Smashed by Junji Ito: Every Story Ranked + Where to Read

What Is Smashed by Junji Ito?

Bottom line up front: Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection is a 416-page anthology (a book collecting multiple standalone stories) containing 13 horror short stories, published in English by VIZ Media (the company that publishes most manga in English) in 2019. It is written and illustrated by Junji Ito, one of the most celebrated horror manga (Japanese comic book) creators of all time.

If you landed here searching for “smashed junji ito mangago,” here’s what you need to know right away — mangago is an unlicensed piracy site, and Smashed is not legally available there. The legitimate way to read this collection is through the official VIZ Media paperback or digital edition. The paperback typically costs under $15 for 416 pages of content. More on where to buy it below.

Now, onto the good stuff.

Smashed is a single-volume anthology, not a serialized manga (one released chapter by chapter over time). That means there’s no ongoing plot to catch up on, no reading order to worry about, and no cliffhangers that require you to buy the next volume. You pick it up, open to any story, and get a complete horror experience in roughly 20-30 pages.

Here are the quick specs:

• Title: Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection
• Creator: Junji Ito (writer and artist)
• Publisher (English): VIZ Media
• Pages: 416
• Stories: 13 standalone tales
• Genre: Horror (body horror, psychological, supernatural, dark comedy)
• Reading prerequisites: None — this works perfectly as your first Junji Ito book

For readers who are new to Ito, this collection is a fantastic entry point. You get to sample a wide range of his horror styles — grotesque body horror (horror that focuses on the human body being distorted, transformed, or damaged in disturbing ways), slow-burn dread, surreal nightmare imagery, and even some darkly funny moments — all in one volume. If you’ve only seen clips of Ito’s art floating around online and want to experience the real thing on paper, Smashed is a genuinely great place to start.

Why You Should Avoid Reading Smashed on Mangago

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Mangago is an unlicensed manga aggregation site — meaning it hosts scanned copies of manga without permission from the creators or publishers. It’s a piracy site, plain and simple.

Here’s why that matters, beyond the obvious ethical concerns:

The Quality Problem

Junji Ito’s art is all about detail. The horror in his work comes from incredibly precise linework — the carefully drawn lines that make up every strand of hair, every crack in skin, every shadow in a darkened room. Piracy sites like mangago typically host low-resolution scans that crush those details into muddy, hard-to-read pages. Sometimes pages are missing entirely, or stories appear out of order.

Reading Ito through bad scans is like watching a horror movie on a phone screen with the brightness turned all the way down. You’re technically seeing it, but you’re missing everything that makes it work.

The Safety Problem

Sites like mangago are notorious for:

• Aggressive pop-up ads — some of which redirect to malicious sites
• Malware risks — particularly from fake “download” buttons
• Tracking scripts that collect your browsing data

No manga is worth compromising your device over.

The Creator Problem

Junji Ito and VIZ Media receive zero compensation when their work is read on piracy sites. Every read on an unlicensed platform is a read that doesn’t count toward supporting future English translations of horror manga. The reason we get official English editions of Ito’s work at all is because enough people buy them.

The Price Reality

Here’s the thing that makes piracy especially unnecessary in this case — the official paperback of Smashed typically costs under $15. For 416 pages of some of the best horror manga ever drawn, that’s an absurd amount of value. You can also borrow it from many public libraries for free.

There’s genuinely no good reason to read this on mangago or any other piracy site when the real thing is this accessible.

Every Story in the Collection — Spoiler-Free Guide

One of the best things about Smashed is how much variety Ito packs into a single volume. Here’s every story, what kind of horror it delivers, and a spoiler-free taste of what you’re getting into.

1. Smashed (Title Story)

Horror type: Body horror

A mysterious nectar drips from an enormous tree, and it tastes incredible. People can’t stop consuming it. But there’s a price — and it’s paid in the most visceral way Ito can imagine. This is pure, concentrated body horror with one of the most striking visual payoffs in the entire collection. It’s the title story for a reason.

2. Bloodsucking Darkness

Horror type: Slow-burn supernatural dread

A man becomes drawn to a colony of bats roosting in an abandoned building. The atmosphere in this one builds gradually, layering unease until the final pages hit you like a wall. The manga version is particularly effective — Ito’s art creates an atmosphere that builds gradually until the final pages.

3. Ghosts of Prime Time

Horror type: Dark comedy / supernatural

What happens when ghosts start showing up on live television broadcasts? This story takes a wonderfully absurd premise and plays it mostly for dark laughs, though Ito being Ito, there’s still an undercurrent of genuine creepiness. A nice breather between the heavier entries.

