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伊藤潤二『マニアック』
12
ONA
Finished Airing
Jan 19, 2023
The anime series will adapt 20 stories from a number of Itou's manga for the first time, including Tomie, Souichi, and Kubitsuri Kikyuu (The Hanging Balloons). (Source: MAL News)
5.6/10
Average Review Score
20%
Recommend It
20
Reviews Worldwide
Do yourself a favor and just check out Ito’s manga. This adaptation is done by much of the same staff as the abysmal Junji Ito Collection and comes with all of the same problems. Everything feels so flat, bland, and careless that I could barely force myself to finish it. All of the detail and dread from the manga is gone, and we’re left with a subpar mess of an adaptation again. Feels like a cheap cash grab at best. The shoddy animation undermines a lot of the payoff scenes, and the lack of detail is all the more noticeable when compared to the sourcematerial. Anything but a closeup on a character’s face looks muddy at best. Backgrounds are overly simple and the palette does little to add any atmosphere or emotion to the scenes. Characters are noticeably expressionless and do nothing to convey the distress and horror of the situations they find themselves in. Honestly, many scenes that are meant to be horrifying just look, well, pretty boring. Here’s hoping Adult Swim’s Uzumaki adaptation is worth the wait, because this show just isn’t any good.
Click an episode to read its synopsis.
In case you want to watch only the worthy shorts, here's a review of each one of them with a summary if you want to watch all of them. "The Strange Hikizuri Siblings": 3/10 I couldn't get into this one, too many annoying characters for an annoying plot, not the best to start with. At least we're immediately presented with more quality than the previous adaptations. The animation sometimes feels better, the colors are better, lights, movement, but yeah, not a good story. "The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel": 4.5/10 Not a bad one, but can't reach being decent. It's just a little spooky story that crescendos with goofyanimation that I couldn't take seriously. A problem with Junji Ito stories, is how it uses manga to its maximum potential. Moments allow imagination to thrive; sounds to exist inside one's head, the monsters moving as terrifyingly as you think about it. Sometimes, adding color and an okay presentation can't compensate for everything else. I do like some of the foreshadowing elements, how fear is revealed slowly, but surely. "Ice Cream Bus": 4/10 This one is simply really weird, and not because of the premise itself, I did like where it was going, feeling a horrible disturbing sensation. Sadly, what happened was way, waaaay less messed up than what I thought. I felt like one of those weird, nonsensical endings that Ito likes. It can work and most probably the manga felt a little bit more intense, but this isn't that good in general. Another middle of the road one. "Hanging Balloon": 5/10 Watching this one was just sad. I've heard the hype around this little story for such a long time. Not finding the time, it stayed in my list until today and, well, sure, story is good. The animation, on the other hand, terrible. Those moments of horrible, foreboding visuals coming, surpass when they actually show us. Having so much build-up, and moments of anticipation, only to look at silly 3D animation of the balloons, or the bodies hanging, moving like ragdolls from gmod. The music choices ruined the tone of some of the creepier scenes, and really, this ends up being the biggest wasted potential to one of those "end of the world" Ito stories. "Four x Four Walls": 5/10 I had fun with it. Sometimes Ito manages to create a stupid story with some really weird moments and aesthetics. Character designs being uncomfortable without anybody noticing, situations making no sense, but the people react as if it's an inconvenience. It feels like a David Lynch comedy, that isn't totally to my liking, but I appreciate this one. "The Sandman’s Lair": 8/10 One of, if not, the best one. Almost no music, a different aspect ratio, giving a nice, special aesthetic. The colors feel overexposed, like the 2000s animation sphere. It all feels perfect to a certain aspect, only with some animation problems. Most of this short simply feels like a cosmically strange, and still, sensical story about losing yourself and everybody else. I loved almost everything about this one. "Intruder": 5.5/10 Well, I would've liked some closure. Not a bad premise, effectively animated, interesting concept, even with the typical uncharacteristic Ito characters. The execution of everything is the overarching problem. The dimensional elements not only serve for a bigger story, but the fact that it's so short whiplashes you into knowing you just got 1/5 of a story. Not even a climax, twist, just a random situation that ends up back in square one without even