In the light of day and in the dead of night, mysterious horrors await in the darkest shadows of every corner. They are unexplainable, inescapable, and undefeatable. Be prepared, or you may become their next victim.
Sit back in terror as traumatizing tales of unparalleled terror unfold. Tales, such as that of a cursed jade carving that opens holes all over its victims' bodies; deep nightmares that span decades; an attractive spirit at a misty crossroad that grants cursed advice; and a slug that grows inside a girl's mouth. Tread carefully, for the horrifying supernatural tales of the Itou Junji: Collection are not for the faint of heart.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
RebelPanda
Junji Ito deserves better than this. As he is one of the most talented horror creators, I was eagerly anticipating when his work would finally be animated. It pains me to say this, but Studio Deen fucked up this adaptation big time. It was inevitable that at least one of his mangas would be adapted, and they chose to adapt dozens of his best stories. Any fan of his works would be just as hyped as I was… but as we now know, these adaptations aren’t even half as good as the originals. Even with some of his most beloved stories like Long Dreams, Tomie, Houseof the Marionettes, and many more, it still turned out being a pile of garbage.
What’s interesting about the Junji Ito: Collection is how faithful it is to the source mangas, but simultaneously awful. I’m not saying I dislike the mangas, of what I read they’re incredibly frightening and layered with social commentary. So how can a faithful adaptation of a good manga be bad?
I have two words for you, Studio Deen.
Each panel of Junji Ito’s mangas is drawn with expert detail. Nothing is rushed, even the most obscure entries are passionately drawn to deeply disturb his legions of horror fanatics (I’m one of them). This guy seriously lives for his work, it’s no surprise he has risen to become one of the most revered horror creators to this day. It was inevitable that a TV anime adaptation couldn’t live up to his lofty achievements, but there was hope for it to at least do it justice with an equal amount of effort put into it.
Keep in mind, anime adaptations of manga aren’t expected to be 1:1 perfect recreations. They compensate by breathing new life into the panels with animation (not Studio Deen’s strong suit). What we got from the Junji Ito: Collection is nearly a shot for shot recreation of each manga chapter, destined to disappoint fans. This adaptation comes with almost none of the detail lovingly put into the original work. Instead we get choppy animation, bland colors, ugly background art, oversimplified character designs, all with a fraction of the style and detail applied to the mangas.
The biggest problem with this series isn't just that it fails to capture any of the style of the source materials, it’s that it fails to be remotely scary. A horror anime doesn't have to be terrifying at all times. Horror can come in many forms; it can get under your skin, it can disturb, disgust, linger, etc. But here… the art is so oversimplified that Ito’s horrific creations are no longer scary at all. Instead of a giant intimidating spider, we get an animatronic looking one that evokes laughter rather than the intense fear of Ito’s work.
It is the worst form of an adaptation. A cheap imitation living in the shadow of something greater. However, there is one thing I can partially credit this adaptation for; sound effects. The squelching of blood, reverberating of a heartbeat, visceral slicing of flesh. The best noises are rarely used, keeping them from becoming repetitive, but it’s enough to get under your skin. For me, being moderately grossed out (oh god the pimple episode) was the extent of the ‘horror’ I found in this series. But for every good sound effect there were three mediocre ones that are either absurdly fake sounding or have just plain out poor audio quality. This quality issue extends to the subpar voice acting. Voices don’t match what you would expect of the characters on a number of occasions. And even when they do fit, they sound markedly worse than most other anime.
I did actually find the Souichi chapters quite funny as some nice dark humor in between the grim chapters. His obnoxious voice, goofy stupidity, and extreme nihilism made him the most surprisingly funny demon summoners I’ve ever seen (not that the list is very long).
It was quite an odd choice for them to start the first episode with a Souichi comedy chapter even if I enjoyed it. Although I didn’t mind that the show ended with one of his chapters it felt like rather than bringing out the best they can, they end on a low note. This series was marketed as horror so to see comedy like that in place of scares is a recipe for disappointment. Given the high drop rate right away, it’s clear people understood this was going nowhere fast. Anthology series are after all inconsistent by nature, it’d be unreasonable to expect perfectly equal adaptations across the board. But when you’re this blatantly not giving a shit about how the final product comes together, then I don’t feel the need to mince words on how bad the end result is.
Make no mistake, not every one of Junji Ito's mangas that were adapted is great. He has written dozens of them so it's expected that not all of them would be stellar. Typically they have uneven lengths ranging from 18-2 minutes each, but typically they last half an episode. Many of the stories lack endings, fitting for the mysterious atmosphere, but annoying when every story one after the other has no definitive conclusion. Some of the stories fail to establish characters worth caring about then hinge dramatic stakes on them, while others may rely too heavily on a mysterious supernatural element leaving it difficult to connect with. In turn, draining most of the potential for scares.
I was never bothered by the fact that Junji Ito’s manga doesn’t always have the most well developed of stories while reading his mangas. After all, the uncertainty of what is really occurring in the story is part of their mysterious charm. This mysterious atmosphere is usually brought on by the understated supernatural elements, which are rarely explained for the sake of simplicity.