4. Death Row Doorbell

Horror type: Psychological horror

A criminal is executed, and shortly after, a family begins hearing their doorbell ring at strange hours. No one is ever there. The dread in this one is quiet and domestic — it gets under your skin not through gore but through the slow erosion of feeling safe in your own home.

5. Roar

Horror type: Creature horror

A peculiar stray dog appears in a neighborhood, and something about it is deeply, fundamentally wrong. Ito is great at taking everyday things — pets, houses, food — and making them feel alien and threatening. This story is a good example of that skill.

6. Earthbound

Horror type: Surreal body horror

People are found standing completely still, apparently rooted to the ground like trees. They can’t move. They won’t explain why they stopped. The imagery in this one is haunting in the truest sense — it sticks with you. This is Ito at his most unsettling, taking something impossible and making it feel horribly plausible.

7. In Mirror

Horror type: Paranoia / doppelgänger horror (the horror of encountering an evil copy of yourself)

A woman notices that her reflection in the mirror isn’t quite moving in sync with her. Then it starts doing things she isn’t doing at all. If you’ve ever had that momentary, irrational fear of mirrors in a dark room, this story will validate every bit of it.

8. Splatter Film

Horror type: Self-aware horror (a horror story about making horror)

A filmmaker becomes obsessed with creating the most realistic gore effects possible, pushing further and further past the boundaries of taste and safety. This is one of the more self-aware stories in the collection — Ito examining the relationship between horror creators and their audience, with characteristically grim results.

9. Drifting Spores

Horror type: Biological horror

Enormous mushrooms begin growing on people’s bodies. The biological horror here is vivid and stomach-churning, but what elevates it is the creeping inevitability — the sense that once the spores arrive, there’s simply nothing anyone can do. Fans of fungal horror (or anyone who watched The Last of Us and wanted more) will find a lot to love here.

10. Eye

Horror type: Body horror

A woman has a beauty mark that begins developing an unsettling property. Saying more would spoil it, but this is a compact, efficient piece of body horror that builds to a genuinely shocking visual. One of the shorter stories in the collection, and all the better for it.

11. Library Vision

Horror type: Psychological horror

A boy discovers he can read at superhuman speed, absorbing entire books in seconds. It sounds like a superpower. It is not a superpower. This story explores the cost of obsessive knowledge-seeking in a way that feels uncomfortably relatable for anyone who’s ever fallen down a research rabbit hole at 3 AM.

12. Used Record

Horror type: Supernatural / auditory horror

A cursed vinyl record plays sounds that shouldn’t be possible. This one stands out because it targets a sense that manga can’t directly access — hearing. Ito manages to make you feel what this record sounds like purely through his art and how he arranges the panels (the individual frames that make up a manga page), which is a remarkable trick.

13. Soichi’s Beloved Pet

Horror type: Dark comedy / horror

This story features Soichi Tsujii, one of Ito’s most popular recurring characters — a mischievous, nail-chewing kid who fancies himself a dark sorcerer. Soichi stories are generally lighter in tone than Ito’s other work, leaning more into dark comedy than outright horror. Reading this story here means you’ll recognize Soichi when he shows up in other Ito collections, giving you a foothold in Ito’s wider body of work. This is a fun way to end the collection and a good introduction to a character who appears across multiple Ito books.

Best Stories to Read First If You Are New to Junji Ito

You can read these 13 stories in any order — they’re completely standalone. But if you want guidance on where to start, here are four stories that showcase different sides of Ito’s work:

Start Here: Smashed (Story #1)

The title story is the title story for a reason. It’s quintessential Ito body horror — a bizarre premise, escalating dread, and a visual payoff that will make your jaw drop. It’s compact, it’s effective, and it tells you immediately whether Ito’s style of horror is for you. If you read this and want more, you’re going to love the rest of the collection.

For Atmosphere Lovers: Bloodsucking Darkness (Story #2)

If you prefer slow-burn horror that builds mood over shock value, start here. The pacing is deliberate, the setting is atmospheric, and the horror creeps in gradually rather than exploding onto the page. This is a great introduction to how Ito uses page layouts and the arrangement of panels on each page to control tension.

For the Haunting Image: Earthbound (Story #6)

This story contains some of the most memorable imagery in the entire collection. It’s surreal, it’s sad, and it’s deeply unsettling in a way that’s hard to articulate. If you want to understand why people describe Ito’s work as “haunting,” Earthbound is the story that earns that word.

For Something Lighter: Soichi’s Beloved Pet (Story #13)

If you’re not sure you can handle intense horror, Soichi’s story is the gentlest on-ramp. It’s darkly funny, the horror elements are more playful than disturbing, and it introduces you to a beloved recurring character. From here, you can work your way toward the more intense entries.

