page_title: Fragments of Horror
section_title: Reception
hierarchical_section_title: Fragments of Horror / Reception
context_page_description: Fragments of Horror is a Japanese horror anthology manga series written and illustrated by Junji Ito. It was serialized in Nemuki between April 2013 and February 2014 as seven separate short stories, with an eighth being added for the tankōbon release. Viz Media published it in North America under its Viz Signature imprint. The Junji Ito Collection anime anthology, which premiered in January 2018, adapts several stories from Fragments of Horror.
context_section_description: Reviewing the anthology for Otaku USA magazine, Joseph Luster praised the collection, especially Ito's art, which he called "truly special" and "equal parts gruesome and gorgeous".  He also opined that the book contained several instant classics, and was particularly struck by "Blackbird", which he called "the standout hit".
  Nick Creamer of Anime News Network praised Ito for his attempts at finding horror in unexpected places, but felt that it was not uniformly successful.  He noted how Ito's stories tried to subvert familiarity and thus evoke horror, but opined that doing so caused the stories in the collection to walk the "line between the horrifying and the absurd".  He praised Ito's "detailed, unnerving" art, but also felt that sometimes Ito used it to prop up an overall weak story with "one shocking full-page panel".  His one critique of the art was that it tended toward being too formal and thus sometimes lacked personality.
  In her review for Fangoria, Svetlana Fedotov called the collection a good entry point for new fans that would also satisfy longtime Ito readers.  Like many other reviewers, she noticed several Lovecraftian influences in the work, and praised Ito for his "innate knack for bringing out the menace in the most innocent of objects."
  Chris Randle of The Guardian gave the series a mostly positive review.  He noted that Ito usually avoided being "political" in his stories, and also compared the collection to a toned down version of the ero guro art movement.  Ultimately, he concluded that Ito liked to write stories that were less personal and more fascinated with things beyond comprehension, like Lovecraft but without the latter's political views.
  In an in-depth review for The Comics Journal, Joe McCulloch opined that the collection was hardly representative of Ito's best work, with only "Whispering Woman" standing out from the others artistically, yet contained interesting shared themes across many of its stories.  He made note of how most of the interesting characters in the collection were female - either put-upon protagonists or powerful, liberated, and uncaring antagonists, while the majority of male characters were either treacherous or dull.  In his eyes, the common narrative across the collection was one of women confronted by the faithlessness of their male partners and then offered liberation through the actions or example of the consistently female supernatural antagonist.  Ultimately, however, McCulloch felt that these themes were not genuine, but rather a slightly cynical attempt to profit from a magazine with a primarily female audience, a motive that he saw as being satirized in the self-aware "Magami Nanakuse".
  Zainab Akhtar of Comics & Cola also noted the focus on stories of women betrayed by men and empowered female villains.  However, she felt that collection was a poorer imitation of his earlier works, "Ito trying to do Ito, and not quite succeeding."  She attributed this to the fact that, while his art maintained its signature horror, the stories failed to connect with the reader on an emotional level.
  In contrast, a review in Publishers Weekly considered the frequent use of female antagonists to be sexist, as they felt it fell into the "evil woman" trope.  They also felt that the stories were subpar, but believed the quality of the art compensated for any failings.
  Shelly Atomic of Comics Bulletin found the collection to be a mix of good and below average stories.  She criticized "Tomio • Red Turtleneck" and "Futon" for being directionless, but praised "Blackbird" and "Gentle Goodbye", the one for a "great twist" and the other for its "surprisingly heartfelt and sweat [sic] story", feeling that they showed that Ito still retained the creative energy that defined his early works.  She also praised the print quality of the volume, noting that the cover and paper was much higher quality than a standard manga.
  A number of reviewers have compared the cover of the anthology to Edvard Munch's painting The Scream.
caption: Edvard Munch's 1893 painting The Scream. Some reviewers have commented on the similarity of the anthology cover to this painting.
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