You’d think that this embracement of an underdeveloped story would work well for a two chapters per episode adaptation, sadly the pace is botched a bit too badly. The stories we get are rushed, lingering on the underdone horror spectacles much less than the mangas. Instead, this show prays that we’ll latch onto Ito’s stories to make up for the lackluster presentation. Needless to say, they’re forcing a formula onto already established works and it just does not work.
There were a few things from Junji Ito’s mangas that made the transition from paper to screen decently. Junji Ito himself is quite aware of the world he lives in and provides us with thought-provoking social commentary. It never failed to give me an idea to chew on, distracting me from the show’s mediocrity. There are his constant jabs at overbearing family expectations, the pressure we put on ourselves and others, but most importantly his many criticisms of how he believes people can be shallow.
I doubt anyone expected Ito Junji: Collection to be perfect, given the famous horror author Junji Ito has never had his work adapted into an anime until now. Especially given the studio adapting it is the definition of inconsistency, Studio Deen, it was very nearly dead on arrival. It didn’t help that the director of the infamous dumpster fire Diabolik Lovers was at the helm of this ship. Steering it off course and into every pitfall it could.
Score Breakdown:
[Story: 6/10] Mixed bag, supernaturally driven, retains social commentary.
[Character: 3/10] Only goes as far to connect you to the horror, paper thin.
[Art: 2/10] Janky animation, poor quality, ruins Ito’s aesthetic.
[Sound: 3/10] Poor voice work, some scary sound effects, mediocre music.
[Enjoyment: 3/10] Boring, rarely scary, occasionally funny.
[Overall Score: 3.4/10]
You were good Studio Deen! Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinju was great! Of all of the animes to put barely any effort into, why this one? A low effort cash grab like this is unfit to bear Junji Ito’s name. Don’t watch this anime, go read his mangas.
Ericonator
I…think you forgot to add a comedy tag, MAL. Ito Junji: Collection, despite what the MAL score might lead you to believe is actually decent. Based on the collection of manga of the same name, these stories depict various abnormal occurrences and happenings. From what I know, there isn’t a pattern as to which stories were picked. Ito Junji surprised me in many ways, one of those being the creepy atmosphere. Many of the stories are quite unnerving at times, especially with how crude the artstyle is. The fact that the overall art looks quite bad, as in the character models aren’t anything special and the backgroundsare rather cheap-looking only adds to the tone, which is fitting for a show like this.
One good thing I can say about the characters, or rather, character in this case, is that our main protagonist, Souichi, is a nice addition to these stories. His peculiar and bizarre nature makes everything just a little bit creepier, especially with how he behaves around others. Whenever he’s on screen he does something weird or funny, and it wouldn’t be the same without him.
Even though Ito Junji is a horror anime, it has a surprising amount of outright hilarious moments, like the whole circus story. The way everything played out felt like an unintentional comedy of sorts, although it worked in this case since it was genuinely funny and not just ironically funny like some “so bad it’s good” shows which don’t try to be funny but end up actually being funny.
All in all, I quite liked Ito Junji: Collection, and I plan on checking out the manga in the future.
Antisocialoli
if I could give this anime lower than the score of 1, I would. it's honestly the worst anime I've ever watched, a huge waste of time and an abomination for the manga it was just awkward to watch please do yourself a favour and DONT watch this anime. Story - the story (in the manga) is decent, but the story telling in this anime is atrocious Art - one of the worst and most generic and boring art styles I've seen. Sound - nothing much to say about it, though the voice acting and screams were awfully awkward to listen to Characters - none memorable characters, the only somewhatdecently animated arc was "Nagai Yume"
Enjoyment - it was a nice joke, but thats all there is to it
Overall - dont bother, staring at the wall sounds like a better experience.
Karhu
What is man's favorite word? Starts with an M and end with Arriage. A miscarriage. Ayyyyyy, This joke never gets old, and neither does the baby. This joke is quite accurate way of introducing just about anyone to Itou Junji's anime. It offers similarly tasteless jokes about rather abstract events that are presented as a horror comedy. It's a collection of tales that varie from snail using a human head as a shell to a person drinking so much grease he turns into grease himself. Lovely. This was my favorite story for sure. His palms were sweatier than Eminem ever thought was possible. Approaching thisseries with open mind and owning a sick sense of humor will definitely help oneself to enjoy this DEEN's newest animated masterpiece. The series comes with a lot of quality differences and won't appeal to most of its viewers. Pretty much no one thinks anything special about it. This because it really isn't anything special. It's different for sure and worth of giving a try for that reason no doubt.
The characters are pretty memorable. Especially the guy who eats nails. I don't mean his own nails, but literally iron nails. He was pretty cool. Would definitely befriend if I met a guy like that. Other characters aren't really worth of noting, but DEEN did pretty good job when designing them for this anime. The voice acting is what you would expect. No nyaaas or ara ara's are given. These people are weird, but sound realistic.
