Personally, I was very happy that it wasn't Uzumaki.
In addition, I feel like I shouldn’t even have to go into this that much but I will… this is a perfectly acceptable adaptation of Junji Ito’s manga.
But while of course this anime took a bunch of different Junji Ito manga and added color to the images, they didn’t go overboard with it. It’s still (in my opinion) sufficiently dark. Yes, it doesn't have quite that effect Junji Ito's actual manga has, but they’re not gonna make a completely black and white anime. It's just not gonna happen.
Granted, if they ever animate Uzumaki, I might flip flop on my position here, because I honestly can’t picture that fucking manga in color. At all.
Personally, I was very happy that it wasn't Uzumaki.
Personally, I was very happy that it wasn't Uzumaki.
Personally, I was very happy that it wasn't Uzumaki.
Personally, I was very happy that it wasn't Uzumaki.
Personally, I was very happy that it wasn't Uzumaki.
Personally, I was very happy that it wasn't Uzumaki.
Personally, I was very happy that it wasn't Uzumaki.
Personally, I was very happy that it wasn't Uzumaki.
Personally, I was very happy that it wasn't Uzumaki.
Personally, I was very happy that it wasn't Uzumaki.
Personally, I was very happy that it wasn't Uzumaki.
Personally, I was very happy that it wasn't Uzumaki.
Personally, I was very happy that it wasn't Uzumaki.
#A Junji Ito Maniac#
The Junji Ito Collection is an 8 out of 10 for me, and again, basically by default, is in my opinion one of the best horror anime.
...Looking back at that review is... real painful for several reasons. I can't explain the person that wrote that review. He was just... real desperate for a good horror anime, and he also thought Junji Ito would never get an actual even remotely okay anime adaptation. So I was fully willing to accept the Junji Ito Collection with all of its faults, and only after I wrote that review I realized how much other Junji Ito fans rightfully hated that thing.
No matter how much I tried to defend it in that review, if you hold up the manga to any of the stories they've adapted... it's just shit. I'm sorry, but this is the second season of this. When I was enjoying watching this, I actually felt bad for doing so. Because I just kept thinking, "man, if only the art was better... if only EVERYTHING was better..."
Junji Ito's manga, his stories, they work because of the strength of his art. When that's gone, it's just... I'm looking at a shell of the thing I really really loved and going repeatedly "oh, I really liked this story! It's... it worked a lot better in manga form. This was a lot creepier looking in manga form... oh... the balloons are CG? Oh..."
I feel like I'm in a Junji Ito story where someone's chopped me in half and both halves have become independent beings that just cannot stop arguing with each other.
"I'm having fun!"
"THIS FUCKING SUCKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS"
Hell, if you go back to my Junji Ito Collection review I actually included a list of my five least favorite stories out of what they adapted. And only one was because I genuinely disliked that story. I put The Long Dream as the worst one, and it's one of my overall favorite stories because not only did they cut out stuff but look at what they did to my boy
...Fuck this.
This time I'm just going through all of the stories one by one. I'll try and be quick.
#The Strange Hikizuri Siblings: The Seance#
So right out of the gate, they take a misstep. If I'm being honest, this actually is one of the stronger episodes. It was fun to hear the Hikizuri family voiced, but initially, I was thinking what the fuck did I even read this story???
"My favorite Junji Ito story is this one with this just fucking crazy ass creepy body horror and a guy gets vehicularly manslaughtered and his spine becomes like a giant spring and he's a literal jack in the box bouncing after the main characters as they're trying to run away through a cemetery."
"Oh yeah? Well mine is the one with the creepy family with the brothers who try and get into a girl's pants by inviting her to watch them trying to summon their parents back from the dead!"
"...What? What the fuck? Which one was that???"
Don't get me wrong, I love whenever there's a creepy strange ass family in a Junji Ito story, but who decided this was a good opening episode? Considering there's probably people who aren't Junji Ito fans who are going to check this out. Couldn't you have started out with a horror story rather than... dark comedy? Like I love Junji Ito's dark comedy but why?
~~He says, completely putting aside the fact that the Junji Ito Collection started AND ended with Souichi stories. NOBODY LOVES JUNJI ITO FOR HIS HORROR. IT'S THE DARK COMEDY. SOUICHI IS THE KEY TO ALL OF THIS~~
Also, this isn't even the first Hikizuri story! Wasn't it enough that you started the Boy at the Crossroad stories in the Collection? You did the first part of a story and then just never did the rest! And then you got a season two and still didn't do the rest!