consequences. I can't find anything terrible about it, but I didn't like it that much. "Long Hair in the Attic": 9/10 Characters, just what I need in this fucked up world. It's not easy to grow sympathetic towards characters you know will suffer soon. I really loved this premise, this realistic depiction of long-lasting relationships, promises, choices. Nothing mattered in the end; the same thought personifying itself into the monster of the story. Vengeance against the one who promised everything and gave nothingness. I like that there isn't entirely horrible characters, since we know for a fact the guy who broke off the relationship knew the girl really well. Small little details as "This is the sound of her teeth" feel like such a tiny thing that spells out so much, coupled with great and creepy sound design. Obscuring characters and scares, the horror was effective, and the ending was perfect. I love this one in every sense, except for some art looks. "Mold": 6.5/10 I like mold. Solid animation, solid story, solid everything. This is the most competent one so far, but it doesn't get out of its way to excel. Itchy storytelling with great visuals and really gross ideas that work with its lack of lighting in the Ito style. Can't say much, it's just nice to see one I can't get angry at in any way. "Library Vision": 7/10 Stylistically, the most beautiful one, in a strange way. Much more about visual storytelling, about dialogue attention, character driven. The titular library feeling as the curse of knowledge, led by trauma or obsession leading to one's downfall. It felt melancholic, strangely sad, all around, it looked really great. The changes in visuals feel the best in this compilation. "Tomb Town": 9.5/10 Almost perfect, just almost, but damn. Akin to the "Paranoia Street" manga, with a touch of the "Four by Four Walls" episode; this one feels like a town where a strange rule exists and people act normally around it, with much more sad connotations. Hospitals react in certain ways against this rule, moving people from their deaths means much more, and the accident the main characters suffered creates this ambience of tension. This story feels like guilt being splattered onto the culprits of an accident, leaving nothing but hatred for themselves, nightmares and consequences for the people involved. Nobody is saved, nobody gets closure properly, they just live with it, or end it. This is how you do the open ending. Now what holds it back from a 10, is the monster 3D animation, which I get, it would take too many resources, but yeah, I adore everything else. "Layers of Terror": 7/10 The other kind of Ito protagonists, batshit insane when revealed with a new rule in life. A concept is introduced, and somehow something within that concept happens that gives it a new meaning when it happens with a person. The metaphor happens, unfathomable horror is seen, in the end, consequences befall the characters. I can't say it doesn't work, it feels like the Ito formula of his best stories. Not bad, I'm just accustomed to it. "The Thing that Drifted Ashore": 3/10 Maybe it ended there, but man, this didn't even let its own concept grow or anything. This was like a small documentary in an alternate reality, one that we're shown around 10% of. Something horrid is presented, well, the end, hope you enjoyed. I wish we could've stayed a tad bit longer. "Tomie・Photo": 6/10 As a fan of the Tomie manga, I enjoyed this little piece of the story, even if it isn't the best part of it. The beginning of the Tomie story seems like the best place to start, so why not start there? Strangely enough, if you've read the manga from beginning to end, it feels coherent, the visuals feel in place, but since we don't get context, it feels as if it comes out of nowhere. Fans will like this one, but newcomers, I don't think so. "Unendurable Labyrinth": 2/10 Just boring. I didn't feel any horror from this one, since it ruins the essence of how a manga works. The page turn isn't there, the build-up to a horror moment gets taken away, and sound effects only manage to eliminate the tension of certain moments. I don't feel like I'm watching something silly, not even an interesting premise. People scream, horror situation happens without horror or importance. The worst as of now. "The Bully": 6/10 I don't know how to feel about this one entirely. The story started out wonderfully, with characters you hate, and one you root for, devolving into subtly disturbing. The twist of the flash-forward works really well, and we have a circling story from beginning to end. However, why did that ending feel so much more strange than usual? Maybe the fault of the art style, since black on white can function, but adding those colors to the face removed the horror, just leaving me feeling disappointed about the whole thing. An ending that cannonball's you into not being able to take what happened seriously. "Alley": 