Reddit’s Favorite and Least Favorite Stories From Venus in the Blind Spot
After reading through dozens of Reddit threads about this collection, clear patterns emerge in which stories people love and which ones they skip on rereads.
The Stories Reddit Loves
The Enigma of Amigara Fault is the near-universal favorite. Thread after thread, it’s the story people mention first. Comments like “worth the price of the book by itself” and “one of the best short horror stories ever created” show up constantly. The concept is simple, the execution is flawless, and the final image is permanently burned into the brains of everyone who’s read it.
Billions Alone is the collection’s sleeper hit. It doesn’t have the meme fame of Amigara Fault, but Redditors who’ve read the full collection frequently single it out as surprisingly effective. The escalating apocalyptic tension — starting from something as small as a bug sting and building to civilization-scale horror — shows Ito at his most disciplined and focused.
The Human Chair gets strong marks from readers familiar with Edogawa Ranpo’s original. Seeing Ito visualize the physical reality of a man inside a chair — something Ranpo described only in words — adds a new dimension of horror. Even readers who haven’t read the original tend to find this one memorably creepy.
The Divisive One
Venus in the Blind Spot (the title story) splits the room. Some Redditors appreciate the ambitious adaptation and the more literary, psychological tone. Others feel that Ito’s strengths lie in his original concepts, and that adapting someone else’s work results in a story that feels less distinctively “Ito.” Neither camp is wrong — it genuinely reads differently from his original horror stories.
The Ones Reddit Skips
Keepsake also gets mentioned as forgettable. It’s short, it’s fine, and most readers move past it without strong feelings in either direction.
The remaining stories — The Sad Tale of the Principal Post, An Unearthly Love, The Licking Woman, and How Love Came to Professor Higaki — tend to fall in the middle. They’re competent Ito stories that most people enjoy reading once but don’t necessarily rave about afterward.
How Venus in the Blind Spot Compares to Other Junji Ito Collections
If you’re trying to figure out where Venus in the Blind Spot fits in your Ito reading journey, here’s how it stacks up against the other major short story collections.
Venus in the Blind Spot vs. Shiver
Shiver is the collection that Reddit most consistently recommends as the best Ito short story anthology. It includes heavy hitters like Hanging Balloons, Used Record, and Greased — stories that showcase different facets of Ito’s horror. The key difference is consistency: Shiver maintains a high quality level across almost every story, while Venus has higher peaks (Amigara Fault) but also lower valleys (Keepsake).
If you can only buy one Ito short story collection, Reddit overwhelmingly says Shiver.
Venus in the Blind Spot vs. Smashed
Smashed is often described as “the fun one.” It’s more consistently entertaining throughout, with stories that lean into Ito’s ability to blend horror with dark humor and bizarre premises. Venus has the edge in prestige — the Ranpo adaptations and Amigara Fault give it more literary weight — but Smashed is the one people describe as a more enjoyable cover-to-cover reading experience.
Venus in the Blind Spot vs. Fragments of Horror
Fragments of Horror is the collection that Reddit most often ranks at the bottom of Ito’s short story releases. Many readers find its stories less memorable and its horror less effective than Ito’s other work. Venus in the Blind Spot generally ranks above it, though some Redditors argue that Fragments at least has the virtue of consistency (even if that consistent level is lower).
What Makes Venus Unique
Despite its mid-tier ranking, Venus in the Blind Spot has two things no other Ito collection offers:
- The Edogawa Ranpo adaptations. No other Ito book includes his interpretations of another horror/mystery author’s work. If you’re interested in Ito as an adapter and visual storyteller rather than just a concept creator, this is essential.
- The Enigma of Amigara Fault in a dedicated collection. Previously, the only way to read this story in English was in the back of Gyo Vol. 2. Venus gives it a proper home in a standalone short story book.
| Collection | Consistency | Best Story | Worst Story | Unique Feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shiver | High | Hanging Balloons | (Few weak entries) | Most well-rounded collection |
| Smashed | High | Smashed (title story) | (Few weak entries) | Most consistently fun |
| Venus in the Blind Spot | Mixed | Enigma of Amigara Fault | (removed) | Edogawa Ranpo adaptations |
| Fragments of Horror | Low-Mid | Tomio: Red Turtleneck | (Several weak entries) | Looser, more experimental artwork compared to Ito’s usual tight linework |
Is Venus in the Blind Spot Worth Buying? Reddit Breaks It Down
This is the question that drives most Reddit threads about Venus in the Blind Spot, so let’s break it down by reader type.
