Junji Ito fans rejoice! Not only is one of his most famous works, UzumakiFaithfully adapted for television, Netflix has also decided to throw in its hat with its own twist on its gruesome bibliography. Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Stories of the Macabre will be a brand new animated anthology series that will feature twenty of his short stories, some of which have never been filmed for the screen before. The announcement was initially made during Netflix’s Geeked Week in June 2022, according to Collider. But in just a few months, more information about the series has come to light.
Fans of Junji Ito’s work will no doubt remember that this isn’t the first time an anthology has been attempted. The Junji Ito Collection was originally released in 2018 and followed a similar format to the upcoming Netflix series, adapting pairs of short stories into an anthology format. However, the short-lived series has been criticized for its inability to really capture the sheer terror that cascaded through Ito’s original inked pages. see how Uzumaki going to be an incredibly faithful adaptation, we hope Netflix can nail something similar.
Here’s everything we know about Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre.
Junji Ito Maniac: The Plot
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As mentioned before, this new series will be an animated horror anthology that covers a wide variety of Junji Ito’s stories. Twenty stories will be adapted, a handful of which will be given official names: ‘The Hanging Balloons’, ‘Souichi’, ‘The Long Hair in the Attic’ and a handful of others. Whether these stories will be linked thematically or narratively remains to be seen.
If you’re unfamiliar with Junji Ito’s work, a handful of characters appear multiple times in multiple stories. The most famous of these is undoubtedly Tomie — a beautiful woman with a dark secret. Her beauty is so intense that it drives people insane, lulls them to violent acts or whatever else she can ask. If you try to kill her, she will come back in pieces, multiply and turn into terrible abominations like a mutated worm. Given the character’s popularity, with multiple appearances in various animated and live-action adaptations, we can expect a cameo from her at the bare minimum.
Souichi is another recurring character who seems to have gotten his own short film. Souichi, a creepy boy with a severe iron deficiency, is known for his evil childish antics related to the occult and self-taught black magic. Due to his deficiency, you can often see him chewing and sucking on iron nails, making him look like a vicious piranha. His stories lean more towards dark comedy, as his plots often backfire on him in stark ways.
Junji Ito Maniac: The Cast & Crew
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Being an anthology, we can expect a large cast of voice actors to bring Junji Ito’s characters to life. Anime fans will probably like some of the voice actors on board: Yuki Kaji, known for his role as Shoto on My Hero Academia; Yoko Hikasa, known for voicing Mio on Could; and Fumiko Orikasa, who played Rukia Kuchiki on Bleach, are only a fraction of the talented actors on offer here. With less than half of the stories announced so far, there’s room for a lot more talent on deck.
Considering how Junji Ito himself has been involved in the development of the Uzumaki adaptation, he will also be involved in maniac production. Netflix initially announced the series with a short teaser starring Ito himself as he recounted some of his stories. During this show, he showed several model magazines for characters who will appear in the show. If he is directly involved in the animation, we can be sure that he will also be consulted for any changes to the stories.
Publication date
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The series is currently slated for release on January 19, 2023. Junji Ito’s other great animated work, Uzumaki, was originally scheduled for October 2022, but was postponed to produce the best possible product. With the recent key art released, it looks like: Maniac will hopefully release as planned.
Everything else we know
Since a number of stories will be animated for the first time, there’s no shortage of chilling material that can be brought to the screen. “The Enigma of Amigara Fault” is arguably one of Ito’s best, describing a series of human-shaped holes in the sides of the titular fault that perfectly suit those who approach them. “Grease” is a gut-wrenching tale of a sick obsession with cooking oil and pimples. “The Long Dream” contains a disturbing tale of aging ten years every time you fall asleep. This one, plus all of his other stories, could be potential candidates for adaptation.
Maniac is a rare opportunity. We’re essentially getting a revamp of the original Junji Ito Collection, this time uninhibited by the limits of traditional television broadcasting. Considering that Netflix hosts some of their own horror anime – including the revered Devilman crybaby — it seems like maniac success is a guarantee.