Netflix’s Junji Ito Series, Maniac, Reveals First Images

When you think about horror and anime, the one name that will routinely pop up is Junji Ito, the mangaka that has spent years creating some of the creepiest stories not just in the realm of manga, but in the world of horror period. While Toonami is currently working on an animated adaptation of one of his most popular stories in Uzumaki, Netflix has confirmed that a new anthology story is on the way, with Maniac revealing the first images of its spooky anthology series.     

While the upcoming series is set to debut on Netflix next year in 2023, Ito himself initially confirmed that “The Hanging Balloons” and “Tomie” would be a part of this new anthology series. With these new images, the following short stories have been confirmed in The Strange Hikizuri Siblings: The Seance, Unendurable Labyrinth, The Long Hair in the Attic, and Bullied to name a few. The creepy story known as Where The Sandman Lives was also confirmed, which introduces a character, not unlike Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger. . These stories are a combination of supernatural terrors and psychological nightmares, making for a good combination of some of Ito’s best work.

Netflix Geeked shared the new images via its Official Twitter Account, giving fans the opportunity to see how the new anthology series will look and whether or not it has been able to capture the aesthetic of the artwork of the horror mangaka:

Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre hits Netflix in 2023

here are some new stills from the series, based on stories from Ito-sensei's nominated books! pic.twitter.com/8RJKP2DQJ6

— Netflix Geeked (@NetflixGeeked) July 15, 2022

This isn’t the first time that some of Ito’s spookiest stories have hit the small screen, with the Junji Ito Collection released to anime fans a number of years back but remains controversial due to many fans of the master of horror believing that it wasn’t able to live up to the high standard set by the artist. 

The upcoming series has confirmed that there will be twenty stories total portrayed in animation for the first time, giving anime horror fans plenty of bone-chilling moments to digest. As it stands, Junji Ito’s Uzumaki has been indefinitely delayed, with the previous release window set for this fall, so it should be interesting which of the two upcoming anime projects will arrive first. 

Which Junji Ito story are you dying to see animated the most? 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 Junji Ito.