BODY: There is something delightfully unsettling about dropping onto a battle royale island only to find Junji Ito's most iconic monster waiting for you. On July 18, 2026, NetEase Games kicked off a limited-time crossover between its long-running battle royale "Knives Out" (known in Japan as Kōya Kōdō) and the TV anime adaptation of Junji Ito Collection.
The headline draws are two character skins pulled straight from the horror master's pages. First is Tomie, the beautiful, immortal femme fatale whose very existence drives the people around her to madness and murder. Second is the Handsome Crossroads Boy (Yotsutsuji no Bishōnen), the eerie fortune-telling figure from one of Ito's more atmospheric short tales. Seeing both rendered as playable operators is a genuinely surreal proposition.
The collaboration extends well past character costumes. NetEase is rolling out weapon skins and vehicles themed around each character, alongside other crossover-exclusive items available only during the event window. For a game whose core loop is fast, tense gunplay, the injection of body-horror aesthetics gives the battlefield an unexpected mood.
Junji Ito's work has enjoyed a steady global renaissance, and pairing his slow-burn dread with a competitive shooter is exactly the kind of tonal collision that mobile crossovers thrive on.
The insider take
In Japan, Kōya Kōdō remains a mobile juggernaut with a fiercely loyal player base, and NetEase has mastered the art of the anime tie-in as a re-engagement tool. What makes this one notable from Tokyo is the choice of property: Junji Ito is prestige horror, not the usual shonen crowd-pleaser. It signals confidence that the game's audience skews older and culturally curious — and that Ito's brand now carries enough mainstream weight to headline a mass-market battle royale. Expect the Tomie skin to move serious in-game currency.
Originally reported by 4Gamer.net − 最新記事 (Japanese).