Netflix Tudum Japan livestream revealed the premiere date for the anime Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre for January 19, 2023. The event also revealed new cast members.
The anime will feature 20 stories by the author, including Suima no Heya (Where the Sandman Lives). Furthermore, the stories present in the anime are being adapted for the first time, bringing different content from the previous animation “Ito Junji: Collection”. The anime will include stories from the manga: Tomie, Souichi, Kubitsuri Kikyuu and other stories.
Furthermore, the most anticipated adaptation is that of Tomie , being a series of stories involving a high school student named Tomie who has a perverse personality: using her beautiful appearance to manipulate her victims, most of whom are men. The schoolgirl's purpose is to play with people to the point of driving them out of their sanity and, finally, wanting to cut the girl into pieces.
Cast (Unofficial romanization of names)
- Riho Sugiyama as Kazuko Morinaka (Kubitsuri Kikyuu)
- Daisuke Kishio as Shinya Shiraishi (Kubitsuri Kikyuu)
- Iori Nomizu as Kagumi Fujino (Kubitsuri Kikyuu)
- Rie Suegara as Tomie (Tomie)
- Yumiri Hanamori as Tsukiko Izumisawa (Tomie)
- Taku Yashiro as Yamazaki (Tomie)
- Tomokazu Sugita as Tachi (Tomie)
- Hiroyuki Yoshino as Kimata (Tomie)
- Yuji Mitsuya as Souichi (The Room With 4 Walls)
- Yoshimasa Hosoya as Kouichi (The Room With 4 Walls)
- Yuka Saitō as Sayuri (The Room With 4 Walls)
- Yutaka Aoyama as Tagaisu (The Room With 4 Walls)
- Hiro Shimono as Oshikiri (Intruder)
- Hisako Kanemoto as Sayoko (Unendurable Labyrinth)
- Youko Hikasa as Chiemi (The Long Hair in the Attic)
- Natsumi Takamori as Kuriko (Bullied)
- Takahiro Sakurai as Kazuya Hikizuri (The Strange Hikizuri Siblings: The Séance)
- Romi Park as Kiko (The Strange Hikizuri Siblings: The Séance)
- Hajime Iijima as Shigorou (The Strange Hikizuri Siblings: The Séance)
- Risa Shimizu as Narumi (The Strange Hikizuri Siblings: The Séance)
- Ayaka Asai as Hitoshi (The Strange Hikizuri Siblings: The Séance)
- Tomoko Kaneda as Misako (The Strange Hikizuri Siblings: The Séance)
Junji Ito 's work already received an anime adaptation in 2018 with Ito Junji: Collection by studio Deen . The animation had 12 episodes, each one having a different story, but despite the good intentions the animation was 'shattered' and also suffered criticism for 'not having the same art as the manga'. However, the anime is a good entry point for a newcomer into the disturbed world of Junji Ito. Anyway, Ito Junji: Collection is available on Crunchyroll .
Finally, Ito previously revealed that his work had a new project in production. The manga collection that highlights some of the author's most famous works has 11 volumes, being published between 2011-2013.
Source: Comic Natalie