The Spring 2025 Manga Guide

Horror Collector

What's It About? 

The internet is full of creepypastas, cryptid sightings, tales of paranormal activity, and unsolved disappearances. Most are just rumors and pranks fueled by trolls―entertainment. But an unlucky few learn the hard way that some legends are true. Many of these unfortunate souls are doomed, but their luck may change if they cross paths with the boy in the red hood. He roams from town to town and appears wherever strange things occur. Is he a light in the dark? Or living proof that monsters are all too real...?

Horror Collector has a story by Midori Sato and Norio Tsuruta and art by Niko Yuki, with English translation by Jan Cash. This volume is lettered by Madeline Jose. Published by Yen Press (May 27, 2025). Rated Y.

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

The original first novel of Horror Collector is, in my opinion, a better bet than the manga. That's not to say that this isn't good, because it is. The stories are on the cusp between chapter book and middle grade level reading, featuring urban legends that are just scary enough to be creepy without keeping you awake at night. Most of them have relatively few consequences, but the ones that feature more serious repercussions handle them well – they're always the result of the characters' own actions, come home to roost.

On that front, the strongest story in the book is the one about the golden payphone. It appears at random, and if you insert a special coin (in this case, one marked “Showa 45,” a year longer than the Showa period lasted), you can make a wish that is guaranteed to come true. Two middle school girls use the phone, both for seemingly harmless wishes about a boy…the same boy. As you can guess, things don't turn out well for them: one dead, one twisted, and one stuck with the knowledge of what they did. It's the harshest story, but that's why it works so well; sandwiched between lighter fare, it hits home in a way that the other tales don't. Coming close is a chapter about someone consumed by shadows as a measure to get revenge on bullies; this one is striking because it doesn't condone anyone's actions and points out that sometimes, the bullies really do get away with things, and maybe that's better than giving up your own soul. (For an opposing take on the subject, see Perfect Little Monsters by Cindy R.X. He.)

The stories collected here aren't all present in the first volume of the light novel, and that's where my chief objection lies. It's not that these aren't good stories, but the novel series opens with several of the strongest tales in the series to date, and leaving them out feels like watering down the premise. I can understand why putting in Jimmy the Human-Faced Dog's origin felt important, but introducing Himitsu alongside Fushigi takes a lot of the urgency out of the serialized format; we don't even know Himitsu exists until the end of the first novel, and that works really well. Throwing her at us doesn't give Fushigi time to establish himself as our throughline character in his own right.

Horror Collector's manga version is still good. It's use of familiar and unfamiliar urban legends is well done, and I really like the art, which is just this side of “too cute” at times. I'd still suggest picking up the novels instead, but if you're not a novel reader, this will do just fine.