This is just a minor spoiler warning theres nothing major but I do talk about the show and certain stories consider yourself warned. Horror is notoriously hard to get right with anime the medium itself is what does it the style of anime makes horror hard because it all looks for lack of a better word goofy hence why when anime does horror its normally psychological horror Think The Promised Neverlandwhen it was good in S1 rather than physical horror. So in steps Junji Ito Maniac a compilation of stories from well known mangaka Junji Ito I know shocker now I cant comment on the manga as I havent read it so I cant comment on how good an adaption or how well it adopts his artstyle which even I know is legendary when it comes to horror. There lies the shows greatest weakness in my humble opinion whilst its nowhere near as bad as typical horror anime have it its still not perfect in some parts looks rushed and others looks lazy the mouths for example dont always match the words being said. Other parts look lazy or well lacking detail like it doesnt look horrible just lacking details. However where this shines is with basically everything else the use of light and dark is good excellent even in creating suspense the sound design also helps this its got me creeped out which is what I want from horror like this is really good stuff this is creepy horrifying and just all in all what I want from something that says HORROR this does it all so well which is brilliant I love the fact that its making me uncomfortable I love the fact its creeping me out if I watch horror thats what I Want so THANK YOU. One thing of note is theres some that are decidedly less horror than others the balloon story FLIPPING TERRIFYING like that was horrific I was sitting here just like.like.like.WORDS ARE HARD it was so good and terrifying however others are much less scary the study one with the room in a room in a room in a room in a room I think I got that right xD whilst annoying and Id absolutely hate life if I had to deal with someone like Soichi its not scary perse just annoying it was honestly annoying to watch as well. The point of some being much scarier is a trouble the series has the tone shifts are violent at times from one story about a creepy tunnel a classic in Japanese horror to another about an ice cream van the tunnel story The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel was horrific most the way through starting off on a light bead it got horrific to the ice cream story Ice Cream Bus which starts off in such a strange way and its so much lighter than everything else whilst it ended up pretty horrific the start led to such a juxtaposition it just gave a shocking case of whiplash. Just swapping these two wouldve been much better with less whiplash this I understand is an off product of having 20 stories to tell in only 12 episodes but its something where it could be a bit better even by swapping orders and moving stuff around theres no real overarching story barring a couple mentions of something else in others. Something Id like to note is the shows use of colours beyond light and dark the entire shows colour pallet is washed out which is obviously by design this in part is to alleviate regular animes trouble with making horror shows as the colour pallet is a big reason why it struggles but this in my opinion also adds an extra layer of the horror factor by keeping things dull it doesnt give you a break in tone then when it wants something to stand out it can brighten it up and it really adds to the design of the show. I also really do love a washed out colour pallet one of my favourite shows for art design is Mars Red which does a similar thing in keeping things dulled down so do note this point could very well be a point of preference but I do think here especially it adds to the show quite a bit. The sound in this is at points almost too good for its own good now I know that may sound odd like how can something be too good well this may just be a me thing once more but in the story Long Hair in the Attic theres a section where the main girl in it who sadly died not overly surprising in a horror show tho lets be honest was grinding her teeth and well this sound was honestly the absolute worst thing ever it entered my spinal cords I stg it was not a nice noise which honestly props to the sound people for pulling it off as much as I hated it it was brilliant tho I still hated it xD whilst the balloon story was just the absolute most horrific for just noise thats with the worst like jeezus. I will add this show doesnt try to break the stereotype of anime just not being able to animate cars the cares in this are absolutely woeful they just are 3D things plopped in a 2D world they stick out like a sore thumb in every scene theyre in and dont look any good at all honestly I know cars arent the easiest thing to animate but how do anime in 2023 still have trouble with this? CGI is something this show cant do at all which is sad because the general poor animation is something I can overlook its something that doesnt take me completely out of the show but when the CGI comes on its rough its really rough the problem being unsurprisingly 3D on a 2D background I do have hope for CGI in anime in the future and I do honestly think its the next step for the medium but it needs to be done properly which it sadly isnt here. To rank the stories we were told best to worst all in my opinion of course 1. Hanging Balloon 10 2. Tomie . Photo 9 3. Long Hair in the Attic 8 4. The Story of the Mysterious Tunnel 8 5. Layers of Terror 7.5 6. Headless Sculptures 7.5 7. Library Vision 7.5 8. Alley 7.5 9. Tomb Town 7 10. The Thing that Drifted Ashore 6.5 11. Intruder 6.5 12. Whispering Woman 6 13. Four x Four Walls 6 14. Unendurable Labyrinth 6 15. Mold 5.5 16. The Bully 5.5 17. The Sandmans Lair 5 18. The Strange Hikizuri Siblings 4 19. Ice Cream Bus 3 20. Soichis Beloved Pet 2 In Conclusion the weaknesses are pretty big I cant lie however its more than made up for it with its strengths I would absolutely recommend this to any anime fan who likes horror now would it be good to a Junji Ito megafan? Thats a different question and one Im not in a position to answer as a horror show this is very good I just cant comment on how good an adaption it is. Its a solid horror show Ill quite happily give it an 7.5 out of 10.