| Title | : | Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1421598469 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781421598468 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 416 |
| Publication | : | Published April 16, 2019 |
Try not to be noticed when you eat the secret nectar, otherwise you'll get smashed... What horrific events happened to create the earthbound-people tied to a certain place for the rest of their short lives? A strange haunted house comes to town, but no one expects it to lead to a real hell... Welcome to Junji Ito's world, a world with no escape from endless nightmares.
Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection Reviews
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I read this for an experiment I did on my YouTube channel where my best friend picked out my tbr. This was... SOMETHING ELSE THAT'S FOR SURE. I can't say that it was the most horrifying collection of stories, but it definitely delivered some SPOOKS. I think the thing that I liked the most about it was how unique a lot of the stories were. Some of the stories did fall flat in terms of how they were tied up, but overall this was a solid collection. Big trigger warnings for suicide, eating disorder, & animal abuse.
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It's that time of the month when I decide to read a Junji Ito book knowing it will wreck my shit and I will not sleep for days.😱
♈ Blood sucking darkness ⭐⭐⭐
♉ Ghost of prime time ⭐⭐⭐
♊ Roar ⭐⭐
♋ Earthbound ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
♌ Death row doorbell ⭐⭐⭐⭐
♍ The mystery of haunted house ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
♎ Soichi beloved pet ⭐⭐⭐⭐
♏ In mirror valley ⭐⭐⭐⭐
♐ I don't want to be a ghost ⭐⭐⭐⭐
♑ Library version ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
♒ Splendid shadow song ⭐⭐⭐⭐
♓ Smashed ⭐⭐⭐
Overall rating - 3.8~ 4✨
One of the most well-rounded collections I have ever read. I mean the themes captured in it. Wow top notch ❤️
I could pretend I will write more at some point, but y'all know that's...
Bullshit and never gonna happen. -
Smashed is the latest collection of short horror mangas by acclaimed (though I don’t know why!) creator Junji Ito, none of which were especially good! I won’t go through each and every one in this bumper book but no single story stood out over the others - they were all pretty dumb!
And that’s the thing with Ito: he’s has no concept of subtlety - which I’m sure is what appeals to some of his readers - but the horror is so over-the-top that it undermines any potential scares and makes it hard to take the stories seriously. Like in Soichi’s Beloved Pet where a creepy kid turns a cute kitten into a monstrous demon - it’s not enough to just do that, Ito has to then turn the cat into some kind of EMP bomb (not really but that’s what it looks like on the page)?! It’s so silly.
Still, I was mildly curious to find out how bonkers Ito would take each story so I can’t say I was too bored by them. But I also wasn’t very engaged either given that the stories are so very simplistic and shallow: people are haunted by ghosts/something until they die or go crazy - repeat ad nauseam!
While the character models look the same here as they do in every other Ito book - he has a very limited range - he can definitely pull off an unsettling image here and there. The vampire bat hopping across the floor, the ghost of the death row prisoner ringing the doorbell every night to apologise to his victims’ kids, the caged demon boy, and the people posing like Christ on the crucifix were all strikingly weird-looking.
Junji Ito fans might find enough in Smashed to make it worth their while but they’re probably going to be the only ones who’ll enjoy this book. -
I told my younger sister about some of the short stories in this horror manga collection. She was intrigued, and we ended up squished together in the backseat of our car reading the rest as one.
Safe to say Junji Ito has done it again, folks. -
A collection of horror manga from the master, Junji Ito. Maybe not up to the level of last story collection Shiver, but still creepy, gross, pulpy, funny, scary, with stories of nightmares, haunted houses, ghosts from hell, secret nectar (which can get you smashed in myriad ways), lots of blood, all accomplished through black and white, pen and ink! Ito has one book on his cats, which his fans did not want to hear about, they only want the monstrous, but one story features an insane cat.
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Currently making my way through the whole Junji Ito catalogue. Consistently bizarre and entertaining.
