What awaits them after the wailing?

The Liminal Zone

Twisted Tales from Japan's horror master



Cover for Ito Junji's The Liminal Zone. Artwok shows a woman with long black hair and green eyes, with two faces side by side, sharing the middle eye. Her expression on the left has her red lips curled in anger. The face on the right has a long line of tears flowing from the non-shared eye, her purple lips forming a frown. She is wearing an elaborate sleeveless dress adorned with beads, gold filigree, and precious gems. On her upper arms are five, blue beaded bracelets on each arm, and on each wrist are six bracelets with pink beads. Her left hand is opened with her fingers pointed up and her palm towards her face, and with her nails painted blue. Her right hand is clenched closed, with her nails painted red. The background is a collage of various secenes from the manga in a faded dark red.

Author: Ito Junji
Year first published: 2022
Original Language: Japanese
Genre: Horror

I've always been a big fan of Ito's work. I fell in love with Uzumaki the moment I read it, and have loved Ito’s bizarre, overly detailed artwork ever since. It’s beautiful and ugly at the same time, uncanny and intriguing, and pulls you in as it makes your skin crawl.

The Liminal Zone is a compilation that Ito worked on around the start of the Covid-19 Pandemic, and contains 4 stories: Weeping Woman Way, Madonna, The Spirit Flow of Aokigahara, and Slumber. Just like most of his works, you can never tell from the initial premise where the story is going to go.

I greatly enjoyed this collection. I hadn't read any of these yet and all of them were a treat. As always, his art style is beautiful and uncanny in its depth of detail. The art isn't always big time Capital S Scary, but most of it will send a nice little chill down your spine.

My favorite in the tankoban was probably Madonna, just because of what an absolute roller coaster it was, but all 4 stories were phenomenal. Definitely check this out if you get the chance!



Official Website

Review posted 2023/11/16

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