Viz

Ito (Venus in the Blind Spot) is internationally renowned as a master of creeping terror and surrealistically nightmarish imagery, and while this new volume lacks in the former, it raises the bar when it comes to the latter, presenting unforgettable images that range from a gruesome crucifixion to a lascivious tongue lashing a continent-sized groove across the planet. A berserk thrill.

If the internationally acclaimed master of horror Ito (Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection) seems at first a strange choice to adapt Dazai’s 1948 novel, his skill for stories mixing existential dread, body horror, and nightmarishly surreal imagery quickly prove him matched to the material. This unsparingly intense vision of life as a journey through hell, reminiscent of Dostoyevsky and Kafka, just might be Ito’s magnum opus.