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Recopilación de relatos de terror:
1. En frente de Souichi / The souichi front. Este relato no me ha gustado nada, siento que mezcla demasiadas cosas a la vez. La parte de la maldición y los niños con los clavos en la boca, es lo que más me ha gustado, por esa estética tan deformada y grotesca.
2. La mascota de Souichi: Souichi sigue sin gustarme, esté relato gana un poco porque la mascota es un gato. Cuando la familia decide quedarse con un gatito al que llaman Collin, esté poco a poco va teniendo comportamientos extraños, para acabar convertido en una versión gatuna deformada y grotesca al puro estilo Souichi.
3. En el valle de los espejos. Un grupo acude al valle de los espejos para averiguar qué ocurrió y porque desaparecieron todos. Hace mucho tiempo una comunidad se dividió en dos, una en cada extremo del valle, su mirada de odio podía enfermar a su víctima. Llenaron los dos extremos del valle de espejos, al más puro estilo de Romeo y Julieta, dos jóvenes se suicidan porque les prohíben estar juntos. Ahora sus fantasmas acuden para atormentar a los vivos. Es cuando el odio crece y es tan intenso, que el reflejo entre espejo y espejo genera un siseo, y acabará siendo el final de todo.
4. Cualquier cosa menos fantasmas. El protagonista recoge a una mujer en la carretera cubierta de sangre y trata de ayudarla. Poco a poco se irán conociendo y descubrirá que en realidad es una devoradora de almas. Y qué a él le siguen los fantasmas. De momento la mejor historia de todas.
5. Biblioteca de ilusiones: cuenta la historia de un joven matrimonio qué vive en una mansión, con una biblioteca con 135.000 ejemplares. Cuando un libro desaparece, el marido comienza a obsesionarse con vigilar los libros y memorizarlos, porque presiente que algo terrible va a pasar. Poco a poco va perdiendo la cabeza, mientras su mujer no puede hacer nada para evitarlo.
6. Canciones en la oscuridad: comienza con la protagonista caminando por la calle y encontrándose con una cantante callejera. Poco después se dará cuenta de que se ha metido la canción en su cabeza y no puede dejar de escucharla. Comienza a buscarla sin éxito, pero un día escucha la canción en la radio, la cantante ha saltado a la fama y ahora hay fans por todo el país con la canción metida en la cabeza. Desesperada llegará a una clínica para encontrar una solución y allí averiguará ... Mejor léanlo es la mejor parte del cómic.
7. Película Sangrienta: Después de un viaje un hombre vuelve a su hogar con un manjar exquisito, una miel de sabor increíble y una advertencia. No te dejes atrapar! Compartirá la miel con sus amigos, hasta que un día desaparezca y en su casa encuentren una extraña mancha en la pared. Uno a uno irán desapareciendo o más bien siendo ... -
--Bloodsucking Darkness
--Ghosts of Prime Time
--Roar
--Earthbound
--Death Row Doorbell
--The Mystery of the Haunted House
--The Mystery of the Haunted House: Soichi's Version
--Soichi's Beloved Pet
--In Mirror Valley
--I Don't Want to Be a Ghost
--Library Vision
--Splendid Shadow Song
--Smashed -
Another horror anthology by Junji Ito. I really enjoyed maybe 3 or 4 out of the 13 tales, and thought most of the others were just decent. I actually tend to like Ito's sad stories more than his pure horror stories. As such, Earthbound, Roar and Death Row Doorbell were my favorites.
Death Row Doorbell: A happy family of five is torn apart when they're assaulted by a gang of rogue bikers during a summer vacation, leaving the father and youngest child dead, and leaving the brother and sister who survived in care of their mother who is now suffering from severe brain damage from the beatings she endured. Every day, the spirit of the gang leader appears at their front door, begging for forgiveness while his body wastes away in prison waiting for his death sentence to be carried out. The brother and sister refuse to forgive him, growing further tormented by the spirit of the man who destroyed their lives until one of them finally snaps. The theme of the story is about how holding grudges and being unable to forgive those who have wronged us ends up hurting the victims much more than it hurts the assailants. Vengeance, hatred and grudges are all horribly self-destructive things.
