Reviews 3r154o

People made a big stink about the animations drop in quality after episode 1 when this first came out. I won't lie, it definitely drops off, and its pretty horrible in places, but id say it fits the corny horror vibe of Junji Ito very well. The vibe I got from the beginning was more of a horror comedy mix, at least I found myself laughing at most of the creepy things from the start, so the animation being stilted was more of a plus than a downside for me in that regard. Then again, Im really not much of a stickler for "good" animation generally, so if its a problem for you then fair enough.

I think people may take Junji Ito a bit too seriously if they think he was robbed by this adaptation. He's a bit like Stephen King in that he pumps out a ton of horror and his work has a surprising amount of depth, but hes not afraid to make you laugh and there's a sort of whimsical absurdity to what happens in his work.

That comedy also makes the disturbing parts all the more unsettling when they finally do hit. Different people may find different parts disturbing, but for me episode 3 was where things really started to freak me out (something that hasn't happened for me with horror media for a very long time) and I was fully with Kirie chan in experiencing the horrors of this world.

Id also like to praise Ito's sense of the balance between lore and horror. He keeps the lore simple and never lets the show get boring by discussing it too much. You're getting most of what you need to know through the imagery.

I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this and how well it maintained its unique atmosphere given the amount of bad press it got, and id recommend it to anyone looking for a good short horror anime.