Manga artist Junji Ito is a master of the macabre. His works are monochromatic nightmares of body horror and all-powerful cosmic beings that see humans as nothing more than ants. Ito’s seminal work Uzumaki captured our imagination with a cosmic horror tale about the power of the spiral. His character Tomie spans novels and short stories. And now, Netflix is giving Ito’s most terrifying tales an anime adaptation with the new series Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre.
From Ito’s wealth of works, 20 outstanding stories with the shared theme of madness will be included in the series. Stories include Hanging Blimp, Tomie・Photo, Four x Four Walls, and Intruder.
Watch the trailer below:
Tomie is one of Ito’s most infamous characters, a female character who seeks revenge on men who wrong her. He first wrote her character in 1987 for a short story contest. From there, his tales were serialized and eventually collected into the novel Tomie. One of the short stories about the vengeful spirit will be brought to life in the new Netflix series.
Ito is also known for his short story “The Enigma of the Amigara Fault”, which has become a meme at this point. The most recognizable moment comes from a man crawling into a human-shaped hole and declaring, “This is my hole! It was made for me”.
Ito has 17 collections total, all available from Viz. We highly recommend Uzumaki, Tomie, and Gyo to the Ito novices. So get to reading before the series’ release!
Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre arrives on Netflix on January 19, 2023.