The cat and its catch represent an Ito ideal, much like the insectoid great white shark from Gyo-short on laughs and long on terror- just another supplier of nightmare fuel from his gallery of grotesqueries. As an image, it epitomizes Ito’s brand in full and is likely how he’s cultivated a portion of his fans who look to shock as long as there are no follow-up questions. The cat and its quarry come from “Soichi’s Beloved Pet” one of Smashed’s offerings, albeit one of its weakest. For the innocent encountering Ito for the first time as accoutrement, the horror is as plain as the many eye stalks and appendages of … Jesus. Some of that objectivity gets lost in the deliberate transgressive nature of Ito's art: call it ‘gross Ito.’ It's why the discerning disruptor can stroll into Hot Topic and buy licensed Ito merch without thought or care about where these images originated like some kind of horror misappropriation. Smashed says damn subjectivity and makes a case Ito’s brand of horror is objective as hell. Horror breeds believers like a soggy sponge harbors mold and is as subjective as any art. It’s an instinctual image that says, ‘hide this from impressionable children and nosy co-workers.’ Viz knows their American audience. Look no further than the mess on the cover, a woman’s head with a stylized gash across her face, a trepan for an unwelcome spirit perhaps, set in a miasma of red and taupe, an upside down face with chiclet-style teeth appearing like a smear in the offal. It's in ‘disturbing’ and ‘disgusting’ where Ito makes his bones.

Junji Ito's Smashed stretches from body and psychological horror to the out-and-out disturbing and absolute disgusting.

Junji smashed