Earthbound: My favorite of the bunch. A mysterious syndrome goes around where people stand in place like human scarecrows over sites of mourning. Graves, abandoned houses, memorial sites, grief has seemingly become a physical disease which binds someone to a single location until they die of malnutrition. There's more to the syndrome than meets the eye, however. Is it caused by grief, or is it caused by a guilty conscience? Are they being punished by their inability to move on, or are they being punished for more sinister reasons?
Roar: Every day, the ghostly illusion of a flood flows through a ravine because the waters are haunted by the tortured souls of flood victims who were drowned in nearby villages. It deals with themes of survivor's guilt and the dangers of clinging to the past.
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If you're looking for dark ambient music that's perfect for reading horror, thrillers, dark fantasy and other books like this one, then be sure to check out my YouTube Channel called Nightmarish Compositions:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPs... -
JUNJI JANUARY
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This collection was soo disappointing, especially after loving Ito’s Shiver collection. :<
Where Shiver delivered some legitimate scares (I had to cover a particular page in the bind-up because it creeped me out so much!) Smashed is super… lackluster. These read like old-school horror movies, for better or for worse. I find that the B-horror aesthetic makes it so there’s a lot of cringey dialogue and excessive exposition. This results in the narrative being so campy that any scare factor they might have had was removed. That might work for some readers, but it did nothing for me.
Some highlights for me were:
• When the cat in one story comes trouncing over with some grotesque insect in its mouth
• The child from the haunted house story was creepy AF
• The atmosphere of the library story was good
• I never thought someone eating a good ghost could be so unsettling
• The titular story, “Smashed”, was actually really good
I don’t think this will dissuade from reading more Ito, but it’s too bad that this didn’t hit the mark for me. I would recommend to readers looking for B-horror aesthetics in a sequential art format. Otherwise, I would recommend starting with Ito’s Shiver (or maybe his longer narrative work, but I haven’t read any yet, so I can’t personally comment on them.) -
This is my third Ito and I become more obsessed with each one I read. It’s big and chunky and filled to the brim with awesomeness. The artwork is absolutely out of this world, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such beautiful yet creepy illustrations! They are beyond stunning and incredibly creepy and a true work of art. The stories were the true star here though, they truly blew my mind. Each one was creepier and more terrifying than the last and I blew through all of them in one sitting because I just couldn’t stop feasting my eyes and brain on this collection. I think it’s safe to say that Ito is officially an auto buy author after finishing this one. His mind is just deliciously gruesome and creepy and I adore it.
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4.0 Stars
As always, these stories by Junji Ito were weird, gruesome and disturbing. I enjoyed some of the stories more than others. By far, my favourite story was Earthbound, which is probably the best short story I’ve read by Junji Ito. The “why” behind the story was so powerful with some serious “gut punch” moments. I also enjoyed Bloodsucking Darkness (eating disorders & blood sucking bats, yes please), Library Vision (a cautionary tale of obsessive book collecting) and Smashed (where people get... smashed).
If you love Junji Ito’s work, then you won’t be disappointed with this collection. I would definitely recommend this collection to anyone looking to try out some of Junji Ito’s work. This is a great place to start. -
I received an ARC copy of this book from Edelweiss
actual rating: 3.5
This is the second Junji Ito story collection that I have read. The first was Shiver and I definitely thought that one was a bit better, but this was still definitely a very good read. I was once again pleasantly surprised by all the interesting and unique plot lines in the stories. Most horror stories these days seem to just draw from the same 10 cliches that we've all seen a million times, but the majority of these are very different and the fact that you don't automatically know where the story is going or how it's going to turn out really helps make it creepy.
