‘Fortnite’s ‘Junji Ito Maniac’ Crossover Is Delightfully Unhinged

Fortnite players can now enter the twisted mind of horror manga icon Junji Ito in official Creative Mode content for the Netflix anime series Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre. It contains a creepy house, headless statues in an abandoned school, and floating heads over a city at night.

Neighbor Metaverse Studios created five maps for 1–4 players on the “Junji Ito Haunted House” island as a promotion for Junji Ito Maniac, which is currently streaming on Netflix. The series consists of 12 individual episodes adapting some of Ito’s most iconic stories, and Neighbor’s accompanying Fortnite content features some of the monsters depicted.

Much like their source material, the “Junji Ito Haunted House” Fortnite maps are delightfully unhinged. There’s nothing else like this in the game, despite developer Epic Games collaborating with more than 50 brands, celebrities, influencers, and studios across four chapters of Fortnite. Ito’s style of horror stands out because it’s macabre, absurd, whimsical, and make-your-skin-crawl scary all at once. That’s definitely present in Neighbor’s Creative Mode content.

Although this content isn’t technically Fortnite-official, it is being promoted under “Epic’s Picks” in-game, and it is an official Netflix collaboration.

Some fans are speculating this to mean that Epic Games and Netflix may work together again after the streaming service canceled a license for Stranger Things, resulting in show cosmetics being removed from Fortnite. The streaming service also canceled its license with Behaviour Interactive’s Dead By Daylight. That’s likely because Netflix announced last year that it will enter the gaming sphere with its own IP, after years of claiming its biggest competitor is Fortnite itself … so we’ll see.

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In the interim, Neighbor’s Ito island is a clear indicator that Epic can go even further with its official collaborations to incorporate more genres and artistic styles. To access the “Junji Ito Haunted House” maps in Fortnite, players can add it to their playlist or enter code 9800-8851-4190 under the “Island Code” tab in the mode menu.

(featured image: Epic Games)