This Week in Anime
Junji Ito's Content Mill of Horrors
by Steve Jones & Nicholas Dupree,
A name like Junji Ito deserves a worthwhile anime adaptation. Yet here we are with another installment from Studio DEEN. Did you watch Junji Ito "Collection"? It's more of that, which is to say, a muddy-looking series of stories that fail to scare.
These series is streaming on Netflix.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network.
Spoiler Warning for discussion of the series ahead.
@Lossthief
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@BeeDubsProwl
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@NickyEnchilada
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Steve
Nick, it's time again for another animated adaptation of the myriad twisted tales from horror manga titan Junji Ito, which means it's also time to ask myself three fundamental questions:
Nick, it's time again for another animated adaptation of the myriad twisted tales from horror manga titan Junji Ito, which means it's also time to ask myself three fundamental questions:
Nick
I think you should follow the example of Junji Ito Maniac and react with a blank stare and dull surprise that supposedly conveys unspeakable horror.
At least, that's the face I made through about 90% of this follow-up to Junji Ito "Collection" that nobody was asking for.
I think you should follow the example of Junji Ito Maniac and react with a blank stare and dull surprise that supposedly conveys unspeakable horror.
At least, that's the face I made through about 90% of this follow-up to Junji Ito "Collection" that nobody was asking for.
Alas, Junji Ito continues to be cursed—in many ways, but most relevantly here, cursed to have his name attached to mid anime adaptations. I didn't keep up with Collection beyond the first couple of episodes because of this, but the team behind it has returned with Maniac on Netflix, and now it's our problem.
Getting the team behind one of the most infamous botched adaptations of the last five years back together for a second swing is a bold move. Sadly it does not work out for them, Cotton. While there are minimal improvements from Collection, the overall product is nearly identical in that it is pretty bad at being scary at any point.
It brings me no pleasure to report that, either! Like most of the weirdos probably reading this column, I've loved Ito's work for a long time. I remember a high school friend sending me a zip file of "The Enigma of Amigara Fault" back in the old times (the mid-2000s). I had a phase in college where I read every story of his I could get my grubby undergraduate hands on. He's drawn panels that are burned into the crevasses of my brain. I want to see an anime that captures that creepy quintessence of his.
Part of me doesn't want to be too harsh on Maniac. Trying to translate Ito's illustrations into something moves is such a herculean task that Hiroshi Nagahama's Uzumaki adaptation has been delayed like 12 times. Considering this team came back for more, I believe they also love Ito's work and want to do their best. The problem is their best looks like this:
Yeah, I also don't think their cardinal sin is a fundamentally misguided approach to the material. Because there are moments and stories in here that do manage to work. But there are also a lot of minor transgressions that pile on each other and sap the color out of these stories. And speaking of color, that's one of my big peeves with Maniac. It just can't seem to get the hues right. Most of it is dull. Some of it is downright ugly. Other parts swing in the opposite direction and look garishly oversaturated. And some scenes are dark to the point of being completely illegible (though we can blame Netflix's stream compression for some of that). It's just not nice to look at—and rarely in the intended way.
There's a shocking amount of inconsistency across these episodes. In a stronger show, that might count as variety, but it feels like nobody had any idea what the overall direction should be here. Why are some stories in 4:3? Why's one episode letterboxed? Why's a single half-episode in black and white? I couldn't begin to guess the motivation behind any of it.
The only consistent aspect across the series is that it's just not very good at anything it's doing, be that the straight horror stories or Ito's more comical chapters.
The only consistent aspect across the series is that it's just not very good at anything it's doing, be that the straight horror stories or Ito's more comical chapters.
I think the monochromatic slant fits the "Mold" story pretty well (if only because it hews closer to Ito's visual style). Still, these inconsistencies certainly make you wonder why they couldn't apply them more purposefully. Style should reinforce tone. But despite these small adventures in presentation, Maniac has a uniform flatness in its direction that drags most of the material down.
Like, look at this. This is the most boring picture of a guy with an arm coming out of his mouth that I've ever seen.