I recommend watching this series solely for the scene where giant woman comes out of the swamp and be like "ain't no Shrek gonna take over what is mine." I died of laughter, then came back alive just to finish this show.
LegendAqua
LA always has been fine with the supernatural "cosmic horror" at times like ghosts and curses, however LA has a morbid fear of zombies because they are human yet not, LA KNOWS they can't exist but there is that future logical extreme where humanity kills itself off...with humanity itself and this is where there is a lingering sense of horror from both the mundanity taken to the logical extremes and the unknown...Junji Ito KNOWS this and absolutely runs with it. Junji Ito: Collection right off the bat for LA is by the title itself a collection of Junji Ito's horror works in 22 minute episodes andbecause of this format LA really can't talk about the plot as there are multiple plots that really doesn't connect (one does but semantics), so the best way to talk about Junji Ito is by his signature horror genre he's famous for...but tied to lackluster animation and the problem itself of making an adaptation of majority of his works into a 12 episode anime.
Like LA said above, Junji Ito dives into the horror aspect of the mundanity of the normal or the unknown fates of many of his protagonists fate up to chance if they even survive from the "monsters" or the "horror phenomenon".
The mundanity of everyday normal things causing the horror strikes a chord with LA like LA's analogy with zombies but take that and make it even to the simplest things like...blood, oil, beauty, curiosity, unrequited love, dreams and even the moderation of privacy. Jump scares and gore are instant scares that are one timer moments that easily get boring or predictable but the mundanity of the normal brings in the our usual day lives and makes the horror stick from something we do in our repetitive usual day lives and by far Junji Ito knows how the mundanity works to the horror's advantage. Yeah through LA even saying this, Glyceride has shown LA to never see something as simple as GREASE as disgustingly vomit inducing or how Tomie's beauty goes into intense obsession.
On the other side, the unknown is really a simple as many of the protagonists fate are left up in the air, be it if the horror of the story is killed or not, their fates are left in the air and because of this unknown the majority of the time, they get consumed by the horror or it's the worst result at times. The unknown is scary as we DON'T KNOW IT ITSELF, thus facing the fear of the unknown can be scary as hell as there will be no way of knowing the end result and Junji Ito eats the carrot he's been dangling at you for the last 10 minutes or so giving us a cosmic horror of the unknown.
So about the lackluster animation, well the animation done by Studio DEEN for LA was ok enough but the animation tries to get Junji Ito's horror down into a verbatim animation with somewhat intentionally dull, dreary atmosphere with some interesting sketchbook-like character designs and backgrounding. The cosmic horror is pretty good but LA attributes that to Junji Ito's vision just now taken into animation format. LA "gets" Studio DEEN's animation though LA just felt some of the animation became lackluster as Studio DEEN just went verbatim of Junji Ito's collection of stories without much change when the atmosphere and more detailed animation was needed to inflict the horror of the animation more strikely, though at times LA kinda was ok with that as the horror seen in 1080p in greater detail isn't something LA DO NOT WANNA SEE...if you know where LA is getting at, as much as LA has gripes with the lackluster animation and though it definitely felt like it, the animation was "ok", but that's not much as praise.
Well the biggest problem LA sees with Junji Ito: Collection is of how the anime adapted his works to animation and by this is that because of ALOT of his works crammed into 12 episode 22 minutes has the implication of being short, there are some benefits like LA said about the unknown fates of many of the protagonists giving us no ending in the process and the effectiveness of it but LA will just say the pacing of many of the episodes are either too quick or too slow and it's fluctuates depending on the story working with you or not and LA felt it many times while watching Junji Ito: Collection, giving a very confused "THAT'S IT?" or "well that happened". LA won't say that the pacing is a huge problem as LA will defend it depending on the episode but it still detriments the horror at times as "meh" and the prime suspect of the pacing problems for LA at least is the weirdest choice of adapting some of his work is of Souichi and his stories as that is primarily seen as a COMEDY with some supernatural horror but it's nothing but a prankster who has actual voodoo powers and him failing time and again...like what?, the obvious implication for this is the anime has brought in even LESS screentime for his more intense horror stories for a straight up slapstick comedy. Though the only defense LA gets here is the fact of Souichi giving us a breather to more of Junji Ito's more intense horror stories but LA just found Souichi's inclusion and his placement of stories in terms of episodes baffling.
LA's taste in horror might be weird to some people let alone LA's fear and as much as LA harped on the faults and benefits of adapting Junji Ito's work, you know what, LA got Junji Ito's brand of cosmic mundane horror with many of his stories sticking for the better or worse and even though there is lackluster animation and let alone Studio DEEN even trying to adapt a plethora of Junji Ito's work and squishing it in a 12 episode format has some huge detriments to it but oddly enough Junji Ito: Collection has been a mundane yet horrifying, crazy as hell, cosmic horror fest. Junji Ito: Collection anime adaptation just might be LA's weirdest case of "disappointing yet satisfying" in terms of horror.
