horrors worthy of his unique abilities.

Partly this is a matter of his learning to differentiate truly unsettling ideas from the merely creepy. The affliction that plagues the protagonist of “The Long Dream” – an otherworldly affliction that causes one to experience dreams as events lasting thousands of years, even eternities – allows Ito to play with questions of epistemology, of mortality, and of worldview to deeply disturbing effect. Partly, though, it's a matter of Ito finally learning how to write people, particularly families, with some degree of dimension. Without this element, “Marionette Mansion” would feel like a poor stab at a Ligotti imitation and “Greased Oil” would merely be grotesque, but with it in place Ito finally has a way to explore personal terrors that truly resonate.

It's these welcome divergences from Ito's most famous works that make Shiver worth a look, if even only for insight into the peculiar evolution of one of the world's most peculiar manga artists.

Rating:

Powerful, haunting, and oftentimes frustratingly enigmatic, Junji Ito's Shiver is a collection of haunting stories that will keep you up at night. For the most part, they're not the typical ghost stories where a dead person haunts its prey and no one around the victim believes them. In fact, in the majority of stories, multiple people encounter these abnormalities. In one story in particular, the whole country knows what's going on and it's reported on the news as a bizarre, deadly phenomenon. Whereas the typical ghost stories are set in the shadows, most of Ito's stories here take place in broad daylight or in everyday life, the supernatural events infecting the victims' daily lives bit by bit until they inevitably reach a grim conclusion. Some stories in this volume are stronger than others and some are mostly satisfying in a narrative sense while others don't tie things up in a tidy bow, but all of the stories are out there, bold, and exceptional. There aren't recurring characters, save for a bizarre-looking model who appears in one story and a bonus story at the end, but most of the victims of the individual tales have time enough to make themselves known to the reader so their usually-bleak fates have more meaning by story's end.

Ito's art has always been one-of-a-kind and grotesquely suited to the horror genre. His normal people look average enough, but it's his demons and supernatural entities that stick with the reader—to a really creepy degree. While the violence is usually not as graphic as one might expect—certainly less explicit than many an adult action manga—there are images that will disturb most readers. (Trypophobiacs in particular should proceed with caution.) One story about oil made me nauseous, but the individual reader's mileage may vary. It all depends on what scares you and what grosses you out. Ito offers a variety of situations, likely in hopes to trigger something in everyone.

This oversized hardcover collection is an automatic buy for long-time fans of Ito, but it serves as an excellent introduction to the horror legend's work as well. The stories are structured as such that readers can sit and enjoy them all at once or tackle them one at a time if it becomes too much to keep reading. The only type of manga reader who might want to avoid this collection is the person who doesn't enjoy horror and/or is easily squeamish.

Rating:

I'm not a very squeamish person. I can say the word “moist” with no problems, move dead rodents off the lawn, whatever. But this book…this book turned my stomach. Of course, given that it's by horror master Junji Ito, that's actually a good thing – his entire point in each of these nine short stories is to unsettle you, gross you out, and make you worry what might be hanging outside your window right this very minute. After you read this volume, that could be anything from a pimple-faced monster ready to spray you with his sebum to a strangely unattractive model named Fuchi to a giant replica of your face, complete with a noose to dangle your corpse from. Ito runs the gamut of horror and terror in Shiver, and it's almost a guarantee that at least one of these tales will either churn in your gut or have you looking over your shoulder.

The most effective pieces are the ones that blend both terror (psychological fear) with horror (physical fear/revulsion). On this front, the story for which the collection is named, “Shiver,” is the best in the book. It's use of an amalgamation of fearful things (clusters of small holes, evil artifacts, curses, etc.) makes the story feel dangerous in that you're not entirely sure where it's headed. There are a couple of moments where you think you know what's happening, only to be met with a strange twist at the crucial moment. This is also true of the second to last story, “Dirty Oil,” which also holds the prize for absolute grossest – seriously, do not read this while eating. But like “Shiver,” it takes its time unfolding its ultimate point before trailing off into an ending that isn't nearly final enough to feel safe. The two Fuchi stories are the weakest, but even they still carry enough of an impact to make them stick with you, even if they're also the most predictable of the collection. Junji Ito is more than capable of scaring you in a variety of ways, even if you're thinking that this story can't possibly take a frightening twist.

Ito's horror is not for everyone. It's visceral and gruesome, and if you're only a casual horror reader or have phobias of bugs, groups of small holes, or filth, you're not going to want to read this. But horror fans should definitely check Shiver out. It's a successful blend of horror and terror and shows the breadth of Ito's skills.

Rating:

Manga horror master Junji Ito is back again with more short tales to crawl under your skin and tap into your latent fears and anxieties. Shiver is a collection of the grotesque at its very best, as Ito walkis right up to the edge of the morbidly absurd, checks to make sure the audience is still there, and then diving deep into what makes horror great. Each tale is a reflection of a common anxiety or desperate fixation, at least when the story doesn't go full bore into body horror.

This is the collection that contains Ito's “Glycerides” story, translated here by Viz as Greased: Oil, that quickly circulated the internet thanks to one of the most disgusting frames I've ever witnessed. I am not easily revolted, having survived Hollywood's fixation on “torture porn” horror films mostly in tact albeit a bit jaded to on screen violence. “Glycerides” was enough to make my bile catch in my throat and yet somehow I still want to thank Mr. Ito for the experience. Without spoiling too much, there are zits and they are popped in the most graphic way imaginable.

This is a story from the same guy that brought us the bloated, man-eating fish corpses of Gyo but Ito is just as well known for The Enigma of Amigara Fault, that short story about people inconceivably drawn into their personal, perfectly shaped holes in the side of a mountain. Ito can squick you out just as easily as he can tap into something latent and pull it to the surface to scare you.

In Honored Ancestors he plays with Japan's concept of venerating the dead by having the brains of years and years of lineage continue like parasites on top of one another with the current generation serving as the host. Marionette Mansion shows what happens when a man decides to escape the harshness of reality in favor of letting himself be controlled by unseen manipulators in the ceiling. Perhaps the most psychologically unsettling is Hanging Blimp where an entire town is tormented by giant, sentient balloon heads of themselves that only seek to catch a noose around their neck. Readers don't have to look too hard to find Ito's underlying messages, but this one about the inescapable enticement of suicide takes the cake.

Horror fans will find a little bit of everything in Shiver, but I wouldn't recommend it to the faint of heart. “Glycerides” is going to prove a greasy chapter to swallow for most readers and the collection also opens early with story sure to make anyone with trypophobia itchy. If neither of those things give you pause, than I cannot over-recommend Shiver. It has all the guts, ghouls, and unsettling turns any macabre manga fan could want.