This article discusses the possibility of Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre Season 2 and the renewed or canceled status of the Netflix anime anthology.
The Netflix anime anthology Junji Ito Maniac adapts the collected works of beloved mangaka Junji Ito into 20 stories spread across 12 25-minute episodes. This breezy collection is an ideal binge-watch for fans of horror in general and Ito specifically, though the most die-hard among them might have some issues with how the stories are adapted (and which stories were selected).
Here’s a quote from our review to give you an idea of what we’re dealing with:
The basic idea, though, is straightforward enough: Here are some people, bad things are going to happen to them. You might recognize some of the people. You might find it hard to stomach some of the things. Some episodes tell a single story, while others contain two. There’s no narrative continuity, but the art and animation styles remain relatively consistent, and consistently underwhelming unless something awful is happening, though admittedly something awful is usually happening. There isn’t really a unifying theme to the curation, but there are certain commonalities, particularly in sibling relationships, and a perverse fascination for heads, especially if they’re grotesquely enlarged or missing entirely.
With so much of Ito’s work still out there in its original form, fans are wondering if we’re likely to see another similar collection in the near future. Here’s everything we know.
Will there be a Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre Season 2?
Renewal Status: TBC
At the time of writing, we can’t find any official news about a renewal or a cancelation. It’s likely Netflix will be biding their time and waiting to see how the anthology series performs before making any concrete decisions.
However, there’s plenty of reason to be hopeful. The name of Junji Ito carries a ton of weight, and there will always be extremely devoted fans of his stories who will gobble up another anthology collection. Also, while Maniac collected a bunch of some of his better-known work, there are still many more iconic stories to adapt, including some truly terrifying ones. A second season after the first already introduced characters like Soichi and Tomie would also be able to capitalize on the general audience’s familiarity with what has come before.
As I say, there are plenty of reasons to be hopeful here, and if we had to make an official prediction, I’d say that Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre will probably be renewed for Season 2.
