First of all, while it is a faithful adaptation of Junji Ito's short stories, that is simply not enough. The essence of Ito's manga is not exactly in the stories themselves, it is in the presentation. While they are good stories reminiscent of urban legends, they do not feel as anything more than that. Urban legends told by children at a playground. Without Ito Junji's way of telling these stories, they lose all the things that make them exceptional. This brings me to my next point: the art.
Oh the animation. It is absolutely dreadful. The lines are strange, thick, uneven and heavy; the colours are dull and utterly uninteresting; and the movement is lacking. Honestly, sometimes it looks like paper cutouts being dragged around in front of a still background. It is lazy, uninspired and ugly. The way the characters are drawn especially. While, I believe, the beauty of certain characters in Ito's manga serves an important purpose: to enhance the presentation of the horrors shown in the stories. On one hand, their beauty strengthens the contrast between the main characters and the monsters they encounter. In other cases, the beauty of an evil character can appear otherworldly and creepy. But whichever case we are talking about does not matter when it comes to this anime, as the characters just don't look all that beautiful at all. They look awkward, their faces seem off - and not in a creepy Junji Ito way -, and the lazy linework combined with dull colours does not do them any good either. Luckily, the dreadful art is the worst part of this anime, all other aspects are decent at the least. And after the worst aspect follows the best.
Here's a thing I actually loved about this show: the sound. For the most part. What got me to watch this anime aside from the fact that it is a Junji Ito adaptation was the OP. It is energetic, memorable and very cool. Though I am not sure if it is a great match for the mood of Junji Ito's manga, and definitely nothing like the actual anime. The ending surprised me by being even better. It is just the right amount of calming after an episode that was (supposed to be) stirring, while it keeps a sense of strangeness to fit the source material. It is quite a lovely song, I never actually once skipped the ED. As for the general soundtrack, it was nothing special. Just your average creepy ambient music. When there even was any music. This I honestly didn't really mind. While it could've been done a lot better in order to enhance the creepiness of the stories told, this at least was not absolutely terrible.
The voice acting, while criticized by many was quite good in my opinion. The voices were fitting to the characters (I especially enjoy the fashion model's voice), and while they did sound strange at points, mostly they seemed natural and fit the rather dull and mundane design of the show well. It's important to mention that the voice actors did not have much to work with, as there was not too much personality to most characters depicted (except for the few whose personality was an important factor). Which normally would be fine, Junji Ito is not beloved for his character development. The characters are supposed to be there to be a witness of the terrible, inexplicable happenings around them. Shells whose shoes we could place ourselves and our friends into. As I said, normally this would not be an issue in a Junji Ito story. But in the case of this adaptation the boring and lifeless characters just add to the dull and gray feeling the show emits.
Despite everything, I enjoyed this anime enough to keep watching all 12 episodes. Though I don't believe I would've kept watching if it was any longer. Perhaps I enjoyed being reminded of all the good reads I had before. Maybe the anime did a good job at enhancing the more humorous side of Junji Ito's manga that sometimes appears. I honestly can't say if I would have enjoyed this anime more or less if I hadn't read a portion of the source material. I would argue that without any pre-established connection to the stories, you'll find nothing enjoyable in this anime. On the other hand, it's faults might bother you less if you don't get your expectations high after the manga. I do not know whether you will enjoy it, but I say if it doesn't seem worth watching after two or three episodes just drop it. It is not going to increase in quality the least bit.
Overall, I gave this anime a rating of 4 (Decent). I considered giving it the 'Poor' rating, but I decided this might not be as bad. It was not laughably terrible, nor was it unwatchable. It just felt unmotivated and seemingly made on a very low budget. Therefore I came to the conclusion it was decent.
Now to summarize my points: My biggest issue was with the lazy animation, awkward artwork and dreadful colour design. Otherwise I found the show painfully average and uninteresting, not in any way reaching the greatness of the source material. The OP and ED are definitely worth listening to though, as they are great songs, completely unfitting to a dull anime such as this one. I am not saying you should avoid this anime at all costs, but if you feel like dropping it after a few episodes, do so, there is nothing worth staying for.
