Just like, Mimi's Tales of Terror, Hirokatsu Kihara and Junji Ito team up again for a collection of several stories that fall flat. If you're die-hard fan of Ito's illustrations, you might want these two for your library but if you're showing up for the stories too, both of these latest collections miss the mark. The stories are so short and underdeveloped. Just unsatisfying and basically all eye-candy and no real substance.

"Stitches" is a collection of very short stories written by Hirokatsu Kihara with scattered illustrations by Junji Ito, and a bonus short manga story by Junji Ito at the end. These stories were not nearly as creepy and terror-filled as most Junji Ito work, but there are still spooky vibes throughout. The stories are stated to be true stories of unsolved mysteries, which lends a bit of support for the lack of development in them, although there may also be something lost in translation. Despite the mild spook factor, this is still an interesting collection, with one story even being more sweet than scary at all. Many Junji Ito fans will be disappointed in this collection, but there will be plenty of readers who will enjoy these horror-lite short stories.

Thanks NetGalley and Viz Media for this arc

2/5 stars

This is more a (very) short story collection with some illustrations than manga, so the description should be updated as such. I found the stories to be kind of interesting but so short it felt pointless to get into them? Not a big fan of this, and honestly I haaaaate the cover lol

Thank you to Viz Media and Netgalley for my copy in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Before I start, much of my rating comes mainly from how unreadable my copy was. I tried reading on my kindle and then on the Netgalley app, and it was DIFFICULT with the watermark logo. I get why it's there, but it really impedes reading.

Moving forward...this is a short story collection with some Ito illustrations. Hirokatsu Kihara's writing usually works well when it's used for graphic novels, but for a collection that is ALL writing and minimal illustration? It just doesn't work. This might be the translation, but it was just not scary and at times, nonsensical. Sometimes his writing borders on Weird fiction but in this collection, it just wasn't working at all. The stories were just boring and read like odd events in a slice of life narrative but not something that was scary or horrific.

So yeah...I was very disappointed with this.

A lot of un in a very creepy way. Junji Ito collaboration to do a short stories collection was an interesting gamble that work out perfectly!

I went into this with little expectations. I enjoy Junji Ito's artwork it is so unique and stunning while disturbing in the best way possible so I was thrilled when I came across this and was kindly approved for the arc on Netgalley!

That being said, I am a major fan of horror and dabble in short stories often but I'm afraid to say this was a major disappointment. While the artwork is as mentioned previously stunning and creepy, more than suitable for the stories at hand the written work leaves a lackluster impression in comparison. Stitches is a compilation of several stories and as many of these styles of books go, some are stronger than others but I felt that most were lacking in content and a bit dull. While reading I kept wishing the stories were far more fleshed out and it is something that can be achieved in short stories, even those that are only a handful of pages long but Stitches never fully achieved that. I am never opposed to a confusing, open ending but it requires proper build up that was not there. I think there is a lot of potential here and the stories and ideas are not bad by any means, they were really interesting and I think while confusing the opening story was my favorite but none of it made a ton of sense. I think it'd be better if these were a bit longer even if it was a handful of pages!

This also has nothing to do with the author so this isn't a dog on him but it was so frustrating reading this story with words blocked out due to the watermarks. Words and illustrations were heavily obscured and some words I found to be blocked out entirely leaving sentences jumbled and confusing.

I really wished this would've been more of a graphic novel. 9 short stories. All of them are scary. Some build you up and just leave you hanging. Some of these stories are complete "wtf" questions. Some of these short stories could've been fleshed out to a novella for a better scare. Hopefully this serves as a springboard to something better in the future.
I just reviewed Stitches by Hirokatsu Kihara. #Stitches #NetGalley

Anything that Ito has his hands in is usually pure gold. It’s dark, disturbing, and my little black heart grows larger. So this was a no brainer to read.

*sigh* It pains me to say this but these stories were kind of dull. The collection contains nine extremely short stories that are supposed to make your eyes turn black and fall out but they really put me to sleep. The best thing about this was the art.

This book consists of several short (emphasis on short) illustrated stories.I thought the stories were decent. Many seemed a bit similar, with an object being haunted. My favorite story was the one with the kimono.

The illustrations were very good.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A collection of short horror stories. Nearly all of these are a miss. Many of them could have benefitted from more depth, and nearly all of them undercut the horror of the story, or lack it entirely. It's as if the tales are told for or by a kid. Either the scare is not developed to save them from being frightened, or the scare is lost in the muddle of trying to bring about the close. Ito's art is good but doesn't elevate things. His brief comic in the back also falls victim to the issues of the book.

Stitches is nine short horror stories in one book. Some of the stories were okay, but for the most part, they were kind of boring. I hate to say that as two of my favorite things to read are horror and graphic novels, but it fell short. I am not sure if they were translated into English and the writing was just lost in translation. I wanted to like this, but the stories lacked horror for the most part. I had to go back and see if this was written for children. It was basically on par to be the Japanese version of "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark." I want to have something positive about this small anthology of short stories, so I will at least say I had never heard the stories that were written. It did have that "weird" Ito-style too, which I appreciated.

(Not really Kihara's fault, but the ARC from the publishers, but it was really annoying to have the watermark in the middle of the pages where it covered or completely erased words. That and it was not read in manga format-I am not sure if the published copy will be, but I hope so). I am not familiar with Kihara's work, but it seemed like Junji Ito might have done the illustrations and used his name so people will try Kihara out. I thought there would be more Ito, but it was just an illustration or two in each story.

This is actually a collection of short (micro?) stories, each lasting only a few pages. As with most short story collections, there were hits and misses but it was very interesting to see Junji Ito's artwork throughout the book.