4/10 Too simple, too obvious, I just didn't like how generic this horror story was. Like one of those dumb urban legends from neighbors to scare you. Not much to say, just a bit boring, with at least situations that feel sincere with the context. "Headless Statue": 3/10 When consuming so much of Junji Ito at a time, stories like this don't excel at practically anything, and since the horror isn't really, well, scary; nothing works that well to become interesting. Not that good in my opinion. "Whispering Woman": 10/10 Junji Ito, simply making life a living hell. It seems characters flip-flop around being nothing sandwiches to great characters worthy of analysis and love. There was no monster, there was no extreme horror to couple this tragic situation, we only had people in terrible situations finding respite with each other. Eventually, another tragedy strikes, and somehow, this depiction of mental illness managed to get an actual scare out of me, with simple sound design. After not hearing that voice for so long, we get that eternally devastating idea of the dead making an impression on us, as well as imprinting hatred into the living. This is the absolute best. We didn't need great animation, or a monster to accompany horror, it's just about those visuals and ideas that make it feel all the more distressing. A tragedy, with a sad conclusion. "Soichi's Beloved Pet": 5/10 A much lighthearted Lynch comedy that leaves everything on an okay note. I wish we had this episode somewhere else, since the previous one was the best of them all, at least in terms of story. However, I don't hate this little recurring plot; slightly funny, slightly silly, with the touch of surrealist horror, can't despise it. Overall, 5.7/10 A mixed bag of stories, ranging from the bad, okay, to amazing. I liked going through all of them, and I enjoyed everything enough to appreciate the attempt to adapt such a strange author, with his strange little stories.
FOR THE ACCURATE EXPERIENCE WATCH IT IN GRAYSCALE! Been waiting for that show for quite some time now. And I'm glad I watched it. Creepy, twisted and dark works of one and only Junji Ito are well knows around the world and remembering last attempt to adapt his work being worried was more than justified. Not to mention few last Studio Deen works weren't the best. But here we are, we got 20 short stories from Ito's rich and vile world, some were great, some quite disappointing, unfortunately what works on paper not always works on the silver screen. Regardless that - it was fun yettwisted watch. Definitely the best two shorts were Hanging Baloons and Tomie, as expected, two of the most renowned and known of his works. We all known that Junji Ito's works are blend of deeply unsettling psychological horror and body horror, sometimes taken to the genres extreme. But always having one thing in common - profound impact on the reader, wether it's just a creepy short like The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel or a bit more complex The Thing that Drifted Ashore, also both adaptations of these stories were quite on par with original. But moving onto Studio Deen, I'm always saying that, didn't have greatest streak lately, yeah, but I'd like to remind everyone that they are, after all, creators of em few horror animes that are worth watching after years, namely - Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (need to add that while it's at best average adaptation, it stands on its own as a standalone work) and dark and deeply moving Jigoku Shoujo. Yes, I'm not a fan of anime horrors, unlike in live-action, these tend to be quite disappointing, let me just mention Another of the head, which can't decide whether it wants to be a full on horror, or another teen fucking drama. And that goes for most of the anime horrors in recent years, no need to mention that horrible adaptation of Corpse Party, isn't it. But here we are, this time simplicity in animation actually works miracles in this show, while Junji Ito's works are full of detail, in its core are quite simple. And it works in favour of the adaptation. Fluidity and backgrounds are quite on par with it, the main con I would have is of use CGI, sometimes overusing 3D models on 2D backgrounds hurt my eyes, but in general it's more than acceptable, this time Deen had enough time to finish the work. Sound design and voice acting are among the best in recent years, beautifully crafted soundtrack only makes entire show more unsettling.Dark ambient mixed with smooth electronics and proper orchestration here and there gives proper chills even listening outside of the show. Voice acting on the other hand is a powerhouse. Enjoyed it thoroughly. Sound design in general was bloody spot on, amazingly atmospheric yet eerie. Couldn't ask for more in that departement, definitely one of the better sounding shows in recent months. I'm not a fan of the opening theme though, but ending