 Today on the channel we're talking Junji Ito, a comprehensive guide to the horror master's manga catalog. Wait, what? This video is already taken. I'm being claimed? Well, son of a- Hey everybody, G.O. here, and apparently I cannot do a manga guide to Junji Ito, so instead we're getting Venus in the Blind Spot, hardcover review. So it is to my understanding that this hardcover is sort of a curated selection of specific short stories from the horror manga master himself, Junji Ito, released by Viz Media back in August of 2020 if memory serves me right. And usually when it comes to Junji Ito there's a theme surrounding the collected editions that Viz likes to put out. For example, the smashed or shiver all have somewhat similar stories running throughout, whereas this is kind of all over the place. You get this awesome image right here at the front and if you take the dust jacket off, of course the inside is even better because you don't get the blurbs, the text, all that stuff and you just get a huge eyeball which that's pretty freaky and it relates to one of the stories, the main story in the book, Venus in the Blind Spot, which we'll talk about in a second. Some nice foldouts here with Uzumaki and all the different works that Ito has done throughout the years. I mean this is some gorgeous looking stuff right there followed by some pretty grotesque stuff which is the norm when it comes to Ito, right? So that's 10 short stories. Some are excellent, fan favorite stories. Others are collected for the first time including the adaptations of the human chair from the famous story from Erogawa Rampo and Unearthly Love, a region story from Rampo as well. And you also have the Robert Hitchin story, How Love Came to Professor Kirida. So it's worth it. I mean you double dip with the enigma of Amigata Fault and the sad tale of the principal post. Those are found in the Gio Hardcover. They're still great and they add a little bit extra. For example the Amigata Fault has colored sections in it which just breeds new life into the story and it's such a wonderful read that I really don't mind. So what exactly did I think about Venus in the Blind Spot? Well most of these stories are actually really fun. They're not necessarily the scariest thing in the world. I think there's a misconception when it comes to Gigi Ito and that yes there is a lot of horror imagery in the book but it's not necessarily like I'm going to spook you and frighten you. There's a lot of social commentary. There's a lot of humor involved in these stories and it's overall just having fun with the ridiculous nature of where I guess I should say the plot. How ridiculous the plot is for a lot of these stories. For example the first one here Billions Alone has this phenomenon where corpses are appearing from missing people and they're all stitched up together and it's it's ridiculous because they're talking about social interactions and everybody's always in groups and all that stuff and probably reading it in today's world 2021 in my case when I'm making this video with social distancing and pandemics and all those wonderful words that we've grown accustomed to saying it hits a little bit different and I could see that social commentary being elevated somewhat. There is talks about this terrorist rebellious group that the government is trying to go after for what they're doing supposedly uh somehow kidnapping all these people and killing them and stitching them up together in beautiful horrific fashion might I add. There is sort of a weird awesome symmetry to the way Ito lays out his panel showing the victims that I found strangely fascinating. After that we get the two ranpo stories the human chair and unearthly love and obviously being based off a previously released material Ito can just dive in and adapt these stories in his own style and take and add something extra to it and just the creepiness and the invasiveness of somebody living inside a chair and and the ridiculous outcome of it is wonderful unearthly love. You have a case of possible infidelity and sort of this intrusive nature of this unseen person where you have this married couple and something suspicious is going on as the husband is sneaking away in the middle of the night going to this creepy attic and possibly having this rendezvous with a mistress until you find out what is really happening and of course you are immediately creeped out. And then we go into Venus in the Blind Spot the main story for which this book is named after and I think this is one of my favorites simply because I love that Ito is going a little sci-fi-ish with talks of UFOs and this crazy UFO society that forms and how the main girl can't there's this phenomenon that you can't see her she disappears you have a blind spot right there where you can't see her and the results is very bizarre and wacky it bumped me out because I wanted it to go a different route but the way it ends was actually quite eerie and creepy and speaking of creepy the licking woman all right so in the first story I told you about social gatherings and missing people now we're avoiding physical contact from people specifically the licking woman disgusting her tongue is something to be admired because it literally looks like a freaking giant you know one of those giant slugs that they show off on the internet is it's that type of grotesque exaggerated proportions that make this such a such an intrusive storyline you have this woman that is poisoning people with god knows what in that freakish tongue and she's sort of like this serial stalker type character running around doing these things and it leads to the the murder of several people and how they react to that and the main heroine of that mini story and what she goes through and there are some really amazing beautifully disgusting images and that that was visually I think that was probably my favorite of this book I think I don't know it better not awaken something in me master umez and me a really fun quirky little story about ito's fascination with kazoo umez's history and how it shaped him into you know the mangaka that he is and his admiration for his son say if you will and I thought it was fun at first when I started reading it I'm like this is apart from the ito verse right this is a parody of himself and his fascination him geeking out about umez's every single release whether it's a an anime adaptation of his manga or the movies that he's directed stuff like that and it goes from ito being this