Hello friends, how are you all doing? ❤️ Thank you so much for dropping by today. It feels really nice to sit down and write again, and even better to know you’re here reading along. I hope you’ve all been doing well and finding little things that make you happy.
Today I want to share a review of a book that completely hooked me. I recently read Dissolving Classroom by Junji Ito, and it quickly became my second favourite of his works.
Junji Ito is already a legend in horror and gore manga. What I love most is how his stories always feel tied to the culture he grew up in. There’s a quiet eeriness mixed with everyday life that sneaks up on you, and this book captures that perfectly.
The story follows two siblings, Yuuma and Chizumi, who move from place to place, leaving pure chaos behind. Yuuma is obsessively polite, apologising to everyone he meets, while Chizumi is a little ball of pure nightmare. Whenever Yuuma starts apologising, strange things happen. People around them begin to literally melt, their bodies and even their minds turning to sludge. It sounds wild, and it is, but the way Ito draws it makes it almost believable.
Each chapter feels like its own creepy short story, yet everything connects into one bigger mystery. We watch the siblings destroy a school, an apartment building, even a live TV audience, and just when you think you know where it’s going, Ito takes it further. Chizumi, especially, is unforgettable. She’s gleeful and chaotic, the kind of character you can’t look away from even when you really want to. Not to mention her design, dear lords and heavens above, how on earth you can make a child look this… horrifying? LOL. The art is everything you’d expect from Junji Ito. Clean, detailed lines that start off normal and then twist into a pure nightmare. There’s plenty of gore, but what stays with you is the tension and the way polite words turn deadly.
I loved every page of this. It’s creepy, clever, and perfectly unsettling, a reminder of why Junji Ito is in a league of his own. If you enjoy horror manga or want something that will stick in your mind long after you finish it and it is a must-read from me to you.
Thanks again for stopping by! Let me know what you’re reading lately, and I will see you all in my next post! 🤍🐻❄️
Luster of Books 