Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of The Macabre is Now Streaming on Netflix

By Evan Valentine

The day has arrived for one of the biggest anime horror events of 2023, with Netflix releasing a new twisted anthology series, Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of The Macabre. Animating over twenty of Ito's twisted manga stories, Maniac is bringing these campfire tales to the small screen for the first time, delivering many anticipated stories including "The Hanging Balloons", "Ice Cream Truck", and "Where The Sandman Dwells" to name a few. Needless to say, there are quite a few stories now on Netflix that might keep you up at night.

The previous Junji Ito anthology series, The Junji Ito Collection, was quite controversial amongst the fan community, with many believing that Studio Deen, the production company behind the anthology, wasn't able to live up to the very high standards set by Ito's original artwork. Now, for the new anthology story, Maniac is seeing Deen return to the spooky universe created by Ito once again, adapting some of the mangaka's creepiest stories that had yet to make their way to the small screen. While the tales might be new for the anime world, they will see some of Ito's classic creepy characters come back, such as the curse-creating Soichi and the succubus known as Tomie.

Tales of The Macabre

Netflix Anime's Official Twitter Account shared the news that Junji Ito's latest anime adaptation has arrived on the streaming service, introducing social media users once again to the "Strange Hikizuri Siblings", with the Addams Family-like clan's tale acting as the initial episode of the creepy anthology:

Maniac might not be the only Junji Ito anime adaptation arriving this year, as Toonami is continuing production on the long-awaited series, Uzumaki. Delayed thanks in part to the coronavirus pandemic, Adult Swim has been tight-lipped when it comes to any potential release date, not even confirming whether it will arrive this year. Regardless, anime horror fans are crossing their fingers that the town cursed with an obsession with spirals will land in 2023.

Which Junji Ito story do you find the spookiest that spawned from the mangaka's decades-long career? Do you think Uzumaki will arrive at some point this year from Adult Swim? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of horror anime. 

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