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Live-Action Junji Ito Omnibus Series Unveils Teaser, Ending Song Artist, Anime Expo Premiere

TV Tokyo presented the teaser video, a key visual, and more details for Strange -Itō Junji no Yoru mo Nemurenu Kimyō na Hanashi- (Strange -Junji Ito's Strange Stories for Sleepless Nights), the live-action omnibus series based on 13 manga stories by Junji Ito, on Saturday.

10CM, the musical act that now consists of South Korean singer-songwriter Jeong-yeol Kwon, performs the ending theme song "The Darkest Night."

Anime Expo 2026 will screen the first two episodes of the series, "The Mansion of Phantom Pain" and "Lovesickness" (Part 1), in Los Angeles on July 3 at 6:45 p.m. (July 4 at 10:45 a.m. JST), and its schedule lists the series under the English titles "Junji Ito Masterpiece Collection" and "Junji Ito Masterpieces." Since only the first episode will have premiered on Japanese television by that point, the Anime Expo screening will be the world premiere of the second episode.

The adapted stories include "Lovesickness," "The Mansion of Phantom Pain," "The Rib Woman," "The Bully," "Face Thief," "A Father's Love," "Memory," "In Old Records," "Penpal," "Further Tales of Oshikiri," "Earthbound," and "Tomio: Red Turtleneck." All of these stories have been translated into English in various releases except for "In Old Records," which is featured in the Junji Ito "Collection" anime.

The series' title is an apparent reference to the original name of Asahi Shimbun's Nemuki+ magazine (Nemurenu Yoru no Kimyō Na Hanashi), where many of Ito's works appeared.

The cast includes (top row, left to right in the image below):

• Episode 1 "The Mansion of Phantom Pain" - Nijirō Murakami as Koseki
• Episode 2, 8, 10 "Lovesickness" (three parts) - Kanata Hosoda as Ryusuke Fukuda
• Episode 3 "The Bully"  - Yōko Maki as Kuriko
• Episode 4 "Earthbound" - Wan Marui as Yui Asano
• Episode 5 "A Father's Love" - Manato Sakamoto as Tsukasa Orihara

(second row, left to right):

• Episode 5 "A Father's Love" - Yoshizumi Ishihara as Endō
• Episode 6 "Tomio: Red Turtleneck" - Rairu Sugita as Tomio
• Episode 6 "Memory" - Riho Nakamura as Rie
• Episode 7 "In Old Records" - Hina Higuchi as Nakayama
• Episode 7 "Face Thief" - Nanami Yamazaki as Yumi Machida

(third row, left to right):

• Episode 9 "The Rib Woman" - Nagisa Saitō as Yuri
• Episode 11 "Further Tales of Oshikiri" (also based on "Penpal") - Jun Saitō as Tōru Oshikiri
• Episode 12 "Lingering Farewell" - Yuri Tsunematsu as Akiko

Atsuhiro Yamada, Yūta Shimotsu, and Ryōta Kondō are directing the series, with scripts overseen by Daisuke Hosaka (Sadako 3D 2, BELA: Humanoid Monster). Tatsurō Inamoto (Trigun Stampede, Pluto, Supernatural: The Anime Series) is also a scriptwriter on the project.

South Korean group IVE is performing the series' opening theme song "Jigsaw."

The series will premiere in the TV Tokyo channel's "Drama 24" programming block on July 3 at 24:12 (effectively, July 4 at 12:12 a.m.), and on BS TV Tokyo on July 12.

Pan-Asian film and entertainment studio Through the Lens Entertainment and horror brand Fangoria Studios are collaborating to produce films based on Ito's "The Mystery of the Haunted House" Parts 1 and 2, and "Bloodsucking Darkness."

Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre, a new anime based on 20 different Ito stories, debuted worldwide on Netflix in January 2024. Ito's Uzumaki manga also inspired a four-episode anime mini-series that premiered on Toonami in September 2024.

Junji Ito "Collection", a previous television anime of manga by Ito, also adapted stories from the Itō Junji Kessaku-shū collection, as well as the Fragments of Horror book. The anime premiered in January 2018 and had 12 episodes. Crunchyroll streamed the series with English subtitles as it aired in Japan, and Funimation streamed an English dub. The anime included an adaptation of Ito's Tomie story on its second and third DVD sets.

Sources: Strange's official website, Comic Natalie