The official website for Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre TV anime released its third promotional video on Jan 13, 2023.

The anime’s ending theme song “Iu Toori” (As Was Said), performed by JYOCHO, is featured in the video.

The anime will consist of a total of 20 horror short stories from Ito’s works “for the first time” including stories from Tomie, Sōichi, and The Hanging Balloons manga. The trailer shows a preview of all 20 stories briefly.

Netflix will be releasing the anime on Jan 19, 2023, globally.

The twenty titles in Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre include:

1. The Strange Hikizuri Siblings: The Séance
2. The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel
3. The Hanging Balloons
4. Ice Cream Bus
5. Four x Four Walls
6. The Sandman’s Lair
7. Intruder
8. Long Hair in the Attic
9. Mold
10. Library Vision
11. Tomb Town
12. Layers of Terror
13. The Thing that Drifted Ashore
14. Tomie: Photo
15. Unendurable Labyrinth
16. The Bully
17. Alley
18. Headless Statue
19. Whispering Woman
20. Soichi’s Beloved Pet

The cast members of the anime include:

• Shoko Nakagawa as Mayumi Santo (Whispering Women)
• Mie Sonozaki as Mitsu Uchida (Whispering Woman)
• Tomoko Kaneda as Coron (Soichi’s Beloved Pet)
• Takahiro Sakurai: Kazuya Hikizuri (The Strange Hikizuri Siblings: The Séance)
• Romi Park: Kiko (The Strange Hikizuri Siblings: The Séance)
• Hisako Kanemoto: Sayoko (Unbearable Maze)
• Yōko Hikasa: Chiemi (The Long Hair in the Attic)
• Natsumi Takamori: Kuriko (The Bully)
• Hajime Iijima as Shigoro (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)
• Rie Suegara as Tomie (Tomie: Photo)
• Yumiri Hanamori as Tsukiko Izumisawa (Tomie: Photo)
• Taku Yashiro as Yamazaki (Tomie: Photo)
• Tomokazu Sugita as Tachi (Tomie: Photo)
• Hiroyuki Yoshino as Kimata (Tomie: Photo)
• Riho Sugiyama as Kazuko Morinaka (The Hanging Balloons)
• Daisuke Kishio as Shinya Shiraishi (The Hanging Balloons)
• Iori Nomizu as Kagumi Fujino (The Hanging Balloons)
• Yuji Mitsuya as Sōichi (The Room With 4 Walls)
• Yoshimasa Hosoya as Kōichi (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)
• Shun Horie as Goro (The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel)
• Tomomi Mineuchi as Mari (The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel)
• Risa Mizuno as Koyama (The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel)
• Daisuke Hirakawa as Akaska (Mold)
• Kousuke Okano as Seiji (Mold)
• Ken Uo as Rogi (Mold);
• Lynn as Reimi (Layers of Fear)
• Romi Park as Narumi (Layers of Fear)
• Mina Kobayashi as Mother (Layers of Fear)
• Kaito Ishikawa as Wadatsumi (The Thing that Drifted Ashore)
• Yūko Kobayashi as Mie (The Thing that Drifted Ashore)
• Yuuto Suzuki as Ishida (Alley)
• Seiko Ueda as Shinobu (Alley)

Staff involved in the anime includes:

• Director/Character Design: Shinobu Tagashira
• Screenplay: Kaoru Sawada
• Music: Yuki Hayashi
• Acoustic Director: Goda Hozumi
• Production Studio: Studio Dean

In a previous announcement, the author revealed that a new anime project is in the works for his Itō Junji Kesssaku-shū (Junji Ito Masterworks Collection) manga collection. The manga collection includes some of Ito’s most well-known works and consists of 11 volumes published between 2011 and 2013.

Junji Ito is a Japanese horror mangaka. Some of his most notable works include Tomie, Uzumaki, and Gyo. His other works include Itou Junji Kyoufu Manga Collection, a collection of different short stories holding a series of stories named Souichi’s Journal of Delights, and Junji Ito’s Cat Diary: Yon & Mu, a self-parody about him and his wife living in a house with two cats.

Ito’s work has developed a substantial cult following, with some deeming him a significant figure in recent horror iconography.

Source: Official Website

© J.I./Asahi Shimbun Publishing, Junji Ito “Maniac” Production Committee