title: "Junji Ito’s New Live-Action Anthology Hits TV Tokyo on July 3" excerpt: "TV Tokyo is turning 13 Junji Ito stories into a new live-action omnibus series," with IVE performing the opening theme. category: anime date: '2026-04-17T14:00:48+08:00' author: Aimirul tags:
- Junji Ito
- live-action
- TV Tokyo
- IVE
- horror featured: false coverImage: /images/anime/junji-ito-s-new-live-action-anthology-hits-tv-tokyo-on-july-3.jpg
Junji Ito fans are getting another big adaptation wave, this time in live-action.
TV Tokyo has announced The Strange -Ito Junji no Yoru mo Nemurenu Kimyo na Hanashi-, a new omnibus drama series based on 13 stories from the horror manga legend. The show will premiere on July 3 in TV Tokyo’s Drama 24 slot at 24:12, which is basically July 4 at 12:12 a.m., and it will also air on BS TV Tokyo from July 12.
For anyone in Malaysia or the wider SEA anime crowd, this is the kind of project worth watching closely. Junji Ito adaptations always pull attention here, especially among horror fans who grew up bouncing between anime, J-horror, and all the weird late-night stuff that spreads fast on TikTok, YouTube, and fan groups. Even when the adaptations are hit-or-miss, people still show up because Ito’s ideas are just too iconic to ignore.
TV Tokyo says the series covers 13 manga stories, with announced adaptations including “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.” Most of these stories have already appeared in English releases, while “In Old Records” is noted in the source as being featured in the Junji Ito Collection anime.
The title itself is also a neat deep-cut for longtime fans. It appears to reference the original name of Asahi Shimbun’s Nemuki+ magazine, where many of Ito’s works were published.
Behind the camera, the series is being directed by Atsuhiro Yamada, Yuta Shimotsu, and Ryota Kondo. Scripts are overseen by Daisuke Hosaka, whose credits include Sadako 3D 2 and BELA: Humanoid Monster. Tatsuro Inamoto, who has worked on Trigun Stampede, Pluto, and Supernatural: The Anime Series, is also involved on scripts.
Another interesting crossover here is the music pick: South Korean girl group IVE will perform the opening theme, titled “Jigsaw.” That gives the project a more current pop-culture hook beyond just hardcore horror fans, and honestly, that kind of cross-market appeal matters a lot in Asia now. A Junji Ito series with a major K-pop act attached is definitely easier to push across regional audiences, including Malaysia.
Ito’s reputation is obviously already locked in. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame in July 2025, and he has previously won Eisner Awards for ** Lovesickness, Remina, Venus in the Blind Spot,** and ** Frankenstein **. He also received Comic-Con International’s Inkpot Award in 2023, while Black Paradox was nominated that same year for Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia.
This new series also lands at a time when Ito’s work keeps getting mined across formats. Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre premiered worldwide on Netflix in January 2024, while Uzumaki later got a four-episode anime mini-series on Toonami in September 2024. Before that, Junji Ito Collection aired in 2018, and his works have already inspired earlier live-action takes on Uzumaki and Tomie, plus an anime project based on GYO.
There is even more on the way outside TV too. Through the Lens Entertainment and Fangoria Studios are working together on film adaptations of “The Mystery of the Haunted House” Parts 1 and 2 and “Bloodsucking Darkness.”
So yeah, if you’re in Malaysia and you’ve ever had that phase of reading Junji Ito at 2 a.m. and regretting it immediately after, this one should be on your radar. The big question now is whether the series can actually capture Ito’s unsettling energy in live-action, because that’s always the real challenge.
Source: Anime News Network