Alley is the latest Junji Ito horror manga collection to be reprinted (it first appeared in 2011) and it’s not up there with his best. Of the 10 stories here I only really liked 2, but luckily one of them was the longest story so it’s not as bad a read as it could’ve been.
The title story is one of the two good stories here. A lodger hears spooky sounds emanating from the alley outside his room and begins investigating what happened there once upon a time - with spooky results!
The other good story is Town of No Roads, the longest story in this collection, which reads like a fever dream/escalating nightmare. A girl imagines a boy at school who likes her is sneaking into her room at night whispering her things to make her fall in love with him - and then Jack the Ripper starts appearing in her dreams!
The story is told in this pretty clunky way, like Ito had various ideas that he slapped together and it’s very obvious that they don’t gel as they sit awkwardly alongside each other. One episode sees her family suddenly start spying on her for no reason and then she decides to run away to visit her aunt who lives in this utterly insane town.
As clumsily as the story progresses, it’s undeniably interesting and imaginative - and the idea of a fully covered town, like it’s one giant house, is really unnerving. Especially how the inhabitants maintain their privacy.
There are a few stories about creepy “things” - evil tobacco/mould/ice cream - and Ito turns everyday locations - like a local inn and a hospital - into disturbing hellscapes, but the stories just aren’t that compelling and feel silly more than anything. The other stories are just plain forgettable like the one about floating people, the guy trying to get his girlfriend’s father’s blessing for marriage, and the girl with the false memories.
If you’re after a decent Junji Ito collection, check out Frankenstein or Shiver - Alley is really only for the birds. This one wasn’t up my… street.
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