The Liminal Zone (Junji Ito)

Liminal Zone is a strong if short horror collection. This hardcover book contains four stories, three of which I liked very much. In the first, a young couple attend a funeral where a professional mourner has been hired to cry to the deceased. Following the encounter, the woman starts weeping uncontrollably. In a desperate bid to stop the flow of tears, the couple search for the mourner, only to encounter the village of the weeping women and discover the terrible purpose for their wails of anguished grief. The second story takes place at a Catholic school. Beautiful Maria catches the lecherous eye of the school's principal and thus the displeasure of his wife, a woman believed to be the reincarnation of the Madonna. To survive the strange happenings that bring harm to any who cross the principal's wife, Maria must untangle a web of jealousy, adultery, and murder. In the third story, a terminally ill man and his girlfriend travel to a forest to commit double suicide. As the sun goes down, they find an eerie cave in the middle of the woods that looks like a demonic mouth, and a torrent of spirits rushes out of the opening. The man leaps into the flow, thinking this is a good way to end his life. But in the morning, his girlfriend discovers him both alive and healthier than he's been in months. Addicted now to jumping into the nightly stream of spirits, the man's fate might be one worse than death. The last one is my least favorite. Not that it's bad or anything. I just don't find it as compelling as the three stories that came before in. In this one, a college student begins having vivid dreams of committing murder, only to discover that the murders happened in reality. He must be the killer. There is no other rational explanation, unless something sinister and supernatural is involved. Since this is a very balanced collection with most of the stories being very good, this is a great volume for both Junji Ito fans and readers new to his work.

So Junji Ito ... my wife is addicted to his writing and manga ... so when he was at SDCC ... I knew I was in trouble. So we went to his speaking engagement and the man is really brilliant (honestly I had no idea who he was prior to this) ... I felt bad for him because his hands are very badly gnarled because of years of drawing. But no one can take away the horror he inspires with everything he writes and draws. He creates horrors that give nightmares horrors ... the things he writes and draws is amazing and terrifying and beautiful at the same time. The stories are all enthralling and tell tales that will give you nightmares but you will soon realize that even your nightmares pale in comparison to the nightmares he is writing. It's truly awe inspiring to be honest. One day we will lose this horror genre master but for now, I recommend everyone buy his books and be both inspired and terrified.

I purchased both at the same time because just look at em. Beautiful cover art with insane tales behind. Junji never disappoints.

I loved all 4 stories in this collection! I have read nearly all of the books by Junji Ito that Viz has translated/published and this is definitely high in my list of favorites. Typically there are 1 or 2 rather forgettable duds in a collection of stories but that's not the case here at all. I will be re-reading all of them again soon. Weeping Woman Way is probably my favorite though. It's a great concept and the way it was executed was just perfect. As for the physical book: I guess I was expecting this to be the glossy hard cover without a dust jacket like Lovesickness and a lot of the other collections but it's not! The book has this thick matte dust jacket with silver foil lettering making it just plain gorgeous. There are less color images then Sensor (and no poster on the back of the jacket) but it's just so nice! I'm so glad I bought this for my growing collection.

Junji Ito brings forth the edge of the imagination again with mind bending horror stories that are truly unique. Nobody is safe and the fabric of reality is always pierced by the supernatural. Another wonderful collection of horror stories.

Nice

Absolutely loved it. Read it in one go.

I think this may be the thinnest out of all the hard cover collections. As always, the art and cover are phenomenal! I don't think Ito has written a single bad story yet. This collection of stories were very weird but in a good way! Even though Ito feels like he's running out of ideas, he never fails to whip up something fresh out of old topics he has in his notes. I enjoyed the story about Madonna and Aokigahara.

É um trabalho mais recente de Junji Ito e tem uma pegada mais diferente do que ele fez em Tomie 1 e 2, é um terror cósmico, em relação a qualidade do material da VIZ não sei pq as pessoas desmerecem a produção nacional que dá de 10 a 0, principalmente a editora pipoca e nanquim, a qualidade da viz é comum as páginas são apenas coladas e não costuradas como os da pipoca e nanquim, a qualidade de impressão é boa e o papel é agradável de folhear, mas o caderno em si é como se não tivesse a película que protege e já começou a descascar nos cantinhos isso só no período de leitura que foi uma semana, coloquei logo no saquinho pra não danificar mais 😪 peguei numa promoção ainda assim foi caro kkkkkkkkk, vou esperar os lançamentos nacionais mesmo.

Son poquitas historias cortas, pero todas muy interesantes y obviamente hermosas gracias a la mano del artista Junji Ito. Me encanta que aunque sean otros tiempos, el estilo del manga de Junji Ito parece ser igual a la de hace años, de su época de oro. Lo malo: Amazon nunca protege los libros en los envíos! Literal solo los echa a la caja, sin hule protector o ya mínimo sus bolsitas de aire, nada!! De milagro me llegó intacto.

Je me suis fait avoir je pensais qu'il était en français. 😭 ma faute.... je regarderai mieux avant de me jeter sur un livre la prochaine fois...

Came in good condition very high quality and delivery rate was also good.

Great as always. The artwork is brilliant, I had the book in my living room and everyone who’s seen it has picked it up and looked at the cover. Enjoyed all the stories here and would definitely recommend this book.