Main cast: Sakurai Takahiro (Hikizuri Kazuya), Iijima Hajime (Hikizuri Shigorô), Romi Park (Hikizuri Kinako), Shimizu Risa (Hikizuri Narumi), Asai Ayaka (Hikizuri Hitoshi), and Kaneda Tomoko (Hikizuri Misako)
Director: Tagashira Shinobu
Itō Junji Maniakku is yet another effort to adapt the works of Japanese horror writer Itō Junji—the one and only name Americans love to mention to show off how much of a cosmopolitan geek they are, even when they haven’t actually read any of Mr Itō’s work—and yeah, I hate to be a spoilsport, but what appears terrifying in words can end up being goofy and unintentionally comical in animation or live action medium.
Still, let’s just see how well or not this latest attempt to introduce the works of Mr Itō to kids.
Speaking of which, I’m sticking to the traditional Japanese naming convention just because this is my website and I can do whatever I want. I am not fond of the whole “let’s switch our names around so as to not confuse white people” convention that most Chinese and Japanese people do these days. Why can’t those white people switch their names around instead? There are more of us than them!
So yes, it’s Itō Junji, alright, and don’t tell me I have it wrong.
Anyway, the first episode is The Strange Hikizuri Siblings: The Seance. The Hikizuri siblings show up in a few of Mr Itō’s stories, actually, and this seance thing is just one of those stories.
These siblings inherited a lot of money from their late parents, so as rich kids tend to be, they are a dysfunctional lot.
The eldest, Kazuya, makes a show of going to work every morning, but in truth, he has no job and the whole charade is just to inject some sense of normalcy and even responsibility into his siblings. That and, I suspect, he wants to spend time away from his siblings, whose behaviors range from simple-minded to loud and crazy.
His “work” sees him just lazing around the park and other places until evening. I know, it’s lame. He could have at least spent his hours on hookers and happy powder, but I guess he won’t be one of the protagonists in a horror show if he were more sensible.
Then there is disruptive and lazy buffoon Shigorô that resents the fact that his older brother is the boss of the family, Misako that is still traumatized to a violent degree over her parents’ deaths, the very quiet Hitoshi that is bullied by all the other siblings, Kinako that is sweet and nice as long as you don’t set her off, and the angst-bag Narumi that is completely over her siblings’ nonsense.
In this episode of the siblings’ lives, Kazuya spots and becomes infatuated with spiritual photographer Sachiyo, who is at the park that he is loitering at and trying to photograph the ghosts of children that had drowned in the pond. How can anyone resist such a fascinating woman!
He brings her to his home, supposedly to let her take some pics of the ghosts in his rundown mansion of a home. Shigorô is also infatuated with Sachiyo, much to Kazuya’s ire.
Sachiyo initially just wants to photograph the area around the house and go, and Kazuya comes up with this idea to hold a seance to contact their dead parents. That’s a nice excuse to get the lady to join the family so that he can see her again!
Well, she accepts the siblings’ invitation, because she is intrigued after discovering many dead spirits caught in her photograph. She wants to find out more about the place
Sadly, Kazuya’s delight lasts until she shows up with her boyfriend, Sawano. Ugh! Is poor Kazuya’s chances with Sachiyo lost forever?
This one is actually a pretty light-hearted episode in the sense that it’s more about the slapstick comedy stemming from the antics of the unruly siblings. There is no gruesome death or horrifying fate worse than death awaiting anyone, although some may feel that having to live with these siblings must just be the latter.
Sure, some scenes may make one feel a bit squeamish, but me personally, I don’t find this one particularly scary. I personally won’t have picked this one for adaptation, but I suspect that the folks behind this show want to ease audience gently into the more macabre things to come later.
On the whole, the episode is alright. It’s entertaining enough for me as a Japanese take on The Addams Family with liberal addition of acid and steroids, although I won’t say that it’s particularly memorable. The animation is rather janky and bland, but then again, this isn’t some billion-dollar studio putting out the episodes, so that’s still good enough for me.
Anyway, it’s an okay start of a series. I’d be curious to see what they will serve up next.
