Junji Ito’s Manga Horrors Hit Harder as Live-Action TV
Junji Ito’s surreal horror is reaching US viewers through a live-action anthology series, with HBO Max streaming episodes from its first season. A New York Comic Con premiere of “Face Thief” showed how director Yûta Shimotsu uses Ito’s unsettling imagery to explore social pressure and the demand to conform.
The 12-episode season aired in Japan this summer; its first two episodes are available on HBO Max, while “Face Thief” adapts Ito’s 1987 story about a girl whose face changes. Shimotsu altered the ending, but aimed to preserve the source’s slow-building dread through still performances and framing that recalls manga panels. He hopes to film an episode in black and white for a second season and said he is developing a Hollywood project.
- HBO Max is bringing Junji Ito’s live-action horror anthology to US viewers.
- “Face Thief” pairs shifting faces with a critique of conformity.
- Director Yûta Shimotsu hopes to use black and white in season two.
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Junji Ito is a Japanese manga artist known for horror stories that turn ordinary settings and anxieties into strange, unsettling events. His work often builds suspense gradually, using stark images and characters who face forces they cannot easily explain or control.
A live-action anthology tells a different story in each episode, so viewers can watch them separately. Adapting manga for television involves turning still drawings into moving images and performances, and filmmakers may change details while trying to retain the atmosphere of the original.
Ito’s work has a following beyond Japan, and streaming services make adaptations available to viewers in other countries. The series also shows how Japanese horror stories can be reinterpreted for television while keeping their focus on fear and unease.