Junji Ito

Some of his most notable works include Tomie, a series about an immortal girl who drives her admirers to madness; Uzumaki, a three-volume series about a town haunted by the supernatural entity of the spiral; and Gyo, a two-volume story where fish are controlled by a strain of sentient bacteria called "stench of death." His other works are collected in The Junji Ito Horror Comic Collection, a sixteen-volume anthology of short stories in which a character named Souichi and his family occasionally appear, and Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon & Mu, a story about a couple who move into a new home with their cats.

Biography

edit
Junji Ito was born in Gifu, Japan, in 1963. He currently lives in Chiba. From a young age, he was inspired by his sisters, who were illustrators, and the work of Kazuo Umezu and Shinichi Koga. He grew up in the countryside, in a town next to Nagano. In his house, the bathroom was at the end of a tunnel and was home to insects like crickets and spiders, which influenced Ito in his future short stories.

He drew and wrote manga as a hobby to pass the time, and worked in the dental field as a technician in the 1980s, around 1984. In 1987, he submitted a short story to Monthly Halloween and received an honorable mention in the Kazuo Umezu Prize, where Kazuo Umezu was present as one of the judges. The submitted story would later become Ito's first work, Tomie. Junji Ito was originally intended to be a collaborator on Silent Hill, but the project was canceled after a year by Konami, the owner of the video game console.

The animated film Junji Ito: Tales from Japan: Macabre Tales introduces the world to an artist well-known to manga fans. Junji Ito is a very popular author, mainly because his work deviates significantly from what Japanese comics typically offer. Instead of the usual brawling heroes and fighting tournaments, he specializes in horror stories, and in a very peculiar way.

By employing a psychological horror style that flirts with many Japanese and Western influences, Ito has become a master of the genre in manga by focusing less on jump scares and much more on discomfort and the constant feeling that things are heading towards endless absurdity.

That's why his comics are a hit wherever they go. In Brazil alone, the author has published dozens of editions that compile some of his classics as well as shorter, lesser-known stories—including some that are being adapted by Netflix.

Canaltech
Canaltech is

Before delving into Junji Ito's work itself, it's necessary to understand who the author is and where he comes from—because that says a lot about the type of horror he went on to develop. Born in 1963, he had a very different career path from most authors we know. This is because his entry into the comic book market began quite late and much more as a hobby.

His first official publication was in 1987, when he participated in a contest held by a Japanese magazine. The idea was for people to write horror stories aimed at girls, and the proposal he presented was so well received by the judges that Ito decided to dedicate himself to the life of a comic book artist from then on.

But before that, he followed a very different professional path. While he drew only for fun in his spare time, he earned his living as a dentist. And, however different the professions may be, there's no denying that the time he spent working in other people's mouths, administering injections and performing root canals gave him a good understanding of what fear is and how to awaken that feeling in people.

That's because it's one of the main characteristics of his work. Instead of relying on the common terror of a monster that appears out of nowhere to kill everyone, or even that grotesque thing that shocks more than it frightens, all of Junji Ito's work stems from the idea of ​​absurd situations that disrupt the everyday and generate a growing unease to the point of bordering on madness.

Thus, it incorporates elements that lean heavily towards psychological terror and body horror—or body horror, as the genre jargon often calls it—to leave the reader in a state of continuous discomfort.

Gentle, very calm, funny, serious, and playful, and very busy with new ideas, but he's taking a long time to create an anime. Maybe all the fans have been asking him repeatedly, but he's just chilling. He already mentioned the creator's idea, which is interesting, but he didn't find it interesting, so they'll move on to other ideas. He already mentioned the cat card, he already mentioned the saried.

The creator is even more surprised when he sees himself in a costume and looks just like a character. Other fans see his fans wearing costumes, and the women are wearing horror costumes.
It seems he wants to be like the character; he doesn't care that much, but he's the one to blame, and sometimes he's surprised.

He's very busy with his artwork, and people just keep complaining because the anime's quality is terrible. They keep complaining, and the creator can't do anything about it. It's a matter of people creating things. He asked for the anime to be created, but it didn't work out; the quality is bad, and they always complain about the quality. Everyone says his stories are good, interesting horror stories, and others say the anime quality is bad, but the manga is interesting. The creator is thinking about maybe creating an anime about the character Tomie because everyone is asking for one. He's quite serious, but he doesn't promise much.

He's not listening to the people, but he'll listen to success and everything.

For the creator, it's been very difficult, many fantasies, many notes. The creator is doing well, but there's no release yet in 2026, except for that game that was released in 2025, which was a new game about a horror character that everyone was asking for, and it was a success. The creator is rich and lives in a mansion, but he has his own art studio, painting objects, all for his own enjoyment. He also has a wife. He's interested in Brazilians to do business with the "Brazilian market," which involves famous and rich people.