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Junji Ito Collection
Inconsistent and Opinionated Thrills
Series in a Sentence
From monsters to mental scares, this series explores the collected works of Japanese horror mangaka Junji Ito.
What I liked
For all of the issues that I have with this series’ presentation, nothing can take away from the fact that some of the stories were truly psychologically creepy. For this section, then, I want to highlight some of the stories that I liked and why I liked them. To start, the first one to really interest me was “The Long Dream” as the idea that you could be living whole lives inside of your own head and experiencing them at a different pace is one that many people romanticize about yet none speak on how it could affect one’s mind. Following that, the imagery and simplicity in “Slug Girl” made for a quick and interesting watch, “Shiver” was a trypophobia-induced nightmare, and the “Marionette Mansion” short reminded me of various toys-to-life movies regardless of genre. Other standouts include “Blood-bubble Bushes” for being an interesting take on the traditional vampire story and “Supernatural Transfer Student” which reminded me of the movie “Chronicle.” While there were a couple of others that I won’t mention, what I can say is that the shorts that I enjoyed took tropes that I had seen in other media (and perhaps used them before said other media) and twisted them in an unexpected way. Were many of the twists and turns telegraphed? Yes, but that generally didn’t hinder my interest in seeing how things played out or my thoughts about them afterwards. Junji Ito knows how to write and this adaptation proves it.
What I Didn’t Like
For all of the stories that I liked, there were some that I didn’t enjoy based on either animation or just the source material. “Fashion Model” is a good example of a story that encompasses both of these issues because the animation was cardboard and uninspired while the story was extremely predictable without any truly unique aspects to make up for the shortcomings. Other shorts, like “Souichi’s Convenient Curse” and “Cloth Teacher” didn’t appeal to me either since they went against what I liked most in the series (its episodic nature) by entering a more expressly shared universe (something I don’t really like in horror anthologies like this) and I just couldn’t find myself to get attached to the recurring characters. Ultimately, this series was inconsistent in providing enjoyment: One second I would be engrossed in someone fighting their doppelganger in an alternate reality mansion to save a girl and the next I would be bored by the tale of some ghosts, a bridge, and burials.
Overall Feelings
While I stand by my opinion that as long as you can get past inconsistent storytelling and poor animation the series is a solid watch, I also have to say that this is a series that’s enjoyment is left up to the personal tastes of the viewer more so than any other. Due to it being a set of vignettes, whether or not someone enjoys it wholly depends on personal preference in storytelling and, even then, enjoyment could vary based on the sheer difference of material. I hesitate to call this series great because of the moments that I just didn’t care about it but I also cannot soundly call this series a skip because there were moments that I genuinely thought were good. Thus, lacking a main plot and having only the barest of shared characters, I can only say that this show is inconsistent. I can recommend watching it to find those gems that interest you but I can also say expect to want to skip those segments that don’t immediately seem appealing. Variety is the spice of life.