#The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel#
All I remembered of this story was the ghosts and the part at the end where they started pulling people into the ground. And... both looked really bad. Especially the ghosts. They're just bouncing around everywhere and it just looks comical when put in motion. And I just found myself thinking wow this part looks really bad, I wish they could have cut it and just had the story be about a bunch of kids going down a weird dark tunnel.
...That's not a good sign. You shouldn't want to cut out the whole "scary" part of the horror story. The rest of the story that I enjoyed doesn't really matter now because you fucked up the most important part. Does a good joke still work if you completely flub the punchline? No.
Also, this adaptation does this multiple times, but I think it ruins this story’s ending as well?
Like the guy’s actually supposed make it out of the tunnel and then go back to the tunnel and see the ghosts again but the researchers and his father and his sister are all among them, but instead he just eats shit and gets pulled into the ground like the other characters.
Great going, guys. That was a way better ending than the one Junji Ito did. Wow, very impressed! After all, everybody knows if a horror story ends with someone surviving, that automatically makes it shit. It's not like the horror is in the guy going back to the tunnel and seeing that yeah not only was all of that real but now his sister and father are permanently stuck bouncing around in that tunnel as ghosts and they're just looking outwards at him because he managed to get out and now he has to live the rest of his days with this knowledge.
YOU THINK WE HAVE TIME TO FUCKING GET ALL OF THAT IN THERE? NO, FUCK THAT. JUST CHANGE THE ENDING TO HAVE HIM SINK INTO THE GROUND TOO. FUCK IT. JUST FUCK IT.
#Ice Cream Truck#
I don't even think it's worth saying at this point but... if you were going to have the Ice Cream Truck and the Tunnel stories be in the same episode... why wouldn't you put the Ice Cream Truck first? That way you would close out the episode with the actual genuine serious horror story rather than... ice cream.
This is where I started to feel like I was getting pranked. I've been going on and on ad nauseam since I reviewed Gyo about oh Junji Ito works less efficiently if you put his stuff in color. So here you go TGG, here's THE perfect example that proves your point!
It was way creepier seeing that guy's son eating his ice creamified friends when they were colorless puddles of sugary ooze. Yeah, obviously, they would be different colors because they're supposed to have turned into different flavors.
But the moment you add color to the ice cream... it just immediately loses whatever horror there was. Because let's be honest, this is a really goofy idea for a story. Even if you get past the issue with the logic of the parents... like yeah okay son, go get in that strange ice cream man's truck for a quick drive around the neighborhood even though the man very oddly and very suspiciously refused to let me check the inside of the truck.
But the art made it work.
"But TGG, what was the point of the story? Why was there a weird ice cream man just going around and turning children into ice cream?"
...Are you new to Junji Ito? IT DOESN'T MATTER.
#The Hanging Balloons#
...After five years, I finally got my wish.
I mean, come on. I just wanted to see a balloon headed doppelganger hang someone with a noose. Is that too much to ask???
And it hurts. It really hurts.
I don't know why I didn't even consider for a moment that the balloons would be CG. I guess I'm just fucking dumb, what else can I say?
Ugh... this is really where I started to feel super conflicted about my enjoyment of this adaptation. This is where it all started to go wrong. But it was so close. If the balloons could just look like how they did in the manga and didn't make balloon noises every single second they moved... some of the hangings were really really good but I don't like how the balloon heads look and why are their eyes slightly yellow it's creepier if they're just perfect exact copies of the people they're hanging but in balloon form!
AND WHY RUIN THE ENDING? IT SHOULD HAVE ENDED IMMEDIATELY WHEN SHE OPENED THE WINDOW AND THE BALLOON BROTHER GOT HIS LINE OUT! LINGERING ON THE SHOT FOR AN EXTRA MINUTE JUST MAKES THE GIRL LOOK LIKE A FUCKING IDIOT. LIKE THE BALLOON EVEN HAS TIME TO ADJUST THE NOOSE FOR IT TO BE RIGHT AROUND THE GIRL'S FACE IN THE SHOT.
WHY DIDN'T SHE JUST CLOSE THE WINDOW? THE MANGA ENDS IMMEDIATELY THE MOMENT SHE OPENS THE WINDOW, AND IT WAS PERFECT THAT WAY.
