It's pretty clear that ichi the killer is a comedy manga, specifically as a character mentions "a romance comedy" but a dark, and twisted take. It IS, a very grotesque manga but i personally don't understand why most manga sites label it as "horror" since it doesn't (atleast to me) have the specific horror feel to it. They also did not label it as comedy, which is hilarious because it's clearly shown and commented in the story in its own right as being one.
Is it my cup of tea? No. It's clearly for specific people, not to say it doesn't have some interesting ideas and characters. Ichi for an example is super interesting. His costume reminds me of the "modern" superhero as seen in westerm comics, practical, realistic with some echos of the old way, with some style and a symbol on the front. I say that but in reality it was probably inspired by super sentai or kamen rider or it's just fukin regular ass body armor. I find the fact that he's mentally retarded, or to be specific, a manchild to be quite interesting. He has a childish worldview and infantile behaviourisms that really stick out, especially when its interposed with the dark world he's living in. I thought it was charming that he helped train a kid to kick, to protect himself from bullies, he also seems to have some remorse for his actions but he has been corrupted somewhat as his infantile behaviourisms are mixed and corrupted in his adult life, like also enjoying killing, masturbation after his assassinations and other strange things he does.
The "Old Geezer" is an interesting character, very artful in his systematic killings of yakuza his age he looks like he's 60 years old but he's actually 30, his body being well developed and very strong and finally, his short stature. Throughout the manga, he artfully manipulated everyone in his circle, and his enemies and he uses his failures as his very own weapons.
I haven't seen a character like this, he's better then a light Light Yagami, more in control of his own emotions and surroundings.
Masao Kakihara is harder to place, he's a twisted antithesis to ichi, with no will to live, and a very clever, snakelike personality.
It was hilarious to no end, the sequence where a crying, over emotional manchild ichi was chasing after a crying, scared and very naked kakihara.
"horror" elements that comes to mind is that of a slasher movie, where for the most part from the viewpoint of the yakuza, and not the reader is that ichi is potrayed as the typical slasher, an enigmatic force like Michael Myers. The gore, and disturbing content doesn't really come up as "horror", more like just gross or disturbing, like a man raping or corpse or a womans nipples being cut off, but that's really not horror.

Monkey peak is fun so far, i'm a fan of survival stories, especially ones with a focus on how characters interact with eachother and having their own little personalities. Stuff like how far a human being can push themselves emotionally and how far they are willing to go to survive.
Can't really say that the monkeys are "scary" but they have an interesting presence and i like the mythological background, along with them being like silent serial killer ripoff like Michael Myers, being that of an overpowering evil presince, hell it literally could be a dude wearing a mask since they don't really show the mouth moving. I mean the idea of an evil serial killer monkey is retarded but overall it does add some flavor and some mystery.
Actual horror manga that did the disturbing scenes well? Gannibal.
It was super fucking subtle, and psychological. They didn't go all out with gore (atleast not from the 120 chapters i've read so far) and the manga just builds up this very uncomfortable feeling, especially in every single character. I would have liked to see how it ended.

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probably my favorite manga is "jisatsu circle". it's loosely based on the movie of the same name, aka "suicide club", but the manga has a different story and is much darker. it's a one off, so it doesn't overstay it's welcome, but so much happens in the one volume it has. it starts the same way as the movie, with dozens school girls jumping in front of a train, but one girl survives. these girls were a part of a club at school that glorified suicide and self harm. the club has one leader who is called mitsuko, but that's her title not her name, and when the club dies the girl who survives becomes the next mitsuko and starts the club again. I don't want to get too into spoiler territory but there's gore, suicide, self harm, sexual exploitation, and even though my friend who read it said she saw the ending coming from a mile away it was a shock to me and the moment I read the last few pages I was in awe. highly recommended if you like dark manga.

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I'm going to have to re-read it a couple of times. Not because it's a bad story, it's an actual work of art and a masterpiece. It's rich, very dense so i think a couple of things flew over my head. I thought the symbolism with the photoshop of "mitsuko" was interesting. Really makes you think of the nature of "sacrifice".

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How would the cat know?

To me the suicide club seems like a type of strange social contagion, like those tik-tokkers doing retarded shit or those people who ate dry cinnamon.
After reading the note section in the back it left me thinking, what did he mean by psudo-religious groups? i guess i can only think of american ones, but i don't think i heard of japanese ones besides Happy Science.