OgTo
Junji ito deserves more recognition, he's undoubtedly one of the best horror anime writers ! The first episode was funny but later in the anime it gets dark to the point where i couldn't even sleep but he did a good job because that's one of the main objectives of a horror anime. Would definitely recommend ! But should read the manga first cuz it has more details and looks scarier than the anime . It contains traumatizing tales of different stories like a snail growing out of a girl's mouth , an attractive women making men fawn over her , making them crazy over her then awaitssomething horrifying or an attractive spirit at the misty crossroads that grants cursed advice !
6de6ad6
As a first time contact with junji ito this is magnificent! I'm now reading the mangas since I became utterly obsessed with souichi thanks to this anime, so I hope this helps:) Now I can see why some reviews of old readers are low. Meanwhile the anime can give you chills, or moments that you think "wow gross, that's scary" etc. you are not really scared but more interested. When you read Junji Ito's original art it gives you more creeps, a purest feeling of terror, in my opinion a kind of art that can't be animated to be as scary. Don't worry!! you don't get asmuch as terror, but double of fun. The job they did animating Souichi's curses was really amazing, his character essence was at his highest version. The laughs, voice, animation... everything fitted perfectly, making shine the funny side of him that you can read on the manga but can't really feel... the same emotions I tried to explain before with the terror speech but viceversa.
You can see 2 different stories every chapter, so it's easier to watch and enjoy, the best overshadowing the less interesting ones. If you like creepy things you will absolutely love it!!
TheOfficialSun
JUNJI ITOU COLLECTION (24/3/18) This anime is to Junji Itou’s work is what Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender was to Nickelodeon’s Avatar series. It’s an adaptation so crude in its execution that the original’s fandom will deny it ever happened. ART (0/10) The Junji Itou Collection has what is easily the worst “animation” I have seen in anime, that is to say there is barely any. Most of the shots are static and the illusion of movement is created by camera pans or sudden shaking. What little animation feels obligatory, like adding a couple extra frames to make a character’s mouth look like it’s moving, and often looks convulsiveand unnatural. Characters will either shake violently to make it feel ~scary~ or if the animators are feeling especially lazy then some characters may slide across the floor instead of walking.
The art style is vaguely like Junji Itou’s, but it’s so watered-down that it’s offensive. While Itou’s manga is characterised by the intricate details that make the experience truly captivating and beautifully grotesque, this anime aimed for the bare minimum and missed it by a few miles. The otherworldly creatures that Itou is famous for come to life as something out of a children’s bad horror book and... what looks like CGI? I don’t know, not even CGI in anime has looked so unintentionally comical. The only time when the anime looks good is when it directly copy & pastes a panel from the manga and adds colour to it, but even when it redraws scenes it makes them absolutely devoid of the atmosphere and horror that the original is so rich with.
CHARACTERS (2/12)
As the stories are short one-shots that usually span 10 minutes there is obviously not much time to flesh out any characters. However the anime never makes even an effort to go beyond what the source material gives it. Although the characters in Itou’s work are only secondary to the horrors that each story recounts, each character still has some sort of motive. Sometimes it’s to become independent, other times to satiate their curiosity, but most times to survive.
But again, the Junji Itou Collection fails on this front where the characters don’t seem to be passionate about anything and most of their decisions seem to come out of nowhere. This is because the anime decides to leave out some parts that may be unimportant to the main storyline but give us insight into the characters’ heads, leaving the audience with an abridged version of the original, and not even a good one.
The only thing I can give this aspect of the show is that it doesn’t add unnecessary characters to the show, which is something that always bothers me. But it’s not like they had the initiative to.
SOUND (2/6)
The theme songs are good to listen to and suit Itou’s style. The opening gets you excited and the ending lulls you to an almost suspicious rest. Unfortunately none of your anticipation is met.
The OST is basically nonexistent and I cannot remember a single piece that I heard watching this show. Even some stories that require a good sound design to make any sense at all were neglected in this part, such as an episode where characters lose their mind over an unbelievably good music CD, but, AGAIN, the show fails to make an effort where it counts to make the CD sound at least good. The voice-acting is subpar and when combined with the badly drawn facial expressions it makes a lot of the characters’ reactions unrealistic and therefore impossible to relate to.
STORY (0/12)
Another defining feature of Itou’s manga is its bizarre premises and how, with careful pacing trepid developments, what may be an unrealistic reaction becomes understandable. However this adaptation rushes the stories and completely misses their point and what makes them effective.
The biggest offender is the much-anticipated story Painter, featuring Itou’s most famous character Tomie. The story requires previous knowledge of the main character, which isn’t a problem in the manga because the chapter is published after the chapters that introduce us to Tomie. Seems obvious that you need the start to get to a side story, right? Not to this anime’s staff.
Another issue is that in the manga chapter the titular painter loses his sanity over Tomie slowly and steadily, whereas in the anime because the staff felt obliged to cram in two stories for every episode without exception, the painter’s descent to madness feels more like a leap.
