Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre

After so much failed attempts, I've come to accept Junji Ito's work should only exist in manga form. This adaptation doesn't give me hope for the Uzumaki adaptation, even if it's a different studio and director. The dubbed version of this is horrendous so don't waste your time. Each episode is more uninspired than the last with bland animation and lackluster stories. There are some flashes of brilliance, the intro for example is a banger but most all else isn't worth the watch. Do yourself a favor and read the manga stories again, this adaptation isn't worth your time. If I could, I'd unwatch this soulless carcass of an anime.

Lousy idea to put two stories in one chapter. They could have developed the stories better in a complete chapter or even in two.

There are moments where the stories feel like they end up very unfinished, without sense, and leave you wanting to see more, everything feels rushed. The stories with potential were never developed well, so it ends up being an entertaining anime with wasted potential.

The animation lacks fluidity and looks static at times, visually it is decently attractive. We are still waiting for a good adaptation of Junji Ito's manga, and please stop adapting several stories in a single episode.

All episodes seem to be pure build up to a conclusion that never comes.

It's disappointing when the episode ends and you're like "Wow, was that it?" It's like you're just seeing undeveloped concepts.

Very few episodes really feel like a closed story and others don't even feel like a story at all.

The animation is not terrible but definitely could be better, the opening intro is by far the best part of the whole series.

I think the series is entertaining despite all the flaws, but don't expect something scary or even intriguing, in the end it's just pretty dull campfire stories with some minimally interesting ones in the middle.

Also, I can't even count the number of times a character could have completely avoided their situations by having common sense, but the characters in the series seem to have an extreme tolerance to weird things happening around them, it's like they aren't reacting as they should... This is a spoiler free review but just know that there is a episode where the MC simply choose to keep in a cleary bad looking situation for no reason at all... And the conclusion is as underwhelming as expected.

It's hard to rate it this low because i actually had some fun watching it, but overall it was this disapointing.

In the process of adapting a manga to the serial approach, some productions seem to struggle to conceive that adaptation is a more complex process than simply copying and pasting manga pages and hoping they will work in the same way on screen. This is the problem with an anime that could have had great potential, such as Junji Ito Maniac.

Indeed, in the development of the series, they opted to reproduce the original pages as faithfully as possible, stripping them of the soul given by the author and without caring to translate them into a different communicative medium.

This is unfortunate because animation could allow for the sublimation of master Junji Ito's haunting stories, and the lack of this effort makes the series incomplete, empty, and inconclusive. Moreover, there is a lack of overall cohesion and the pacing is erratic. The episodes are interesting only because of the unique material provided by the manga's sources.

Overall, the product, while not tremendous, comes across as a simple copy of the original manga with no soul and no real point of existence, as it adds nothing to the master's work but, on the contrary, takes away some of its charm.

I have to be dead honest unfortunately I'd rate Junji Ito Maniac about the same as the Junji Ito Collection they both have positives and negatives about different thing's focusing on Maniac the writing feels a bit better the suspense build up to the gruesome moments that are supposed to make your skin crawl and gut churn Junji Ito is such a master of fall so flat in this show it feels lifeless because knowing Junji Ito he doesn't rely on cheap scares and such he likes body horror the inescapable what makes his books so amazing and skin crawling he puts such a dreadful touch to his art that's so creepily detailed that it's incredible and this show takes the build up you start to get unsettled just for the big (supposed to be) shocking reveal for it to look slightly cartoonish and dumbed down almost as if it was censored if you're a hardcore Junji Ito fan like me you will find some enjoyment in it it's not all bad not at all just like the Collection it has its shining moments but I'd probably give Maniac a granted biased rating of 6 out of 10 and that's honestly a fanboy opinion so about the same as I'd give the Junji Ito Collection!