The Junji Ito Masterpiece Collection panel revealed at Anime Expo on Friday revealed Strange: Junji Ito’s Tales for Sleepless Nights (Strange -Itō Junji no Yoru mo Nemurenu Kimyō na Hanashi-), the live-action omnibus series based on 13 manga stories by Junji Ito, will stream on the HBO Max service internationally this fall.
Image courtesy of Global Stage Hollywood
Global Stage Hollywood and TV Tokyo screened the first two episodes for the series at Anime Expo on Friday.
Image via Strange’s website
© 「ストレンジ -伊藤潤二の夜も眠れぬ奇妙な話-」製作委員会
The series premiered in the TV Tokyo channel’s “Drama 24” programming block on July 3 at 24:12 (effectively, July 4 at 12:12 a.m.), and will premiere on BS TV Tokyo on July 12.
The adapted stories include “Lovesickness,” “The Mansion of Phantom Pain,” “The Rib Woman,” “The Bully,” “Face Thief,” “A Father’s Love,” “Memory,” “In Old Records,” “Penpal,” “Further Tales of Oshikiri,” “Earthbound,” and “Tomio: Red Turtleneck.” All of these stories have been translated into English in various releases except for “In Old Records,” which is featured in the Junji Ito “Collection” anime.
The series’ title is an apparent reference to the original name of Asahi Shimbun’s Nemuki+ magazine (Nemurenu Yoru no Kimyō Na Hanashi), where many of Ito’s works appeared.
The cast includes (top row, left to right in the image below):
(second row, left to right):
(third row, left to right):
- Episode 9 “The Rib Woman” – Nagisa Saitō as Yuri
- Episode 11 “Further Tales of Oshikiri” (also based on “Penpal”) – Jun Saitō as Tōru Oshikiri
- Episode 12 “Lingering Farewell” – Yuri Tsunematsu as Akiko
Image via TV Tokyo
© 「ストレンジ -伊藤潤二の夜も眠れぬ奇妙な話-」製作委員会
Atsuhiro Yamada, Yūta Shimotsu, and Ryōta Kondō are directing the series, with scripts overseen by Daisuke Hosaka (Sadako 3D 2, BELA: Humanoid Monster). Tatsurō Inamoto (Trigun Stampede, Pluto, Supernatural: The Anime Series) is also a scriptwriter on the project.
South Korean group IVE is performing the series’ opening theme song “Jigsaw.” 10CM, the musical act that now consists of South Korean singer-songwriter Jeong-yeol Kwon, performs the ending theme song “The Darkest Night.”
Pan-Asian film and entertainment studio Through the Lens Entertainment and horror brand Fangoria Studios are collaborating to produce films based on Ito’s “The Mystery of the Haunted House” Parts 1 and 2, and “Bloodsucking Darkness.”
Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre, a new anime based on 20 different Ito stories, debuted worldwide on Netflix in January 2024. Ito’s Uzumaki manga also inspired a four-episode anime mini-series that premiered on Toonami in September 2024.
Junji Ito “Collection”, a previous television anime of manga by Ito, also adapted stories from the Itō Junji Kessaku-shū collection, as well as the Fragments of Horror book. The anime premiered in January 2018 and had 12 episodes. Crunchyroll streamed the series with English subtitles as it aired in Japan, and Funimation streamed an English dub. The anime included an adaptation of Ito’s Tomie story on its second and third DVD sets.
Source: E-mail correspondence
