Thirteen Horror Manga for Halloween

As the witching hour draws near the need to satisfy that horror bug grows by the hour. I say feed it Japanese.

These are 13 of my favorite Japanese horror manga titles released in recent years. This is not an exhaustive list, but these are the books and series that encompass the spirit of Halloween and are among the best in Japanese horror manga.

I am a little bothered by lists I have seen recently that include shoujo vampire manga like Vampire Knight or even the very awesome Death Note on Halloween horror manga. Those books are great, but they aren't scary. The titles I present stick with you (and on you) and not always in a good way.

1) SCARY BOOK by Kazuo Umezu

Umezu is an icon in Japanese horror, and these three volumes are a collection of one-shot tales that showcase the fundamentals of modern Japanese horror in manga. Umezu's classic style might be dated, but the stories are truly timeless. SCARY BOOK is the Bela Lugosi chronicles of manga horror and is truly a must read for any student of Japanese macabre. SCARY BOOK might not give you bad dreams, but is a memorable walk through a very creepy museum.

2) MUSEUM OF TERROR by Junji Ito

Speaking of museums, don't get caught alone in this one. MUSEUM OF TERROR is another three-volume series of stand alone horror. The first two are full of Ito's most famous femme fatale, Tomie. The Tomie series of horror films stimulated on a very visceral level. The source manga is much more horrifying and original. The Tomie series that covers the first two volumes has never been properly presented like this in English before (complete and in order), and unlike SCARY BOOK, the uniquely disturbing scenes in MUSEUM OF TERROR are more than likely to invade your dreams.

3) Hino Horror series THE RED SNAKE by Hideshi Hino

Hideshi Hino is the third horror manga writer we will see with multiple titles on this list. Hino mixes a cartoony style with real gore. In a way this excuses what is on the page, but also makes it that much more frightening. The reason it works is not because of the blood and guts, but the psychology (or psychopathy) behind them. I have heard people compare Hino's work to Garbage Pail Kids, but that only applies is the Garbage Pail Kids are pus-spewing zombies jumping off their cards and biting your throat. The combination of sick and decrepit with brutal insight into the human psyche makes THE RED SNAKE and a lot of the Hino Horror collection (now out of print) especially disturbing.

4) UZUMAKI by Junji Ito

This is another example of Ito's work that heralded a big-screen release, but is still superior in its original manga form. The premise of UZUMAKI sounds like it was given to Junji Ito on a dare, but the execution of stand-alone stories over an increasingly creepy and mysterious backdrop gets more and more compelling of the these (surprise!) three volumes. The small town of Kurozucho is under attack. But not by demons, spirits or monsters...but by spirals. This bizarre premise holds firm in the series of escalating attacks by a very bizarre phenomenon. This may be the most unsettling series I have ever read, if only because what happens is so unexpected.

5) MPD-PSYCHO by Eiji Otsuka and artwork by Sho-u Tahima

This is horror on a different level, closer to "The Silence of the Lambs" than "Friday the 13th", but is is as psychologically disturbing as it is soaked to the seams in blood. We are introduced to a stark modern-day Tokyo where the psychopathy of the murderous criminals seems all-too-familiar to at least one police detective, Amamiya. What unfurls is layer after layer of conspiracy and insanity. The first volumes ask a lot of the readers, and the multitude of characters (and personalities) is even trickier for those not used to juggling a lot of Japanese sur-names, but blessed be those that stick with it, as by the third volume the severed limb filled roller coaster slowly reaches the top of the highest peak, and the real decrepit enjoyment begins. Each volume feels like taking a sterile shower of body fluids, and this most dedicated presentation is second to none.

