Ju-On Volume 2

by Takashi Shimizu, Meimu, Miki Rinno

In Japan, ju-on is a deadly curse that takes on a life of its own. Always seeking new victims, it's a grudge that doesn't stop-it can't be stopped. Anyone unfortunate enough to meet up with a ghost killed by the grudge is then killed-and so it spreads. When a senior citizen outreach volunteer goes to work in a house in a quiet residential area, she soon starts to hear odd noises. As the strange events get more and more ominous, she discovers that...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1593075316
• ISBN13: 9781593075316
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
• Length: 136 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.2" x 7.3"
• Age Range: 14 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 9 to 12

Customer Reviews

Manga stands on its own feet as a stand alone work

"If somebody dies while in the grip of a very strong rage, a curse accumulates in the place where they have died, and all those who come in contact with it will suffer grievously. Then the curse is renewed." Meimu's manga adaptation of "Ju-On 2" has several circular storylines. Kyoko Harase is a famous horror movie actress and she has agreed to appear on a true ghost story program as they investigate a haunted house. Guess which house. People start dying, and Kyoko is terrorized while worrying about her unborn baby. She believes that her child is a boy, but finds out from her mother that all the men in her family are cursed to die young, making Kyoko now the victim of TWO curses. One of which is why the movie ended the way it did, with the ending more powerful in the manga than the movie. Meimu's stark illustrative artwork is mostly solid pen and ink, and he gives his characters a definite, individualistic and Japanese look, unlike the uninationalistic look that many of the cartoony mangas have. Meimu also gives his adaptation a filmmatic look, with some panels being heavily detailed and crowded, while others are sparse and bare. Some panels are dialogue heavy, and then panels will go by with no dialogue at all, letting the artwork tell the story, much as a slow pan in a movie would. This can be used to great effect, with the death of Kyoko's mother, and the hanging deaths of several crew members being particularly chilling. You can sometimes almost hear the ominous music in the background. "Ju-On 2" is a standout graphic adaptation of the movie, told as economically as possible, eliminating the incoherent schoolgirl filler, putting events in slightly different order, and it stands on it's own even if you never saw the movie. This review was originally printed in the magazine "Cemetery Dance" #59 in 2008 and that review was edited by Bob. Thanx Bob.

A Very Good Horror Story

"Ju-On 2" is based off of the movie Ju-on: The Grudge 2, which is the sequel to the movie Ju-On: The Grudge. The plot involves "Horror Film Queen" Kyoko Harase, who decides to appear in a show about a haunting house, which turns out to be the one where the Saeki family died. Soon after filming, deaths start to occur and Kyoko's own life may be at risk. The art for this book is excellent, having an almost realistic feel to it. Like the movie and the manga book before it, this contains violence, death, and a few surprising creepy images. There is no schoolgirl sequence as in the film, though I thought that was out of place anyway. "Ju-On 2" is a very good horror manga. It's a quick read, but full of emotions including confusion, terror, and mourning. Give it a try if you have the chance.

THE TERRIFYING SEQUEL

As the title suggests, Ju-On 2 is the direct Manga sequel to Ju-On, i.e. The Grudge. This latest tale from Takashi Shimizu takes place an unspecified length of time after the events in the original story. Actress Kyoko Harase is a well-known Japanese horror film queen whose career seems to be on the down side. She is keeping her pregnancy a secret from her agent as long as possible as she knows it will hurt her career even more. Kyoko decides to make an appearance during a television special that is broadcasting from a supposedly haunted house...the very house where the terrifying events in the original story took place. It's just before the show airs that strange events begin to take place. The host of the show Tomoka Miura and her husband keep hearing strange thumpings on the walls of their apartment...a corner wall that has no apartment next door. Later as the show is taking place live, strange electrical feedbacks hamper the crew. In the meantime, Kyoko is being trailed by the faint image of a little boy. When the image appears on the windshield of the car she is traveling in with her fiancé, they crash leaving her fiancé near death and causing Kyoko to lose her baby. And yet at a later trip to the doctor, he tells her that the baby is fine. Soon almost everyone connected with the TV show has either died or disappeared leading to a truly horrifying climax that makes the scene from "The Ring" where the ghost crawls out of the TV look tame by comparison. Initially, Ju-On 2 seems to lack the atmosphere of the original and gets off to a slow start. But things really push with a head of steam in the final third of the book with some truly terrifying images. It's definitely a worthy sequel to the original. A winner from Dark Horse Books. Reviewed by Tim Janson