This horror manga is wacky and creepy, the way a horror manga should be. The pictures are gruesome and not for people who do not like gore. I loved the quirky ideas of each section, the first one was giving me the heebie jeebies. It was pretty unsettling. The next one is zombie-esque and both the twists were quite clever. The third section was interesting but I didn't enjoy the perverse aspect of the plot. It didn't even seem like related to the central plot of it, it was just thrown in just for fun. The last section had a strong begining but it was left with much ambiguity. Too many unanswered questions. While I agree with the author that horror is done best with some unanswered questions but if you do not create a base for your plot, you basically do not leave the readers any foundation to begin with their thoughts regarding the unanswered questions. It becomes very forgettable.

Thank you to Fantagraphics for the e-arc of this manga. This manga was a collection of horror stories, all more graphic than the last. They instill discomfort, disgust, shock, and a little fear in the reader. Due to the graphic and dark nature of this manga, I would suggest that readers decide whether they would be comfortable with the content through trigger warnings. TW: blood, nudity, body horror, gore, medical content, murder, pedophilia, grief, car accident, death, psychological horror, cannibalism.

3.75 ⭐️

Interesting and very different stories; artwork is great and so was the gore! My overall rating for the manga is 3 stars but I have broken down my ratings for each story as well:

• Labyrinth Quartet ⭐️⭐️⭐️: enjoyed the killer stalker vibes and the ending was bittersweet

• Curse Room ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: my fave story! the living dead being gently eased into accepting their fate was a unique plot

• Family Portrait ⭐️⭐️.5: umm… would have liked it better if it wasn’t so uncomfortable.. the perverted grandpa x granddaughter scene just made me feel gross 🤢

• Blood Harvest ⭐️⭐️.5: evil cars with a thirst for human blood is fun and i felt so sorry for the MC who had to take it upon herself to save the world from them by becoming a blood bag

Thank you to netgalley and Fantagraphics for the ARC in exchange for the honest review! ✨

Some creepy ideas illustrated here, but not all of the stories were cohesive or easy to follow along with. There’s also a super nasty/perverted section that really has no business being with the rest of the collection. It’s like something from the depths of 4chan/pornhub. Totally ruined the entire book for me 🤢🤮

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Fantagraphics for a copy.

While I knew this was horror and possibly contained gore but aside from that I wasn’t prepared to how uncomfortable this would make me for no reason. The plot is paper thin and the art is below average.

Brain Damage brings together four independent short stories by Shintaro Kago (author of Dementia 21), taking us in turn through a maze alongside four women who look alike, into a claustrophobic studio apartment that seems cursed, into the heart of a family plagued by strange disappearances, and finally into the middle of a traffic jam caused by an accident — which leads to an investigation to understand what really happened to the passenger in the car driven by the main character.
In each of these stories, the author gradually weaves elements of the paranormal into otherwise ordinary, everyday scenes. The drawings and panel flow are very clear, and you never find yourself confused or wondering what's going on.
I generally enjoyed all the stories in this collection, although the third one (Family Portrait) resonated with me a bit less — but it does offer an interesting, fantastical take on Alzheimer’s disease.
If you liked Dementia 21, Junji Ito, or horror manga in general, I can only recommend reading Brain Damage.

Brain Damage is an absolute must read! Each of the 4 stories have a lot of twists and turns to keep you guessing and thinking. The manga was very unique and well thought out. Most of the time, my jaw was on the floor as I read. it.

Blood Harvest was my absolute favorite out of the stories. I liked all of the weirdness throughout the stories, aside from The Family Portrait story.
Family portrait made me feel really uncomfortable with the incest and sexualizing a minor. There were some scenes that felt very unnecessary. But, it was otherwise a very great manga.

Thank you to NetGalley, Author, Kago, and Fantagraphics for this ARC.

This is easily one of the best mangas I’ve read and I would be more than happy to read more of Kago’s work. The plots were unique. I enjoyed the premise as much as i enjoyed the beautiful illustrations. It was giving Junji ito, but not exactly. I loved the vibe overall.

Great horror manga. A few errors with the English translation, but overall, very thrilling. I loved the short story format and the artwork was both beautiful and grotesque!

