Junji Ito Collection - Episode 9 (Review)

By RaeNine episodes in, we’ve found ourselves at the Junji Ito character many of us have been waiting for – Tomie. One of Ito’s most revisited characters, Tomie is a young woman who mysteriously inspires obsession in people (often ending in tragedy).The story selected for this episode was Painter. Mori is a famous painter, who meets Tomie at an exhibition of his work. Tomie comments that his model is rather silly, and offers to take her place. Later, she shows up at his home and chases his model, Nana, off by telling her that Mori wants to replace her. At first he’s upset, but after realizing he can paint Tomie, Mori begins working on her portrait. Tomie says that she wants a lasting image of her beauty, but that no artist has ever been able to capture it. She tells Mori his painting is nothing close to what she looks like, and leaves. Soon he becomes obsessed with capturing her image. Meanwhile, Tomie has moved on to a sculptor, who says she belongs to him now… In the second story of the episode, Blood Bubble Bushes, a couple’s car crashes in the wilderness, seemingly far from any towns. After asking a few strange children for help, Ansai and Kana are chased down by them. The boys attack Kana and drink some of her blood. Eventually they make their way to a deserted village, whose only inhabitant tells a sad story about the death of his depressed girlfriend. However, Ansai finds that the man is hiding some secrets….Both stories were well-paced adaptations, and I was impressed that they managed to make such short segments not feel rushed at all (as some stories previously have). Introducing Tomie with Painter – from part 2 of the collected Tomie stories – was an interesting choice. I rather enjoyed it, but I also went in knowing who and what Tomie is, so everything already made sense to me. Throughout most of this series one good aspect has been the voice acting, which I’ve thought was plenty believable in a horror series. That said… Tomie’s laugh is the most grating sound I’ve heard since Naga from Slayers. Not necessarily any fault of the actress, probably – it seemed to fit Tomie’s rather unhinged character.I would also like to call attention to the fact that the still paintings shown in this episode are gorgeous, which just makes the regular art and animation quality much more obvious. Which brings me to my takeaway so far… Junji Ito Collection is an interesting way to relive Ito’s stories. But it’s not the show I was hoping for. When a manga gets an anime adaptation, I think a lot of us watch in hopes of seeing our favourite stories brought to life. I don’t feel like I’m getting a different experience from the manga with Junji Ito Collection. I feel like I’m re-experiencing the stories, but that there’s nothing bringing me back besides those story plotlines, which I could easily get from reading. Week after week, I’m not sure what there is to say about this series – there hasn’t been much improvement on the visual front, though the adaptations are pretty accurate.For those who haven’t experienced Ito, it’s an easy way to get a good sampling of his stories. For those that already are familiar with them, the impressions seem to be hit or miss. I do think it’s worth checking out – it’s an anthology series, so you won’t need to invest a whole lot of time or effort into it.As for us… we’ll be taking a hiatus from weekly reviews of Junji Ito Collection, starting now. But we’ll be back to provide a series wrap-up at the end of the season!You can catch Junji Ito Collection on Crunchyroll, Fridays at 10:30!