Gaping mouths filled with various bodily fluids, exposed and leaking pregnant stomachs, torn and stretched anal passages, pulsating body organs, severely bleeding and wide open vaginal entrances, mistreated amputee victims, etc. are all shown in great and unapologetic detail throughout this very stomach-churning and diabolically pleasing manga anthology. "Hell Season" is the infamous and ferociously hardcore collection of short stories by some of Japan's most talented and relentless manga extremists (aka wonderfully wretched perverts who can draw and create genuinely filthy yet imaginative situations). This collection includes several well-known and wicked guro manga artists, such as Shintaro Kago, Waita Uziga, Jun Hayami,and Henmaru Machino. Each story varies on effort and quality but they all are of the utmost depravity. This manga has in the last few years turned into somewhat of a test on how much one is able to stomach and handle sickeningly high amounts of twisted material. This anthology does not cop-out or soft-pedal its goal and focus. The quantity of horrific and surreal depictions of intensely violent and sexual acts involving much blood, gore, saliva, scat, and multiple other body secretions in this anthology is copious and plentiful.

Lovers of pitch black comedy and appreciators of fantastically gruesome artwork, such as myself, will enjoy this fierce collection; they will find it wickedly entertainingly. Also, those who possess gnarly and vile tastes in pornography will like it as well. Everyone else will be alienated and should steer very far away in another direction, unless they actually plan to be open-minded and experiment with something that is ridiculously over-the-top.

Overall, "Hell Season" is a solid collection of stories that all revel in disgusting severity. A nice sampling of many of the mangaka that work well in the small but harsh category known as ero guro nansensu (aka ero guro or guro). It is intricately drawn, queasily enjoyable, and a fine maximalist work of transgressive art in the format of manga.

Eight Brutal and Messy Human Intestinal Extractions out of Ten.