oh wow that was fucking WEIRD!!!!
now let me say out of all of ito's works ive read, these are easily the worst. idk they just hit different. i mean it makes sense this is early on in his career but. yeuck
ok let me break down my opinions on all the short stories;
the long hair in the attic: ngl kinda sucked!!!! the story felt all over the place, the body horror felt like it had no connection to the story, and it didn't really make sense. 2/5
approval: this was literally not a junji ito story. you cant tell me it was. this shit had no body horror!!!!! thoroughly disappointed in this one. easily the worst of this anthology(?); 1/5
beehive:made no sense. was not scary. i will say though the ending was a bit freaky, but from coming off of tomie....... this was nothing. like i said tho the ending ate - tbh it was the only redeemable thing about this story; 1/5
dying young: yet again not really any body horror which was disappointing. i will say i liked how the endings of these stories slowly get more and more fucked up. this one was a bit insane but tbh i didn't overall like the plot. i can see if/why people would like this, i just didn't; 2.5/5
headless sculptures: now we're getting somewhere!!!! fucked up body horror to the extreme. my god that one shot of the teacher actually made me nauseous. first time ever ito has managed that with me. i will say tho this isn't *the* best of this anthology simply cuz the ending was anticlimactic; 3/5
flesh colored horror: EASILY THE BEST. so incredibly fucked up. everything ate with this. did it make sense? not really. did the narrative, ending, and visuals make up for it? 100%. also i love when ito explains stuff, i know its literally the antithesis of a junji ito novel but when motivations for character's insanity is briefly touched on? chefs kiss; 4/5
overall this was mid. the stories got progressively better though, so there's that. i think ito was still trying to find his style here, so im not too mad at finding it mediocre, as i know more works i'll enjoy await me >:)