A Wild Sheep Chase (6) Kwaidan (5) Uzumaki (6)

I am very familiar with Junji Ito's work, especially Uzumaki, this being the third time I have read it. A Wild Sheep Chase feels very different than the other two. Kwaidan is quite clearly the original text for many yokai.

Uzumaki

Junji Ito's work is not only driven by his wonderous and creepy plots but also his art style. If the manga were only in written form, it would not have the same impact. The plot is centered around spirals, which on their own don't seem like something horrifying. Junji plays with the idea of infinity, and trying to grasp what infinite truly means. Trying to understand the vastness of endless is like trying understand the bounds of the universe. It can compare to someone having an existential crisis. We are reminded of the madness that "omniscience" brings (like the Nazi woman in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, bad reference I know). I will mention this again but, all of the "monsters" of Uzumaki are either haunted places, or haunted people.

A Wild Sheep Chase

A modern take on horror, it feels very different than most Japanese ghost stories. The fear is not... intense, if that makes sense. It's not in your face, but rather subliminal. The main character encounters supernatural beings in a way that almost feels believable. I guess I mean that the character feels the most like a regular person. He faces the death of someone in his past, he is divorced, he has an average job. But it is this "average man" that faces the suicide of his friend, the disappearance of his lover, and the interaction with a demon sheep ghost. 

Kwaidan

Many of these creatures described in the stories are still relevant in todays literature. I realized that through out all these stories (A Wild Sheep Chase and Uzumaki included) there are no monsters. Almost every interaction with the supernatural is a ghost or a human tormented by a ghost. It seems the most horrifying thing we can come up with is the interaction of the living and the dead.