What are they cooking? Slitterhead devs seemingly tease something Junji Ito-related

Slitterhead fans think its developer is teasing some sort of collaboration with famed manga author Junji Ito.

Yesterday, September 28, Bokeh Game Studio simply tweeted out the image below, accompanied by no caption or any other information. The image doesn't really give much away - the smile from the person isn't even creepy or anything! - but Slitterhead fans reckon the image is from Junji Ito's Tomie manga.

pic.twitter.com/C7VKhgbasCSeptember 28, 2023

First published by Ito between 1987 and 2000, Tomie is a series about the titular woman, Tomie Kawakami, who is murdered again and again, but always reappears. Tomie possesses a power whereby she can easily seduce men, but this seduction always leads to brutal acts of violence, where men typically kill either her, or each other.

The manga series has a bit of a cult following around the world, and has been the source of heaps of praise for Ito. There have been a grand total of nine film adaptations in one series based on Tomie, and in 2019, The Hills Have Eyes director Alexandre Aja revealed he would be making a TV series based on the manga series (this was effectively killed a year later when Quibi shut down).

This cult status for Tomie is what's got many Bokeh Game Studio followers excited. "yooo. What ya doing with Tomie?" writes one fan on Twitter, while another adds "Is this a mf Junji Ito reference??????" People are really jazzed about a potential collaboration with one of the most prolific horror authors ever, and who can blame them?

It could be that Bokeh Game Studio is having Ito in for a video interview, instead of working on Slitterhead directly with him. Studio head Keiichiro Toyama loves getting guests in for a chat as part of the studio's 'Golden Hour' series on YouTube. You can see one episode with Danganronpa creator Kazutaka Kodaka just below, and other episodes have featured Shinji Mikami, Hideaki Itsuno, and Shuhei Yoshida.

Ever since Silent Hills was canned, Ito has sort of shot to a new level of fame with the video game crowd around the world. If they can't have whatever he was cooking with Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro, maybe another studio can step in and cook something new with him.

Check out our new games 2023 guide for a look at all the other upcoming titles of the near future, horror or otherwise.

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.