Manga artist Junji Ito is known for having done some of the best horror manga out there. Out of all of them Uzumaki's probably the most well known one. The series ran for 3 volumes from 1998 to 1999 and over the years has become quite a classic. So in honor of October and all I decided to give it a read.

Uzumaki tells about obscure events taking place in a small Japanese town. These events are presented through mostly separate stories that have the same main character, Kirie observing them. But Kirie isn't the only link between all of the absurd cases as it turns out they all have some kind of connection to spirals.

The story starts off with fairly traditional horror themes when people close to Kirie start getting involved with all kind of spirals. For the first half of the manga every chapter is basically a different tragedy with a different way of bringing spirals to it. And they cover a lot of different forms of spirals from snails and tree trunks to hurricanes and the skin on fingertips.

These stories are not realistic as there are some plot-holes, like why
everyone doesn't just leave the cursed town, but they offer concepts that make you think. Every occurrence is interesting and there's always an unsettling tone present which is mostly thanks to the wonderfully disturbing art-style.

While Uzumaki has fearsome themes, it's never quite scary. The story varies from scenes that are quite upsetting to ones that are just kind of hilarious. And it's this sense of obscure comedy that makes me how much of it is intentional.

Around the second half or the manga the story starts to change a bit. Suddenly the conflicts carry over from chapter to another and there's an overarching story with quite a step up on the stakes. But weirdly enough, to me this felt like the most lacking part in it's entirety. he previously nightmarish tone is replaced with intense catastrophe-type action sequences that just don't feel like they're complimenting what the story was good at.

Fortunately towards the end it goes back to the original pace. The whole story is concluded in a way, that without spoiling anything, completely fits the narrative and quite literally ties it all together. However considering the varying ways the spirals were around in early chapters I was left with a feeling that more of those elements could have been brought back as relevant plot points towards the end.

To me it would have benefited from some more consistency in themes and plot. Also the main character could use some personality so that her reactions to all this weird stuff wouldn't be so neutral.

In the end it's definitely worth checking out if you're looking for something different that's less about realism or plot but more about conversing themes through obscure situations. Although a fan of more traditional horror might find it too amusing to take as seriously frightening.