Japanese Urban Legends: An Illustrated Guide to Monsters, Myths & Terrifying Mysteries

Japanese Urban Legends is an illustrated guide to monsters, myths, and terrifying mysteries curated and edited by Itsuki Asazato. With 124 creepy, crawly, spooky cryptids, this book is 240 full-colored pages of the fantastical and terrifying. Asazato covered any and every urban legend imaginable. In his own words, his project contains “Animals, plants, grandmas, and little girls, nothing and no one is exempt!”

Asazato divided his book into three chapters: City and Country Haunts, School Spirits, and Haunted at Home. Each legend comes with a useful guide covering location, characteristics, and danger rating. The Urban Legend Lineup page and index make finding your specific ghoul much easier.

Japanese Urban Legends is, above all, an illustrated guide, and each page contains incredible works of art. Some illustrations are gruesome, others are deeply unsettling, but they are all full-colored and captivating. Notably, no artist or illustrator is credited anywhere in the book. The possibility that the artwork could be AI-generated might just be the most terrifying aspect of all. Overall, Asazato’s book is completely disturbing and entertaining, and anyone interested in urban legends would be thrilled to add it to their collection.