Frankenstein: Junji Ito Story Collection

If you've ever read the original Frankenstein and wanted more, you know how much of a nightmare it is to find adaptations that are faithful to the source material. The vast majority of movies turn Victor - a college dropout who's never burned out and can't handle the slightest failure - into a brilliant scientist with an assumed doctorate, a remote castle, an assistant or two, and most importantly, good parenting skills. The man's like 24 when he meets Walton at the beginning of the book. I've seen a single movie that even halfway faithfully adapted the book, and Victor had two assistants. I've never been able to find that movie again. (Edit: I have found it. It's the 1973 film and it's still pretty good.) First, I'll start with the grievances I have with so many adaptations of Frankenstein. Naturally, every time I see that someone has adapted my favorite piece of classic literature, I get a little nervous. I think, "Oh god, what have they done this time? How have they screwed it up now? How have they attempted to make Victor likable?" Spoilers, you can't make Victor likable or else he's no longer Victor Frankenstein. That's the whole point of his character, and partially why most adaptations are almost as infuriating as Victor himself. I despise Victor if you couldn't tell. I could go on a 10 page long rant about how much I hate him, but I'll try not to for the sake of this review, which at the time of finishing is over a page and a half long. Another reason most adaptations are infuriating is because they make the monster stupid. I kind of get where they're coming from, I mean he's basically an 8 foot tall baby in terms of how long he's been alive. But it's simply inaccurate. He has an adult brain. In the book, he taught himself how to read and speak, and he does so with eloquence. He demonstrated knowledge of the scientific method. He's cunning and kinda charismatic. He was handsome too, barring the fact that he was stitched together from grave-robbed corpses and certainly looked like it. I'll admit, Shelley's characterization of the monster feels more realistic than "He's a big baby! He's a newborn!" Now I must preface, the monster is not handsome in this adaptation. He's pretty decayed and wrinkly, which would be accurate to reality. I think if he was made of fresher parts, though, he'd be like a 7 or 8, so no points docked there. Not that I'm doing a points system anyway. And now onto an actual review. WOW. Just WOW. Junji Ito, as he does with all of his work, so clearly put his heart and soul into this. There are small details from the source material included that so many adaptations have cast aside as unimportant and unnecessary. Now of course, there's plenty of differences, which is unsurprising I think considering that's just how it is with adaptations of any kind, but especially visual adaptations. Let's get into those. Spoilers abound, you have been warned. 1: I appreciate that Ito wrote Victor and Elizabeth to see each other as adoptive cousins rather than adoptive siblings. Of course in this day and age, it's still gross, but it certainly lessens the discomfort significantly. 2: In the original book, Clerval doesn't do much. He's Victor's best friend (for some reason, Clerval honey you can do better), but he's woefully ignorant of his friend's horrifying creation. In this adaptation, however, Clerval actually finds out what's going on as Victor is creating a lover for his monster. And Clerval offers to help. To be honest, I ADORE this little change. Clerval really felt like the type to do something like this, to support his garbage friend unconditionally, and it also makes him a more important character (which he deserves). 3: The monster's bride is actually finished. She's successfully brought to life, but almost immediately lashes out and is killed by the original monster. She hated him just like everyone else. I like this. It rekindles his hatred for humanity, and it honestly makes him more of a sympathetic character. I think it's a suitable replacement for Victor overthinking and forgetting he can just not give her a uterus and destroying her. It also confirms his fears that they won't get along after all. It gives him more to fear; he failed to satisfy his creation's wishes, and now he'll continue to suffer. Honestly, good. I hate him. RIP to his innocent family members, but that's what you get when you can't take responsibility for your actions! All of these differences were made for various reasons, but they all feel natural. They fit well in the story - you could rewrite the original book with these changes and it would still feel right. My only real grievance is that Junji Ito didn't include the monster reading Paradise Lost. I certainly understand why it wasn't included, it wasn't touched upon very much in the original and on the surface it didn't really change anything. But it was somewhat important thematically, as the monster sympathized with Satan and thus found some comfort. Overall? WORTH IT. This goes on my miniscule list of good Frankenstein adaptations.

