This offered some fascinating insight into Junji Ito's influences as well as some context for some of his more common themes, especially dentistry. I discovered Monthly Halloween and the phenomenon of horror shoujo through this autobiography!

Why are you reading this book? If it's to get insight into how Junji Ito creates his manga, you may find yourself a little disappointed. He spends the back chapters discussing that and offers some decent insights into what makes for effective horror. Still, when you compare it to, for example, Hirohiko Araki's Manga in Theory and Practice, it's lacking as a craft manual. If you're reading this to get a bit more insight into Junji Ito the person, you're likely to be much happier. The front chapters are autobiographical and far more interesting.

Ito discusses how he came to horror by way of science fiction which is a fascinating genre shift in and of itself, and what many of his early influences were. Unsurprisingly, a major one was Kazuo Umezz in the same way all of the Gothic novels name-dropped by Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey were republished in the mid-twentieth century, some enterprising publisher could put out a collection of Ito's influences since many of them aren't available in English, and some are likely out of print in Japan as well. Most of Ito's early works were published in the shoujo horror magazine Halloween, and Ito talks about why he prefers the short story to a long serial, even when he writes a series of self-contained shorts about the same character, like Tomie or Soichi. He also discusses how he came to write Gyo and Uzumaki, along with specific shorts, such as “Deserter,” and his adaptations of No Longer Human and Frankenstein.

The book itself is very well designed. There's a separate illustration under the jacket, and each page has a centered box of text on a navy blue background with blue-grey images from Ito's work lightly printed on it. Ito's initial sketches for many of his pieces and some of his earliest manga efforts from elementary and middle school are included. On the lower right corners, there's a small flipbook animation from about the halfway point of the book, and a complete bibliography is also included, breaking down which stories are included in which collection. It's a good read; just go into it expecting more of an autobiography and personal musing than anything solid in the craft arena.

Junji Ito is the indisputable master of contemporary horror manga. However, I and many others have often wondered what led him to create such nightmarish depictions of our deepest fears. Anyone that is interested in Ito's background and process will love this book.

I loved this book as it gave us such a good insight into Junji Ito's mind and how he creates the fantastic stories and characters that he does. The mix of writing with his illustrations I really enjoyed as he gave explanations for how he created the ideas for each scene.
The book was incredibly easy to read, and the format worked well.

Highly recommended for all fans of Junji Ito who want to learn more about his creative process and how he became a manga artist.

Thank you to NetGalley and Viz Media for the ARC!

Prolific horror manga creator Junji Ito somehow manages to come off even more down-to-Earth and relatable (which fans of his media appearances will already be aware of) in this memoir/how-to.

This was an unbelievable memoir and how-to manual that Ito shares with the world. As the premier horror mangaka, Ito explains his upbringing and life and then contextualizes how he approaches creating his art and the stories from character, motivation, fear, etc. It's a peak inside his world and one that every amazing creator must do in their career to pull back the curtain.

It's a beautiful work of art in itself- I just wish that in the earlier chapters when he shares his art and other impactful works that it was bigger. While I recognize I'm reading a digital version, I don't know if it's that much bigger if I had the print version. Thank you, Ito for sharing your genius for all of the lovers of your horror manga.

I loved this look into Junji Ito's mind as he talks about how his love for manga and horror started, and how he gets ideas and writes books. I enjoyed the illustrations and could really see how his work progressed. He's such a down to earth guy despite the horrors in his mind!

I ended up finishing this with a hard copy from the library, as it was kind of hard to read the digital copy. It may be different with a finished copy but I think hard copy is the way to go for this one.

Full on 5 star rating. There are many ways to mess up a biography/how-to book. The way this book is formatted, compiled and set up is honestly brilliant.

Topic: Junji Ito is someone who I genuinely would just adore being around. He is humility at it's finest and honest to his core.
A lot of his advice he imparts to the reader can really be summed up at him going back and interpreting his own work after the fact. He's honest when he's just had a fluke, or realized his inspiration after the fact. He doesn't act all high and mighty and doesn't take undue credit. He gives advice and outside sources to look at, but never tells you there are hard and fast 'rules to success' like so many other successful artists tend to do. Honestly I didn't read this with the intent to make any art myself, but rather just enjoy Junji Ito himself. He is an absolutely kind person. It is a breath of fresh air. It's great to see such a giant in his field be honest about his luck and his feelings. (Poor guy has a lot of scared feelings!)

Format: Incredibly easy to read. So well translated from the original Japanese. Easy, concise and no boring filler to make himself more interesting. Great for reluctant readers or someone who prefers to graze rather than delve into a huge life's story. The fact Ito worked in a flip-book in the page edges, something he writes he was passionate about, was honestly just an adorable idea.

Cover: Nothing about the English cover here even vaguely implies Junji Ito, his artwork or his style. I genuinely thought it was a placeholder. This is not going to reach it's intended audience.

Even with a terrible cover though this is def one of my top books this year. It was a joy to read and experience!

4.5, rounded up. What a treat to get a glimpse into the mind of one of the best horror manga creators! It was fascinating to see the behind-the-scenes creation of some of his best-known collections, especially Tomie and Uzumaki.