IN THE MANGA, SHE DOESN'T SEE HER NOOSE WAITING FOR HER OUTSIDE. IN THE ANIME, SHE'S JUST BLANKLY STARING AT IT.
YOU HAD ONE SHOT AT HANGING BALLOONS AND YOU COMPLETELY FUCKED IT UP, AND NOW IT'S GONE. DEFLATED LIKE A POPPED BALLOON.
#The Room of Four Heavy Walls#
To salve the pain a little bit, the next story after that was a Souichi story.
I say this with 100% honesty, if we could have a do-over ~~and I really wish we could~~, I really wish they would have just not adapted any of the other stories and just did one entire season of nothing but Souichi.
Souichi's stories are genuinely the only ones that get enhanced by this adaptation. Yuuji Mitsuya fucking nails the character of Souichi perfectly. ~~What the fuck? He’s also a voice of Irabu in Trapeze??? WHAT.~~ And so does everybody else who voices his family for that matter. His brother’s just so fucking done with his shit and everybody else just thinks of him as a harmless joke even as he’s crawling around under the house and in the attic chewing on nails and sometimes throwing legitimate curses around.
I’ve made my stance on Souichi perfectly clear before. He’s the best. And also he’s the only character in BOTH seasons to get multiple stories. Actually, thinking about it, I’m pretty sure Fuchi did get a second appearance in the Collection…?
Look, it doesn’t matter. Souichi is the best, we’ll be getting back to him at the end anyways.
#Where the Sandman Lives#
Oh, look at that. A good and really enjoyable Junji Ito story where the best part of it is the body horror. Well, you know the routine by now. This one… I guess… functions satisfactorily? A guy’s going crazy because he thinks there’s a dream version of him who’s trying to take over his body and it turns out he’s actually right.
And to do that, he has to actually force his way out of the man’s mouth with the climax of the story being the dream self basically consuming both of them?
…It looks… the manga looks better. I really don’t want to just keep saying that like a broken record, but god damn it, the truth is the truth. For years I thought man, I really want to see some of these crazier and more fucked up Junji Ito stories animated but pretty much all of them have been disappointments.
#Intruder#
The return of Oshikiri.
It’d be a welcome sight except the way they’ve adapted the stories is completely fucking jank. The story the Junji Ito Collection adapted was the second to last one where Oshikiri basically fought an evil version of himself who then morphed into a nightmarish monster version of himself.
Intruder is the story before that story, and this Oshikiri’s hair is orange so I guess the assumption is this is a different Oshikiri from that Oshikiri because the whole gimmick of the Oshikiri stories is alternate universes but I’m more tempted to guess it’s because they just genuinely forgot what hair color they gave him last time?
The orange hair looks worse. The much more important part though is that the entirety of Intruder’s horror is he looks at an evil version of himself outside dumping corpses outside of his house and he tells him to fuck off basically, but the evil Oshikiri just looks at him and laughs.
…Why wouldn’t you adapt this one first before the other one they did in the Collection? Or… maybe adapt THE FIRST STORY FIRST? The way the stories were originally arranged, the stuff with the alternate universes and weird shit increases.
What the fuck was the point of jumbling the order? I SAW OSHIKIRI TURN INTO A HORRIBLE MONSTER FIVE YEARS AGO. THE BIG SHOCK ENDING THAT THERE ARE BAD EVIL OSHIKIRIS ISN’T A SHOCK IF YOU DO THE STORIES IN A FUCKED UP ORDER LIKE THIS
#The Long Hair in the Attic#
The pain continues.
The Long Hair in the Attic is another one of my utmost favorite Junji Ito stories. But this one didn’t fare as well as Hanging Balloons. Nope. The absolute best moment, the moment that makes the ENTIRE GODDAMNED story… they just fucked it up beyond repair.
I’m of course talking about when the sister goes up to the attic to discover her father who has seen something that scared him so bad he died on the spot from FEAR.
First of all, the way they did the shot, you already see him before the big close up. So already it’s ruined.
And then…
What the fuck is that. No, seriously. What the fuck is that. You can't... I was willing to give you a pass on all the body horror, all the real good Junji Ito art, all the horror... but you can't even... you can't even do a character being scared? What are you... why are you adapting Junji Ito...? Why...? That was... THAT WAS THE BEST PART OF THE STORY.
AND THEN YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO CHANGE THE ENDING????????????????
