Strange: Junji Ito's Tales for Sleepless Nights - Season 1

First aired: 7/4/2026 12 episodes

Junji Ito’s nightmares step into the real world in this live-action horror anthology. Across thirteen chilling tales, ordinary lives are pulled into the uncanny, where beauty becomes obsession, bodies betray their owners, and familiar places twist into something grotesque. From the fogbound terror of “Lovesickness” to stories of phantom pain, cursed music, and impossible transformations, each episode brings Ito’s singular imagination to life in flesh and blood.

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Episodes

1. Lovesickness (Part 1)

Aired: 7/4/2026

In a fogbound town, young women are obsessed with Tsujiura, a street fortune-telling ritual in which they ask a stranger at a crossroads whether their love will come true. Ryusuke returns after years away, still haunted by a dark memory tied to the ritual. At his new school, he reunites with his childhood friend Midori, only for a female student to die in a bizarre suicide after a Tsujiura encounter. Soon, rumors spread of a beautiful boy who appears at dusk, waiting in the fog.

2. The Bully

Aired: 7/11/2026

As a child, Kuriko was adored by a little boy named Naoya, who followed her everywhere in tears, desperate for her attention. But Kuriko grew to despise him and began to torment him. Years later, struggling with infertility and a failing marriage, she encounters Naoya again. As the two are drawn closer, the cruelty she once buried begins to resurface in a form she never could have imagined.

3. Episode 3

Aired: 7/18/2026

4. The Rib Woman

Aired: 7/25/2026

Like many young women, Yuri has a gnawing worry about her waistline. Online ads for rib-removal surgery seem to follow her everywhere, promising a smaller waist and a more delicate silhouette. She wishes she could be as slim as Ruriko, her brother’s beauty-queen girlfriend. But then one evening, Ruriko begins to unravel, claiming she is tormented every night by the sound of eerie, twanging music from nowhere. Can she alone hear it? No, Yuri can now hear it too, ever so faintly...

5. Episode 5

Aired: 8/1/2026

6. Episode 6

Aired: 8/8/2026

7. Old Records / Face Thief

Aired: 8/15/2026

Yūki is captivated by a mysterious record with no title, no singer, and no lyrics—only a melody unlike anything she has ever heard. Desperate to possess it, she steals the record from her friend and murders her. But as Yūki searches for a player, she realizes others are after it too: men who know what the record truly is. It’s Machida’s first day at her new high school, and the first thing she notices is the pair of girls in her class who are identical in appearance. One of the presumed twins, Kamei, immediately latches on to Machida, begging to become best friends. Machida finds this pathetic, but can’t seem to shake Kamei off. What she soon finds out, though, is that Kamei wants to take far more from her than just her time and attention.

8. Episode 8

Aired: 8/22/2026

9. Episode 9

Aired: 8/29/2026

10. Episode 10

Aired: 9/5/2026

11. Episode 11

Aired: 9/12/2026

12. Episode 12

Aired: 9/19/2026