Thirteen of Junji Ito’s most unsettling horror manga stories are getting the live-action treatment tonight, as Strange — Junji Ito’s Strange Stories for Sleepless Nights premieres on TV Tokyo’s “Drama 24” block. Produced by Global Stage Hollywood and TV Tokyo, it is the first major anthology series built specifically around Ito’s short-horror catalogue — and it’s opening with a K-pop twist Singapore fans will recognise immediately.
Thirteen Manga Stories, One Anthology
Strange adapts thirteen of Ito’s short horror manga across its run. Confirmed titles include Lovesickness, The Mansion of Phantom Pain, The Rib Woman, The Bully, Face Thief, A Father’s Love, Memory, In Old Records, Penpal, Further Tales of Oshikiri, Earthbound, and Tomio: Red Turtleneck — each adapted as its own self-contained episode with a new cast. The format suits Ito’s output perfectly: short stories built for maximum dread per page, no need for continuity across episodes.
Three directors share duties across the series — Atsuhiro Yamada, Yūta Shimotsu, and Ryōta Kondō — with scripts by Daisuke Hosaka (Sadako 3D 2) and Tatsurō Inamoto (Trigun Stampede, Pluto). The cast includes Nijirō Murakami in the premiere episode The Mansion of Phantom Pain, Kanata Hosoda across the multi-part Lovesickness (spanning episodes 2, 8 and 10), Yōko Maki in The Bully, and Wan Marui in Earthbound. An episode-order reshuffle announced on 28 June means the TV broadcast sequence now differs slightly from the original line-up.
IVE’s ‘Jigsaw’ and 10cm’s Ending Theme
The opening theme is “Jigsaw” by IVE — the K-pop group behind “After LIKE”, “I AM” and “Baddie”, and one of the most-streamed acts across Singapore right now. Pairing a K-pop vocal act with J-horror body-dread imagery is an unexpected call, but it tracks with the series’ co-production ambitions: this is clearly aimed at audiences beyond Japan’s domestic drama viewers. The ending theme, “The Darkest Night”, is by 10cm (Kwon Jeong-yeol), the South Korean singer-songwriter, bringing a quieter, more melancholic close to each episode.
World Premiere at Anime Expo 2026 — Tonight in LA
Before the TV broadcast airs in Japan, Strange gets its world premiere at Anime Expo 2026 in Los Angeles — the international premiere of Episode 1 and the world premiere of Episode 2, screening tonight (3 July) at 6:45 PM PDT at the 411 Theatre. The AX panel brings together Douglas Montgomery (Executive Producer, Global Stage Hollywood), Mayu Nobe (Producer, TV Tokyo), Kwok-Wai Hanson (CEO, Anime Trending), and director Rei. The fact that the series world-premieres in LA before its Japan TV slot signals a deliberate push for international attention rather than the usual “Japan first, rest of world eventually” model.
No Singapore Stream Confirmed Yet
For Singapore fans: no streaming deal for the region has been announced. The TV Tokyo broadcast airs tonight (3 July) at 11:12 PM SGT, with a second airing on BS TV Tokyo on 12 July. Given IVE’s involvement as opening theme artists, the US co-production structure, and the AX world premiere, an international streaming announcement feels like a matter of when, not if — but nothing is confirmed as of now. Keep an eye on our manga and anime coverage for any streaming updates as they drop. In the meantime, the official trailer above is the best taste of what’s coming.
