Shiver by Junji Ito Review

A cursed record that dooms its listeners. A mysterious jade carving that bestows a horrific disease on those who possess it. A monstrous fashion model. Ghostly blimps of the dead. A crazed puppeteer who turns his family into marionettes. A muse that drives painters mad. A man whose dreams distort time and, eventually, his body. A man determined to carry on his family’s lineage, no matter what. And a nightmarishly greasy house and the poor family the grease envelopes.

Shiver is one of Junji Ito’s better horror manga collections. Some of his stories are a bit weak, containing only a striking image or idea and a lot of fluff around it, but some are quite brilliant and unique. Ito’s stories are nothing if not original, though often they’re too absurd or silly, undercutting the horror with unintentionally amusing over-the-top moments.

Ito’s art is first rate and nowhere else is the body horror aspect to his stories more effective than the ones in this collection. Like the holes in people’s bodies in Shiver, the bizarre ways Mukoda morphs in The Long Dream, the heads upon heads in Honored Family, and the gross-out scene in Greased Oil where the brother squeezes the zits on his face, pouring oil onto his tormented sister’s face. The character design of Fuchi in Fashion Model is also genuinely disturbing. This book has some really haunting and unnerving imagery that’ll stick with you - excellent stuff for a horror comic to have.

The stories, though simplistic, are mostly quite entertaining too - Used Record, Shiver, Fashion Model, and Greased Oil were my favourites. I didn’t think Honored Ancestors or Fashion Model: Cursed Frame were very good and Painter is quite forgettable too.

The others had elements I liked in fairly average stories. Hanging Blimp, Marionette Mansion and The Long Dream are the unique stories I mentioned earlier - nobody else could come up with killer ghostly blimps that try to hang you while wearing a giant mask of your head! And Marionette Mansion is insanely goofy in concept, while The Long Dream is pure weirdness. And yet, as inventive as they are, they’re less scary because they’re so strange, verging on the comedic. I won’t go into details in case anyone’s worried about spoilers so I’ll just say that some of the imagery in these three stories just made me laugh.

Also included are brief commentary pieces for each story, along with notes and sketches. They add a little something to each as Ito illuminates how each story was conceived and I thought it was really interesting to see how he outlines his stories.

While my reaction to this collection was mixed, I have to admire the creativity here and Ito’s skill as an artist remains impressive to say the least. If you’re a Junji Ito fan, you’ll read Shiver anyway, but for anyone who’s interested in the author, I suggest starting with Shiver (or Frankenstein, or Lovesickness) as one of the better collections of his distinctive brand of horror manga.