Lovesickness: Junji Ito Story Collection

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The Rib Woman - A wonderful story that blended themes of body image with a wonderfully creepy narrative.

And I don't think anyones deep dive explanation into this one is going to change my mind about how I feel about this one. Another couple of stories fill out the book, including an especially weird one about a boy who is in constant pain, the pain being part of the house he lives in. The other stories weren’t outright bad, but were so underwhelming that once I finished the whole book I had to remind myself that I actually liked the first 60%, because I was left feeling so disappointed.

Overall the characters were too generic, bland, detached, and prone to unreasonable decisions for me to care about the mental and physical torture to which Ito subjects them. Frame-Up: Ryusuke's friend Tejima frames Ryusuke as the Intersection's Pretty Boy, even going so far as to pierce his ears in his sleep because the lack of ear holes would have proven them different. He gives chase outside and finds out it's Teshima, who has been spreading the rumors and planting the fake earrings and jackets. For the pointless, stupid, pathetic final story I cut down one star, otherwise this was a great read.

A traumatized Teshima runs back to Ryuusuke's place and tells him everything, and begins to question Ryuusuke whether he's unconsciously materializing as the Intersection Bishounen. There’s also a pair of manga about ‘the strange Hikizuri siblings’ – ‘Narumi’s Boyfriend’ and ‘The Séance’ – which have to rank among my least favourites of all the Ito I’ve read; this type of humour either works for you or really doesn’t, and I’m in the latter camp. It was originally printed in Japan in 1997 and published in English in 2021 by Viz Media as a part of the Lovesickness story collection.

The first half of Lovesickness is the five-story cycle, also known as ‘Lovesick Dead’, that gives this collection its title. Their affections turn to him and they mob him just like a normal group of teen girls and an attractive male idol, which is even what the scene is mistaken for by a curmudgeon complaining about the noise. The mystery surrounding the seemingly inhuman, heartless beautiful boy is intriguing and I like how the story is played out with its own inner logic. After reading this I now fully understand the Junji Ito hype, because this was creepy as heck, y'all.

Midori theorizes before her death that the boy might be her unborn cousin, and the boy in black confirms it.With the whole city in an uproar, a smug Midori tells him that the authorities are all looking for Ryuusuke, believing that he is the Intersection Bishounen. On the one hand, it could be that the boy at the crossroads has some dark powers that make people take their fortunes to the worst possible end, but it's also possible it's more psychological and people are taking fortunes the wrong way due to suggestion and their own will rather than magic and that they are following them to the end due to the finality of the fortunes in the town's custom. I liked it and it had a few good disturbing moments, but I don't think the ending met the expectations of the slow buildup.