Tayyab Shah
Tons of announcements have happened this past week due to the ongoing Summer Game Fest. Junji Ito’s “Maniac: Japanese Tales of Macabre” was announced by Netflix as a part of their line-up. Previously Crunchyroll had Studio Deen animate the “Junji Ito Collection”, which was released in 2018. Currently Junji Ito’s “Uzumaki” anime adaptation is set for an October 2022 release.
Netflix took the stage on 11th June with its Geeked Week livestream. There were many announcements from the company, the most noticeable of which included DOTA Dragon’s Blood Book 3, Castlevania Nocturne, and Junji Ito’s Maniac Anthology series.
Ito’s Maniac Macabre Anthology
So what’s the Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre about?
from the horror master of manga comes a new anime series: JUNJI ITO'S MANIAC #GeekedWeek pic.twitter.com/2Yjco9okbM
— Netflix Geeked (@NetflixGeeked) June 8, 2022
Well, over the years Junji Ito has gathered the reputation of being a mangaka who delivers gothic horror like stories. He opts towards multiple horror works, usually short stories as can be seen with his upcoming anime Uzumaki that has been licensed for only 4 episodes and is set to air on Adult Swim this October.
We can see that Netflix has greenlit the Japanese Tales of Macabre, which will feature many of Junji’s short stories, and each story will be given an episode to highlight itself.
During the Geeked Week livestream Junji Ito himself announced that his anime is coming TBA 2023, though he didn’t confirm a release date he surely did talk about what the season will be about. He quoted;
I’ll be talking about three of my works that will be animated. Tomei, Suichi, and The Hanging Balloons.
He further stated that Suichi from his Suichi series will be featured again in the Maniac Macabre. He discussed about Tomei, how he thought of that story and what were the feelings that helped him develop the roots for one of his most iconic characters.
I feel that the eyes are the most important characteristics when showing facial expressions. Though the mouth, nose and eyebrows matter as well.
Fair enough though, as all of Ito’s works are inspired from each other and he does tend towards crossovers. If you’ve watched the Junji Ito Collection which was a composition of his 11th volume of Junji Ito Masterpiece Collection integrated with parts of his single volume of Fragments of Horror, you know that he has a habit for recurring characters. This can especially be seen when it comes to his character Tomei. She has been recurring often in many of his manga series as well as animes.
Should You Give Junji Ito Collection a Whirl?
Not being a big fan of horror animations, I never seem to develop an interest in any anime coming out in the genre. But when I saw a glimpse of the Junji Ito Collection, it felt unique. I brought myself around to watching it after reading a few reviews on IMDb. They all said that it isn’t a masterpiece but it still is good, especially “Episode 4”- and they were right…..yikes.
Definitely give the Ito Junji Collection a try. It isn’t that scary, or even that mind-blowing, yet its dark tone, moody humidity, and frightening nature fits late night Friday watches perfectly.
Too busy with Summer Game Fest? PlayStation just announced that its AAA games are getting live adaptations .
