Junji Ito’s work are the most horrific manga works in Japan thanks to a mix of twisted imagery and hopeless tone, and now his horror is getting an anime adaptation.
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Since it has been licensed for an English language release by both Crunchyoll and Funimation, Crunchyroll has released a trailer for the series featuring English subtitles.
The series will premiere in Japan on January 5, and those fans who would prefer an English dub can also view it on FunimationNOW since the series was announced as part of their Winter 2018 simuldub season along series like Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card and Trigger’s Darling in the FRANXX.
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 trailer 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 its anime omnibus.
Regardless, The Junji Ito Collection has cast a few actors and actresses for the Japanese language version of 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’s 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.
