Junji Ito Maniac brings to life 20 stories from the collected library of legendary horror manga artist Junji Ito. Adapted stories include works from Tomie, Souichi, The Hanging Balloons, The Strange Hikizuri Siblings: The Séance, Unendurable Labyrinth, The Long Hair in the Attic, Bullied, Where the Sandman Lives, Ice Cream Truck, Tomb Town, Library Vision, and Headless Statue.
Damn it, Studio Deen. Did you not learn from last time that people will immediately have a negative opinion of your Junji Ito horror anthology if you start with the sillier stories? Every time, it is a silly story upfront and a better, creepier second episode. It isn’t running on its best foot. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Junji Ito Maniac, head on down below.
Anime Like Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre
For Fans of Episodic Horror Stories
The Junji Ito Collection
Sit down and gather round. You’ve read the legendary horror manga from Junji Ito, now watch a collection of his short stories come to life before your very eyes. The Junji Ito Collection adapts stories from 11-volume Ito Junji Kessaku-shuu series and Fragments of Horror
Do you want more Junji Ito? The Junji Ito Collection is the anthology made before Junji Ito Maniac. They adapt different stories, but otherwise there is no difference between them. Same studio, same director, but Maniac is produced by Netflix and thus the two are somehow unaffiliated!
The Junji Ito Collection is just more Junji Ito horror adapted to anime.
Yamishibai
As the sun sets, a mysterious man comes to town. The children all gather round to hear his sinister tales based on Japanese urban legends. Along with his demented narration, he uses a kamishibai, a traditional paper-scrolling device, to add in visuals.
Both Yamishibai and Junji Ito Maniac are horror anthologies that deal in bulk tales rather than a singular linear horror tale.
The thing to keep in mind is that each episode of Yamishibai is only about five minutes long, so it is often quite expedient in its stories. Furthermore, like Junji Ito Maniac, Yamishibai runs the gamut in story quality. Some are legitimately chilling tales, and some are kind of silly.
The “paper dolls” style of animation in Yamishibai may be a put off, but I feel that it actually helps create a chilling atmosphere in many cases.
Ayakashi – Japanese Classic Horror
Ayakashi features three classic Japanese horror stories: The story of the betrayed wife and her quest for vengeance, the story of a forbidden love between human and goddess, and the story of a cat monster with a grudge against a particular family.
Japanese horror comes in many forms. In Junji Ito, you will often see many of the stories having legends dating back to Japan’s older eras where superstition and folklore ruled the day.
Unlike Junji Ito Maniac that often takes place in the modern day, Ayakashi tells Japanese horror stories from the samurai age where the world was ever so slightly more unknown and the mystical was easier to believe.
Mononoke
Mononoke follows the story of a man simply known as the Medicine Seller.
However, it is not medicine he sells, but rather he travels feudal Japan ridding villages of malevolent spirits called mononoke.
Before he can kill each spirit he encounters, he must first learn its Form, Truth, and its Reason.
Both Junji Ito Maniac and Mononoke tell short horror stories. However, while Junji Ito has some reoccurring characters, Mononoke is different in that it does have one main character that it follows.
While Junji Ito Maniac has a variety of scary setups, each story in Mononoke centers around the main character being contacted to solve a supernatural problem.
As a side note, if you also watched the aforementioned Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror anthology, you will have seen the main character of Mononoke before as he appears in a few episodes of Ayakashi.
Hell Girl
It is said that those who hold a powerful grudge can access a particular website at midnight. By entering a name here, that person can be ferried straight to hell.
This is the tale of Ai Enma, the Hell Girl that carries out those orders.
Unlike Junji Ito Maniac that has a wide variety of diverse horror tales, Hell Girl has a diverse series of horror tales all told through the framing device that is the main character.
She ferries souls to hell, and as she is doing so, their horrible tales are told. While Junji Ito Maniac can be silly at times, Hell Girl maintains a chilling if not melancholic tone throughout.
For Fans of Comedic Horror
Ghost Stories
Satsuki and Keiichirou Miyanoshita move back to their mother’s hometown after her tragic death. It is there that the siblings find out that their mother banished a number of ghosts from the old school building, but suddenly they are all starting to reappear again.
It is up to Satsuki and her new friends along with the help of her mother’s journal to seal them away again.
Please note that whenever people call Ghost Stories a comedy, they are referring to the infamous comedic dub and not the sub. Undubbed, Ghost Stories is a middling ghost story anime for children. Dubbed, Ghost Stories is a black comedy with aging political correctness.
Like Junji Ito Maniac, Ghost Stories tells a variety of horror stories in each episode. All of the stories in Ghost Stories are framed around spirits getting free and causing havoc.
The interesting thing is that while the Ghost Stories dub makes it a funny show, some of the ghost tales are still kind of creepy.
Mieruko-chan
Miko is a normal high school girl who has found her life turned upside down by the sudden ability to see spirits.
Despite being terrified by what she sees, she does her best to not acknowledge the spirits so they leave her alone.
Doing horror and comedy is not easy. Junji Ito Maniac has comedy in an almost unintentional way in that you aren’t sure if they were trying to make it funny or if it just ended up that way.
Alternatively, Mieruko-chan is more intentionally comical in that a girl can see ghosts and really tries to pretend that she can’t while also keeping her friends safe.
While this doesn’t sound so scary, some of the ghosts in Mieruko-chan are Junji Ito-levels of terrifying in their design.
For Fans of Building Tension
Shiki
The fifteen-year-old Megumi Shimizu dreamed of leaving her small country town behind for the big city, but those dreams died when she did.
It was her murder that kicked off a summer of blood and terror in this small town where a city boy and a country doctor try to stop the epidemic of death happening around them.
Many of the horror stories in Junji Ito Maniac are effective because they build up the proper amount of tension in the horror tale before letting that rubber band snap and having everything unravel.
Shiki, though a linear single story unlike Junji Ito Maniac’s anthology style, is also a great horror anime at wielding tension.
It keeps the mystery throughout the series until all hell breaks loose. Shiki also enjoys an uniquely strange character like Junji Ito from time to time.
Ghost Hunt
High school freshman Mai Taniyama likes to spend her free time telling ghost stories with friends. One day, she hears a ghost story about the cursed old school building. Overcome by curiosity, she decides to check it out.
After peeking in the window, she spots a camera. After a twist of fate, she ends up breaking the camera and injuring an unknown man. It turns out that both belonged to the young Kazuya Shibuya, a paranormal investigator and high school senior.
In order to pay him back, he forced her to become his assistant for his paranormal investigation company.
Ghost Hunt is rather on-the-nose with its title and is about a group of people hunting ghosts with ghost hunting techniques steeped in reality.
While Ghost Hunt has a number of different hauntings, it isn’t an anthology series. It is more your standard arc-type storytelling.
While Ghost Hunt never reaches the same level of body horror, many of its hauntings can be quite chilling.
Housing Complex C
In the seaside town of Kurosaki, there stands a rundown old apartment block known as Housing Complex C. Young Kimi and many of the residents are excited for the new people from abroad that move in while they observe technical research in the area.
However, soon after these new residents move in, a number of horrific incidents begin to occur.
If you enjoyed the many Lovecraftian themes throughout Junji Ito’s work, Housing Complex C is also in the same vein.
Housing Complex C enjoys both body horror and cosmic horror like Junji Ito Maniac, and while it is only 4 episodes with a pacing problem at the end, it tells an interesting short tale.
Both series enjoy creating tension in their Lovecraftian horror, but both Housing Complex C and Junji Ito Maniac have innate flaws that may turn people off.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Junji Ito Maniac? Let fans know in the comments section below.
