Have you ever read a manga and thought, “Oh, this one's for the sickos (complimentary)”? Because those were exactly the words that immediately appeared in my head upon finishing Mansect. Originally published in 1975, this classic horror manga isn't for the faint of heart when it comes to insects or body horror. In the interest of keeping your latest meal lodged firmly within the confines of your stomach, I won't go into too much detail. But please know that insects are a large and frequently recurring part of the story, and there's more than a few graphic transformation scenes that some potential readers might find to be too much for them. Notably, I'm not 100% sure some of the things that happen in Mansect would warrant a trypophobia warning, but I'm also not sure they don't, either. So the trypophobic might want to exercise caution around Mansect, too. Others, meanwhile, will undoubtedly find this body horror, especially, to be a feature and not a bug. Or worded a little differently, the (literal) bugs are a feature. The main feature, in fact. That's because the body horror has to do with the titular mansects, which are more or less exactly what the name implies.

Certified horror icon and legend Junji Ito grew up reading Mansect creator Shinichi Koga's work, and it shows. In both the art style and storytelling, especially, you can see distant echoes of Ito's iconic style—almost like a blueprint of sorts. The emphasis on facial expressions, the crossroads between the everyday and the vaguely-supernatural that feels borne from a busy bee of an imagination. We're used to hearing things like this as distinctly Ito-ian, but brilliant as he is, his style didn't manifest out of thin air. And you can catch glimpses in Mansect of the kind of horror that fascinated Ito—that gave him the horror bug, if you will—that he would later put through his own filter and built upon.

As for the manga itself, the first thing you'll probably notice is that for better or for worse, you can definitely tell it was made in the 70s. The art style has that distinctly 70s manga look with lots of rounder edges, skulls that err closer to square than Dorito, thicker necks, and so on. And whether or not you think this visual style works for Mansect is probably going to end up being a big part of whether or not this manga works for you. As mentioned earlier, if there's one thing Mansect is into, it's body horror. I seriously can't emphasize enough both the quantity and quality of body horror there is. And as any body horror connoisseur will tell you, more than most types of horror, body horror lives or dies by how effective its visuals are. So if the art style looks a bit too goofy and cartoonish for you, or bugs you in some other way, you probably won't feel the full force of Mansect. But while it's a product of its time, it still absolutely gets the job done in creating the gruesome, stomach-churning imagery that makes Mansect so horrific.

By now, you might be wondering about this manga's story. But the punch that comes from Mansect definitely comes way more from the visuals than the writing. I say that partially because, again, body horror is especially reliant on visuals, but also because the story (or stories, rather) aren't terribly coherent or memorable. It's not afraid to let itself get weird, which turns out to be just as much of a pro as a con. But after you've finished Mansect, your mind won't be left lingering on the story or writing—you're going to be thinking of how terrifying the shriveled bodies were. You'll wince when memories of the cotton-like substance forcefully gushing its way out of every pore forcefully hit your brain fast and hard enough to isekai you. Images of the cocoon-like figures will worm their way into your nightmares.

Mansect is way too gross for me to feel comfortable freely recommending it to any horror-lovers out there. But for those who can take body horror, aren't particularly entomophobic, and especially for any Ito fans out there who want a sense of what you could argue is his iconic style's ancestor, Mansect is a good, short, and classic read that you should be making a beeline to read.