Reviews

Hellstar Remina by Junji Ito

Only show reviews with written explanations

honnari_hannya's review against another edition

4.0

To be honest, Remina lacks so much in plot, character, and world development. As some readers have mentioned, it is the book of "sob sob sob" and "keh keh keh." It felt at times like this was just a book for Junji Ito to show off panels with a lot of action shots; there is definitely less body horror, and less inexplicable "strangeness,", and we see some Ito favorites such as a lot of wind surfing a la Uzumaki in this book. But I still enjoyed it overall as I am a fan of Ito's art and thought this book was beautiful. And I have a weakness for stories about strange planets. Is it weird that I find planet Remina cute?

mainereading's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

I've been wanting to try a Junji Ito book for a long time now and I saw that my public library recently got one so I had to check it out! I hate end of the world type books because they terrify me and, as a horror manga, this definitely did its job. This book terrified me and I hated it. When the book ends, it leaves you with some questions and no answers, so the ending was kind of lacking for me, but I will definitely be picking up another of Junji Ito's works!

epicdaz's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

b0gd0g's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

rereader33's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

Yeeaaaaaah, this was most definitely NOT the right story to read this year. WITHOUT QUESTION.

That being said, I did enjoy this. I love Junji Ito's artwork and storytelling, and both were on prominent display here. The planet Remina was a truly terrifying presence that disturbed me without going overboard. It hit a nice sweet spot in terms of monster designs, which is always a plus for me.

While the characters were a tad overly dramatic at times, I do think this is a fairly realistic portrait of how people would respond to this scenario. Quite frankly, their behavior was as disturbing as the planet Remina's, which I'm guessing is what Ito was going for.

As for negatives, the pacing felt a little off. It was incredibly fast paced in the beginning, but by the time the planet Remina showed up, the pacing dragged as the rest of the story was mostly people hunting down the human Remina. Also, the last few final reveals at the end weren't particularly shocking nor interesting, but they served a narrative purpose so they weren't too bad.

All in all, this was a solid story, but not one of Ito's best. I would still recommend this to horror fans, especially cosmic horror fans, as I think the story and artwork are truly chilling.

abby27's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

It was a cool concept, but I wish the planet Remina itself had been explored more, as that was the most interesting aspect of the story. Remina (the idol) was written very poorly, and I'm taking off another star for the random sexual assault scene -_-