10 Most Messed Up Junji Ito Moments

Known for his grotesque body horror, surreal concepts, and gallows humour, manga artist Junji Ito is one of the biggest names in both the worlds of manga and horror.

Born in Gifu, Japan, Ito developed his love for horror at a young age, citing the likes of other manga creators Hideshi Hino and Kazuo Umezu, who he read as a child, as well as H.P Lovecraft as some of his biggest influences.

With Ito's twisted creations typically seeing his characters confronted with an unexplainable extraordinary presence - usually manifesting in their own bodies - or cruelly punished for their actions, the artist's work is bursting with gruesome imagination.

From stories of an unkillable femme fatale, an army of rotting fish on legs invading Japan, or a small town plagued by a spiral, nothing can match the strange and disturbing content found within the pages of Ito's short stories and volumes.

What makes Ito stand out even more is just how seriously weird his horror can get. Throughout his ever-growing library of bizarre tales, Ito has given readers plenty of unique images they won't be forgetting any time soon.

Here are just some of his most messed up moments.

Published as part of The Circus Is Here in The Junji Ito Horror Comic Collection, The Window Next Door (sometimes titled The Neighbour’s Window or The Adjacent Window), takes the concept of stranger danger to a whole other terrifying level.

In this short story, the plot sees high school student Hiroshi and his family move into a new home where they hear stories that the elderly woman supposedly occupying the house next door never shows her face in public. However, her figure is reportedly seen in the window at night.

It's not long before Hiroshi is introduced to his new neighbour, though. Late at night, he hears whispering from outside his bedroom window from his neighbour enticing him to come over. As creepy as that is, things only get worse for him when he moves to investigate. Looking out his window he gets a good look at who (or what) his neighbour is: a decaying, bony figure with a large, sinister smile.

Continuing to torment the "dear boy" at night as she tries to get through his window, we never find out what she planned to do if she succeeded; but it was definitely nothing neighbourly.