6) PARASYTE by Hitoshi Iwaaki

Alien invasions tend to be horror in America and shoujo in Japan. PARASYTE is a welcome entry and Iwaaki sets a fantastic and horrific premise. What if aliens landed on earth as parastites and invaded human bodies in order to turn them into cannibalistic shape-shifting death machines? Like all good manga, PARASYTE is global and local at the same time, and our local hero is the high-school boy, Shin. Unlike most humans invaded by the alien, Shin cuts off his personal alien invasion in his arm with a tourniquet before it reaches his brain. What results is Shin has an alien right hand that wants to kill him and also wants to use him to kill. The resulting parasitic/symbiotic "Odd Couple" relationship is an uncomfortable source of dark humor, but also a vital contrast to some of the vicious scenes of violence, often raw and surprising in the context of Shin's typical teenager girl/bully/school/parent issues.

7) GYO by Junji Ito

The third and final Ito entry on this list, GYO unearths the unimaginable and does the incredible. Never has a completely visual medium like manga invaded the olfactory system in the way that GYO does. In a word, GYO stinks. That's not a testament to its quality, but a hint to the unique angle. GYO presents a world where undead fish move from the ocean to attack the mainland in an unexplainable and freakish attack. Hardly a frame is not invaded by the stink lines of the rotting fish, and as this manga goes from local to global the stench makes invades the senses in an insipid way. GYO shoots and scores in the first volume, but the second volume cleans up the mess. However, the saving factor of the weaker Volume 2 is the attached short tale "The Enigma of Amigara Fault". This 35-page tale more than makes up for GYO's second volume faults, and is one of the best manga horror short stories ever.

8) THE DRIFTING CLASSROOM by Kazuo Umezu

This long series really takes the reader to some of the lowest places Umezu visits, and with his unmatchable style that is much more than a flash in a pan over these 11 horrifying volumes. A suburban elementary school is at the center of an earthquake at the start of a typical school day, but if it was a normal earthquake, this would not be a Kazuo Umezu adventure. In fact, the entire school is transported to a mysterious desert, leaving both those left behind and the transported students and faculty in complete confusion. Umezu is the king of putting kids in peril, and the dangers of the desert become secondary to the dangers inside the school.

9) KUROSAGI CORPSE DELIVERY SERVICE by Eiji Otsuka and artwork by Housui Yamazaki

KUROSAGI is the perfect example of a manga that finds its legs (and other body parts) and grows and expands into more clever and more gruesome corners as it goes along. The story is about a group of Buddhist college students with differing abilities that together make a perfect team for corpse recovery and delivery. That sounds limited in scope, but the originality of the stories is coupled with Otuska's ability to keep one foot planted (or buried) firmly in reality. In the great Japanese tradition, the story can go from light to horrifying at the turn of the page, and that's why I included it on this list.

10) CAT EYED BOY by Kazuo Umezu

CAT EYED BOY is like a lot of Umezu's work in that it is both classic and timeless. Viz did a very nice putting this out in two giant volumes earlier this year. The title character lives in the attics of houses stealing snacks and observing the disturbing antics of their residents. The Cat Eyed Boy starts as the storyteller letting us in on the secrets he sees at night behind closed doors, but it is when our storyteller is pulled into the episodic tales that it is most unsettling for the reader.

11) MAIL by Housui Yamazaki

The short series MAIL is a collection of tales starring a private detective named Akiba. Only Akiba can exorcise ghosts from the locations they have attached themselves to. The real stars of the show are the ghosts and their stories, and each episode is like a mini-horror movie based on classic Japanese scares and urban legends.

12) OCTOPUS GIRL by Toru Yamazaki

Some horror is deep and psychological and some is just ick. Yamazaki's splats face first in the latter catagory and you might want to put on rubber gloves before picking up this title. Imagine Bratz soaked in blood and brine, and you start to get the idea. Icky, sticky and full of twisted characters, OCTOPUS GIRL will make you go "eww" at every turn of the page.

13) TOKYO ZOMBIE by Yusaku Hanakuma

This isn't a traditional horror title, but nothing about TOKYO ZOMBIE is traditional, so I think it fits here nicely. Partially a social statement on society and the environment and partially a kick-ass zombie slug fest, TOKYO ZOMBIE is both funny and repulsive, sometimes in the same frame.

Horrible mentions: If you are looking for more, also check out Gantz, Monster, Alive, One Missed Call, Reiko the Zombie Shop, Presents and Lullabies from Hell