Sensor

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Filled with stellar artwork and a story that weaves between cosmic mythos, religious iconography and classic horror, this is Ito Junji with some of his best work in recent years.

Story, 6: The volume is roughly tied together through the presence of Tsuchiyado Wataru, a journalist seeking information on the mysterious appearance of a golden-haired woman named Byakuya Kyouka. However, the first four chapters roughly felt like one-shots due to their relatively disconnected nature. Each explored a disturbing facet of the lore behind Byakuya Kyouka's appearance and the eruptions at Mount Sengoku. Though I enjoyed them for the most part and the conclusion was mostly ... satisfying, some of the reveals weren't handled particularly well and tarnished my enjoyment a bit.

Art, 9: There are genuinely gruesome pieces here, particularly in Chapter 3: Hypnotherapy and Chapter 4: The Insects of Bishakeura. Highly recommended for fans of body horror.

Characters, 6: Byakuya Kyouka seems much like a blonde version of Tomie from Ito's other works, though with a comparatively lighthearted tone. Men become obsessed with her and tap into their divinity. Many of the characters felt undeveloped outside of their operations as plot devices, but the scope of the story was galactic so this can mostly be forgiven.

Enjoyment, 7: Despite my grievances with some of the plot developments and characters, I still enjoyed this title quite a bit, as the sci-fi nature of the story is fairly uncommon in other Ito Junji works. Great art as well.

Overall, 7: Fans of Ito's other works will likely enjoy this, as well as fans of his specific title Black Paradox. The stories are dissimilar but encompass relatively similar themes.

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised with this manga. I found it more enjoyable than some of Ito's other works, notably Gyo and Remina. If you are a fan of Ito, don't get dissuaded by anything you've heard elsewhere. It's absolutely worth checking out.

Story: 6

Much like Ito's other manga, the story isn't the tightest. This manga in particular, feels almost like a collection of short stories with a small thread connecting them together. With that said, these short stories are rather engaging and up there for me with some of my favorite Ito short stories. The connecting thread between the short stories is ... engaging enough, and has some very interesting ideas. Fans of cosmic horror will be pleased by the concepts presented. The story in typical Ito fashion, also includes some fantastic body horror. Unfortunately for my tastes, too much was left unexplained. It's all quite cool but some further delving into the concepts on display would have absolutely elevated the story.

Art: 10
You can really tell that Ito put a lot of work into the art of this series. It features some incredibly grotesque imagery, on par with Ito's best. The art has always been the main draw for me when it comes to Ito's manga, and Sensor delivers in spades.

Characters: 5
While the characters are beautifully designed, they are rather one dimensional. There are some interesting character moments however. Kyouka has one moment in particular in regards to her ability that is rather compelling, but for whatever reason this aspect of her character is never explored again. The reporter Wataru is fine as a narrator, but his motivation is rather flimsy. It's simply the classic horror trope of being compelled by something beyond his comprehension. It works of course, but needless to say nobody is going to be doing character studies on this manga.

Enjoyment: 8
Being a huge fan of cosmic horror made this manga a delight. The themes combined with the phenomenal art work made this a breezy read. I read the whole thing in one sitting, and found myself glued to the pages. I was rather intrigued and excited to see what would happen next. Some of the imagery in this manga is sure to stick with me for a very long time.

Overall: 7.25
I can easily recommend this manga for fans of Ito and for fans of cosmic and body horror. Even with it's shortcomings in terms of story and characters, the artwork still elevates it to a high level. The hardcover edition from Viz media is beautiful, and worth having in your library.

Minor story-event spoilers below

This is my first Junji Ito book and also the first horror book I've ever read so I have a clean slate here. I haven't heard very much about Sensor as I have Ito's more popular works like Uzumaki and Gyo, other than this one being different.

Sensor deals alot in cosmic mythology and some religious imagery, which I think is one of the stronger aspects of this manga. The entire thing has a strange mythical and almost culty sort of vibe surrounding the events and horror. It's pretty cool.

The characters are just alright, which is a little disappointing because they become ... a pretty large focus of the book as it goes on. Wataru Tsuchiyado, a no-name reporter, is the character we primarily follow throughout the book, but really in terms of personality or motivations I feel more could've been done. He initially looks into Kyoko Byakuya for as a scoop yes, but after all the trouble and general crazy stuff he goes through chasing her I think his motivations for doing so should've been expanded on. A part of me thinks I shouldn't care this much about characters in a horror book, but the characters play a pretty important role in the story. Especially Kyoko Byakuya who is the essentially the crux of the story, she is the goddess-like figure with the golden hair, the mystery that survived the eruption of the volcano who's name I don't remember.

Kyoko is easily the most interesting part of the manga, she doesn't speak very much when she is present, which builds her entire appeal to me. She has this psychic third eye that drives people mad, what does she know? What powers does she have? Why did she survive?

Sensors downfall is it's disjointed story. It really feels more like mini stories surrounding Kyoko than a cohesive start-to-finish narrative. We get scenes with Kyoko interacting with some characters in the past during a flashback, then Kyoko is suddenly back and strange things start occurring again, only for her to disappear once more, basically leaving Wataru with no real purpose for like half a chapter (introducing some stalker-chick instead who I just did not care about). Kyoko really just comes and goes in the storyline, which leaves the rest of the characters to meander until she returns again.

This makes for a really inconsistent book, some parts are really creepy, like the suicide bugs from chapter 4, or the Hypnotherapy in chapter 3, but sometimes the manga feels directionless, like during chapter 5.

Real mixed bag here, I wouldn't say this isn't worth reading, but it didn't wow me personally too much.