It's almost impressive that this show managed to take one of the most iconic art styles in manga and adapt it into something this dull.
Those don't even look like real scratches! It looks like he drew on himself with a magic marker.
Those don't even look like real scratches! It looks like he drew on himself with a magic marker.
And I mean: I get it. Ito's philosophy is that the more lines there are in a drawing, the creepier it is. And he's right! But you can only really animate something that complicated if you have an infinite amount of time or an immortal league of cartoonists at your beck and call. You need to get creative to compensate, which is not something Maniac is very good at.
But even outside of being an adaptation, Maniac is terrible because it doesn't have nearly the grasp of tone and atmosphere necessary to make a good horror story. There are episodes of Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark? with better examples of horror fundamentals than this show's best entries.
As with Collection, the pacing is a big problem. Stuff that works in panel form doesn't always translate 1:1 into motion, so you get some stories that feel like all windup and no homerun, especially when you're lacking the punchline of a highly intricate illustration of a messed-up-looking dude.
Yeahhhhh. To be frank, not all of Ito's work is amazing. You make enough horror one-shots across 35 years, and you'll put out some stinkers from time to time. For every iconic story that will stand the test of time, you get one where the story's moral is, "Gee, the ocean is crazy, huh?"
The ocean do be crazy tho!! I have a stomach-turning fear of/fascination with deep sea life, so this story stuck with me when I read the manga. It doesn't really go anywhere with its story or concept, but sometimes Ito can just put a weird idea on paper and make it work. What doesn't work quite as well, however, are CG fish with horrifyingly bad compositing.
Look, it's just not a Junji Ito adaptation without bad CG sea life.
That angler fish looks like he's about to give me a tutorial in Microsoft Word 2003.
Honestly, even when Maniac has solid material, it often finds a way to botch it. Like "Library Vision," which takes a wild premise about a man haunted by personifications of his library's books and makes it an incoherent mess by cramming it into half an episode.
I watched that segment twice and still couldn't tell you what exactly happened or the point of any of it.
I watched that segment twice and still couldn't tell you what exactly happened or the point of any of it.
Look, I like a story that's all vibes as much as the next person who thinks plots are optional...but that said, I'm with you on this one. But there are tales here that are about things. Like "Hanging Balloons" and its grotesque tragicomedy hit me a lot differently now than it did when I read it over a decade ago.
If there was anything to be gained from this production, it was animating this exact scene at this exact moment.
Pictured: me dodging the plague for nearly three straight years.
Pictured: me dodging the plague for nearly three straight years.
Like many horror tropes, you read this in isolation and think, "Man, these people are dumb." And then you go through one pandemic, and suddenly it all clicks into place: people are this dumb.
When you think about it, getting tricked into opening your second-story window by the talking corpse of your brother is a lot like conventions not properly enforcing mask and vaccination protocols.
Junji tried to warn us!
Accidental prescience notwithstanding, the rest of "Hanging Balloons" is so uneven in production and tone that it's hard to be sure if I'm supposed to be laughing when the murder-face balloons start kissing.
One of Ito's strengths is that he is totally unafraid of appearing silly. He commits to all of his ideas without a hint of embarrassment, and his stories are better and more iconic for it. That said, I don't believe the stiff, sore-thumb CG heads achieve the correct uncanniness the story is going for.
I did enjoy the realistic balloon squeaks, though.
I did enjoy the realistic balloon squeaks, though.
The foley work was an inspired choice! Something I wish this show had more of. If nothing else, that story is strange enough to be memorable. Meanwhile, nothingburgers like "Intruder" basically amount to the characters having a bizarre afternoon and then going home.
At least that's where the garish aesthetic was intentional and true to the manga. They just teleported into a dimension where every single interior designer died.
The Tomie story featured this season is also notable for predicting exactly how AI image generation would work.
The Tomie story featured this season is also notable for predicting exactly how AI image generation would work.
Along with the proper reaction to AI art:
Though this Tomie story is another one that feels like a lot got lost in adaptation. It starts well enough with a coherent setup and dynamic between Tomie and the POV character, then spirals out into gory imagery before everyone decides to pretend it didn't happen.
