4 out of 5

I do have some nitpicks about this collection, but they’re effectively balanced out and exceeded by its pluses.

Twisted Visions is a slightly oversized compilation of Ito’s color cover / poster work and some B&W interiors, sequenced to cover his major works Tomie and Uzumaki, and then a batch of “other” work which goes as far forward as the 20teens. Some commentary in the back suggests Ito oversaw or even selected what was to be included, which certainly adds a personal element to the book.

As an art table presentation, it’s pretty damn stunning: the dust cover from Junji of patterns and new beasties is a great example of his can’t-look-away imagery, and, with however designer Adam Grano inputted, the unique inner lining and doom metal title font that stretches beyond the coverless spine are lovely extra flairs. Simply as an Ito collector, sticking to American printings, there’s absolutely stuff here you’d never find otherwise.

The printing itself is interesting. The book, structurally, is great, as it can sit flat and has sturdy but not too-stiff paper stock. There’s no table of contents, which is balls, but there are page separations between the sections and page numbers, which can be used for referencing the index in the “back” of the book. The “interesting” bit comes into play in choosing gray paper stock for the black and white pieces versus white for the color, which makes for a nice differentiation, but also: why? This gray stock then carries over to the text pages, which makes them a little less appealing; or at least that’s the case with the index, with its smaller font – it’s printed clearly, just not as substantial a contrast that black text on white pages would’ve had.

Additionally odd: while the artwork is printed in right-to-left sequence as per usual mangas, the text pages (in the the English translation) are left to right. This isn’t necessarily unheard of in manga, but because you’ll likely use the index to reference the artwork, it’s a quirk – left-to-right references of right-to-left material. Also, that index is in columns, maybe mimicking Japanese text layout, but again… it’s a mish-mash of approaches.

My general nitpick is with the inclusion of the interior pieces, as these are mostly just clips from the mangas. Fair, so are a lot of the covers, but I think it’s less likely someone will have seen some / all of these covers as they’re from different / international printings / CDs / shows, whereas the manga contents, if you’re an Ito fan, you’re likely to have seen / to own. On the plus side, yeah, they’re scaled up, and you get some sparse, entertaining notes on them from Ito in the index – e.g. what pens he used; what he was hoping to effect emotionally, which is often why he selected these images – but still, it feels a bit like filler (and I’m not too sold on separating the commentary from the art, as there are borders on the pages that could’ve been used for this).

The interview is a nice inclusion, but you’ll likely have read similar Q&As before. The index is the real gold, as Ito’s signature dry humor is dotted throughout. There’s also a short afterword of thanks.

All in all, it’s a very handsome looking book, and a very easy way to get people interested in Ito, as it’s a nice step-through of both his creepy and his gruesome work. As a collector, it’s also cool to have all this color work in one spot as well as an Ito-curated collection, even if the nitty gritty of actually “reading” the collection is a bit clunky.