Genre Guide – Horror Manga

Spirits, yokai, haunted shapes, cursed villages, haunted teenagers, killer doppelgangers, being stuck in school endlessly with monsters! All these and more await you in the world of horror manga. This is a great medium for horror as the detailed drawings combined with the writing brings the horror to life in a whole new way. Often these manga volumes have a number of short stories, making the horror even more varied and unexpected. Not always for the faint of heart, these horror manga below are a great way to start your journey into this genre. Dim the lights while you read these varied tales of horror and hauntings below, and be prepared for a brief journey into another darker world in these varied horror selections. 


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Black Paradox

Four people intent on killing themselves meet through the suicide website Black Paradox and as they wander together in search of the perfect death, fate opens a door that leads them to a rather bizarre destiny.


Be Very Afraid of Kanako Inuki!

The six hair-raising stories selected for this collection feature an array of unnerving characters and scenarios brought to life in Inuki’s signature art style, in the tradition of Junji Ito, Kazuo Umezu, Shintaro Kago, and Junko Mizuno.


Blood on the Tracks

Ordinary middle school student Seiichi Osabe receives love and care from his mother Seiko until an incident changes the family dynamic forever and reveals that a mother’s love can go too far. 


Dark Gathering

After a dangerous encounter with a malevolent spirit, Keitaro Gentoga wants nothing to do with the supernatural. Unfortunately for this reluctant ghost magnet, he’s stuck helping Yayoi Hozuki, the elementary schooler he’s tutoring who’s intent on capturing Japan’s most terrifying ghosts and ghouls until she’s found the one that took her mom! Filled with truly fantastic art, this manga masterfully mixes horror and comedy to make a compelling read with every volume and new chapter. 


The Drifting Classroom

Out of nowhere, an entire school vanishes, leaving nothing but a hole in the ground. While parents mourn and authorities investigate, the students and teachers find themselves not dead but stranded in a terrifying wasteland where they must fight to survive. 


Homunculus

Social outcast Nakoshi is missing his memories and emotions and lives out of a car until eccentrically attired medical student Ito Manabu suddenly shows up and persuades Nagoshi to get trepanation surgery, which involves drilling holes in a person’s skull.


Mieruko-chan

A normal girl was living a normal life-until she wasn’t. One day, she could see…everything. What’s a girl to do when hideous monsters appear no matter which way she turns? This manga is a great mix of horror and comedy, with fantastic art and a great female lead character. 


Orochi

In these interconnected short horror stories, a mysterious young woman slithers her way into the lives of unsuspecting people like the legendary serpent for which she is named—Orochi.


PTSD Radio

Carried into modern Japan from a forgotten past, the being known as Ogushi haunts and tortures humans of all kinds. Little is known about Ogushi’s curse, except that it resides in an unexpected place – human hair.


Summertime Rendering

Hearing the news of the passing of his childhood friend Ushio, Shinpei returns to his hometown on the remote island of Hitogashima to attend her funeral—but little does he know that it is the beginning of a summer full of time-twisting mystery and horror. 

This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Hoopla.


Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror

Kurouzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but a pattern: UZUMAKI, the spiral–the hypnotic secret shape of the world. 

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