Junji Ito Collection - Episodes 7 & 8 (Review)

By: RaeDue to unexpected circumstances, we’re back this week with two episodes of Junji Ito Collection to go over! In Used Record, Nakayama inexplicably becomes obsessed with her friend Ogawa’s record. She attempts to steal it, leading to a violent fight between the girls in an alleyway. In the scuffle, Nakayama accidentally kills Ogawa, and leaves with her new record to go buy a record player. The shop owner insists that Nakayama stole his record, and tries to take it back. She hides in a jazz club, hoping to play the record, and comes across a patron who tells her the true story behind its creation. However… the bar patron is after the record too…. In Town of No Roads, Saiko dreams of a classmate confessing his love to her, but it turns into a nightmare when a man calling himself Jack the Ripper appears and kills him. The next day, the classmate is found dead. Things get stranger when Saiko’s family begins spying on her. They peep through her doors and even drill holes into her wall and ceiling. No longer able to take the bizarre behaviour, she decides to go to her aunt’s home. When she arrives, she finds herself in a strange town where the residents must walk through buildings to get anywhere. As a result, everyone is expected to leave their homes open and available. Saiko soon sees the unnerving effect this has on the townspeople… In Honored Ancestor, Risa has amnesia, and her friend Shuichi is trying his best to take care of her in the meanwhile. He invites her to his house, where she starts feeling uneasy. Shuichi’s father is adamant that the two must be married – it turns out Risa promised to marry Shuichi sometime before her memory loss. When she leaves, she feels full of dread and doesn’t want to return to the house. Soon, Shuichi comes to see Risa, insisting she come over because his father is dying and wants to speak with her one last time. When they arrive, Risa discovers the truth behind Shuichi’s family – and the reason for her initial case of shock. In The Circus Comes to Town, a young man named Yoshiyuki visits a circus show that seems to be plagued by dark accidents. However, he soon sees a beautiful young woman that he’s been curious about. The ringmaster offers her hand in marriage to anyone who survives his acts…Surprisingly, the art and animation actually seem to have gone down in quality this time around – something I noticed several commenters mention as well. It’s really a shame too, with The Circus Comes to Town having so much colour. I would have loved to see the contrast between the dark and dreary stories and the bright, colourful performances that are no less horrific.The story arrangements have been quite good – I think the Shuichi stories are the only ones I haven’t really enjoyed that much. Overall, these have been some mostly faithful adaptations of excellent stories.Junji Ito Collection is still doing a good job at carrying out the disjointed, unsettling visions of Ito’s works, and for that it’s certainly entertaining. But there’s a lot that, at this point, I wish would change. It’s a show I’ll keep watching and it’s even introduced me to a couple stories that I hadn’t read yet, but with so many corners cut in the visuals, it’s hard to really call Junji Ito Collection a success at this point.Catch Junji Ito Collection on Fridays at 10:30, on Crunchyroll!