Live-action anime adaptations are a big deal in the entertainment industry these days, and there are some projects in this genre that might slip under the radar. While the likes of One Piece and Avatar: The Last Airbender get the lion’s share of attention, other live-action properties are still making their way to the screen all the same. Surprisingly, this year will see two live-action adaptations for the spooky stories of Junji Ito, with one set to arrive on Netflix in Bloody Smart, while the other is preparing to make its way to HBO Max in a surprising twist.
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For those who might not know, Junji Ito’s Bloody Smart will be accompanied this year by Strange: Junji Ito’s Tales for Sleepless Nights. Billed as a twelve-episode anthology series. Unlike Bloody Smart, which takes elements from Ito’s library to weave one coherent story, Tales for Sleepless Nights delivers full short stories to fill its episodes. The series has already begun airing in Japan on TV Tokyo, and had an early premiere earlier this summer at Anime Expo in North America. The live-action anime adaptation will premiere on HBO Max internationally later this year, though the specific release date remains a mystery. With Netflix also working on a new anime anthology series, Crimson, Ito’s works just keep making their way to the screen in unique ways.
The Stories of Strange
So what stories will this new live-action anthology adaptation be covering? While we don’t know the entirety of the roster for this spooky series, Strange has revealed quite a few of the campfire stories that will be a part of it. The stories include the likes of “The Mansion of Phantom Pain,” “A Father’s Love,” “Face Thief,” “Tomio: Red Turtleneck,” “Memory,” and “In Old Records,” to name a few. While Junji Ito will receive two new live-action adaptations this year, these two shows are far from the only live-action tales in the master of horror’s future.
In 2024, Fangoria Studios announced that it was working to create three new live-action horror movies that are adapting the works of Junji Ito. Specifically, the films will bring to life the likes of Bloodsucking Darkness and The Mystery of the Haunted House. While these movies have yet to reveal their release dates, the stories themselves are some of the best that Ito has created in his career and, ironically enough, are both stories that have yet to be given their own anime adaptations. Luckily, fans won’t have to wait much longer to check out Netflix’s Bloody Smart, as the ten-episode series is set to premiere on the streaming service on July 28th this month.
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