English Dub Review: Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales Of The Macabre Season One

Overview: 

Netflix’s new anthology series Junji Ito Maniac: Tales of the Macabre brings a small collection of manga artist Junji Ito’s chilling stories to life. From kids eating human ice cream to murderous hair with a mind of its own, Junji Ito’s imaginative and morbid creations ooze with dread and despair, with themes reminiscent of The Twilight Zone and the bleakness of Black Mirror. 

Junji Ito Maniac: Tales of the Macabre features adaptations of twenty unique stories from the artist that stretch across a dozen episodes. Most episodes feature two tales, while a select few are dedicated to a single story. “Tomb Town”, “Tomie: Photo”, and “The Hanging Balloons” are three of Ito’s classic stories featured in the anthology that get the preferential treatment of occupying an entire episode. 

Our Take: 

“The Strange Hikizuri Siblings: The Seance” is the fourth Ito story that fills an entire episode and it serves as the series lead as well. It also happens to be the worst episode of the anthology. With unlikable characters, uninteresting motives, and a story without any substantial plot, “The Strange Hikizuri Siblings: The Seance” was an odd choice for the first episode. It does not do the rest of the anthology any justice and for some viewers, it might even turn them away completely from watching the rest of the series. This would be a shame because Junji Ito Maniac: Tales of the Macabre offers up some entertaining tales that are bound to get under your skin at some point. 

Even with the misstep right out of the gate, the animation does its job throughout the anthology, delivering some horror-inspired visuals, disturbing character designs, and spooktastic scenery. There are some impressive scenes that showcase some particularly jaw-dropping and stomach-turning depictions of Ito’s finest body horror concepts and outlandish sights. 

With that said, there are stretches of somewhat neutered animation. Some segments offer so little in terms of eye-catching creativity that you can’t help but be just slightly disappointed, given the subject matter and creative license to push the boundaries of Junji Ito’s work in other episodes. Some segments appear to play it safe visually, letting the surrealism of the narratives take the wheel. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though. Perhaps it’s part of the show’s greatest strength. It twists the viewer’s mind and leaves them craving deplorable acts of unhinged violence and blood-covered interiors. Wait, or is that just me? 

The soundtrack is another strong aspect of this show. The intro is fantastically chaotic and episodes are dotted with haunting themes and eerie melodies that fit the narratives perfectly. Unfortunately, the English dub doesn’t quite match the quality of the soundtrack. Some convincing performances are weighed down and sullied by the inconsistency of others, which can be jarring and take you out of a scene, especially during a dramatic moment or climatic sequence. 

Despite the mediocre dub, there are certainly a good amount of creepy elements here to deliver a nightmare or two…okay maybe even three. The ghoulish finale in “The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel” was one of the highlights of this series. Next time I see a tunnel I will be walking the long way around, thank you very much. The unflinching brutality of “The Long Hair In The Attic” was handled very well and with absolutely no filter. The one downside was that the emotional impact was minimalized by the fact the episode moved so quickly that we didn’t have a chance to soak in the details or process the levity of the situation. 

Some of the stories included in this series flirted dangerously close to being maybe a little too mysterious, almost entering needlessly vague and undercooked territory. The unexplained debauchery and mayhem work well in some episodes, and in others, it would have benefited from just a little more fleshing out in its adaptation from manga to the small screen.”Four x Four Walls” feels like it just ends abruptly for no apparent reason. It stays true to the source material, but one more added scene would have made the segment more memorable. Overall, Junji Ito Maniac: Tales of the Macabre does a respectable job of telling outlandish stories with varying degrees of intrigue and terror. 

“Hanging Balloon” is a wild and morbid ride that unfortunately floats a little too far away from being genuinely scary. This just might be another example of Ito’s material simply not translating perfectly to other forms of media. On paper, the concept works. It screams horror and is downright chilling. For the most part, the episode works. It’s entertaining and keeps you glued to the screen and imagery of thousands of hanged people floating in the sky is the definition of macabre. But the episode perhaps becomes unintentionally comical a little too often when it should be frightening. Also a bit comical, “Ice Cream Bus” is a lesson in nonsensical storytelling for the sake of delivering scares. Is it creepy? Hell yeah, it is! But why would any parent willingly let their kid ride on that ice cream bus with no adult supervision!?! It would be like dropping your kid off at Freddy Krueger’s Funtime Daycare and Sleep Center and expecting only the best outcome. 

This show is the definition of “Not great, not terrible.” It often came very close to being truly addictive and a first-rate horror show. It’s outrageous in parts and relatively bland in others. The episodes are just a little too unbalanced for Junji Ito Maniac: Tales of the Macabre to be called great. In the end, this show is still a good way to kill time on a slow Saturday afternoon. Some of the episodes are well crafted and excel in creating a tense and dread-filled story while others feel like b-plots in more interesting shows. But when an episode does hit, it makes for some very compelling viewing with terrifying results. Junji Ito Maniac: Tales of the Macabre is filled with devilishly odd stories with flashes of brilliance that carry the show through its doldrums. Although inconsistent, the anthology series is worth checking out for both newcomers and fans of Junji Ito.