Junji Ito's horror collection is one of the best horror stories I have read. And that is coming from someone who despises horror. There are a couple of reasons I love his works. First is his art style. I have never seen another manga artist drawing characters as beautifully as his, and even down to the details.

(Picture source: RehnWriter thru' Google Image Search) (Picture source: Game Rant thru' Google Image Search)

He knows how to captivate his readers with the clever use of lines and shadows to create a unique horror atmosphere. I mean many other horror I know were constantly gory, or just straight up bloody, or utilizing the basic scare factors. But for Junji-san, a simple frame of just a person standing there emitting an aura of eerie was something he managed to capture for his readers.

(Picture source: Game Rant thru' Google Image Search)

The second reason is the creativity of his horror. I mean, how often do you look at a seemingly normal chair and think to yourself, "what if someone is living in that chair?". And Junji-san is able to create a story surrounding the said chair.

(Picture Source: RehnWriter thru' Google Image Search)

And also, the way he creates a comedic light-hearted horror story about his two cats.

(Picture source: Otaku USA Magazine thru' Google Image Search)

Junji-san really deserves to have his works animated and brought to life on the big screens. And that was what Netflix did. Unfortunately, the anticipating series proved to be much of a disappointment than a worthy experience.

Firstly, let's talk about the adaptation. I respect the producers were trying to maintain the originality of Junji-san's art, but once colours are introduced, it no longer has that "horror" feel. A good example would be the ice-cream episode.

(PIcture source: Imgur) (Picture source: Souichi Presents: The Enchanting World of Junji Ito)

Comparing to the manga version, it does not exude horror in the adaptation. I would give them points for trying to insert a melting child in the puddle. But let's be honest here, we all have eaten ice creams that are the shape of our favourite characters.

(Picture Source: Reddit thru' Google Image Search)

The black-and-white version of the scene creates a more fitting vibe as the father realised that his son was licking the melted remains of his friends. It is quite disturbing and that is what the manga captured perfectly. What I believed would made it better is if the colours in the melted puddle weren't the colours of the ice-cream flavours, but rather the colour of flesh.

Well... I think many of us would stop eating ice cream for quite a whiles...

Another example of poor conversion would be, in my opinion, Souichi. That poor boy in the anime adaptation looks more like a pale person with blue eyeshadow rather than a person who is constantly trying to be creepy and scary. I think the manga version of Souichi would probably seek Tomie for advice to destroy his anime counterpart.

(Picture source: Imgur) (Picture source: Junji Ito Manga Online thru' Google Image Search)

Secondly, the change in some of the story endings. I won't sweat the details of whether the position of certain things is correct in comparison to the manga, but there is one particular story I know where the ending changed. That is ending of the Mysterious Tunnel.

(Picture source: Imgur)

For context, the arms you see in the picture above belongs to the protagonist. He is being absorbed into the tunnel and the story seems to imply that he did not survive. Well, guess what? In the manga, he did survive. In fact, he actually went back to the tunnel and saw the trapped spirits of his sister and the research group that were trying to escape the tunnel with him.

(Picture source: Souichi Presents: The Enchanting World of Junji Ito)

To me, the finale in the manga serves a much better ending than the one in the anime adaptation. It gives a complete view of what happened to his sister and the research group, becoming one of the trapped spirits of the tunnel. But for reasons unknown, Netflix decided "eh, let's just kill the boy as well".

And finally, the CGI. For the life of me, I can never fathom an anime company needing to resort to CGI. I am no expert, but I do know the difficulties of trying to make drawings on paper come to life in an anime. Possibly, CGI is still needed to help make certain movements, but the irony is that as an animation company, couldn't you guys fine tune the graphics to make it blend in with the rest of the scene?

(Picture source: Imgur)

The kissing scene in this episode was so poorly animated I was thinking it was an unfinished work. You only see this kind of animation when it is still under production. This gives rise to my deep respect to Studio Ghibli, who drew every single frame by hand, and also to stop-motion animation movies like Coraline. You can definitely feel the effort they put into making the films.

(Picture source: Game Rant thru' Google Image Search)

Overall, I don't think this anime adaptation is worth watching. While it does bring back memories and nostalgia, it did not give me the same sense of satisfaction when reading the manga. I hope that the next time Netflix, or any other film companies, who are trying to adapt Junji ito's horror collection, they could do so with a lot more effort.