The Liminal Zone (Junji Ito)

Another collection of stories by arguably the greatest horror manga-ka of our time. Volume contains 4 stories Ito-San did during the Covid-19 lockdown.

I am a long time Junji Ito fan, and this recent publication did not disappoint. The artwork is top notch with full page art at the peak of the stories. I really liked the first story a lot, which is why I bought the book. The professional mourner is a common topic for me recently, so dipping into the zeitgeist for some Junji Ito flavor was very refreshing. Thank you Junji Ito for sharing your stories and artwork!

Liminal Zone is a strong if short horror collection. This hardcover book contains four stories, three of which I liked very much. In the first, a young couple attend a funeral where a professional mourner has been hired to cry to the deceased. Following the encounter, the woman starts weeping uncontrollably. In a desperate bid to stop the flow of tears, the couple search for the mourner, only to encounter the village of the weeping women and discover the terrible purpose for their wails of anguished grief. The second story takes place at a Catholic school. Beautiful Maria catches the lecherous eye of the school's principal and thus the displeasure of his wife, a woman believed to be the reincarnation of the Madonna. To survive the strange happenings that bring harm to any who cross the principal's wife, Maria must untangle a web of jealousy, adultery, and murder. In the third story, a terminally ill man and his girlfriend travel to a forest to commit double suicide. As the sun goes down, they find an eerie cave in the middle of the woods that looks like a demonic mouth, and a torrent of spirits rushes out of the opening. The man leaps into the flow, thinking this is a good way to end his life. But in the morning, his girlfriend discovers him both alive and healthier than he's been in months. Addicted now to jumping into the nightly stream of spirits, the man's fate might be one worse than death. The last one is my least favorite. Not that it's bad or anything. I just don't find it as compelling as the three stories that came before in. In this one, a college student begins having vivid dreams of committing murder, only to discover that the murders happened in reality. He must be the killer. There is no other rational explanation, unless something sinister and supernatural is involved. Since this is a very balanced collection with most of the stories being very good, this is a great volume for both Junji Ito fans and readers new to his work.

I loved all 4 stories in this collection! I have read nearly all of the books by Junji Ito that Viz has translated/published and this is definitely high in my list of favorites. Typically there are 1 or 2 rather forgettable duds in a collection of stories but that's not the case here at all. I will be re-reading all of them again soon. Weeping Woman Way is probably my favorite though. It's a great concept and the way it was executed was just perfect. As for the physical book: I guess I was expecting this to be the glossy hard cover without a dust jacket like Lovesickness and a lot of the other collections but it's not! The book has this thick matte dust jacket with silver foil lettering making it just plain gorgeous. There are less color images then Sensor (and no poster on the back of the jacket) but it's just so nice! I'm so glad I bought this for my growing collection.