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Junji Ito 'Collection' Anime Listed With 12 TV Episodes, 2 OVA Episodes

The official website for Junji Ito "Collection", the television anime of manga by famed horror author Junji Ito, revealed on Friday that the anime will have three DVD box sets with four episodes each for a total of twelve episodes. The second and third DVD sets will each include unaired episodes, titled "Tomie Part 1" and "Tomie Part 2," respectively.

The first set will ship on March 30, the second on April 27, and the third on May 25.

Satellite network WOWOW will premiere the anime on January 5 at 10:30 p.m. on its Anime Premium block. The anime will then debut on Tokyo MX at 10:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 7. Crunchyroll will stream the series with English subtitles as it airs in Japan, and Funimation will stream an English dub.

The anime will adapt stories from both the 11-volume Itō Junji Kessaku-shū (Junji Ito Masterpiece Collection) series and the Fragments of Horror book. The site will not reveal which stories will be adapted, so that viewers will be surprised. The key visual and the trailer show the following Ito works: "Soichi's Selfish Curse," "Fashion Model," "Slug Woman," "Further Tales of Oshikiri," "The Beautiful Boy of the Crossroads," and "Tomie."

The show stars: (from left to right in image to the right)

• Mami Koyama as Fuchi
• Hiro Shimono as Oshikiri
• Rie Suegara as Tomie
• Yūji Mitsuya as Sōichi
• Hikaru Midorikawa as Handsome Man at the Crossroads
• Kaori Nazuka as Yūko

Other cast members whose roles have not yet been revealed include:

• Yūki Kaji
• Ryōhei Kimura
• Nobunaga Shimazaki
• Daisuke Namikawa
• Daisuke Hirakawa
• Yoshimasa Hosoya
• Hiroyuki Yoshino
• Kujira
• Maki Shintaku
• Natsumi Takamori
• Romi Park
• Yōko Hikasa
• Kaori Mizuhashi

Shinobu Tagashira (Diabolik Lovers) is directing the anime and serving as the character designer at Studio DEEN. Kaoru Sawada (Diamond Daydreams) is writing the scripts. Hozumi Gōda (Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kai) is serving as sound director and Yuuki Hayashi (My Hero Academia) is composing the music.

THE PINBALLS will perform the show's opening theme song "Shichitenbattō no Blues" (The Writhing in Agony Blues). JYOCHO will perform the ending theme song "Tagai no Uchū" (Mutual Universe) for the anime.

[Via Ota-Suke]