Junji Ito’s works are some of the creepiest manga in all of Japan, and now that art is getting an even more skin-crawling anime adaptation.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The first trailer for the Junji Ito Collection series features a kaleidoscope of weird and off-putting imagery, and also features a bit of the series’ opening theme, “Shichitenbattou no Blues” by The Pinballs.
The series will premiere in Japan on January 5 on the WOWOW network, and on Tokyo MX Sunday, January 7. Shinobu Tagashira of Diabolik Lovers is directing the series and overseeing character design with Studio DEEN. Kaoru Sawada will write for the series, Hozumi Goda will serve as sound director, and Yuuki Hayashi of My Hero Academia will compose the music for the series.
The anime series adapts the 11 volume Junji Ito Masterpiece Collection and Fragments of Horror, and the above promo features characters from the following works: “Fashion Model,” “Oshikiri Idan,” Tomie series, “Sลichi” series, “Shibito no Koiwazurai,” and “Namekuji Shลjo.
The curve ball, however, is that the series may or may not feature the following works in the final anime series. To keep the series a surprise for fans, and enhance the creep factor of the final run, the anime has yet to reveal which stories from the two Ito collections would actually be making the transition to anime.
Regardless, Junji Ito Collection has cast a few actors and actresses in the series with Mami Koyama as Fuchi, Hiro Shimono as Oshikiri, Rie Suegara as Tomie, Yuji Mitsuya as Soichi, Hikaru Midorikawa as “Handsome Man at the Crossroads,” and Kaori Nazuka as Yuto.
For those unfamiliar with Junji Ito, the author is celebrating his 30th anniversary as a mangaka and has some of the most influential horror imagery in Japanese fiction. Ito’ more famous works include Tomie, which follows an immortal woman who drives her admirers insane, Uzumaki, about a small town affected by a curse that makes them obsessed with spirals, and Gyo, where a couple fights to survive from fish afflicted with “Death-Stench” and have metal legs.
Ito’s visuals have been praised by fans for his, sometimes literal, twisted imagery and stories often featuring unsuspecting people forced into unexplained situations as they fail to put a stop to the natural order. This new anime series will most likely be praised by fans for all of the same reasons.
Could this be the creepiest anime ever? Talk to me @Valdezology.
