Asahi Sonorama
Horror stayed a niche in mainstream manga. There was no magazine specialized solely on horror comics until the 1980s, when Asahi Sonorama founded "Halloween" magazine in 1986 due to the recent success of artists like Ryōko Takashina in mainstream shōjo magazines like "Ribon". Junji Itō became the most famous contributor to the magazine with his "Tomie" series. Similar publications like "Horror M" (Bunkasha), also mainly targeted at women, started to appear. Magazines like "Nemuki" (Asahi Sonorama), "Susperia Mystery" (Akita Shoten) and "Apple Mystery" (Shufu to Seikatsusha) were also founded as part of this movement, but concentrated on more subtle and less graphic depictions of horror. Artists drawing for those magazine like Ichiko Ima ("Hyakkiyakō Shō"), Matsuri Akino ("Pet Shop of Horrors") and Narumi Kakinouchi ("Vampire Princess Miyu") became famous. Masaya Hokazono has also written some horror manga like "Freak Island" and its prequel "Offal Island" based on slasher movies centered around a family of cannibalistic mutant cultists. Masaya would also co-create "Pumpkin Night" and "Killing Morph" based on the slasher films as well.