By Joel Loynds,Paul McNally Paul McNally
Copyright escapistmagazine
Junji Ito, the Japanese horror legend behind Uzumaki and various other spine-tingling works, is back in the video game space again. This time, it’s an addition to the Maniac anthology series, but instead of adapting previous work, it is a wholly new entry.
Titled Junji Ito Maniac: An Infinite Gaol (yes, it’s spelled right, Grammarly – it’s just ye olde English), it’s a modern horror title with the typical trappings found since Amnesia’s methods permeated the genre. Viewed from first person, early screenshots and clips show off how you’ll tackle the nightmares in the mansion the main characters find themselves in, including laying traps, hiding, and solving various puzzles.
There’s no official trailer just yet, or even a release date, just some GIFs embedded into the Steam store page and screenshots, but it seems very Junji Ito from the outset. College students are trapped in a terrible situation, with unexplainable monsters lurking around.
It’s not known, outside of using his name and typical style, how involved Ito is in the project. I’d suspect that the reported supervision of the mangaka is probably giving a thumbs up or down to certain aspects of the horror stuff.
Junji Ito and video games have never taken off
Despite his huge successes with his books, adapting Junji Ito’s works has been hit or miss. This doesn’t even get into the oddity that is his career in video games, where no one has successfully managed to either make a good game or even get one out the door.
Early games include a WonderSwan visual novel and a simulation game. That game, Uzumaki: Noroi Simulation, at least sounds interesting despite not being scary on its surface. Rather than simulate survival in the Uzumaki world, you’re set the task of spreading the spiral curse featured in the story.
Unfortunately, unless you’re fluent in Japanese, there’s been no work on getting a translation of the game going.
The Silent Hills incident
Notably, Junji Ito was collaborating with Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima. What was to become Silent Hills, introduced through the now legendary horror demo, P.T., would have brought Ito, Kojima, and Guillermo del Toro together for a collective work.
However, Kojima was unceremoniously fired from Konami before the project could really get going, and Ito has even stated that outside of the initial meeting, he never heard anything or worked on anything to do with it. They did go out for karaoke, though. From an interview:
“I don’t know anything about games. I don’t play them. I am afraid if I get into them I’ll miss deadlines. I have never played Silent Hill. I have known Hideo Kojima for 20 years. He is a nice older brother type.
“Once the Silent Hills meeting was over, we went to karaoke. I didn’t hear anything after that. I heard that the plan got scrapped through outside sources. I have seen Kojima and Del Toro since. I never started designing monsters. Nothing exists. There are no roughs or sketches.”
It seems like the Ito x Kojima project is dead in the water, with quotes from the last few years indicating that he was misunderstood:
“In a past interview, I said casually that I received an offer from Mr. Kojima, but in reality, it was a remark made at a party where he said, “If there is an opportunity, I may ask for your help”.
“I apologize to Mr. Kojima and all of the fans to whom I may have given false hope.”
That was in 2020, but since then, he’s appeared in both Death Stranding games in some fashion. The first, in 2019, had him appear as a character you make deliveries for. Death Stranding featured artwork that can be unlocked.
Don’t worry, there’s a Junji Ito Fortnite map
Of course, the fracking of culture that businesses do now has reached Ito. Dead by Daylight has featured several inspired designs for skins. Dead by Daylight’s Chinese competitor, Identity V, had a similar event, split into three different “stages”. There’s also a Fortnite island that was released around the same time as the Maniac anime.
Adapting Ito ranges from mid to bad
While Junji Ito’s works aren’t often the best when adapted (the less said about the Uzumaki anime, the better), it’s still highly recommended that you give them a read. There’s a reason he’s so highly regarded, as the way that Ito manages to get into your head through hyper-specific methods is unexplainable. Read The Enigma of Amigara Fault, and if that doesn’t make you just a little itchy in the brain, then ignore whatever I just said.
