Known for his terrifying stories of body horror and existential dread, Junji Ito has soared in popularity within the English-speaking world in the last decade. As his works continue to be translated and adapted for audiences outside of Japan, his audience only grows bigger. It might not be long before Ito is considered a household name in Western countries. He’s even had his works adapted into anime series two times.
As his bibliography continues to increase in its size, many fans of Junji Ito’s stories are beginning to tally the numbers on just how much he’s written over the years. While translations and special editions can make this harder to keep track of than one may have initially thought, it isn’t impossible. We’ve found the most accurate number to answer your question!
How many books does Junji Ito have?
The exact number of Junji Ito books is actually a bit complicated to answer, due to the amount of compilation stories and special edition books released with his stories. There are also varying editions of Junji Ito’s stories, depending on the language it has been published in. For our purposes, we will look at VIZ, the primary English publisher for Junji Ito. Using this publisher, we find a total of 18 books by Junji Ito for English audiences.
The number of books sitting at 18 may seem off to some viewers, but there’s a good reason for this. Some sites will claim he has 24 books published, and this may be true (depending on your local/country’s sales of Ito books). The discrepancy comes from the fact that multi-part series of Ito’s, like Uzumaki and Tomie, are sometimes sold separately. Other times, publishers will sell these multi-part horror stories as one large compilation novel.
If you’re looking to purchase any Junji Ito books via VIZ, you can expect to find 18 different copies containing stories of Ito’s. Most are compilations, but some are anthologies that were featured in their order from the first time the story was published. They are:
- Black Paradox
- Mimi’s Tales of Terror
- Uzumaki (3-in-1 Deluxe Edition)
- Soichi: Junji Ito Story Collection
- Remina
- Tombs: Junji Ito Story Collection
- Fragments of Horror
- Deserter: Junji Ito Story Collection
- The Liminal Zone
- Tomie: Complete Deluxe Edition
- Sensor
- Lovesickness: Junji Ito Story Collection
- Fragments of Horror
- Gyo (2-in-1 Deluxe Edition)
- No Longer Human
- Smashed: Junji Ito Story Collection
- Venus in the Blind Spot
- Shiver: Junji Ito Selected Stories
- Frankenstein: Junji Ito Story Collection
