A cult-cosmic-horror mash-up, about a girl who encounters a village "blessed" by golden hair that spews from a volcano where a Christian missionary was martyred. (Phew, that was a sentence.) The volcano blows up, and everyone dies but the girl, who is protected by the hair and given clairvoyance and insight to the secrets of the universe.

Pretty convoluted plot, but art-wise some of my favorite of Ito's so far. Also significantly less body-horror than his other works, (of course there is still some.) The story was OK, it's a very short one so a lot of the plot is left vague. The tone of the story eminded me a lot of Remina in the cosmic horror aspect - the characters are haunted by an ominous, god-like entity that exists somewhere in the universe. I liked that the female lead was neither evil, nor met a completely terrible end like some of Ito's other female leads.

Finally, 10/10 for design, this is probably the most visually stunning Ito hardback to be published. Definitely check out a physical copy for that reason alone. ( )

It’s clear Ito had no real idea what he was doing with this book. He basically apologies for as much in the afterward. Maybe he was under time pressure from the publisher, maybe he just didn’t know what to do with it - who knows. The end result is a disjointed and mostly uninteresting story. Yes the art is great, and yes several panels are classic freaky-gross Ito, but none of that elevates the trash story and boring characters. ( )

* I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book. *

A young woman goes for a walk and encounters a man who takes her to a secluded village which is covered in golden fibres. This village gets wiped out in a volcanic eruption, and she is the only survivor. She is now covered in golden hair, and people begin to treat her as some other-wordly being. A journalist becomes obsessed with tracking her down and finding out more about her, but she is elusive and keeps disappearing.

As these events unfold, a dark presence begins to establish itself, with a view to capturing this mysterious young girl and bending her powers to their will.

This book has some seriously creepy scenes, and some of the drawings really evoke a sense of horror. Ito's story is more about a battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil than a straight-out attempt to scare. ( )

In his afterword to Sensor Junji Ito jokes that the characters got away from him as they did their own thing. Well, I suppose it isn't a joke if it is just true. This story careens all over the place with volcanoes, Lovecraftian aliens, telepathy, stalkers, cults, suicide, time travel, Christian persecution, and -- despite the convoluted path -- a simplistic battle of light against darkness.

As in Remina, the heroine is a cipher who spends much of the book unconscious or kidnapped. If she's not tied up, she's wandering around with a lost but beguiling air. The male lead is a generic reporter type who just follows her trail.

Anyhow, I don't read Junji Ito for the stories anymore; I'm here for the pictures. They are a little far apart in the book, but there are several very haunting and eerie images that deliver the jolt I'm seeking. ( )

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book that I bought.

Thoughts: I have read a lot of Ito books and “Uzumaki” remains my favorite. I also enjoyed “Tomie” but found “Gyo” and “Remina” to be a bit lacking. “Sensor” wasn’t as good as “Uzumaki” or “Tomie” but was still intriguing, if a bit of a mess..

The story revolves around a woman who wanders into a town full of golden angel hair and then gets very weird from there on out. You are dealing with golden fibers attached to heads, weird cults, cosmic horrors, and strange bugs that squish to look liked dead people. It honestly reads more like a bunch of short stories kind of smashed together rather than a cohesive story on its own. And, did I say it is weird..yeah it’s pretty out there.

The above being said I didn’t hate it and I didn’t love it. I was honestly intrigued by parts of it and a bit confused by the end. There are some weird ideas in here and I didn’t mind reading about them, I just kind of struggled to figure out what the point was.

I do think this is some of Ito’s most solid artistic work to date. The artwork is intricately detailed, beautiful, unique, and a joy to look at. It lends itself to the tone of the story well and the panels are cohesive and well put together. The book as a package was very nice; I love the rubberized feel of the cover and the blending of the deep maroon and gold tones on the cover.

I didn’t love this book but it also didn’t turn me away from reading more from Ito. His work is just incredibly unique and intriguing, even when it is a bit of a train wreck like it was this time around.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was a somewhat non-cohesive story about cults and strange cosmic horrors. It was really weird and hard to follow what was going on, more like a collection of ideas than a cohesive story. The artwork was top notch and the book was well put together. It is unique, and although it was a bit of a mess, it didn’t make me hate Ito’s work. I would still recommend “Uzumaki” or “Tomie” over this if you haven’t read Ito. If you are a huge Ito fan and want to pick up some crazy stuff from him this definitely would fit the bill. ( )