Though this Tomie story is another one that feels like a lot got lost in adaptation. It starts well enough with a coherent setup and dynamic between Tomie and the POV character, then spirals out into gory imagery before everyone decides to pretend it didn't happen.
Ito tends to follow Edgar Allan Poe's example and ends his stories at their climax, which can have mixed results. Again, this tends to work better in his manga, since he can hit you with a nice big (and usually gross) panel as a mic drop. The anime never manages to replicate that punchiness. Like, "Tomb Town" has better build-up and development than the average episode of Maniac, but it still bungles its big horror stings with muddled scene composition.
That's another one that has at least a memorable premise to it. To build on your Poe comparison, it's a bit like "The Tell-Tale Heart," where the tension comes from the characters' building paranoia and guilt over hiding a body. The Tell-Tale Rock Monster In Your Trunk doesn't have the same ring, though.
Yeah, a lot of Ito protagonists are Just A Guy who happens to rent a weird house or something, so I like that "Tomb Town" stars more proactive leads—even if that activity is vehicular manslaughter.
The central visual of constantly visible gravestones is also a good one. I still don't know why they went with this aspect ratio for this story alone, but there are genuinely well-constructed shots!
Had that exact same thought at that exact same scene, lol. Like, oh! They can make this look good.
Too bad the other 95% of the show looks like this:
And that's just the stuff that is mainly meant to be horror. This adaptation grinds to a miserable halt when it's trying to be funny on purpose.
Kicking the season off with one of Ito's comedic offerings is, uh, certainly a choice. In abstract, I can appreciate that—comedy and horror go hand in hand, and Ito wouldn't be Ito without his macabre sense of humor. In practice, the antics of the diet-cola Addams Family leave a lot of funny bone-tickling to be desired.
I can't imagine anyone finding a show subtitled "Japanese Tales of the Macabre" would be very enthused to start with a cut-rate episode of The Munsters, but that's one of a million questionable decisions made with this show.
For those of you asking: no, that ugly little girl is not yelling at a pile of what you think it is.
For those of you asking: no, that ugly little girl is not yelling at a pile of what you think it is.
The Soichi stuff fares a bit better because it lets itself get weirder.
Soichi also gives us some really messed up cats, which makes for the best (and final!) entry in this anthology.
If they never finish that Uzumaki anime, they should at least consider adapting Junji Ito's Cat Diary to compensate.
If they never finish that Uzumaki anime, they should at least consider adapting Junji Ito's Cat Diary to compensate.
Please. They really did save the best for last. It's the perfect joke too. Junji Ito wrote a story about a normal cat doing completely normal cat things, and the horror part wrote itself.
Nature's most majestic creatures.
Nature's most majestic creatures.
Speaking of saving the best for last, I'd be remiss not to mention Maniac bringing back JYOCHO for the ending theme. Listening to them at the end of every episode was critical in getting through it all.
I can't quite explain why, but a peppy, off-kilter math rock song felt like a fitting capstone to 20 minutes of Junji. Again, if only the rest of the show had been this surprising!
If this show couldn't be good, I wish it could have at least been bad in an interesting or memorable way. GYO might be terrible, but you can have a blast laughing at it with friends. Maniac is too dreary and lifeless to inspire even ironic entertainment.
The most flattering thing I could say about Maniac is that it furthers the accessibility of Ito's stories, I guess. But then again, if there's one mangaka who isn't hurting for exposure, it's probably Junji Ito. And he deserves better! He's a tough nut to adapt, but there are creatives up to the challenge. Provided it hasn't already been swallowed up by all the downsizing that every huge and evil media conglomerate is doing right now, I'm still holding out hope that my guy Hiroshi Nagahama can do just that with Uzumaki.
In the meantime, I'd suggest folks seek out any of the countless Ito manga collections released in English already. Even if only some stories or volumes work for you, it's got to be a better use of your time than this show.
Agreed. This is one hole that is not made for me.
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