Junji Ito is one of the modern masters of Japanese horror, with his manga and media inspired by it featuring a huge range. Some of his best tales are ones found in compilations that offer little tastes of terror, such as we’ve seen with quite a few volumes Viz Media’s released worldwide. Statues: Junji Ito Story Collection is the latest tome, pulling together 10 of his past works. As you’d expect, it’s a good time for people who love stories that range from generally unsettling to full-on body horror. Now, to start, Statues: Junji Ito Story Collection does pull together a number of older manga published in different places in Japan into one collection. In order, we’re getting “Red Thread,” “The Giver,” “The Bridge,” “The Circus has Come to Town,” “Hornet Nest,” “Town of Maps,” “Statues,” “Die Young,” “Scarecrow,” and “Suicide Note.” All of them originally appeared in the early 1990s, some of them in Japanese compilations. From what I can tell, “Suicide Note” is the most recent, given it appeared in 1992, and two of the “oldest” ones here are The Bridge and Red Thread from 1990. This volume is about helping us catch up, really. However, while these are older stories, the nature of them means none feel dated. Now, as mentioned I mentioned right from the start, one thing Junji Ito is good at with his scary stories is body horror, and this manga collection kicks off with that with “Red Thread.” Following a break-up, a high schooler named Tomo Ishii discovers red thread that can’t be cut going cross his left wrist, then up his arm and down toward his stomach. When he gets home with his family, his grandfather suggests it’s possibly similar to a senninbari charm. However, as time goes on, it seems like some other sort of supernatural charm or curse. “Statues” is similar, though it takes some time to get to that element. Following mysterious deaths and disappearances tied to a school’s art room, a young woman named Rumi finds that things might be awry there.Go Ad-Free With Siliconera+View the site with no ads, be able to provide direct feedback about what we cover, and be automatically entered into our monthly PC game giveaway.Join Siliconera+ Others are more traditionally scary, occasionally with intriguing twists. “The Bridge” is one of the earlier ones in this compilation. It features an old woman plagued by ghosts of those who died before her. She begs for a family member to come, and a grandchild who heeded the call learns some unsettling lore about that hometown. Likewise, “The Circus has Come to Town” features a circus that seems exciting, but has a dangerous and disastrous allure to it. It’s only once people appear and watch that they see its arrival might not be the delightful occasion they expected. Now, while some of the tales in Statues: Junji Ito Story Collection are genuinely scary or disturbing, others are more odd. They feel like the Twilight Zone episodes in which things would be slightly off or weird. but maybe not involve danger. Just oddities. “The Giver,” about a son giving away dolls his father made while under a hypnotic suggestion, is a perfect example. “Town of Maps” is similar in that it does involve a supernatural element can is unsettling, but isn’t as horrifying as some of the other works. It’s just lightly creepy. Statues: Junji Ito Story Collection is the sort of compilation that’s a good example of what to expect from that mangaka’s manga. Some of the stories are eerie and unsettling, but aren’t outright deadly and horrifying. Others truly are shocking, with elements that leave you thinking about them later. (Or maybe, if it gets into your head, seeing again in your nightmares.) While none are as immediately iconic and memorable as Tomie or Uzumaki, they’re still all solid examples of Junji Ito’s work. Statues: Junji Ito Story Collection is available via Viz Media. We may earn a commission if you purchase from certain links. Learn more here.The post Statues: Junji Ito Story Collection Is as Unsettling as You’d Expect appeared first on Siliconera.