Also - mild spoilers but I just wanted to mention it because it was stressing me out while reading this particular story - but in Souichi's Beloved Pet the cat is okay at the end of the story and doesn't die. I know a lot of people - like me - really don't like animal death in stories and I probably would have been able to enjoy that particular story more if I had been assured ahead of time that nothing bad would happen to the cat ;) -
A fairly tame collection for Junji Ito as far as the art goes, but it still has some pretty twisted stories that help set the mood for Halloween. "Earthbound" was the eeriest for me. Fuchi, the shark-toothed fashion model from Ito's
Shiver: Selected Stories has cameos in a couple of the stories. -
"Why would Ogi be a pancake like this?"
When it comes to Junji Ito horror stories (one of my current obsessions), this is a superb collection. It's also, fortuitously, the most "Halloweeny" of Ito's books I've read, with haunted houses, ghosts, monsters, and whatnot.
Of the 13 stories, my favorites were:
- Earthbound
- Library Vision
- I Don't Want to Be a Ghost
- Death Row Doorbell
- The Mystery of the Haunted House and The Mystery of the Haunted House: Soichi's Version
But you know what? They were all fantastic. "Roar," "In Mirror Valley," "Splendid Shadow Song," and "Ghosts of Prime Time" could've also been on the list, and then you've pretty much got the whole book.
"Library Vision," in which a guy loses his fucking mind keeping track of his books, is essentially a horror story about Goodreads users. Bibliophiles beware.
The sheer B-horror movie idiocy of the groupies in "Smashed" made me laugh out loud. Yeah, what could it possibly be that's making people flatten like pancakes in front of you? Maybe the obviously cursed nectar of the gods you were warned about eating and yet are stuffing your faces with?
Great stuff.
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I've read my share of weird lit, but this one takes the cake. And it's all in graphic format too. Anorexic teens sharing blood meals via vampire bats to stay alive, a bizarre catatonia that renders its sufferers immobile until they literally petrify, an alluring girl who feeds on ghosts for sustenance - all of these and more haunt the pages of this surreal book.
Thing is: Ito's art, with its clean and natural aesthetic, provides a highly effective disconnect against his warped stories that only makes them all the more disturbing. It's like seeing your very own nightmares plying their trade in broad daylight. His technique may be nothing to write home about, but what he lacks in flair he more than makes up for in efficacy. He conjures vivid and disquieting images in these pieces. Witness the chilling death mask of a comedian who was laughing in articulo mortis in Ghosts of Primetime or the freaky scare "actors" in The Mystery of the Haunted House. He can also serve up a full gore bonanza as he did in the eponymous tale, Smashed.
I'm definitely stocking up on more Ito. I'll also check out the animated series based on his oeuvre. It looks positively delicious. In any case, I'm rating this 8/10 or 4 stars out of 5. -
Junji Ito is a modern master of horror comics. Smashed is a collection of short stories full of images and concepts to freeze the blood. His pacing is superb, creating an atmosphere of creeping dread.
It's also nice to read short manga for a change. Even Ito’s longer stories tend to be single volume affairs. Several of the tales in this book are interrelated, but, for the most part, they stand on their own.
Some random thoughts:
I love how the cat's appearance slowly morphs over the course of “Soichi’s Beloved Pet.”
“Ghosts of Prime Time” and “Splendid Shadow Song” both feature some decidedly odd concepts in terms of menace. Definitely not typical horror fare.
The title story, “Smashed,” is just plain weird. I mean that in the best, most loving way possible.
As someone who lives with a fair amount of books in the house, “Library Vision” hits a bit close to home …
I think that, at this point, I’ve had enough experience with Ito’s work to just unreservedly recommend anything he's ever written. -
More Ito, and just as weird as usual. The quality of the stories varies a bit, which is expected with a collection like this, but in general I like Ito's style both in terms of art and imagination. There are some lovely gruesome images in here: The head smashing in Death Row Doorbell, the boy eating the policeman in The Mystery Of The Haunted House (plus the next couple pages), The bodies being piled into the truck bed at the end of Earthbound. Ito seems to be making social commentary in some of these stories, about the price of fame, guilt over past wrongs, or just plain old obsession, but it's not always clear what his point is. In whatever case, the stories are general interesting and strange.