creepy looking obsessed otaku kid all the way up to his adult life when he was very close to adapting one of umez's movies into manga but it didn't necessarily work out and it was just fun to see that it breaks sort of the norm from the stories that we've talked about and so far but it's still a really fun short story about the author himself how love came to professor kirida original story by Robert Hitchens this one I really enjoyed because the dynamic of this character this professor that is a scooch like character has no empathy or love or none of that stuff and his interactions with this priest pique his curiosity about subjects such as love and understanding and all of that stuff where he has this young lady who is a huge fan of his and he's trying she's trying to better herself in writing and all that stuff and impress him and it's not working as it should a really fun dynamic and kind of unsettling story about you know the lengths of that will go through to impress someone without realizing that maybe some people just don't want to be impressed the enigma of amigata fault which is probably one of ito's most famous short stories a classic a true eerie masterpiece of short horror literature in my honest opinion and it just looks amazing in this book as well there are a couple colored sections in here that really do bring to life the story a little bit further and show you the the craziness involved with the holes and people going into said holes which I know can be a phobia for some sad tale of the principal post is back with colored sections as well and I'd love how freaking bizarre that story is and how funny it is it's not even scary I just love it because the premise is so ridiculous that you don't know how this father figure in this household got into the mess that he's in and the outcome is even crazier I'd love that one it's so wacky I can't help but smile and laugh when I read that one and last but not least probably one of the most disturbing chaotic gross stories that I've ever read from Jinji Ito I'm not kidding I was really really freaked out about this because it goes into some really not safe for work territory that may involve uh necrophilia yeah it went there all right so yeah keepsake is about paternity issues and lineage and infidelity and it's it's all over the place but the creativeness I have to admire Ito for writing for so many years and every single time you can come up with new ideas yeah sometimes they don't work sometimes they're not as scary and sometimes they're not as great as other things but you gotta admire the fact that since the 80s the man has been pumping out long-form stories or these short horror tales and you can still find or he can still find short fresh ideas that keep you entertained whether it's stuff like this which is honestly quite disturbing indeed to freaking this venus in the blind spot where cult of UFO followers ignore the UFOs and are more obsessed with this damsel and how they can no longer see her so the cult sort of shifts with the wind and stuff like that or you have the stitching bodies together or in uh smashed where you have the killer mosquito vampires and shiver you have the the case with the dude with the holes in his face it's that creativeness and inventiveness that I love about Ito and it's what drives me back to pick up these books not necessarily that they're all going to be stellar uh reading material but the fact that that imagination is alive and well then you can create so many wonderful wacky bizarre funny issues about random things and now he's able to create or take something normal or something that we take for granted and sort of look at it from the side and figure out something grotesque and scary about it whether it's uh the simple act of uh you know being mistreated by somebody in the street by licking you and that's an invasion of privacy to make that into something more grotesque and horrific is really awesome but yeah venus in the blind spot obviously some really weird and wacky stories like I just recapped and wonderful art I love love the colored sections on this some have opening pages full color others have select uh panels so you can see you know having a a colored section or a panel really puts the weight and emphasis on that panel in the storyline and it really drives on the point of what's happening and it makes it more impactful in my opinion the art just you know I'm blown away by ito's character renderings because as I've read his material over time over the years to me it keeps getting better and better and I'm able to appreciate when something's really well done especially with the chair storyline and uh the creepy doll scene I yeah you see the architecture of the houses and the time periods and you see horrific stuff such as can I show this I don't want to show that page specifically I don't want to ruin it for you guys but you know just great stuff overall in my opinion and yeah some of these stories some are published a long time ago others are more recent but for the most part I'd love seeing the evolution of the artist as you read his material from different eras and all that stuff so overall I thought it was great I had a lot of fun with it not necessarily the scariest thing in the world a lot of people seem to confuse this as it's supposed to be like top horror you're supposed to be spooked at every page yeah there are books like that that do scare you Uzumaki has that Lovecraftian vibe going for it or or Tomie with body horror and the succubus psychological thing going on um but then you have stuff like this uh Venus in the blind spot or the other short story collections where you just have fun with the nature of the beast if you will but have you read Venus in the blind spot let me know in the comment section down below and if you haven't let me know what is your favorite your top favorite short horror story of all time can be manga can be comics whatever it is let me know in the comment section down below that's about it guys thank you so much for liking commenting subscribing and being a part of a we can geek them it truly does mean a lot thank you so much for supporting this channel and if you're new here and you want to see more content like this be sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell so you know when new videos pop up I do content like this where I talk about anime comics and manga so that's about it I got nothing else god bless stay safe out there I will catch all of you on our next video