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Junji Ito Draws Illustrations for Sōshichi Tonari's Kocchi wo Miteru. Ghost Story Picture Book
posted on by Joanna Cayanan
Japanese publishing company Iwasaki Shoten will release writer Sōshichi Tonari and horror manga creator Junji Ito's Kocchi wo Miteru. (Look This Way.) picture book, as part of the company's "Ghost Story Picture Book" series, on February 29.
Tonari is the grand prize winner of Iwasaki Shoten's "Ghost Story Picture Book Contest" in 2018, where the winning work gets published as part of Iwasaki Shoten's "Ghost Story Book" series, and the work gets illustrated by a professional artist. Ito revealed on February 15 that he is drawing the illustrations for Kocchi wo Miteru. Japanese literary critic and one of the contest's judges Masao Higashi edited the book.
Kocchi wo Miteru. tells the story of faces that no one notice. Faces on clouds, trees, windows... everywhere. Until eventually, one face started looking at just one person, and one person alone. Whether at school, at home, or at the park, the face only looks at that one person. Always.
Many of Ito's works have inspired anime and live-action adaptations. Viz Media has published Ito's manga.
Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre, a new anime based on 20 different Ito stories, debuted worldwide on Netflix on January 19. Ito's Uzumaki manga is also inspiring an upcoming four-episode anime mini-series that will premiere in Toonami.
Junji Ito "Collection", a previous television anime of manga by Ito, also adapted stories from the Itō Junji Kessaku-shū collection, as well as the Fragments of Horror book. The anime premiered in January 2018 and had 12 episodes. Crunchyroll streamed the series with English subtitles as it aired in Japan, and Funimation streamed an English dub. The anime included an adaptation of Ito's Tomie story on its second and third DVD sets.
Ito's Uzumaki and Tomie manga have inspired live-action adaptations, and his GYO manga inspired an original video anime project.
Comic-Con International in San Diego recently awarded its Inkpot Award to Ito in July.
Source: Iwasaki Shoten's website