OVERALL
The anime takes Itou’s ideas and throws them with as much power over a rock-hard road, then runs them over with a lorry and pours paint over them. It’s the very definition of doing the bare minimum. Don’t watch unless you want to pretend Itou isn’t a great author.
Final score: 1/10
Gundroog
Yeah, it's bad. To talk about why Ito Junji Collection is a terrible mess is to talk about what makes a horrible anime adaptation. I'd like to first establish what was expected of it, and explain why it failed (even if most of it is obvious at first glance). The bottom line for a decent anime adaptation is to provide an alternative way to experience the original work. More often than not that means a panel to panel adaptation with worse pacing and art, but now in color, fully voiced, scored and animated. Might sound fine on paper but it usually doesn't make the manga obsoleteas anime rarely manage to adapt entirety of the story, and for many people the lack of detailed and stylish art can be a massive downside.
At best it can become something like Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. An anime that takes the original work, captures what people loved about it, and then goes an extra mile to use every strength anime medium has to offer to enhance it. Making the world come to live with vibrant colors, and turning action scenes into real spectacles by utilizing many talented animators. All while fatefully telling you the original story.
The possibility like that is what made the prospect of good Junji Ito anime so appealing. And then everyone saw that DEEN is behind it, snuffing any spark of hope that existed before. Then it actually came out and somehow managed to be even worse than I expected.
Junji Ito Collection doesn't just fail to meet the bottom line, It starts below it and then actively digs itself further down, as if looking for remains of Berserk's 2016 adaptation.
To start with, the directing is nearly non-existent. Shinobu Tagashira mindlessly follows manga chapters panel by panel without adding anything to them. More often than not he's actively making it worse since he doesn't translate the dramatic framing and progression of said panels, leaving you with a picture that always feels lifeless, flat, boring. Junji Ito is a master at capturing the reader's attention with his acute understanding of manga. He puts in a lot of effort to build the tension and increasing it all the way to the climax when the horror starts to spiral out of control. All of this is lost.
In part this is due to inadequacy of art in IJC. It would be one thing if they just failed to capture the complexity of Ito's haunting art, brimming with attention to detail that pushed it from creepy to genuinely unsettling. No, they once again dip below the lowest standard. While I'll commend Shinobu Tagashira for managing to adapt the manga designs for animation, none of it matters when they're badly drawn with depressing consistency. From derpy eyes that float all over the face, to stiff poses, to things that barely look human. Already souless anime becomes even harder to get invested in when it looks like that.
Animation blends perfectly with the rest of the adaptation in its ability to undermine the source material. There are multiple times throughout the show where IJC just gives up on even trying and shows you a still cutout moving around on the screen without anything to try and hide it. If it was any worse it would be a camcorder footage of someone waving a stick with a drawing glued on top. It's not always that terrible but it never adds anything of value. When Kagewani and Yami Shibai exist and manage to tell imaginative horror stories with minimal animation there's no excuse. It doesn't make for a great adaptation but it would still be an improvement compared to this.
Ito Junji Collection is not thoroughly bad, but most of the positive things I have to say about it are elements of original work left unbutchered in the process of adaptation, oversight on DEEN's part no doubt. While the impact is ruined the stories are still recognisably that of Junji Ito and his wild imagination. The selection is not weak either, it adapts some of the more memorable stories, some of which are consistently brought up when talking about Junji Ito's writing talent and/or art. Other than that the voice acting is pretty standard and the only real standout are the excellent OP and ED that capture the tone and bizarre nature of Ito and sound amazing.
In the end, Junji Ito Collection is just a bastardization of original work. It keeps the stories intact but it removes all the things that made them work. Please, don't watch it.
eeyk
Am a bit confused with this one, Because the episodes are short a bit too short almost all stories have no real ending. it's a plot that start with something creepy and than on the climax it quits and goes to the next story, and this happen 24x. Every episode has 2 stories. i was recommend this anime by different websites because i like horror, but beside some creepy/gory things there is not really any horror to find here. in my opinion it could be better, less childish and more adult like less humor and more drama would work. i give it a 7 because i liked the artand it's isn't terrible just not really horror as was promised.
Mike_McFly
Awful adaptation of a bunch of Junji Ito's stories. Most of them have been cut short and have no conclusion whatsoever. The artwork is incredibly poor compared to Ito's originals (sans a few), which heavily minimizes the shock factor. Most of the stories involving monsters are awful because if this. Needless to say, the best of the bunch are the ones which center around a concept rather than on shocking imagery (mostly due to Ito's storywriting). Overall, I wouldn't recommend this. Only to Ito fans, but only because there are no other animated adaptations of his works (Gyo was even worse than this). Notable stories (bothgood and bad):
- Fashion Model: Destroyed because of the mediocre animation.
- The Long Dream: The definite best of the stories. The concept is great and the execution was handled decently.
- Boy at the Crossroads: Left incomplete. Only 1/4 of the whole story was adapted.
- Slug Girl: Heavily butchered and badly adapted. The absolute worst of the series.
- Cloth Teacher: The best of the Souichi stories. Has a great sense of black humor and it's very enjoyable to watch.
