Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre will debut on January 19, 2023, the Winter 2023 anime season.
On November 18, 2022, Netflix revealed a Junji Ito Maniac teaser PV, just for thrills. This isn’t the first time Netflix has teased the upcoming release, either.
Junji Ito Maniac received an OP video back in October 2022 and before that, in late September, we also got to see a couple of Japanese Tales of the Macabre screenshots, courtesy of Netflix.
Junji Ito is a legend in his own right, so we’re not complaining!
In fact, many fans are looking forward to the latest Maniac addition to the “horror manga maestro’s” (as per Netflix’s description) opus.
Take a look at the latest Junji Ito Maniac treat:
In addition to the teaser PV, Netflix has also revealed a couple of additional stories to be featured in the upcoming Junji Ito Maniac anime adaptation.
The newly-announced stories include “The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel” (“Tunnel Kitan”), “Layers of Fear” (“Kyoufu no Juusou”), “Mold” (“Kabi”), “Back Alley” (“Rojiura”), and “The Thing that Drifted Ashore” (“Hyouchakumono”).
Previously announced stories to be featured in the Maniac horror anime anthology include “Ice Cream Truck,” “Library Vision,” “Headless Statue,” “Tomb Town,” “The Hanging Balloons,” “Tomie,” and “Souichi.”
Some of these titles are included in Anime Geek’s Junji Ito Maniac predictions.
The Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre cast and staff
Shinobu Tagashira is directing Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre at Studio DEEN. The latter also produced the previous Junji Ito horror anime anthology series, namely Junji Ito Collection, which ran for 12 episodes starting from January 5, 2018. Junji Ito Collection was co-produced by Crunchyroll; Junji Ito Maniac will not see this occurrence repeat itself.
Tagashira serves as the character designer as well, whereas Yuuki Hayashi (My Hero Academia) is composing the music. Hayashi previously worked on Diabolik Lovers, which is graced with some super spooky soundtrack moments, so the choice seems about perfect.
As mentioned above, the Maniac project will take the form of an anime anthology series, just like the previous Junji Ito anime adaptation (Junji Ito Collection).
That is to say, the list of seiyuu is rather long, and includes:
- Sara Matsumoto — Tomoki
- Ryoutarou Okiayu — Sonohara
- Aya Uchida — Izumi Murakami
- Yuuki Kaji — Goro Shirasaki
- Takatsugu Chikamatsu — The Ice Cream Man
- Ryouhei Kimura — Tsuyoshi Yoshikawa
- M・A・O — Kaoru Yoshikawa
- Tomoe Hanba — Koko
- Fumiko Orikasa — Rumi
- Takashi Kondou — Shimada
- Youko Hikasa — Ciemi
Junji Ito Maniac: Tales of the Macabre was originally announced during the Netflix Geeked Week 2022 event in June 2022. In addition to the Maniac, another Junji Ito’s masterpiece, Uzumaki, is being adapted into an anime series. As of today, the Uzumaki release date is still unknown.
Junji Ito is an established mangaka with a cult following among horror manga fans. Some of his other notable works include Gyo, Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror, Lovesickness, Tomie, Remina, Liminal Zone, and The Enigma of Amigara Fault.
Junji Ito has received numerous accolades, the latest of which is an Eisner award for his Lovesickness anthology.
Are you excited yet?