Best Horror Mangaka Who Are Not Junji Ito
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Highlights
- Junji Ito is synonymous with horror manga, but there are other artists in the genre whose work rivals or exceeds his in invoking terror.
- Kazuo Umezu, Kaori Yuki, Matsuri Akino, Nishioka Kyōdai, Usamaru Furuya, Shūzō Oshimi, Hideshi Hino, Suehiro Maruo, Shintaro Kago, and Masaaki Nakayama are all notable horror mangaka to explore.
- These artists specialize in different styles of horror, from paranormal and gothic to psychological and gore, offering a diverse range of terrifying stories.
With short stories like The Enigma of Amigara Fault, and longer works like Uzumaki and Hellstar Remina, Junji Ito has become synonymous with horror manga. Anyone who’s gotten into the genre in the past decade or more likely did so via Ito’s work, or inevitably came across it online.
However, Ito didn’t create horror manga, and he isn’t the only one in the field. As great as he is, there are other artists whose work rivals his in invoking terror and might even exceed it for some. But fear lies in the beholder. If anyone wants to test their nerves, here are some great horror mangaka who aren’t Junji Ito.
10 Kazuo Umezu
Perhaps one of the more obvious alternatives to Ito is the man who inspired him in the first place. Kazuo “Umezz” Umezu practically invented the genre when he began adding paranormal horror elements to his shojo stories. It resulted in his monster tales Reptilia and Nekome no Shojo.
His most iconic horror story, The Drifting Classroom, saw a school sent through time to the post-apocalypse, where the students fight to survive Lord of the Flies-style. Nearly every horror manga today can trace its stark, dark artwork to Umezu’s style in this manga, including Ito.
9 Kaori Yuki
Some fans might be surprised that modern horror manga was born from shojo comics, but it showed that women have liked horror for decades. But if Umezu and Ito’s more blatant monstrosities come off a little strong for readers, the skin-crawling work of Kaori Yuki might be more their speed.
Her specialty is gothic horror, making readers dread her story’s outcome rather than focusing on the page turn like Ito. For example, her Cain Saga sees its titular character deal with family drama on top of zombies, spiders, and torture. Her most notorious work is Angel Sanctuary, where its lead is caught at the heart of a battle between angels and demons, alongside handling a doomed romance.
8 Matsuri Akino
Yuki and Umezu brought horror to shojo readers, but Matsuri Akino’s work was aimed toward the older josei crowd. Her breakout work, Reiken Shōhō Kabushikigaisha (“Psychic Business Corporation”), saw a substitute science teacher deal with the spirit world and whatever they’d inhabit.
She brought this combination of horror and mystery back for her most famous work, Pet Shop of Horrors, where the store’s owner Count D sells rare pets to people, provided they stick to their contract. They each come with three conditions, and if they’re broken, the consequences can be dire. Aside from the alluring, expressive artwork, Akino has a knack for urbane dialogue that adds some dark humor to the horror too.
7 Nishioka Kyōdai
While most of the entries are single artists, the Nishoka Kyōdai is actually a duo. Satoru and Chiaki Nishioka got into the manga business in 1989 with Boku Mushi, an anthology of short stories that featured serial killers, bird women, and a man who developed a kangaroo-like pouch.
Their work plays out like dark twists on fairy tales, with the grim but whimsical artwork to match. They especially shine in Journey to the End of the World, where a man bored with his life goes on a journey to leave it behind, only to find sights that show him how sick the world truly is. God’s Child continues the psychological horror as a sociopathic kid seeks to avenge his mother’s fate.
6 Usamaru Furuya
While every artist here, and in general, has their differences, Usamaru Furuya’s work might be the closest in comparison to Ito’s work. This is interesting as he started off doing comedies like Palepoli. But gradually, he got into darker, more psychological territory.
For example, Plastic Girl saw him depict a young girl’s entry into adolescence as a violent, bloody affair. Lychee Light Club has the titular club create an AI-driven robot that kidnaps girls for them. Most interestingly, he adapted the novel No Longer Human eight years before Ito himself gave it a go in 2017. So, readers can compare and contrast the two artists’ different approaches to the same tale of one man’s fall from grace.
5 Shūzō Oshimi
There’s no shortage of great horror mangaka, but Shūzō Oshimi is arguably one of the best if not at the top of the tree. Even if the name isn’t familiar, readers may recognize works like The Flowers of Evil, and Blood on the Tracks, popularized by Youtuber Super Eyepatch Wolf as “the manga that breaks people.”
Blood on the Tracks twists the family dynamic as the lead character Seīchi is caught between escaping from or protecting his psychotic mother. Then The Flowers of Evil goes into horror territory as its leads gradually expose how violent and twisted they truly are as they navigate the depraved love triangle they’re stuck in.
4 Hideshi Hino
If psychological chills aren’t one’s cup of tea, Hideshi Hino brings back the out-and-out gore. Whether it’s armed creatures murdering and kidnapping villagers in The Town of Pigs, or an evil demonic twin with a taste for claret in Hell Baby, Hino isn’t one for the squeamish.
His seminal work, Panorama of Hell, even featured an artist painting pictures with his blood in between relating his brutal life story (one loosely based on Hino’s own experiences). Hino made his name with his Hino Horror short stories in the alt manga magazine Garo. But he’s also dabbled in live-action horror, writing & directing two entries in the infamous Guinea Pig series of torture flicks.
3 Suehiro Maruo
Rivaling Hino is his fellow Garo-published artist Suehiro Maruo. While Hino reveled in blood, Maruo combined it with more adult content, becoming one of the first artists behind the revival of the “ero-guro” (erotic-grotesque) movement. His work, from his stories to his novel and album cover commissions, combined gore with suggestive figures to put it mildly.
The most notorious of which was Shojo Tsubaki, aka Mr. Arashi’s Amazing Freak Show, a story about a young girl who’s taken in by the circus when she’s left orphaned. It managed to get an anime adaptation called Midori, which got banned worldwide for its depictions of physical and psychological abuse. However, it did get an uncut DVD release in France in 2006.
2 Shintaro Kago
The ero-guro field is a busier one than people would think, as while Maruo is one of its more notorious artists, the most famous is Shintaro Kago. His use of extreme brutality, sexuality, and body modification express his satirical takes on Japanese politics and society on top of getting shocks out of people.
For example, Fraction sees a serial killer called “The Slicing Devil” deal with a copycat killer, while Kago himself appears as a character to break the 4th wall about manga creation. Dementia 21 pushes care worker Yukie to the brink with bizarre tests. Then A Lot of Sweets Jammed in the Head of a Girl is an art book featuring gut-quivering sights of depravity, like someone’s head being literally stuffed with candy.
1 Masaaki Nakayama
Lastly, while googling Masaaki Nakayama’s name won’t bring up the kind of gore Kago, Maruo, or Hino’s names would, the results would still likely keep viewers up late at night. They usually come from Seeds of Anxiety, his collection of short stories that feature ghosts and other supernatural phenomena.
Otherwise, they may arise from PTSD Radio, a similar collection where the fates of its characters are connected by Ogushi, a malevolent spirit that resides in human hair. It resembles Ito’s Uzumaki in its use of body horror and cursed objects. However, unlike that series, PTSD Radio may actually be cursed as Nakayama put the series on hiatus following a series of events that resembled scenes from the story itself.
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