- Painter: One of the most interesting of the Tomie stories. It's also the only story in this series involving shock factor that actually looked decent.
- Greased: Great atmosphere, but was left inconclusive.
lifemare
Being a massive fan of Junji Ito's manga, i'm terribly sad to be giving this adaptation such a low score. The same as for the more recent Netflix Maniac. Horror is quite a peculiar genre, requiring a lot more suspension of disbelief than others and is usually much more effective the more it leaves to the imagination. Which is why it tends to work much better in prose, or graphic novels, where your mind has to fill in a lot more between each sentence or panel with your own personal terrors. This is true for all the greatest horror writers like Poe, Lovecraft, or Stephen King,with very rare exceptional adaptations actually doing justice to the original work. In the case of Lovecraft, i'm still waiting for a good one, despite all the attempts.
When the suspension of disbelief is stretched too far, horror quickly turns into into its opposite - comedy. And the line between these two genres is surprisingly thin. Often fused to great effect in many movies - Peter Jackson's early filmography being a prime example in my mind.
Junji Ito in particular doesn't really know how to end a story most of the time and he tends to lobotomize his characters of most of their common-sense... This is fine in manga format, where the ambience and pacing superbly make up for it. But on screen they just become exacerbated. I refuse to believe it's impossible to adapt and i rather think the story-boarding work for this anime was rather lazy - basically adding frames to Junji Ito's panels, beat by beat.
This is the third peculiarity of horror adaptations: different media require different approaches and the more faithful you try to be to the written word the less effective you will generally be in a visual format. This becomes a huge problem where you are much more likely make a good horror movie, the more you stray from the original work (and the more you risk alienating fans) - a fact that is masterfully evident in The Shinning. But you wouldn't need to go to that far to make a better adaptation, had the story-telling not been absolutely flat and linear, had there been more creative applications of rhythm to the scenes, paired with better sound design, better animation, better camera work, better almost everything...... This could've easily been double the score.
kaizoku-okubey
Horor anime for most people have almost always been labled as not very good on genuinely lacking the atmosphere or scare tactics of most other media the genre provides. There's something about a creature being animated, or a body getting ripped apart that just doesnt have the same affect as the real thing. Most horror anime almost always have to resort to be labled as: "action suspence" to get any fans attention. Shows like Helsing, Tokyo Goul, Parasyte, ect all rely on action and ultra gore to get any viewers. Then comes the work of manga artist Junji Ito. The man responsible for so manycreepy pop up images that make people just go "The 7#(% am I looking at?" His art has a purpose to make anyone who views it genuinely uncomfortable, whether through gore, gross out, or basic confusing endings. So with such a huge cult following it was only a matter of time that they give it an anime adaptation. But is it any good?
Lets see what the series does right, first and most important is they follow Ito's stories exactly as he presents them. No cutting anything too graphic, no adding pointless scenes, its all as he intended it. Unlike another adaptation of his work Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack this refrains from making any changes from his story so he's only person that could be blamed for poor writing is Ito himself.
But you can blame the show for adapting some of Ito's more boring/poorly written stories. Some of the stories especially in later episodes can be extremly confusing if not entirly anticlimactic. Stories like a circus that murders its performers to feed the ringleader. Or an elderly woman is being haunted because her town doesnt know how to properly hold a funeral. Some can be extremly boring if not leaving you wanting there to be more explination to the story.
Another thing the show does well is its building of atmosphere. The shows segments are always shown at night or in cloudy whether building atmoshphere mixed with the shows slow and creepy soundtrack setting up the mood briliantly. Its tone is also very quiet and sneaky ofen taking you by surprise when the scary stuff goes down. No build up in the music, no panning for a jumpscare. Just WHAM scary!
Now when it gets down to it the show I feel the best way to watch it is at night, or when its cloudy. Preferably with friends because your more likely to react if others do. And there are some episodes that I feel are much better then others and are a must:
1. Anything with Souichi: 1A 5B 12B His charecter is creepy enough and the stories show Ito's world perfectly
2. Fashion Model: 2A The most intense, and the payoff is really effective.
3. Window next Door, Gentle Goodbye: 6 Both stories show how diverse Ito's stories are. One being on campground urban legend level of creepy, and the secpnd being the most emotional episode and a facinating twist on a ghost story.
4. Painter: 9A Sets up the upcomming Tomie OVA and has the most disturbing final image.
Some of the weaker episodes are:
1. The Circus comes to Town: 8B Ends on a clifhanger but didnt really deserve it.
2. Greased and Bridge: 10 The first part is disgusting as in a girl gets pimple juice poured all over her face nasty(and that's not even the scary part), and the second part is built up for no payoff whatsoever.
So is this the perfect horror show we've been waiting for....not really, but it's creative, has good atmosphere, and if you like genuine creepy horror give it a watch!