THIS ISN'T LIKE THE TUNNEL STORY WHERE THEY HAD TO CUT THE ENDING SHORT BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME, ALL YOU NEEDED WAS ONE SECOND OF THE EX-BOYFRIEND FREAKING OUT AND SCREAMING
"What? The ending is that the ex-boyfriend's apartment just starts filling up with her hair and he's just screaming about it? Wow, that's some tame old timey shit! Nevermind the fact there's a decapitated head bouncing around getting pulled by the sentient hair attached to the scalp. I know! LET'S HAVE THE HAIR RIP THE EX-BOYFRIEND APART! GORE! JUNJI ITO STORIES SUCK BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE ENOUGH GOREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
#Mold#
As if the Ice Cream story wasn't enough, here comes Mold. They did this story completely in black and white for some reason!
Did I say for some reason? I meant for no reason.
No, it's definitely not that there was another Uzumaki I mean Junji Ito anime adaptation announced that was going to be animated entirely in black and white and one of the biggest criticisms of the Junji Ito Collection was that it was in color and therefore a lot of the Junji Ito charm was just drained away just drained away just drained away just drained away just drained away just drained away just drained away just drained away just drained away just drained away just drained away just drained away
#Library Vision#
Did you miss all the color while watching Mold? WELL
HERE'S A FUCK TON OF COLORS! COLORS ARE EVERYWHERE AS YOU LISTEN TO A CRAZY MAN OBNOXIOUSLY SCREAM ABOUT HIS BOOKS NOT BEING IN THE RIGHT PLACES FOR TEN MINUTES. WOO. THIS IS THE BEST THAT JUNJI ITO HAS TO OFFER. OH HOLD ON, NO, ACTUALLY THE GUY WASN'T REALLY FREAKING ABOUT HIS BOOKS BEING MISSING!
NO, HE'S JUST CRAZY! THAT'S THE STORY!
#Tomb Town#
This is legitimately almost good.
I felt bad for the voice actors and actresses because they're genuinely trying and then it gets ruined when the Junji Ito happens. The part where the dead sister becomes like a CG stone goliath monster rising out of the well to scream out at the main characters that they are the reason she's dead... was just... it just ruined it. The whole thing. Like immediately. Like a switch was flicked and yep there it goes, my enjoyment of the story has fallen out the window.
And what kills me the most is that whole moment was completely unnecessary. And by that I mean it was a dream sequence. Like he immediately goes oh fuck and then wakes up and then they just leave the town. But you got to get that Junji Ito horror in! You can't cut that! Even though you were perfectly fine with cutting the Tunnel story short and you cut shit from the stories in the first season!
#Layers of Fear#
...Maybe it's just the genuine shock that they chose it (I think it still hasn't been collected in an anthology yet even), but Layers of Fear is genuinely good.
But look, how can you possibly fuck up a story that's essentially 80% ripping skin off? That's a horror slam dunk right there. You can't really fuck that up. Sure, the skinless weird baby faced monster looks better in the manga... but we need to get this moving, I'm falling apart here.
#The Thing that Drifted Ashore#
There's a CG whale creature that ate a bunch of people in a shipwreck and the people stayed alive but they did so by evolving into parasites living off of the whale creature. And the biggest moment, the moment for the story's existence, the part where the whale gets cut open and all these weird parasite humans spill out... sucks. That's it. That's that story.
No, I'm serious. A character goes "oh my god, COULD HUMANS BE PARASITES?" and then it cuts to a shot of another CG whale swimming around and that's the story.
If only they had been willing to pay for a narrator, they could have gotten away without actually having to animate a scene where the CG whale monster swam around. And also it would have been a better ending as a whole because it implies after the story that they actually tried to rehabilitate the parasite people back into normal human society. Which is interesting and weird.
#Tomie: Photo#
Hey, you know how the opening for the adaptation is entirely just Tomie this time around?
Now, I know you may have thought that was an indication that we were getting more Tomie than just one story but... no, this is it.
They wasted the original Tomie story as an OVA for the first season and honestly that sucked even harder than the Junji Ito Collection itself. And guess what? This isn't a one in done Tomie story, either. There are multiple more parts.
Be sure to check out Junji Ito Psycho in 2028 and Junji Ito Schizophrenic in 2033 to see the continuation to... oh god, what was the camera girl's name again? Tsukiko! Be sure to check back in five and ten years later to see the rest of Tsukiko's story! Because I know without even checking she has I wanna say at least two more parts.