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4.5 ⭐️
This was my first Junji Ito read, though i’ve been wanting to read his works for years now. I’m so glad I was finally able to pick this collection of short stories up. I was able to enjoy the great work of Junji ito and get a glimpse into the macabre mind of Ito. Some of these stories weren’t particularly scary but others left me shocked and kind of sad. I was glad to finally see Soichi which is a character I’ve heard a lot about. I enjoyed this collection a good bit and I loved how varied it was. The artwork was breathtakingly good and I took my time to admire each page. Glad to finally have read this. -
Junji Ito is the poet of contagion.
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Like previous Viz hardcover short story sets, this was a mix of new-to-me and "classic" Junji Ito stories, including "Bloodsucking Darkness," a favorite of mine. That said, this isn't necessarily the place to dig in if you're not already a fan. There are plenty of solid stories here, including many that are very Junji Ito for (more often) good and (more seldom) ill.
I'm personally not a fan of the Soichi stories, though they contain some indelibly Ito-ish images, but there are plenty of ideas contained in here that could not have come from anyone else. -
Smashed is a collection of thirteen horror stories by the proclaimed “master of horror” Junji Ito and I can see why he has earned this title. My favourite of the tales were Earthbound and I Don’t Want To Be A Ghost. The concept of Earthbound was a very unique one.
There are two Haunted House stories and the first one has some of the best horror imagery throughout the whole book. The final story, titled Smashed the same as this collection, is also filled with plenty of gory moments. I have always been blown away whenever I have seen or read some of these manga panels before, at how incredible the art work truly is. I really do like the blend between manga and horror. These short story books really are a good starting point for getting into Junji Ito’s work and I can’t wait to pick up some more! I am a huge fan of horror comics.
4.5 Stars. 💀 (rounded down to 4 overall) -
3.5
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Junji Ito is the proverbial guy-who-plays-chess-while-everybody-else-is-playing-checkers of horror. Holy cow, does he just thinks differently or what?
His stories are not goading you into scares. They're sneaking up on you like your bastard drunken friend in the dark after 3 AM. Ito just doesn't give a damn. His best stories are firmly anchored in the bizarre and the inexplicable like Earthbound and Death Row Doorbell and really wreck you up both ways: inwards (the horror within us) and outwards (the greater unknown). A lot of the stories borrow from common horror lore (mostly ghosts), but veer in original and unexpected directions like an evil tree. Since it doesn't follow any concrete trope, you never know what the hell is going to happen.
Don't read this before going to bed. I'm not easy to scare with books (much easier with movies) but Junji Ito's images will follow you in your sleep. -
2/7/19
I have been a fan of Junji's work ever since the Junji Ito Collection anime came out and so I bought this collection yesterday as an ebook :).
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5/5 star
I love Junji Ito. He draws very disturbingly good horror mangas.
Content/trigger warnings, please don’t read this manga unless you are 18 or above.
This book is 13 horror short stories. I love each of them. I can’t decide which one was better than the other. Every story is unique and gives you goosebumps. When you finish, the image will remain in your mind as you lived in that terrifying manga.
Stories title:
Bloodsucking Darkness
Ghost of Prime Time
Roar
Earthbound
Death Row Doorbell
The Mystery of the Haunted House
The Mystery of the Haunted House: Soichi’s Version
Soichi’s Beloved Pet
In Mirror Valley
I Don’t Want to Be a Ghost
Library Vision
Splendid Shadow Song
Smashed -
Junji Ito's mind... wow
Absolutely no surprise that I adored this book of short horror stories! (some a little more than others) but I am always left astounded at his illustrations, terror and terrifying storytelling -
Such a fun and beautiful collection!
Favourite short?
I Don't Want To Be A Ghost -
I'm not a huge fan of horror books and films.
But Junji Ito—I stan him, so I could be biased with the ⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating.
Minus 1 star due to misspelling and missing words on pages 113 and 310.