What an excellent look into the mind one of the best horror creators ever. Juni Ito is absolutely brilliant.

This was a pretty straightforward title about Junji Ito's life and how he became a manga artist. It showed how he grew as an artist with a bunch of artwork and more. I think if you are a die hard fan of this artist you might get pretty interested in this one.

Uncanny begins with a brief autobiography from Manga creator Junji Ito, then moves to his inspirations, influences, processes, and elements of fear/horror. It's more of an overview and never gets too deep into the topics, but it's a good companion for Ito's fans. It would've been nice to have the stories Ito referenced included in the book, but that would surely make this collection massive and unwieldy. I read the ebook and I think this is one that is best enjoyed in a physical format.

This was a really interestingly done biography. It is beautifully arranged and the full page graphics and illustrations are a unique choice, but one that makes sense for a biography of Junji Ito. This was an interesting read and I think would be a good additin to your library collection if you have patrons who enjoy Juji Ito's work.

A charming and introspective memoir written by the famous horror mangaka himself, Junji Ito! We learn about his childhood all the way to young-adulthood and the ways that his life shaped his love for all things spooky, strange, and horror. This is an essential read for fans of Ito as there is something new to learn in every chapter. His mother and sister's support was a really touching part and something I enjoyed learning about.

Peppered with sketches and mini comics, this is a multimedia read. A great addition to a horror fans shelf this Halloween season.

What causes a horror manga author to get into horror? In Uncanny: The Origins of Fear, we see (through vivid drawings) that it started with an outdoor toilet.

The book is largely text but does include a few illustrations too. It begins as Junji Ito’s autobiography written in first person. There are some gems here that may, or may not, be universal truths. “Children grasp that being alive and being dead are equally probable.”
As well as some underlying reasons why body trauma is so prevalent in Ito’s manga. Watching his own appendectomy? What a horrifying experience for anyone, let alone a child!

There are two chapters discussing where his story ideas come from and how he creates his characters. The end of the book includes many great tips on how to write and draw horror manga.

Uncanny: The Origins of Fear should appeal to both people curious about how horror ideas are created as well as artists looking to put their own fears on paper. It even has a flip book drawn on the edges of its pages that sadly I couldn’t experience on my iPad. Overall, this is a useful and interesting book. 4 stars!

Thanks to NetGalley and VIZ Media for providing me with an advanced review copy.

I just love Junji Ito, so I feel a little biased, but I adore how he really is just a normal guy, who happens to put the fear of God inside everyone with his work. I enjoyed the structure and flow of this, the segmented parts worked really well, it was everything I expected and more!

The scariest thing out of "Uncanny: The Origins of Fear" is reading about how Junji Ito is an utterly normal man who happens to be highly skilled at making my lizard brain feel very uneasy. I was expecting a jump scare while reading the chapters about his childhood, as if that were a normal thing to feel while reading books. Maybe it was his experience with local anesthetic that flipped a switch in his creative brain. We may never fully understand it, even though he tries his best to walk us through his creative process in the latter half. The book is written in a way that makes it feel like light nonfiction beach reading. "Uncanny" is certainly suitable for the title, considering the gap between the "just a regular guy who draws manga" first impression and the absolute horrors in his work. I imagine this book would be great for flashlight-lit dramatic readings with friends or as an alternative to telling each other recycled ghost stories or creepypasta during summer nights.

A long awaited look inside the mind of Junji Ito! The structure of this - the chapter of autobio followed by writing process followed by his examples - really worked well. I was unsure in the beginning how much of the book would read as a biography, but I was super impressed and happy with the advice and writing knowledge he had to offer. By the end this felt like a full circle very complete read.

This is a fairly quick read. It’s a nice autobiography from Ito that gives you a little bit of information about his childhood and how he became a Manga artist.

He talks about other artists that influenced him growing up, and there are examples of Manga pages he drew as a child. It’s pretty cool to see the progression of his talent, and I can see this being encouraging for anyone who wants to pursue comics as a career path or even as a hobby.

I loved reading about how supportive his mother and sisters were throughout his life. Ito comes across as very modest and down to Earth despite his immense talent and success, but best of all, he’s also brilliantly clever. My favorite part of this book, (besides the gorgeous illustrations), was the section in which Ito discussed his thought process behind crafting a story. He’s so smart when it comes to his ideas.

Longtime fans of Ito will specifically appreciate the chapter in which he addresses his published works and talks about how many of those came to be. I was especially interested to learn about how he came up with “The Enigma of Amigara Fault,” because that comic is creepy AF.

As a (sometimes) writer, I appreciated the section about generating ideas. He was mostly talking about writing Manga, but good storytelling is universal.

I couldn’t properly see it in the electronic version, but there’s even a little series of drawings in the corner of many of the pages that will turn physical copies of this publication into an animated flip book.

I recommend this mostly to established fans of Junji Ito. It’s a fairly succinct and organized book for anyone who would like to learn more about the man and his creative process. 3.5 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and to the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own.

This will be a big seller and I will be and have been recommending. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.