Junji Ito Maniac – Season 1 Episode 7 Recap & Review

Tomb Town

Episode 7 of Junji Ito Maniac starts with Tsuyoshi and his sister Kaoru off on a road-trip. They eventually head away from the coast and begin tearing up the forest roads. They’re going much too fast and they end up hitting a girl out in the middle of the road. The pair are shocked and scramble to put her in their car, intent on taking her to the hospital. Only, she’s not breathing.

With the girl dead, Tsuyoshi decides they should just pass through the nearby town and bury the body some place out in the mountains. When they drive in town though, a whole bunch of tombs happen to be in the middle of the road. With the road blocked and the body stuffed in their trunk, they’re stuck with this big predicament hanging over them.

Now, it turns out Tsuyoshi is really there to see a girl called Izumi for their summer break, where we learn that these gravestones are actually placed at the exact places where people die. At the hospital, bodies are taken outside so they can pass peacefully and a gravestone erected in their place, inexplicably growing from the deceased’s belly.

Izumi tells them that it’s best to leave a body where it’s found dead otherwise it’ll never rest in peace. Given what’s transpired, it soon becomes apparent to the siblings that the person they hit is Ayumi, Izumi’s sister. A big manhunt gets underway in town to try and find her, while Tsuyoshi and Kaoru do their best to try and blend in and search for her too.

A giant eerie well could prove the solution. Apparently souls that can’t rest peacefully (ie. being bundled in the back of someone’s trunk) could well find themselves in the well, which appears to have no end.

Izumi clearly has suspicions regarding her two visitors, especially when she notices bloodstains on the backseat of the car. When they drop the body into the well, Tsuyoshi ends up experiencing horrific visions from Ayumi’s half-turned body, pointing at him as the culprit.

Tsuyoshi is consumed by guilt and eventually begins turning himself, with a cut becoming infected. Stones materialize over his body and he ends up stuck in a state of permanent metamorphosis. As for Izumi, after telling her parents what has happened, all three of them decide to commit suicide, leaving behind their belongings – along with Ayumi’s bracelet she found earlier in the episode. With empty pill bottles, crashing and grinding can be heard from the well.

The Episode Review

These longer episodes have definitely been the stand-outs of the whole anthology and Tomb Town is no exception. There’s lots to like here, with a solid premise, some really intriguing characters and a trademark Ito art-style. The whole episode is so beautifully poised in exploring ideas like death, grief and guilt, blending them into a larger story that works surprisingly well.

This is another stand-out in the whole collection and there’s lots to like here.