Lovesickness

In the almost-quarter-century since his manga debut, Ito has undoubtedly ascended to world-renown for his prolific tales of horror. Translated into English by Allen, who also translated his Eisner-winning Frankenstein, Ito's latest imported collection opens with the five-part titular "Lovesickness." In relentlessly foggy Nazumi, the "strange, ancient Japanese folkway" practice of "crossroads fortunes" involves standing at an intersection and asking the first passing stranger to answer a question about future love. Middle-schooler Ryusuke's return to Nazumi quickly causes debilitating tension, as he is convinced that his six-year-old self caused a desperate pregnant woman's death. Eight years later, an irresistible specter in black is inspiring multiplying suicides, and Ryusuke fights for survival. In the two-part "The Strange Hikizuri Siblings," a parentless family wreaks supernatural torture on others--and themselves. Three shorts conclude the collection, about a boy whose pain controls the family mansion, the fatal perils of addictive cosmetic surgery, and a fleeting obsession with fake (or not?) feces. Readers will want to turn pages swiftly, not only to see what happens next; once seen, Ito's images--startlingly addictive and terrifying both--can't be unseen.

Ito (Remina) again proves himself a master of modern horror in this collection of 10 stories. Five of the stories depict a town's descent into chaos after the suicide of a woman who practices an ancient custom of waiting at a crossroads to ask her fortune from the first person to pass by. It's revealed that the woman was compelled to take her life by an ethereal black-clad boy who bears a striking resemblance to a teenager named Ryusuke. The boy becomes the object of unwanted attention that quickly escalates to frenzy and builds to a gruesome climax. Ito reveals a talent for macabre humor in a pair of tales starring six ghoulish orphans who only pause their torment of one another to attack unsuspecting outsiders. Of the remaining stories, "The Rib Woman" proves the most memorable, blending body horror and supernatural mystery when a teenager considering cosmetic surgery, to change the shape of her torso, is plagued by strange music that only she can hear. VERDICT Ito's boundless imagination and his skill for evoking dread and visceral terror are on full display in this collection, which is sure to be embraced by his wildly devoted and rapidly growing fanbase.