Other works by Junji Ito that deserve anime series adaptations

Key points

• Uzumaki is a successful adaptation, maintaining the original story and style.
• Gyo taps into a common fear revolving around the horrors of the ocean.
• Tomie could be featured in an anime series, exploring her dark and captivating stories.

Junji Ito has found fame for producing some of the most disturbing manga known to mankind, often crossing into the realms of cosmic and surreal horror. There have been multiple anime adaptations, most often anthology series that choose short stories from his extensive collections of work.

Adult Swim and IG USA have decided to dedicate an entire season to one of his most famous works, Uzumakiremaining faithful to the manga's original style and story. With a full adaptation already made and impressive, fans are likely to see further adaptations of his works, and these are among the most worthy of their own show.

Blood bubble bushes

A deliciously bloody vampire story

• Year of publication: 1993
• Collection: Monthly Halloween

Who doesn't love a good vampire story? In the 1993 Halloween monthly publication, Junji Ito's tale of blood and death exploded to terrify readers. In typical vampire movie fashion, a couple find themselves lost in the woods in the middle of the night, and this area isn't as abandoned as they might hope. Bloodthirsty nocturnal creatures attack one of the couples, while the other flees to what they think may be a sanctuary.

There are already countless great vampire anime available to watch right now, and their popularity still endures. Undoubtedly, a vampire story by Junji Ito would definitely interest anime fans of both genres, and as such, this Ito story would definitely be worth adapting.

Frankenstein

Junji Ito's version of the classic science fiction novel

• Year of publication: 2018
• Collection: Frankenstein

Junji Ito and Mary Shelley is a collaboration that no one could have predicted, but it happened in 2018 with Frankenstein manga, a collection of short stories including the homonymous one Frankenstein history. Everyone will be familiar with this iconic Gothic novel which follows the troubled story of Doctor Frankenstein, who found a way to birth life through galvanization and corpse parts, only to abandon his creation out of abject fear.

Junji Ito's version of this story remains a faithful adaptation, drawing iconic scenes from the story and refining his dialogue to match the quality of Shelley's. To see it in animated form would be to witness the poetry of anime, and it's long past time that anime fans got an adaptation of a horror classic.

Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon and Mu

Even cute cats aren't spared from Ito's art style of terror

• Year of publication: 2009
• Collection: Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon and Mu

You might not expect a horror author like Junji Ito to create a collection based on mischievous exploits that all cat owners can relate to and share a laugh or two, but that's exactly what he did with his Cat diary. Yon and Mu are in fact Ito's feline companions in real life, and he depicts his fights with the two using his terrifying art style that lends a certain eeriness to their depictions, but the two real-life photos will ultimately make up for the factor of scrolling.

If there's one thing anime needs, it's more cat stories, as you can never have enough of them, and Ito's collection could definitely liven up the genre a bit with its signature horror art style, giving at the same time some hearty laughter while the spectators can watch them. do all sorts of shenanigans. It might be the eye whitener anime fans need after seeing some of his other downright terrifying work.

Tomie

Ito's most iconic character deserves his own series

• Year of publication: 1987-2000
• Collection: Monthly Halloween manga magazine, Junji Ito horror comics collection, Junji Ito masterpieces collection

Tomie has become Ito's best-known and most popular character, appearing in many of his manga collections, anthology anime series, and even live-action films. Tomie's merchandise is always popular and he even collaborated with Sanrio, a combination no one could have predicted.

Therefore, there is still a medium missing, namely its anime series, which shows the stories of this shape-shifting succubus who can transform from beautiful to grotesque in the blink of an eye. Tomie herself is a force of evil, exploiting the lust of others to draw them to her, but in some cases Tomie is more of a victim, as her nature can bring out violence, possessiveness, and obsession. It's entirely possible that in Tomie's tale the humans are the real monsters, and it would be interesting to see this dynamic as well as the horror captured in anime form.

Junji Ito stories that deserve another adaptation more faithful to the visual style of the original material

Many of Junji Ito's manga have been featured in anthology series, most of which are rather lackluster and fail to capture the magic of the source material. Here are a couple of stories that deserve a deeper focus, even if it's just a miniseries adaptation.

Long dream

An onslaught of nightmares with horrific consequences

• Year of publication: 1987
• Collection: The Horror World of Junji Ito, Junji Ito's collection of horror comics

Although the Long dream has already appeared in one of the anthology adaptations, it shared its duration with another episode, offering a brief summary of the story. THE Long dream The story draws on the fears surrounding sleep and dreams, showing the slow degradation of patients who suffer from increasingly longer nightmares every night, manifesting themselves externally on the body as deformations and age.

While patients are continually beset by dreams while doctors race to find a solution, this manga story could benefit from an entire season by giving the degeneration the slow pace it deserves, and even delving into the nightmares the patients face, showing a new one which gets more and more horrible and longer with each episode.

Hanging balloons

An apocalypse story that doesn't rely on zombies or natural disasters

• Year of publication: 1998
• Collection: The horror world of Junji Ito

Shows that explore the collapse of life as everyone knows it normally involves zombies, chains of natural disasters or aliens, each wiping out entire cities and swathes of people. But Hang Balloons does it in a different way that might be more terrifying than the other three combined.

Balloons start appearing in the sky, each bearing an uncanny resemblance to a real person, and if they happen to catch them, they wrap strings around their necks and hang them to death. This saw a small segment in Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre, but imagine if this manga had a full series adaptation, following the struggles of the few survivors as they try to find a way to escape and survive in typical apocalyptic style.

Gyo

Sea creatures transform into terrifying monsters

• Year of publication: 2001-2002
• Collection: Great comic spirits

It's no surprise that the ocean and the creatures that live in it are both such common fears, as marine creatures like sharks, octopuses, squid, and the enigmatic marine life that dwell in the depths don't exactly seem like the friendliest and cuddliest creatures . . Humans still know so little about the ocean and its inhabitants, leaving countless species that may be yet to be discovered, and who knows what they might look like?

Let's hope nothing resembles the creatures in here Gyowhich shows sea creatures slowly starting to evolve into things that are equal parts grotesque and terrifying. An anime series revolving around this premise taps into the common fear of marine life and would terrify those who don't even have this phobia. Seeing the transformations of these creatures and the reactions of the characters would be a sublime experience.

Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack
it struggled to capture the magic of the source material and is mostly B-movie style fun.