How Smashed Compares to Other Junji Ito Collections

VIZ Media has published several Junji Ito short story collections in English. If you’re wondering where Smashed fits in the lineup, here’s a quick comparison:

Collection	Year (EN)	Pages	Tone	Best For
Fragments of Horror	2015	224	Relentlessly dark, very little humor	Readers who want pure, uncut horror
Shiver	2017	400	Mixed; contains some of Ito’s most iconic individual stories	Readers who want the “greatest hits”
Smashed	2019	416	Varied — body horror, comedy, psychological, supernatural	Readers who want range and consistency
Venus in the Blind Spot	2020	368	Eclectic; includes sci-fi-tinged stories	Readers who want something unexpected
Deserter	2021	376	Wartime and psychological horror	Readers who want historical and military horror elements

Where Smashed fits: It sits in the sweet spot of Ito’s collection lineup. It doesn’t have the single most iconic story (Shiver contains some of Ito’s most widely-shared works), but it has the most consistent quality from start to finish. There isn’t a weak story in the bunch. The tonal variety also makes it the best sampler of what Ito can do.

If you want to pick up several of these collections at once, the Junji Ito Story Collection 3 books set bundles Lovesickness, Deserter, and Fragments of Horror together and is a solid value if Smashed leaves you wanting more.

What to Read Next Based on What You Liked in Smashed

• Loved the body horror (Smashed, Drifting Spores, Eye)? → Try Shiver, which includes some of Ito’s most visceral and widely-shared short stories
• Loved the atmospheric dread (Bloodsucking Darkness, Death Row Doorbell)? → Try Fragments of Horror for a darker, more claustrophobic experience
• Loved Soichi? → Soichi appears in multiple Ito works, including stories collected in other volumes — reading this introduction here means you can follow the character across Ito’s catalog
• Want something longer? → Ito’s full-length works like Uzumaki and Tomie (a series about an immortal girl who keeps coming back from death) are essential reading

Where to Buy Smashed Legally

Here are all the legitimate ways to get your hands on this collection instead of searching for it on mangago or other piracy sites:

Physical Paperback

The VIZ Media paperback is widely available and typically costs under $15. At 416 pages, it’s an excellent value. The paper quality is good, and importantly, the print quality preserves the detail in Ito’s linework — which is the whole point of reading his work in physical form.

You can find it at:

• Amazon — search for “Smashed Junji Ito Story Collection”
• Barnes & Noble
• Books-A-Million
• Your local bookstore — most bookstores with a manga section stock Junji Ito titles

Digital Editions

Smashed is available digitally through:

• Kindle (Amazon)
• Apple Books
• Google Play Books
• Kobo

Digital editions are typically priced the same as or slightly cheaper than the paperback. They’re convenient, but Ito’s art really does benefit from being read on a full-sized page rather than a phone screen. If you go digital, reading on a tablet is the way to go.

Library

Many public libraries stock VIZ Media titles, and Junji Ito is popular enough that there’s a good chance your local library has Smashed. Check your library’s online catalog, or use library borrowing apps like Libby or Hoopla to see if a digital borrow is available. This is a completely free and legal way to read it.

More Junji Ito Worth Picking Up After Smashed

If Smashed hooks you and you want to keep going, here are other Ito collections and works to consider:

Alley: Junji Ito Story Collection — Another anthology that showcases Ito’s range across multiple standalone stories.

Dissolving Classroom — A darkly comedic horror story about a boy whose apologies cause people to literally melt. Shorter than Smashed but packed with Ito’s signature grotesque imagery.

Stitches: Junji Ito Story Collection — More short-form Ito horror in the same anthology format as Smashed.

And if you want to dive into Ito’s most famous long-form work, Uzumaki (3-in-1 Deluxe Edition) is one of the greatest horror manga ever made. It follows an entire town consumed by an obsession with spirals, and it’s as unforgettable as anything in the medium.

Final Thoughts

Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection is 416 pages of horror from one of the genre’s most talented creators, and it typically costs under $15. It requires zero prior knowledge of Ito’s work and zero commitment to a long series. The horror ranges from intense body horror to darkly funny, so even if you’re newer to the genre, the lighter stories like Soichi’s Beloved Pet give you a comfortable starting point before you work up to the more intense entries.

Skip mangago and the other piracy sites. Grab the real thing. The print quality matters with art this detailed, and supporting the official release is what keeps horror manga getting translated into English.

Honestly, just grab a copy and see for yourself. You’ll love it.