Moan is the 2025 English Version of the 2013 Japanese Language Junji Kessakusha 8: Umeku Haisuikan which, in turn collects Junji Ito’s short stories from the early 90s. If you like Junji Ito, you’ll like it. It is not the strongest collection, but Blood-Orb Grove and Flesh Colored Mystery are both worthy of further note, and others will spark interest.
Review
SPOILER NOTE: I’m not sure if spoilers matter with Junji Ito stories since the shock is in the reading, not necessarily in the twists (especially in the short stories where you spend only a few minutes reading). There will be a couple of spoilers along the way, but I’ll try to keep them non-specific and hopefully minor.
Junji Ito is a perplexing author/artist to review. Back when the English-speaking world was sorting through mostly Uzumaki and Gyo and a few rumored stories that cropped up here or there, sometimes as bonuses to certain editions of other works — “The Enigma of Amigara Fault” getting dropped with very nearly the force of a meme in certain circles — it was a bit easier to point at something and go, “Yes, this. You need to try this.”
That sense, that Ito’s work demands such devotion, is still there but with a much larger collection of translated stories — I think that 2026’s Statues actually wraps up the original collections, but I might be missing one — you actually get something like a chance to sit down and sort through and pick out collections you feel are better suited for devotion in and of themselves.
So, to start: Yes Moan, you need to try Moan. BUT, probably only after you read a few others like Uzumaki, Shivers, Tombs, and Venus in the Blind Spot.
The title story, “Moan,” for instance, is decent and features an isolated family afraid of germs and abusive towards the people they rely upon to clean for them. It is very reminiscent of Creepshow‘s “They’re Creeping Up on You!” but with a different slant. The actual-horror of that one, though, is something strange and oddly disconnected from the rest. It works, and has its charm, but feels like two different stories — one with a clean freak mom and one with a strange stalker going to extremes — were patched together with the former winning out.
Neither “Near Miss” nor “Under the Ground” are anything super special. They are solid horror stories using pretty strong tropes and are drawn well. They are fine. Ito’s art and pacing helps to elevate them, for sure.
The first story, “Supernatural Transfer Student,” is a longer and more detailed affair. It is a stranger story. A bit more action-y. More of an actual plot. Psychic battles and rotting corpses. Characters, almost shockingly for a Ito tale, have some development. It stands out a bit because it feels relatively fresh. If it was someone’s first Ito story, they would likely be confused, but some of his classic signatures work their way through. I like it for its attempt.
The gems are “Blood-Orb Grove” and “Flesh-Colored Mystery.” The former defies precise classification — wrapping a different sort of vampire story into a Ligotti-esque body-horror — and it is less the plot, of which there is blessedly little, but more the way it is told. The strangeness of the illustration and odd choice inflicting the characters is different enough to give it its own place of interest. It does not precisely amaze, more implies a kind of awe towards another reality. One with its own sense of horror and its own history of monsters.
“Flesh-Colored Mystery” is the strongest of the collection. Though it does have a strangely non-sense lead-in — one which is later explained and which gains nothing in the explanation — it has the most interesting story, the most poignant horror, the best emotional center, and the best horror visuals. As it deals with a struggling teacher’s attempt to reach a difficult student, the reader is eventually lead to one of the few actually worth-it twists in the Ito canon. A simple effect, but one that makes you feel the pain…
Especially when you get a glance of a human muscle being snapped in half. Jesus.
“Flesh-Colored Mystery” is strong enough to stand by any collection and I think “Blood-Orb Grove” is unique enough that it could do work. “Moan” and “The Supernatural Transfer Student” have their moments. The remaining two are slighter stories but could be suited for those who prefer slightly more old-fashioned horror. I do not necessarily prefer such, but I appreciate it.
That’s 1 great one, 1 good one, two fair ones, and two that are not bad but just also nothing extraordinary. All with Ito’s excellent skill with the pen and the page.