Predat0r_20
Junji Ito Collection: A Glimpse into Grotesque Genius, with Room for Improvement As a Junji Ito fan, I eagerly devoured the "Junji Ito Collection" anime, hoping for a chilling translation of his iconic horror manga. While it didn't quite reach the fever pitch of terror the source material conjures, it offered a glimpse into the unsettling brilliance of Ito's mind, leaving me both wanting more and appreciating the challenges of adapting his work. A Symphony of Shadows (But Maybe Needs a Bass Boost) One of Ito's greatest strengths is his mastery of black and white. The stark contrasts, the play of light and shadow, all weave a symphonyof dread that burrows into your subconscious. The anime, while not a slavish copy, attempts to capture this essence. While the vibrant palette occasionally clashes with the intended atmosphere, there are moments where the animation truly shines.
Imperfect Beauty: The Animation's Double-Edged Sword
The animation quality, while not on par with some top-tier productions, has its own unique charm. It's not the fluid, high-budget style you might expect, but rather a deliberate choice that reflects the scratchy, almost dreamlike quality of Ito's art. Some may find it clunky, but I appreciate the attempt to capture the raw, unsettling energy of the manga panels.
However, I can't ignore the moments where the animation falls short. Certain scenes lack the detail and depth that truly bring Ito's grotesque creations to life. The character movements can feel stiff, and the environments occasionally lose the oppressive texture that makes the manga so terrifying.
Whispers of Horror: Where's the Screaming Silence?
One of the things I love most about Ito's work is how it lets the silence and ambiguity do the talking. The anime, unfortunately, leans a bit too heavily on exposition. While some explanation is necessary, the clunky dialogue and overbearing narration sometimes disrupt the flow and dilute the suspense. I longed for more moments where the visuals could speak for themselves, as they do so masterfully in the manga.
A Seed of Hope for Uzumaki and Beyond
Despite its shortcomings, the "Junji Ito Collection" planted a seed of hope for future adaptations. It proved that translating Ito's unique vision to the screen isn't impossible, and with refinement, it could be truly terrifying. The upcoming "Uzumaki" adaptation, with its focus on capturing the intricate black and white style, has me cautiously optimistic.
Conclusion:
"Junji Ito Collection" may not be a perfect translation of the manga's chilling brilliance, but it's a commendable experiment that offers a glimpse into the grotesque genius of Junji Ito. While it left me yearning for the deeper dread and nuanced storytelling of the source material, it also sparked excitement for the potential of future adaptations to do justice to his unsettling masterpieces. If you're a fan of Ito's work, it's worth checking out, but keep an open mind and remember, the true nightmares still reside within the pages of the manga
bpoilspill1
This collection was one of my most anticipated anime projects at the time and when it released it was the biggest pile of shit ever junji Ito has always been the greatest mangaka there was at writing bone chilling stuff with some of the greatest art I've seen and this is just a stain that carries none of the impact. Furthermore the art just feels flat it's a massive nothing burger with no soul behind the art just a cheap imitation of something superior. The voice acting is also lackluster and doesn't fit well it's like watching the Schneider cut of Batman Vs superman in German.
Zabilac8798
"Spirals....this town is contaminated with spirals." -Uzumaki As a big fan of horror genre in movies, television, etc; I kinda stumbled upon a manga named 'Human Chair' by Junji Ito. After reading that, I kinda got obsessed over his works. Within a month or so, I almost finished the whole Ito Junji manga collection. His style of writing and art were so bizzare, weird and complex, that they sometimes seemed relevantly scary, albeit with their own symbolism hidden inside them, some in plain sight. As the newfound fan inside me got hyped up on hearing that his works were going to be adapted into anime, Iwas pretty excited. But after finishing the anime, my reactions are pretty mixed.
For starters, I expected more from the studio which developed some of my favourite anime, like Sakamoto desu ga? and Tonkatsu DJ Agetarou. The starting episodes were pretty messed up, but the later episodes containing stories from 'Long Dreams', and my personal favourite, the story of the seductress succubus, 'Tomie', were made really well. The opening and ending songs(Shichiten Battou no Blues by The Pinballs and Otagai no Uchuu by JYOCHO) really complement the anime, with a mix of peppiness and eeriness, which haunt you for a while.
The art style seems a bit out of place, compared to the pen work of Junji Ito himself. His art is the best feature of his works, which show a gamut of emotions using facial expressions. Droppy eyes, exaggerated mouth, pointy teeth, etc are his trademark strokes.
Overall, compared to the manga, Studio Deen has done a decent job on adapting the manga onscreen. Nevertheless, it was good to watch his creations come alive on screen, much like my dream of seeing the characters from Goosebumps onscreen, a distant dream.
bridievinn
I was really hopeful for this adaptation, I really was. Unfortunately it fell short, and I apparently felt so strongly about it I was urged to write my first review here. When it was announced there was to be an anime adaption of Junji Ito's work, I think we can all agree there was a lot of anticipation, Ito being one of the best horror artists in manga. There was, however, many disappointments. As the anime progressed, I desperately hoped it would pick up or find its rhythm, but it never did. The first flaw was splitting up multiple stories into ten minute pieces. As a resultof this decision, it often feels lackluster - things don't come to any sort of conclusion (which I know is sometimes a feature of some of his stories), it left me feeling dissatisfied and made the stories seem almost unfinished. Various stories have multiple different lengths, so sometimes they had to spread it out unnaturally long, or in the case of stories like Tomie - cram in a lot of material into only ten minutes. I feel if the anime focused on just one of the stories, this could have been resolved.