Another masterpiece from Shintaro Kago! Love his psychedelic-like art and dark humoured stories. Looking forward to more translations!

Loved the artwork it gave each story this air of suspense. I don't think I could pick just one story as my favorite as each one had something that I loved.

Thank you to Fantagraphics Books for the eARC of Brain Damage via NetGalley!

Unfortunately, this was not it for me. The art was solid, the ideas/concepts for the stories were decent, but the executions Missed. I especially disliked the pervy grandpa one 🙃🙃🙃.

I love manga, and I envy the beautiful drawings that are able to tell a story with such vivid details. Brain Damage was great, with bizarre stories that draw you in, whilst pulling you bit by bit into their madness. There is also a lot of gore too, for us sickos lol.

There are 4 stories and whilst I didn’t love all of them, the drawings themselves are enough to keep you turning the pages.

These stories have all such cool concepts, but I found that sometimes the ending wasn’t up to the premise. My favourite was Curse Room, a reimagining of the zombie trope, with supernatural elements.

I must say though, that the story Family Portrait had me a bit shocked, as there is an inappropriate depiction of a very sexual teenager, being groped and sexually harassed by her grandfather. This was done in a jokingly way, which I felt a bit sick about. Not just that, but at some point in the story, the teenager is blamed for bringing this on herself by the way she dresses and carries herself, which I found so enraging and disturbing. And, by the way, towards the end it got worse and I felt really uncomfortable.

All in all, I enjoyed it, but some of the elements of one of the stories really bothered me, but this is always my opinion. The drawings are really good, and I love reading manga for that!

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy and this is my honest opinion.

Thank you, NetGalley for an advanced ARC of this manga

this started off good but as it went on the horror aspect taken was not quite up my street but I did find it an interesting read, but I will not be continuing with this if it's a series

Dark and macabre moments to disturb at least one or two.... and.... then there's the sexualized next to the last story, which crossed several one normal boundary too many.

I wanted to like this collection but being jump scared by sexual harassment and incest were not what I was expecting.

3/4 of these stories were fun and i would have given this a higher rating if it weren’t for how out of nowhere the third story was.

Id recommend avoiding family portrait

<i>***I thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review*** </i>

hope i recover from this brain damage.

feast your eyes on body horror—four grisly tales from a renowned mangaka.
the first two stories were remarkable, and i really liked the unique concept in the fourth one. the third story, however, unnecessarily sexualised a minor and it was disgusting, not to mention the incest. i know the author also writes adult magazines but i do not condone this. yes, it’s supposed to be disturbing but the way it was written seemed otherwise. take notes from inio asano.

the art was great—i would even say it inspired me more to create a manga of my own. it’s simple yet detailed in the gruesomeness. as for the plot, there’s some sort of a twist in the ending of each story which was nice.

labyrinth quartet—3 ★
the cursed room—3 ★
the family portrait—2 ★
blood harvest—4 ★

this is my first read from shintaro kago and would probably explore his work again.

x

Thank you Netgalley and Fantagraphic books for an ARC of this book.

I was interested in this book because I have recently become a fan of Junji Ito. For the most part I did like the book, however, there was one story that I found really disturbing and could have lived without.

This book itself was ok.

4 manga short stories
my rating depended on each individual story
labyrinth quartet: a murderous stalker kidnaps 4 girls who are almost identical to play out a twisted fantasy 3 stars
family portrait: as a perverted man loses his memory, townspeople start to go missing disgusting negative 5 stars, do not recommend, do not read
curse room: zombies unaware of their deaths are sent to a facility to be coaxed to the other side 4 stars
blood harvest: mangled bodies are found in undamaged cars, sole survivor has amnesia and tries to remember how she ended up in the car only to remember to late 3 stars

Ever wish you could unread/unsee a book?

Yeah. This.

The first two stories are unremarkable. Boring even. 3 star territory. Then the third story happened and my rating went down to 1.5 stars. Then the ending of the last one happened and my rating went down to 1 star.

Do. Not. Read. This. Save yourself while you still can. It’s it worth it.