Buy it if…
- You’ve already read Ito’s major works (Uzumaki, Tomie, Gyo) and want more. Venus is a great third or fourth Ito purchase — it deepens your appreciation for his range without being the best introduction to his style.
- You want The Enigma of Amigara Fault in a high-quality standalone format. If you know this story from the internet and want to own it properly, this is the book.
- You’re interested in Edogawa Ranpo or the intersection of classic Japanese mystery/horror literature and manga. The two Ranpo adaptations make this collection genuinely unique.
- You’re collecting all of Ito’s VIZ hardcovers. The production quality is excellent — Reddit consistently praises the hardcover format, paper stock, and print clarity. Ito’s artwork is packed with fine detail, and high-quality printing means you can actually see every line. It looks beautiful on a shelf next to Shiver and Smashed.
Maybe wait if…
- You’re brand new to Junji Ito. The inconsistent quality means your first impression of Ito might land on a weaker story. Start with Uzumaki or Shiver instead — they’ll show you what Ito is capable of at his best.
- You’re on a tight budget and can only pick one collection. At around $17–$23 USD for the hardcover, it’s reasonably priced, but Shiver or Smashed will give you more consistently great stories for a similar cost.
- You expect every story to be Amigara Fault-level. It’s not that kind of collection. Two or three stories are outstanding, a few are solid, and a couple are forgettable. If inconsistency bothers you, set your expectations accordingly.
The Value Question
At 272 pages in hardcover, the price-to-content ratio is fair for what you get. You’re getting 10 stories in a format that does justice to Ito’s intricate artwork. Reddit doesn’t generally complain about the price — the complaints are about story quality, not production quality.
Where to Start if You’re New to Junji Ito
If you landed on this article because you saw the Amigara Fault meme and thought “I want more of this,” welcome. Junji Ito has a massive body of published work, and the reading order question comes up on Reddit constantly. Here’s the path most Redditors recommend:
Step 1: Uzumaki (3-in-1 Deluxe Edition). This is Ito’s most acclaimed work — a full-length manga about a town slowly consumed by spirals. Everything in the town begins twisting into spiral shapes: people’s bodies, their hair, snails, the clouds overhead. It’s the work that best showcases his ability to build escalating, interconnected horror. The 3-in-1 Deluxe Edition from VIZ collects the entire story in one hardcover volume.
Uzumaki (3-in-1 Deluxe Edition)
Step 2: Tomie. Ito’s first published work and one of his most iconic. It follows a girl named Tomie who cannot stay dead — every time she’s killed, she regenerates, and the obsession and violence that surrounds her only spreads further. It’s a longer commitment than Uzumaki but equally essential for understanding Ito’s themes.
Step 3: Shiver or Smashed. Your first short story collection should be one of these. Both are more consistently strong than Venus in the Blind Spot and will give you a better sense of Ito’s range across different horror concepts — everything from haunted houses to cursed objects to surreal body transformations.
Step 4: Venus in the Blind Spot. Now you’re ready. With context for Ito’s style and strengths, you’ll appreciate the Ranpo adaptations more, enjoy the standout stories on a deeper level, and won’t be thrown off by the weaker entries.
Step 5: Everything else. Gyo (the fish-with-legs apocalypse manga), Fragments of Horror (his weakest collection but still interesting), Sensor (a standalone cosmic horror story), No Longer Human (Ito’s adaptation of a famous Japanese novel about alienation and despair), and his many other collections and standalone works. By this point you know what you like and can pick based on your own preferences.
If You Only Want Amigara Fault
Here’s an honest note: The Enigma of Amigara Fault also appears in the back of Gyo Vol. 2, so you could technically read it there. But Venus in the Blind Spot gives you that story plus nine others in a nicer hardcover format, and the stronger stories in the collection — Billions Alone, The Human Chair — make it a better overall purchase for most people. Unless you specifically want Gyo as well, Venus is the more practical way to own Amigara Fault.
Final Thoughts
Venus in the Blind Spot occupies an interesting space in Junji Ito’s body of work. It’s not the collection Reddit reaches for first when recommending Ito to newcomers, and it’s not the one that hardcore fans rank at the top. But it has genuine treasures — Amigara Fault is as powerful as horror manga gets, Billions Alone is an underappreciated gem, and the Ranpo adaptations offer something you can’t find anywhere else in Ito’s work.
The Reddit consensus is fair: it’s a good collection with some great moments and some forgettable ones. If you go in knowing that, you’ll have a great time with it.