The 13 Most Terrifying Junji Ito Manga Stories

The arrival of a haunted house turns a town upside down when derision turns to terror as each new visitor enters its doors. Two young boys become entangled in the proprietor’s twisted games after they try to sneak in for free. Upon exploring the ghoulish halls they discover a true house of horrors, one filled with victims who claim to be the owner’s family.

There’s a dark comedy to this one, which comes from another of Ito’s recurring characters, the scheming creeper Souichi Tsujii. But there’s nothing funny about his heinous crimes. The Mystery of the Haunted House is a wild ride that will delight fans of haunt culture.

8. Honored Ancestors

Family often comes up in Ito’s tale, and Honored Ancestors might feature his most psychedelically deranged yet. On a seemingly normal evening Risa is brought home by her close friend Makata who claims that the young girl is suffering from amnesia and couldn’t remember where she lived. According to doctors, her amnesia has been caused by immense emotional stress.

Risa becomes more and more distressed as she becomes haunted by visions of a giant caterpillar… but what does it all mean? The truth revolves around Makata and his family’s strange traditions which are revealed in Ito’s dementedly awful fashion as the tale comes to a close. It’s one family reunion that you’ll never forget, though you’ll wish you could.

7. Uzumaki

Likely the most famous of Ito’s many works, Uzumaki has been deemed a classic for a reason. Weaving a supernatural curse into a ghost story that centers around a small town, Kurouzu-cho, which is haunted not by spirits but instead by spirals, this is a uniquely spooky tale. It also helps that Ito’s distinctive linework does an epic job of making the usually unassuming shapes into something utterly terrifying.

Uzumaki features many of Ito’s favorite themes like obsession, paranoia, and the mundane becoming utterly bizarre. The impact of Uzumaki cannot be overstated, with multiple video game and film adaptations and a highly-anticipated anime adaptation in development. Unfortunately, the most recent Uzumaki TV adaptation fell flat, scoring very low marks in IGN’s own review.

6. Fashion Model

While many of Ito’s stories are slow burn haunters, this is a more in your face horror tale that reveals its monster from the earliest pages. Like our next entry, Tomie, Fashion Model has become one of Ito’s most popular long-running tales. When a young man sees a bizarre model in a magazine whose mouth is filled with dagger-like teeth, he becomes consumed by her image. He can’t stop thinking about her, about why she was hired, and why she fills him with an all-consuming existential terror.

Life moves on, and he and some friends begin casting for a student film. It’s here that the model reemerges back to the forefront of his life in brutal and all too real fashion. This is a great entry into both the Ito and monster horror canon.

5. Tomie

Probably Ito’s most famous creation, the stunningly beautiful Tomie was murdered by her classmates only to reappear the next day. Since then she’s been terrorizing readers and lovestruck men for years. There’s a collected edition of Tomie tales where you can read her story from her earliest to most recent appearances, and each one is more delightfully dark than the last. Her ever shifting true face is the thing of nightmares, but Ito’s striking illustration style has also made her a perennial pop culture figure.

Even if you’ve never read an Ito story, you’ve likely already seen Tomie as a sticker, tattoo, or t-shirt. Ironically, in her stories it’s near impossible to catch her beauty in an image unless you want to see her true face too.

4. House of the Marionettes

Puppets have always held a particularly creepy place in horror and Ito uses that to his advantage here in this ghastly story about a strange family obsessed with marionettes. It all begins when a young girl named Kinuko befriends the son of a family of puppeteers. Becoming close with one of the two sons, Haruhiko, she visits the home immediately becoming wary of a large marionette named Jean-Pierre.

Years later Haruhiko and Kinuko reconnect and get married. But when they’re called back to the former’s family home, they make an awful discovery. This is one of the most classical of Ito’s stories, but it will still shock and surprise at every turn.

3. Used Record

Eerie and atmospheric, Used Record tells the story of an odd record which hypnotizes and entices the listener. When Ogawa buys the vinyl, she quickly becomes obsessed as does her friend Nakayama when she hears it. Soon, all the pair can do is listen to the song again and again. But there’s only one copy, which means that the girls are on a tragic path.

The thing that makes this story so terrifying is the relatable fact that we’ve all had that one song that we can’t stop listening to. Ito just takes it to the next, supernaturally nightmarish level. And for that reason, this wonderfully drawn tale ends up being just as addictive as the song at its center.

2. Greased

Growing up above her family’s barbeque restaurant by Mount Fuji, Yui is sick of the grease that has slowly but surely accumulated, coating their home. While she worries abouts its effects, her violent and abusive brother Goro embraces the cooking oil that creates it, drinking it from the bottle until his face becomes covered in large, grotesque pustules.

Goro’s obsession with the grease and his sister’s hopes of surviving it are deeply entangled in this, one of Ito’s most stomach-churning tales which will threaten both your lunch and your sleep cycle. Truly, this is the kind of story you have to mentally prepare to read, so don’t take checking this one out lightly.

1. The Hanging Balloons

What makes The Hanging Balloons Ito’s scariest story? Well, it’s one of his most bizarre—which is where the mangaka excels—and it also manages to feel utterly claustrophobic and inescapable in the best way. After the unexpected suicide of a celebrity school girl inspires a spate of copycat deaths, people begin to report seeing imposing balloons in the sky.

But these are no ordinary balloons. In fact, reports claim it’s the giant inflated head of the woman who died. Many more of the balloons soon appear, chasing those whose faces they wear. Instead of strings, metal nooses swing beneath them. What is their purpose? If they catch up with those who they resemble, they catch and hang them… This is a psychedelic night terror come to life.

What’s Next for Junji Ito?

As of right now, there no upcoming Junji Ito stories in the works, according to the official page at Viz.com. The most recent new release is the Moan: Junji Ito Story Collection that just came out in early October. It features six new stories from the legendary author. Here’s a quick synopsis of what to expect from the product page:

“A dark evil lurks in the unreachable depths of a pipe, groaning out moans that echo through the house of a germophobe mother and her daughters. In another tale, flowers blooming in the shape of eyeballs are only the beginning of the strange phenomena surrounding a mysterious transfer student. Could he have supernatural abilities? Also, a man in a village deep in the mountains shares memories of his wife. What happened to her after she said she would give freely of her blood?”

Outside of the manga, a Junji Ito Crimson TV anime was announced during Japan Expo 2025. There aren’t yet any details about cast or an official release date, though.

Rosie Knight is an Eisner-winning journalist, author and comics writer. She co-hosts Crooked Media’s X-Ray Vision podcast, discussing pop culture from superhero movies to prestige television to the best fantasy novels and, of course, comics.