A famed Japanese horror artist Junji Ito is a well known figure among manga readers or comic-fans. Many of his stories have been adapted for TV, film, and video games. Now, his legendary works will be getting a new anime adaptation and finally get the chance to see it on Netflix on Jan 19th, 2023. The latest anime adaptation by Studio DEEN will be taken from 20 of Ito’s works. Some of these are from the Junji Ito Masterpiece Collection, Junji Ito: A Study From the Abyss of Horror, and Fragments of Horror. Other works included in the anime adaptation will be Tomie: Photo, Intruder, and Hanging Blimp.
Shinobu Tagashira is directing Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre, meanwhile, Kaoru Sawada is writing the script. Tagashira and Sawada previously worked on the Junji Ito “Collection” anime. Hozumi Goda is the sound director of the series, while Yuki Hayashi is in charge of the music.
Netflix says that all of the included stories have “the shared theme of madness,” which, of course, is pretty standard for Ito.
The trailer is giving you a hint of what to expect without giving too much away. If nothing else, the show appears to do a very good job of sticking to Ito’s art style while bringing it to life through animation.
The stories being adapted are as follows (in order of appearance):
- The Strange Hikizuri Siblings
- The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel
- Ice Cream Bus
- Hanging Balloon
- Four x Four Walls
- The Sandman’s Lair
- Intruder
- Long Hair in the Attic
- Mold
- Library Vision
- Tomb Town
- Layers of Terror
- The Thing that Drifted Ashore
- Tomie: Photo
- Unendurable Labyrinth
- The Bully
- Alley
- Headless Statue
- Whispering Woman
- Soichi’s Beloved Pet
The previously revealed cast includes:
These include the likes of Ryotaro Okiayu as Sonohara, Sara Matsumoto as Tomoki, Takatsugu Chikamatsu as Ice Cream Man, Ryohei Kimura as Tsuyoshi Yoshikawa, M.A.O as Kaoru Yoshikawa, Aya Uchida as Izumi Murakami, Yuki Kaji as Goro Shinozaki, Tomoe Hanba as Koko Shinozaki, Fumiko Orikasa as Rumi, Takashi Kondo as Shimada, Ayaka Asai as Hitoshi, Tomoko Kaneda as Misako, Riho Sugiyama as Kazuko Morinaka, Daisuke Kishio as Shinya Shiraishi, Iori Nomizu as Kagumi Fujino, and Rie Suegara as Tomie, just to name a few.
