Posted in: Anime, Crunchyroll, TV | Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

Uzumaki: Is There a Commercial Scary Enough to Creep Out Junji Ito?

Published
by
|
Comments

Junji Ito is the reigning Master of Horror in Japanese manga. He has created thousands of pages of horror comics since the 1990s with various live-action movie, TV, and anime adaptations. We're still waiting for the new anime adaptation of his classic Lovecraftian horror series Uzumaki (translation: "Spiral") to hit this year, and he is the reigning Master of Body Horror since David Cronenberg has been less prolific in the last decade.

Junji Ito Forced to Watch Creepy Ads in Effort to Scare Him
Panel from "Uzumaki" by Junji Ito, Viz Media

So his US publisher Viz Media decides to show him a batch of creepy TV ads and asks him if he finds any of them scary. This is not the first time they have done this to him. This is all to promote him, his current new manga – for there are a few out right now – and the upcoming anime, but we have to wonder: Are they trying to torture Junji Ito?

But he takes it like a champ. Junji Ito-san is the most sanguine horror creator we've ever seen. But then, most horror creators are pretty laid-back dudes. David Cronenberg, John Carpenter, Guillermo del Toro, none of them are snarling, drooling maniacs. They never are. This is real life. They put the horror in their heads into their work. Thus, he can calmly deadpan whether these old ads are scary or not. Spoiler: they're more creepy than scary. And these are weird ads! They actually feature creepy creature imagery of the type you would find in a Junji Ito story. He must know that, but he's gracious about not pointing that part out. This includes the creepiest Humpty Dumpty we've ever seen. Why did Sony think using a creepy demon baby was the best spokes-creature for promoting the Playstation 3 back in the day? The gooey melty candy person is the kind of body horror creation you might find in a Junji Ito story about people falling victim to a curse or an infection that causes them to become all melty-like caramel. The next step is for them to get eaten. There used to be a lot of weirder advertisements in the 1990s and 2000s. Watch the video. Really. Seriously.

Meanwhile, we're still waiting for Uzumaki to premiere on Crunchyroll.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!

Adi TantimedhAbout Adi Tantimedh

Adi Tantimedh is a filmmaker, screenwriter and novelist. He wrote radio plays for the BBC Radio, “JLA: Age of Wonder” for DC Comics, “Blackshirt” for Moonstone Books, and “La Muse” for Big Head Press. Most recently, he wrote “Her Nightly Embrace”, “Her Beautiful Monster” and “Her Fugitive Heart”, a trilogy of novels featuring a British-Indian private eye published by Atria Books, a division Simon & Schuster.
twitter
Comments will load 20 seconds after page. Click here to load them now.