Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre Review

What hasn’t been said about the 5-time Eisner Award-winning Junji Ito that we don’t know. While I know everyone who loves his work and horror is waiting for when we get to see the beautiful adaptation of Uzumaki, we can see a sample of his other works at Netflix with Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre.

Maniac is a collection of stories from Junji Ito animated into either 15-minute or 30-minute episodes. Some of the works that are in this collection include The Hanging Balloons, Soichi and Tomie, and Studio Deen did a great job with them and the rest of the collection. The opening theme is done by MADKID and the closing theme is done by JYOCHO fits so well in an odd way.

The only bad thing I have to say is that this series will not be everyone’s cup of tea. The art style, storytelling, horror aspect, and pacing will put people off, and that’s a shame. Maniac has a total of 12 episodes and you should watch it if you’re a fan of his work, love horror or want to see something that is completely different from what you normally see.