The official website for Junji Ito Maniac: The Macabre Tales , a new anime based on the various stories of horror manga artist Junji Ito , revealed a new video for it this Friday.
The video shows the story of “Tomie: Photo” and also reveals five more stories by Ito to be included in the anime, as well as new cast members.
Check it out:
The newly announced stories for the anime include “The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel” (“Tunnel Kitan”), “Mold” (“Kabi”), “Layers of Fear” (“Kyofu no Juso”), “The Thing that Drifted Em Terra” (“Hyochakumono”), and “Back Alley” (“Rojiura”).
The newly announced cast members include Shun Horie, Tomomi Mineuchi, and Risa Mizuno for “The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel”; Daisuke Hirakawa, Kousuke Okano, and Ken Uo for “Mold”; Lynn, Romi Park, and Mina Kobayashi for “Layers of Fear”; Kaito Ishikawa and Yuko Kobayashi for “The Thing that Drifted Ashore”; and Yuuto Suzuki and Seiko Ueda for “Back Alley”.
The anime will premiere worldwide on Netflix starting January 19, 2023.
The anime will feature 20 stories by the author, including Suima no Heya (Where the Sandman Lives). Furthermore, the stories 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 others.
Furthermore, the most anticipated adaptation is that of Tomie , a series of stories involving a high school student named Tomie who possesses a perverse personality: using her beautiful appearance to manipulate her victims, mostly men. The schoolgirl's goal is to toy with people to the point of driving them insane and, ultimately, making them want to cut her 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 consisted of 12 episodes, each with a different story, but despite good intentions, the animation felt rushed and also suffered criticism for 'not having the same art style as the manga'. However, the anime is a good entry point for a newcomer into the disturbing world of Junji Ito. Finally, Ito Junji: Collection is available on Crunchyroll .
Finally, Ito previously revealed that his work was in production for a new project. The manga collection, which highlights some of the author's most famous works, has 11 volumes and was published between 2011 and 2013.