Another issue was the art. The art, for me, was another one of the biggest disappointments of the anime. His work, as many raised concerns over, is often rather difficult to translate into animation. While in the manga his art tends to be detailed, intricate, striking, the anime completely failed to deliver - while at times there was unsettling and interesting imagery, the art was often incredibly bland, poor and dull. There were occasions in the anime where the animation was literally so terrible, you could tell they were blatantly running over budget.
Partly as a result of failing to translate from paper to screen, some of the horror is missing too - and to such a degree that the anime at times felt silly. There simply isn't the creepiness factor to the same degree as in the manga, minus a few frames.
Overall, i'd say this adaptation was incredibly underwhelming and failed to contribute anything worthwhile in terms of the recreation of his work. However, if you are a fan of Junji Ito (or horror in general), I would still recommend watching it and see how you feel about it yourself, (Even better, read the manga!) While my review is not particularly favorable, the anime did produce some enjoyment. As a fan of Junji Ito, I was intrigued to see where it went - and it was interesting to see it adapted as an anime, even if just making me wonder about the possibilities of a better quality adaption.
Frickface
I'll of course start this by saying I am a huge fan of Junji Ito's horror work, so there is a slight bias in my review because I both really wanted to enjoy this and genuinely did. However, I can't help but wish some aspects had been taken full advantage of. The Anime Man describes some of the problems with manga to animated translations in general. A large portion of the shock and horror factor in Junji's horror manga is that you can go at our own pace, absorb all details, and should the next page turn be suddenly disturbing, it's a small jump scare withoutbeing as cheesy and overused as an actual jump scare. Without this pacing, it is entirely on the anime's shoulders to effectively shock and scare, because now rather than imagining how this page would look in detail or color, or how it would move, it's all able to be taken at face value based on the animation.
This being said, the attempt at slightly mocking Junji Ito's art style was beneficial to keeping in tone with the mangas. Something that desperately should've been taken advantage of but was neglected almost entirely, however, was visual atmospheric effects. Lighting, color palettes, etc. Everything was so dull and dreadfully boring and plain looking, and while in some stories this could work to it's advantage, in many I couldn't help but feel that it would've greatly benefited from doing so. This was especially disappointing, as upon seeing the OP I was incredibly hype. The style of it, the coloration, patterns, everything - but this all was left for only the OP.
The story selection weren't some of my favorites (I was hoping for more Tomie ;w;) but they definitely weren't bad and even introduced some to me I had not yet read. Souichi's stories are far from bad, but I feel they were a poor choice in this collection where it's overall tone seemed to be entirely horror based, whereas Souichi's story is moreso pitying the villain. I wouldn't mind his inclusion as much had he not been the very first story for the very first episode, but that was unfortunately the case and I'm sure that 1st episode alone steered away many disappointed Junji fans.
Overall: It's... okay! You will enjoy it if you enjoy Junji Ito's work, but likely not as much if you're a die hard. It's a step in the right direction for possible future additions, as it did not try to stray away from the stories or make sense of the unknown and nonsensical. I hope this adaptation does not steer away from more, as I'd love to see it nailed near perfectly.
Sasunaru4life
Story: 10/10, Of course, the stories are amazing, Ito is a genius when it comes to suspense and shocking themes. I could never get enough of his creative ways of twisting the reader's minds. But I do not like how forced this anime was. It gave the manga no justice. It was almost as if this anime wasn't even based on Junji's mangas at all. I really really tried to enjoy it but they did Ito Junji so wrong with this rushed mess. Art: 2/10 The characters were lifeless and draw very poorly. Look at how eloquently Junji draws his manga and spends so muchtime on shading to make everything come to life and look believable on the pages and then compare it to the lifeless soulless mess they completely rushed out of the studio.
Sound: 1/10 The characters were voiced right some of the time but my biggest issue is with the ear-grating music that they chose. I seriously don't know what they were thinking when they rushed this out to the public.
Character: 6/10 they stuck to the manga's portrayal of the characters so there are no complaints there. Just some of the interactions were rushed or ignored completely to fit the time frame for each episode.
Enjoyment: 6/10 I am so very desperate for a GOOD horror anime that I'd watch just about anything at this point.
Overall: They did the Junji so wrong with this adaption. I normally don't like to read manga unless it truly interests me but I'd rather read Junji's works than watch this. Reading his manga is actually enjoyable and I feel as if I am there with the characters which is rare for me when reading manga. I am so disappointed by how they did this series.
Now don't get me wrong, I am open to watching anime based on Junji's works again but I just hope that they don't rush it and bunch all of the episodes together in such a small timeframe.
