The main cast details and the first animation stills from the upcoming horror anthology anime, Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre, have been made public.
Junji Ito Maniac’s official website unveiled the photos and casting details. Using Twitter, Netflix announced last month during its Geeked Week that Junji Ito Maniac is in the works, and it would have stories adapted from the bibliography of popular mangaka Junji Ito. The anime is scheduled to release in 2023.
Five stories in total will be adapted for the anime anthology. Takahiro Sakurai, who is well-known for playing Giyu Tomioka in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba, will play Kazuya Hikizuri in The Strange Hikizuri Siblings: The Seance. Alongside Sakurai, Romi Park will play Kiko Hizukuri.
The female lead Chiemi in the second tale, The Long Hair in The Attic, will be played by Berserk’s Yoko Hikasa. Hisako Kanemoto, best known for playing Erina Nakiri in Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma, will play the lead role of Sayoko in Unbearable Labyrinth. Natsumi Takamori will play Kuriko, the primary antagonist, in The Bully.
The casting for the last tale, The Den of the Sleep Demon, has not been made public. The protagonist of that tale, which was included in volume 10 of the Horror World of Junji Ito collection, is a guy named Yuji, who thinks a real-life being is in his dreams and is trying to get out in the real world.
Manga artist Junji Ito is highly prolific for his contributions to the horror genre mangas. For the 2020 collected volumes of Remina and Venus in the Blind Spot, Ito received two Eisner Awards in 2021 – one for best writer/artist and one for best U.S. edition of international material-Asia.