theme on the other hand is one of my Winter 2023 favourites. For better or worse it's a quite successful adaptation of Junji Ito's works, brings them no shame, to be honest looking at the picked works it is actually quite great entry into his works. It isn't particularly scary, but it's really creepy and unsettling, especially in these stronger episodes. Releasing it all at once isn't the greatest idea since consuming it all in one go can be quite hard, not only because of themes but as well as psychological exhaustion. Summing it up it's quite good show, respecting its source material and amazing audio. Animation wise it ain't the best, especially when mixing too much of CGI with more grounded 2D animations but nothing, that would kill the atmosphere. Bacgrounds are spot on, character designs stay true to the source and overall manages to keep up with the creepiness of the original work. Best enjoyed alone in darkness, ain't work to enjoy with friends and definitely not your regular entertaining shows. Being a seinen I believe should be watched by more mature audience and definitely audience that understands this type of work. I am satisfied, could be better but it's good enough to pass the mark. 6,5/10
I would say that this was one of my most anticipated Anime of all of 2023 and one of the ones that excited me the most, and now that I was finally able to see the adaptation of 20 Junji Ito shorts in Anime, I have several things to say about it: 1. As a fan of Junji Ito and his works, I expected a lot of adaptations like Tomie, the Hanging Balloons, and many others and I must say that I have mixed feelings, Studio Deen is not my favorite studio but I must admit that this time it did surprise me, the Anime toa certain extent I liked how it was directed (some stories) and the animation was better than I expected, the only thing that could be criticized here could be the CGI combined with 2d poorly implemented but even so I was comfortable with that side. (By the way the Opening 10/10) 2. Leaving aside the technical aspects, I do not feel that the work has managed to transmit in the same way what Juni Ito transmits in the Manga, I mean obviously it will not be the same because of the medium in which it is transmitted but in this case I feel that the only story in which I was able to feel a true adaptation were in Tomie and in the hanging balloons, the others lacked time and dedication, since I feel that their poor execution meant that the message was not transmitted well and that is why many people are not satisfied I don't feel like it's the worst adaptation, but it could have been better, although coming from Studio Deen it doesn't surprise me much. 3. Now, at this final point I will answer the question of whether I would recommend it or not, if you are a fan of Juni Ito's works and you decide to see this, you will surely not be very happy due to certain errors already mentioned and that did not manage to capture what that the author wanted to show the audience, and partly they had a lot of time to do it and I feel very sorry for Juni Ito and his fans but at this point it cannot be changed. Now if you don't know anything about Juni Ito this would be a perfect entry to his works and if you like it then you can go and read his works, which are much better than the adaptation itself, and you can really feel the terror of Junji Ito. To finish, I feel that more could have been dedicated to the adaptation and to improve certain technical and directing aspects of the work, but if you are someone who does not know anything about the world of Junji Ito, you may have liked it and if you want to enjoy more, you can stop by to read, and this adaptation would be a good bridge, now if you are a reader of the manga then the opinions about the adaptation depend on your tastes. Rate: 7/10
Every time you hear the word horror near anime or manga, it's closely followed by someone ranting about how great Junju Ito is. If this is the calibre of his work then I REALLY don't know where that's coming from. The short horror stories range from the outright weird like an invasion of giant balloon heads that want to hang people to the utterly mundane, by which I mean 10 minutes straight of "this guys brother is irritating" with absolutely zero plot nor payoff. The writing is inconsistent. In one episode the explanation for the event would be summarised by a shrug, because there was no rhymenor reason to them, and the next you'll have a character halt the story for some painfully stilted exposition to explain everything they've ever done and how that relates to, at best, a mildly creepy plot. The only way most of this even qualifies as horror is if you'd faint in terror because someone said the word "ghost" or vomit at something most would look at and go "oh, that's a bit gross." There's such little atmosphere, so little build up or tension, and even less payoff nine times out of ten.