Undisputed King Of Horror Manga Junji Ito Returning To Gaming With ‘Junji Ito Maniac: An Infinite Gaol’
Softstar Entertainment, the ones behind such video games as The Legend of Sword and Fairy and the Xuan-Yuan Sword series, are spiraling into the horror genre with their upcoming project, Junji Ito Maniac: An Infinite Gaol (Old English for “jail”). The Taiwan-based gaming developer has revealed that they will be adapting the works of horror master, Junji Ito (Uzumaki), into a first-person survival horror game based off of the anime anthology series, Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre.
The anime series aired on Netflix in 2023, and it adapted 20 of Ito’s stories, which include Sōichi, The Hanging Balloons, and his classic series, Tomie. Instead of adapting one of those stories, Softstar plans to structure a brand new tale that will bring them all together for one big Japanese monster mash. The project is still in its fetal stages, and there isn’t even a trailer for it (let alone a release date), but the game’s synopsis has been unveiled over on Steam.
“Our story begins with a college student waking up in a mysterious Western-style mansion filled with uncanny statues, trap doors, and spooky mechanisms. To make matters worse…he can’t seem to remember much of anything. The only clues he has are a shattered phone and scattered fragments of memory. As he explores the creepy building, he encounters a stunning young woman who also claims to be trapped inside the mansion and a rather austere female detective who’s investigating a case. The three decide to team up, hoping to crack endless riddles and traps as they flee for their lives and search for a way out.”
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“But that’s not all,” it continues. “As their exploration deepens, terrifying anomalies—like floating human-head balloons and maniacal black hair—begin to emerge, driving the protagonist further into despair. And all the while, an imperceptible but ominous change appears to be quietly taking root within him. Armed only with scattered clues and fractured memories, he must face the unsettling truth that awaits at the end of this harrowing journey…”
This isn’t the first time that the disturbing world of Junji Ito has invaded the gaming sphere, but the finished products were even more horrific than the stories, Glyceride, and The Thing That Drifted Ashore. Uzumaki: Denshi Kaiki Hen and Uzumaki: Noroi Simulation were both released in 2000 on the WonderSwan handheld console. Neither game received high praise whatsoever upon release, but they’re impossible to find outside of Japan anyway. Then there’s the aborted Silent Hill project that would’ve had him teaming with acclaimed director, Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy, Cronos), but none of this seems to concern Mr. Ito, who has better things to do than massage an overpriced hunk of plastic all day.
“I don’t know anything about games,” he said during an interview in 2019. “I don’t play them. I am afraid if I get into them, I’ll miss deadlines. I have never played Silent Hill.”
Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre is available to stream on Netflix, and the superior Junji Ito Collection is over on Crunchyroll.
