Horror manga icon Junji Ito's live-action omnibus series, Strange: Junji Ito's Tales for Sleepless Nights, will be available to stream internationally on HBO Max this fall. The announcement came during a panel at Anime Expo, where the first two episodes were also screened.
The series, which premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo's "Drama 24" block on July 3 and will air on BS TV Tokyo starting July 12, adapts 13 distinct stories from Ito's extensive bibliography. Among the tales featured are "Lovesickness," "The Mansion of Phantom Pain," "The Rib Woman," and "Tomio: Red Turtleneck." The title itself is a nod to the original name of the magazine where many of Ito's works first appeared.
Directed by Atsuhiro Yamada, Yūta Shimotsu, and Ryōta Kondō, with scripts overseen by Daisuke Hosaka and Tatsurō Inamoto, the series boasts a diverse cast. Notable actors include Nijirō Murakami as Koseki in "The Mansion of Phantom Pain," Kanata Hosoda as Ryusuke Fukuda across multiple parts of "Lovesickness," and Yōko Maki as Kuriko in "The Bully."
Adding to the international appeal, the series features a K-pop connection with the opening theme "Jigsaw" performed by South Korean group IVE, and the ending theme "The Darkest Night" by South Korean artist 10CM. This live-action adaptation follows other recent Junji Ito projects, including the Netflix anime Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre and the Toonami adaptation of Uzumaki.
Source: E-mail correspondence
