Junji Ito Maniac – Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Review

Intruder / Long Hair In The Attic

Intruder

Episode 5 of Junji Ito Maniac starts with a guy digging up a body, buried in the mud. As the camera pans down, it appears to be his double. The other students at school sense a strange spirit lurking nearby, as if it’s from another dimension. As they intend to look at a book on the Bermuda Triangle, it turns out Oshikiri is actually reading it.

He soon makes friends with the three other students sitting on the table alongside him, and they’re fascinated by the strange tales of his house. Apparently Oshikiri can hear footsteps lurking about and he encourages the others to head with him back home so they can see for themselves.

Oshikiri nonchalantly invites them in, making them all some tea. After showing them around, Kamiyama (one of the kids) is convinced that it’s possible this area is a gateway to another dimension. Jut before shaking hands, the clock suddenly chimes, the front door slams shut and those ominous footsteps sound.

Outside, someone happens to be digging… it’s Oshikiri. Or at least his double. He seems to have killed someone in the alternate dimension and is burying them in our dimension. Our Oshikir is not happy and confronts his double, leaning out the window and shouting at him. Suddenly, he disappears after pointing a finger and chuckling at them.

When he dissipates, it turns out the corpse happens to be Kamiyami from the other dimension. Unfortunately, the other two kids are also corpses here too. As they all begin to bury the bodies again, more footsteps echo in Oshikiri’s mind.

Long Hair In The Attic

The other tale in this collection begins with Chiemi out with her boyfriend, who’s unhappy about her pestering him regarding his cigarette smoking and has now grown cold and distant. Eventually he tells her to leave and encourages her to lose his number.

Chiemi eventually heads home, annoyed at the rats scurrying around up in the attic, and eventually sobbing, remembering all the moments she spent with her boyfriend. That’s over now, and despite all those beautiful moments on the beach together, her boyfriend’s changed demeanour is just too much to bear and she decides she needs her hair cut.

Screams from Chiemi’s room sends her sister, Eri, inside who screams and is in shock as Chiemi’s mutilated, bloodied body happens to be lying on the floor. Things take a turn for the worst later on though, when Eri’s father heads up into the attic and is shocked by what he’s seen.

Chiemi’s head is strung up on the ceiling, while she appears to be controlled by her locks of hair, which has a mind of its own. The head bobbles downstairs, heading outside and eventually controls Chiemi’s ex-boyfriend, contorting and twisting his body until he explodes.

The Episode Review

The two tales this time around flirt with interesting ideas and on the whole, the stories are pretty satisfying and at least have decent endings, unlike the previous chapter.

This anthology has been pretty good overall, although some episodes have definitely been better than others. The ones that depict one tale across the full 20 minutes are easily the stand-outs compared to the two separate stories, with Hanging Balloons the best of the bunch.

The trademark Junji Ito tone and feel are definitely evident to see and the art style on the whole is great across the board.