New Anime Horror Series is Thrilling and Chilling

(041824) At the turn of the millennium a cinematic movement arose that sent shockwaves through the world of horror. This Japanese based movement is called J-Horror and it's often focused on more psychological themes than American horror. It also breaks down the wall between the supernatural and technological and combining the two. One common trope of these films is havening supernatural beings captured on video. Some of the major films in this movement have include "Ju-On", "Pulse", and "Ringu", all of which have had American remakes.

One of the major manga horror creators who is associated with the movement is Junji Ito whose haunting stories have been commonly adapted in every type of media. He is a superstar in his native Japan, but he is still only a cult favorite in the United States. His graphic novel Uzumaki was nominated for but failed to get an Eisner Award in 2003. He later did received three Eisner Awards including one for his adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Volume 16 in the Junji Ito Horror Comic Collection. His work, like the majority of manga, is in black and white and some of his fans have criticized his anime because they claim his style cannot be captured in color.

To expand his American audience (and make money) Netflix recently released a mini-series containing twelve shorts all based on his works: Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre. Some of the features adapted Ito's manga material and some are created new by him for this anime. The shorts are all done in classic anime style and they are all under half an hour however they all are not strictly independent of each other, with some overlapping or continuing into the next. They have all fascinated me and I have been watching them over and over in a loop since I stumbled upon the series last year. The series is produced by the Chinese based Studio Deen which is best known in the USA for producing Star Wars: Visions.

One of the most popular stories by Ito that was adapted here is titled “Tomie’s Photos.” It concerns a vampire or succubus like female teen named Tomie who casts an irresistible spell over all the males she encounters. She is Itami’s most popular character and she also appeared in her own series and real-life film franchise. In the episode she goes after a fellow female student who takes photos of boys without their knowledge. But the student captures a shot of Tomie’s true horrific appearance and she seeks retribution.

Some of the other episodes are not as remarkable, but most are also memorable and chilling. The opening episode is a humorous effort titled: “The Strange Hikitizui Siblings” which almost seems to be riffing off the Adams Family (the younger boy looks like a demented version of Pugsley). In it a “spirit photographer” who is trying to photograph ghosts of drowned children meets a man who leaves his family to go to work every day even though he does not have a job. She then encounters a creepy family who live in the vicinity in which many people disappeared. Eventually the family has a séance using the stranger as an anchor and of course it goes awry. “The Thing that Drifted Ashore” is about a sea creature who washes up on the beach and may have been responsible for a series of deaths. There is also a disturbing vignette about a young female who regrets torturing her brother when she was younger and tries to make up for it. In another episode a seemingly innocent little girl who is a mass murderer (echoing The Bad Seed) is haunted by the shadows of the men she killed.

Sometimes the vignettes do not make total sense, but they express primal fears and explore the irrational producing unforgettable nightmare images. In one short, “Headless Statue,” a sculptor known for doing headless statues is found by two of his students with no head then his statues come to life and try to take off his student’s heads so they can put them on their bodies.

The best of all is “Hanging Balloon” a short horror masterpiece that rivals some of the best recent animated films such as Suzame, Spiderman into the Spider-verse and My Year of Dicks. The animation and storytelling is as disturbing as anything I have seen on TV for years, and it has a most shocking concept. A group of demonic balloons appear in a town that resemble living people and they torment their real-life counterparts and either kill them and/or get them to commit suicide. Whenever someone leaves their house and goes outside the balloon bearing his image is waiting to strangle him with its string.

Like, many anthologies this one is a bit uneven but the overall quality is quite high. It is superior and more imaginative than many recent live-action horror shows like the American Horror Story (especially its most recent season) and Guillermo’s Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, both of which can also be found on Netflix. Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre is as creative, stylish, and entertaining as any other horror show currently on TV.