Tomie's story back in the Junji Ito Collection was in my opinion one of the best and I liked seeing and hearing her again but... no.
Her monster forms just look bad...
#Unendurable Labyrinth#
Oh my god.
I've become lost in my own review.
Where's the exit? How many stories are left?
Shit, that many? STILL?
TWO GIRLS GET LOST IN A FOREST AND THEY COME ACROSS WEIRD MONKS AND ONE OF THEM SAYS OH WOW IT SUCKS YOU GOT LOST, HEY WANT TO JOIN OUR CULT?
AND THEY SAID YEAH SURE AND THEN THE ULTIMATE SCARE IS THEY'RE WALKING IN A LABYRINTH OF MUMMIFIED MONKS AND ALL THE MONKS OPENS THEIR EYES AND STARE AT THEM THAT'S THE STORY NOW WHERE'S THE EXI
#Bullied#
...If this is the last Junji Ito anthology anime, I will forever be pissed that they chose this story to take up a slot. There's no ghost, there's no spirit, there's no demon, this is just a story about an awful human being and I shant be discussing it any further than this.
#The Back Alley#
I loved Back Alley. And of course I mean the original story. What a surprising twist, the story is ruined because of the lack of the Junji Ito art. The people stains on the wall are just shadows. You can barely even make out their features, and you can only barely make out the fact that they're actually coming out of the wall at the end.
So it's just another fucking dud.
#Headless Statue#
The only stories that are entirely horror themed that still work in this adaptation are the slam dunk ones that also don't require big Junji Ito art moments. You couldn't fuck up skin being torn off, just like you can't fuck up headless statues chasing people to rip their heads off and then fighting over them because they want a head.
Ez pz, that's one story for the good pile.
#Whispering Woman#
Another Fragments of Horror story, neat. And what do you know, it happens to be the story that entirely relies on dialogue and sound. How very convenient for this adaptation. I have no qualms with this adaptation of this particular story. It is satisfactory.
Now, finally... it's time for the finale. The most creepy scary Junji Ito story they could have possibly ended on.
#Souichi's Pet#
That's right! You guessed it! WE BEGAN WITH DARK COMEDY, WE END WITH DARK COMEDY. SOUICHI, THE SOLE SHINING BEAM OF LIGHT IN THIS HORRIBLE PIT OF AN ADAPTATION. AND A CAT. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, WE GOT THE FAMOUS JUNJI ITO CAT PANEL IN ANIME FORM.
WOO! ALRIGHT, WRAP IT UP FOLKS, THAT'S THE END. SEE YOU IN FIVE YEARS FOR SEASON THREE MAYBE. TO BE RELEASED EXCLUSIVELY THROUGH FUCKING HULU OR PRIME AND ALSO MAYBE UZUMAKI WILL ACTUALLY BE OUT BY THEN.
OR MAYBE IT WON'T.
MAYBE IT'LL NEVER COME OUT.
MAYBE THIS IS JUST AS GOOD AS IT'LL EVER GET FOR JUNJI ITO ANIME.
#I just want spirals...#
...I don't know what more to say. I'm not sure if it's even accurate to say I was disappointed because this is just more of the same. This is just Junji Ito Collection Season 2 and I really was hoping for that to not be the case. I was hoping for them to have gotten better in the last five years, or for Netflix to have given them more money for it to look spookier or more Junji Itoey. I don't know, fuck.
As a horror fan, I actually enjoyed watching this. But as a Junji Ito fan, it made me real sad and made me want to tear my own hair out at a few points. Just read the stories. Even if you're already a Junji Ito fan and have done it numerous times before, just go read them again. ~~Definitely do not actually give Netflix money.~~
The only maniac here is me for thinking this was going to end any differently.
This is a 55 out of 100. And I lowered the Junji Ito Collection from a 80 out of 100 to a 50 out of 100. I’m leaving the old review as is though as an unfortunate reminder of when I used to be a more hopeful and positive person.
...I just went back and rewatched the little thing they filmed with Junji Ito about this series and oh... I shouldn't have done that. It slammed the knife down even further into the wound.
THIS MAN DESERVES A WORTHY ANIME ADAPTATION. WHY CAN'T HE GET IT? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Also, oh... Junji Ito himself picked the stories they adapted... oh...........................
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