Netflix Announces New Bone-Chilling Horror Anime From Junji Ito

the hanging balloons manga junji ito
Nick Davis

Netflix is showing off all kinds of new content as part of their Geek Week event. We’ve gotten to see all kinds of new trailers and announcements over the last few days. And recently, horror fans, as well as anime fans, got what might be the most exciting announcement of the year. Netflix is working with Junji Ito himself on a horror anime adapting some of his most famous works.

The title is Maniac: Tales Of The Macabre The official announcement came yesterday, June 8th, and Junji Ito went into some detail on what’s coming.

Maniac: Tales Of The Macabre

junji ito netflix
Junji Ito talking about the upcoming anime in the promotional video

In the promotional video, Ito states the show will be adapting 20 works that Ito chose himself. We don’t have confirmation on all 20 right now, but Junji does confirm 3 within the video. Those 3 are TomieSouichi, and The Hanging BalloonsTomie and Souichi are both characters in multiple Junji Ito stories. It’s unknown at this time which of those stories specifically are getting adaptations in the anime. But it’s exciting for longtime Ito fans, regardless.

Junji Ito has been Japan’s most successful horror mangaka and author since the late ’90s. He’s even been given the title of “Japan’s Stephen King” in the past. His work is surreal, yet always has roots in real human drama. His characters being so emotionally relatable is what makes their often gruesome deaths so troubling.

This is just another notch in Netflix’s illustrious belt when it comes to both horror and anime. They’ve had very successful horror anime in the past with shows like Castlevania and Devilman Crybaby. As well as very successful horror movies and shows like The Haunting Of Hill House, The Fear Street trilogy, and Army Of The Dead. Season 4 of Stranger Things is also receiving a lot of praise for leaning heavily into the show’s horror elements. Hopefully, they’ll continue their streak of fantastic horror with this new Junji Ito anime. The show has everything going for it.

Japan’s Scariest Author

Despite Junji being a fantastic horror author with no shortage of stories. He doesn’t have too many widespread adaptations out there, yet. Tomie is without a doubt his most successful adaptation. It’s spawned numerous sequels, although never found much success outside of Japan. This new anime series may be the first time a Junji Ito adaptation truly made waves abroad. It would be great to see this lend to more spine-tingling adaptations in the future.

Junji Ito’s Maniac: Tales Of The Macabre is coming to Netflix in 2023.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *