Sensor by Ito Junji (2021)

For a long time, I had no interest in reading manga. Many of my friends already read manga very frequently at high school, college and university but the manga they presented to me didn't spark my interest. I thought that most manga were rather childish, exaggerated and stereotypical. My impressions started to change when I discovered Japanese cinema with a friend and came across some live action movies inspired by manga that were quite decent. Ito Junji's works are very positive examples here since I liked the movie adaptations of Tomie and Uzumaki to only name two examples. It makes sense that his manga ended up being some of the first I have ever read and I have become a fan ever since.

Sensor is his most recent manga collection released this past summer in North America. It includes seven chapters and an afterword for a total of two hundred forty pages. It took me roughly four hours to read the entire book.

The different chapters are all connected but focus on different characters who are fleshed out in much greater detail than in many other stories by Ito Junji. The first chapter revolves around a young woman named Byakuya Kyoko who is mysteriously drawn to an ancient village in the mountains where its strange inhabitant welcome her as the chosen one. The main character fails to understand what's so special about herself but realizes that the place is like none other she has ever been to. There is the presence of angel hair that allows the villagers to read and feel the minds of the other villagers and explore the depths of the universe. However, this mysterious gift also comes with a dangerous price that Byakuya Kyoko and several other curious minds are soon going to discover.

One element that makes Sensor stand out is its inspired mixture of different genres. The collection starts as a mystery manga, giving readers little allusions, hints and elements of foreshadowing while not revealing too much and thus sparking creativity. The character-driven stories can also be seen as dramas with tragic twists that deal with grief and regret. Some chapters take a violent turn towards horror manga that will send shivers down your spine. The conceptual guiding line keeps all these little changes and shifts together and the conclusion finds a satisfactory balance between answering the most important questions while keeping a few secrets unrevealed.

The drawing style is also worth to be pointed out. The way Ito Junji draws supernatural phenomenons and scary creatures is particularly haunting and reminds of paintings by Edvard Munch for example. Ito Junji doesn't work as quickly as many of his colleagues but the quality of his work has an artistic depth that most manga don't have as they only focus on predictable stories with endless series of events.

Ito Junji is the greatest mangaka I have ever come across because he combines creative stories with artistic drawings and keeps things concise while still sparking the imaginations of his readers. Sensor is another high-quality entry in his works and shows that his manga career that started almost four decades ago is still going strong and not running out of ideas. Anybody who likes drama, mystery and horror genres combined with detailed, imaginative and memorable drawings should give Ito Junji's Sensor a chance.

Final rating: 80%