It's that time of year again, and what better way for an otaku to celebrate spooky season than read some truly frightening manga? Here, I've chosen a few of my personal favourites in case you don't need want to sleep anytime soon. 

Anamorphosis (Shintaro Kago)

"Anamorphosis - a drawing presenting a distorted image that appears in natural form under certain conditions, as when viewed at a raking angle or reflected from a curved mirror." 

A fitting title for this story, where nothing is as it seems as a group of strangers try to survive in a recreation of a TV studio where a prank went horribly wrong. The second half is a series of short stories that are equally confusing and unnerving, and at times, darkly hilarious. 

Hakaiju (Honda Shingo) 

Hakaiju's premise is simple enough. Akira, a regular high school student living a normal life, gets caught up in an earthquake and passes out. When he comes to, he finds the city to be mysteriously abandoned and ravaged, as if it were a warzone. From here, he goes on a quest to find his friends and assist any other survivors he can find while trying to find a way around the numerous monsters that have suddenly appeared. 

The highlight of this series is the designs of the horrific creatures roaming the city, which are certainly some of the most fucked up and memorable monsters ever drawn in manga. 

Zashiki Onna (Minetaro Mochizuki)

College student Hiroshi awakens in the middle of the night after hearing a loud knocking at his neighbour's door. He goes to investigate, and sees an eerily tall figure in tattered clothes by their door. The next night, he wakes up again to the sound of knocking, only this time it's coming from his door. Who is this strange woman? Just what does she want with him? Is she even human? 

Released in 1993, this classic was immensely popular in Japan and helped popularise the creepy stalker trope. It might be short but its sense of realism and the paranoia it evokes still holds up today. 

Jinmen (Katou Takahiro) 

Teenager Masato returns to his favourite zoo from his childhood, which has since converted into a safari park where customers can get close and friendly with the animals instead of watching them from afar. After reuniting with his favourite elephant, he comes back the next morning with an old friend. This time, the park is oddly quiet and the animals are behaving a bit more wild than usual. 

Being hunted by a load of bloodthirsty killer animals is scary enough. But what if those animals had uncanny human faces and deathly empty eyes? Nightmare fuel. You'll never want to visit a zoo again after reading this. 

Hellstar Remina (Junji Ito) 

Of course, no horror manga list is complete without mentioning the master of Japanese horror himself. Hellstar Remina is one of his shorter and lesser known works, but its great mix of a sci-fi setting, cosmic horror and idol culture gone wrong make it one of his most effective. And as always, his signature art style is equally stunning and shocking. 

Have I missed any? Comment what you've been reading this Halloween below.