This is currently right now one of my most favorite translated short story collections put out yet. I won't lie I was a little disappointed with the last officially translated story collection "shiver" since one or two stories in the collection already came out in previous books but that's not important. What is important is this collection and it's pretty great. Its almost 400 pages long and filled to the brim with stories. You have the Frankenstein story (which is I want to say 182 pages long) along with the entire Oshikiri collection which is 6 short/medium length stories and then on top of that another 4 short one off stories. I have to say before I bought the book I was a little hesitant because I feel like the story of Frankenstein is over done. Yet Junji Ito's take on it was interesting to me. Its basically a much quicker story than the original tale and he removed some parts of the story and added some of his own stuff into it. Overall not a bad story his art is once again amazing the monster in particular is pretty gruesome to look at. Its not as gory or body horror-y as his other works but its still great to look at and read. Then we got the Oshikiri collection. The Oshikiri collection is a story collection where it tells the tale of Oshikiri a boy who lives in a big mansion by himself while his parents are out of the country for business. Everyone who sees his house say it looks like a "western castle." These stories basically are the odd things that goes on in his life. Either school, friends, horrors of living alone, or some other paranormal stuff. It also takes some weird turns with alternate dimensions or parallel universes. I personally love some of these stories they are just so odd. The last 4 stories I really don't want to ruin. They are short 1-3 page stories. One is about a illness spreading to children, another is being trapped by medical equipment, and the other two are short stories about Junji's dog when he was younger. If you like Junji Ito this collection is a no brainier there is a lot of good stories for a decent price. If you never read any of Junji's works I would say this is a perfect start. You get a lot of easy to get into stories that show off why people like him. I hope we continue to get more story collections like this in the future.

So Junji Ito ... my wife is addicted to his writing and manga ... so when he was at SDCC ... I knew I was in trouble. So we went to his speaking engagement and the man is really brilliant (honestly I had no idea who he was prior to this) ... I felt bad for him because his hands are very badly gnarled because of years of drawing. But no one can take away the horror he inspires with everything he writes and draws. He creates horrors that give nightmares horrors ... the things he writes and draws is amazing and terrifying and beautiful at the same time. The stories are all enthralling and tell tales that will give you nightmares but you will soon realize that even your nightmares pale in comparison to the nightmares he is writing. It's truly awe inspiring to be honest. One day we will lose this horror genre master but for now, I recommend everyone buy his books and be both inspired and terrified.

The master of manga horror does it again with a stellar adaptation of Mary Shelley’s masterpiece. Highly recommend.

Fantastic, this is a great book to read if you didn’t understand the new Frankenstein movie since it is like the og book with fantastic artwork, highly recommend, you NEED TO BUY THIS.

Good book but i cant finish it for some reason it gets a little boring towards the middle after the first couple stories

Love.....This author

Beautiful art and wonderful stories. The story Frankenstein is pretty book accurate too.

Gut gebunden

Greatest collection of all times.

Que edição impecável. É um compilado do volume 9 (Hallucinations - 1998) e 16 (Frankenstein - 1998) da coleção Horror World of Junji Ito, que apresenta diversos one-shots. Aqui temos a grandiosa adaptação da história homônima de Mary Shelley, com todo o terror e aflição instigante que só o Junji Ito sabe proporcionar. É uma adaptação fiel, com os mesmos elementos góticos. A história inicia com o Capitão Walton em busca do Polo Norte para expandir seu conhecimento e se tornar famoso. Durante a jornada ele avista uma criatura gigante e pouco tempo depois encontra Victor Frankenstein, que diz estar atrás desta criatura. Ao perceber em Walton a mesma ambição que o destruiu, Victor reconta toda sua história, como cresceu, sua família, seus estudos na Alemanha, seu contato com química e outras ciências e como criou a criatura. Alguns acontecimentos importantes acontecem e Victor reecontra o monstro, que por sua vez reconta tudo que ele enfrentou, a rejeição por parte das pessoas, a extrema solidão e solicita que o seu 'mestre' crie uma companheira. É retomada a narrativa de Victor e o ápice da história acontece. O final é surpreendente. As próximas 6 histórias contam sobre Oshikiri, um jovem que é envolvido por eventos estranhos que podem ou não ser alucinações. Ele possui um temperamento impaciente, é incomodado com sua altura e vive em uma enorme mansão conectada com diversos mundos paralelos. Em meio a essa bizarrice, é introduzido um duplicado do Oshikiri que realiza diversas maldades; e o assassinato de alguns colegas. Por fim, temos 4 histórias bônus. Mais uma vez, gostei do trabalho da VIZ e espero que ela continue lançado esses compilados do Junji Ito.

as a fan of junji itos works this book didnt disappoint

Parfait, rien à redire