3 out of 5

Continuing Viz’s English reprints of Ito’s Masterpiece Collections (which in turn reprinted Museum of Terror collections with new material), Statues is a very hit-and-miss collection, scoring on some unique ideas but, for the first half or so, showing the mangaka’s difficulties with endings on full blast. The second half only really has one story that nails it from start to end – Suicide Note has a very classic ghost story feel, given an unnerving Ito twist – but there are others, like the titular tale, and especially Scarecrow, that succeed by going more and more bonkers, which is a preferred way for Junji to swerve around a conclusion if he doesn’t have one.

The first half, though, has some clunkers – Hornet Nest and opener Red Thread feel like someone squeezing out a story for a monthly quota. However, Junji’s never dialing in the art, and even though his style is rarely flashy, the whole collection shows a push for differentiating his faces and figures more than usual, which is nice, and all of the bizarre ideas and obsessions studied in this volume (arguably, horror aside, what we come here for) come across as fully realized, with maybe the hornet’s nests looking a little odd, but I think he made some valid compromises so they were easier to draw but we understood what they were.