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- Art: 10
- Characters: 9
- Story: 9

I find myself just staring for a couple minutes at a page or two, enthralled, absorbed in the world, art is gorgeous. Maybe given the authors background in design, the framing and page composition are on another level. Beautiful Mucha inspired flourishes around the page, frames breaking frames, breathtaking spreads. Characters are full of personality and everything about them from clothing to how they interact with each other is carefully conveyed. This is one of my top 3 alongside Berserk and Akira in the art department. Love it so much.

Characters are also well written and full of personality, they ... all have interesting back stories and distinct from each other.

The story is about a little girl who wants to learn witchcraft, a very secretive art only allowed to a few privileged, how she gets into the profession due to an unfortunate turn of events, her progress as a witch and her motives to make it to the top. A story about friendship, loss, inequality and how to face the world even when it wants us down.

I hope all the awards it received in the west help to bring manga to a larger audience.

- Story: 9/10
- Characters: 9/10
- Art : 6/10

As for the story, the first 5 volumes were a very slow grind as I didn't know what to expect. I knew it wasn't a battle shonen but given there are heroes and mages and no combat (at least no significant fights) it was difficult to digest what was going on. It didn't feel boring at all, just a slow, slice-of-life story of an ancient mage who beat the baddest of foes alongside her partners and now she just needs to move on and continue with her life. But... to my surprise, it gradually got incrementally better, my ... understanding about the story and what the writer is trying to achieve improved with each volume and now I can't wait for the next one. It might become one of my favourites if it keeps with this pace.

Art is not bad but it's definitely the weakest part of the whole for me. Characters have a lot of personality but environments feel lacking and cities seem empty with no detail at all, but maybe that's what they are going for as this is more of a character driven manga.

Characters themselves are all well written and like the art they have a lot of charisma and personality. Frieren, Fern and Denken are my favourites. I also love the interplay between the meaning of their German names and how it relates to who they are.

Highly recommended if you have time and want to try something different.

Please avoid this book if you want to get into Juni Ito, there are better entry points like Uzumaki or Smashed.

- Is the story unique? If it was predictable, did you enjoy it anyway because you like this genre/set-up? There are three stories. "Weeping Woman", the first one, is the only well rounded one. The other two are whacky horror fillers he wrote during the pandemic.
- Do you think the art style is fitting for the story? This is one of his latest works so the art is excellent.
- Were the characters well-rounded? Did they have flaws and strengths, or were they unusually strong/smart/stupid? "Weeping ... Woman" has well rounded characters. The other two are just forgettable.
- Did the characters react to situations and events in a realistic way? Yes they did, within a fantasy horror universe.
- Do you think others will enjoy/dislike this series, even if you didn't? Why? I think a hardcore Junji Ito fan will like it but it might not be great for newcomers to his work.

Probably Junji Ito's best collection. I read the English version that has a couple more stories but all of them should be included here I believe . It's well balanced, with great storytelling and art, and no filler stories like you might find on most of his collections. "In Mirror Valley" might be one of his best stories, a sense of Lovecraftian otherness and full of imagination. There's a nice mix of supernatural and daily life horror. Might be a great entry point for this author if you haven't read anything he's written.

- Is the story unique? If it was predictable, did you enjoy ... it anyway because you like this genre/set-up? Yes, all stories are unique
- Do you think the art style is fitting for the story? Great art that fits the story.
- Were the characters well-rounded? Did they have flaws and strengths, or were they unusually strong/smart/stupid? Well rounded characters
- Did the characters react to situations and events in a realistic way? Yes, they did, MAL!
- Do you think others will enjoy/dislike this series, even if you didn't? Why? I don't know why, everyone is unique, but it's a great starting point for the Junji Ito universe.

It's difficult to review Junji Ito collections. It's an author with a hardcore fanbase that will stan on anything he does. You'll find all his books are rated 5 stars on most shopping platforms and there's no real critique to his work. The Eisner awards also don't help at all. Some of his stories are fantastic. I think Uzumaki is a horror classic, but it might be his only great work, maybe the only cohesive one. The rest of his collections are a mix of fantastic art and writing alongside random ideas he seems to develop on a whim while taking a shower or shopping ... groceries. He is no doubt a pop culture icon. And like most pop culture icons, like Andy Warhol, you can't measure them by the quality of their work, but the impact they make in the industry. Even if his stuff is not great, I think it's worth a read, but wouldn't recommend it to everyone. This collection particularly is half great (the first part, Lovesickness) and half random wacky shower ideas. Get a Kindle sample on Amazon and judge by yourself, don't follow the hype.

A story involving a group of young people who had traumatic experiences in their town and a supernatural phenomena which meaning I couldn't fully grasp due to the fragmented nature of the plot as it comes and goes from the past into the present and around multiple characters and I found it difficult to follow and finish in one read.

It's an edgy, cool(?), graphic novel like everything Inio Asano does. He loves shocking images and twists. The problem is I'm not a big fan of his work and his wacky art and characters don't appeal to me. Most of his characters look like Neuman, ... the MAD guy.

I personally don't think it's bad but found it pretty boring (having a happy-disturbing plot doesn't make a story good), however the author has his hardcore cult of followers for a reason, so you might become one of them and enjoy it.

Up to the "Shibuya Incident" arc (first hundred chapters?) the series was a solid 8, your classic bratty-kid-becomes-good-boy-hero shonen, with interesting fights and a touch of the occult. Personal preferences aside (Gojo is my favourite), characters are linear but well developed with interesting back stories. Art and writing didn't shine, but they were fine.

Then... then next arc quality dropped drastically.

Art becomes messy like they are trying too much to develop their unique style, a tournament arc is introduced when there wasn't any need for one nor build-up for it, a huge amount of random uninteresting new characters is introduced, some characters are "judged evil" ... out of nowhere, a lot of lazy copy-pasted flashback frames, pages with frames filled just with text, the American president(?!) plays a role in the story, an American general says: "they should focus on creating cars and anime", convoluted explanations of events and the list goes on.

It feels as if a totally different author started working on the series from then on.

Most mangaka crunch but they have teams to help them and you can really feel the pressure on Akutami. Not sure if they even have a team to support them, but like their hero Togashi, they need to share the burden and let others fill their creative gaps, otherwise they will burn out or create sloppy manga.

It sadly became an average-to-bad series when it had so much potential.