Uzumaki

Recommended to me by @Rory.

This manga was demented, insane, deranged. Junji Ito knows how to convey a creepy and disturbing story. I wouldn't say it was scary for me, but some stories made me feel uneasy.

The imagery was quite grotesque and explicit. The mental states of the characters transmitted the obsession and madness, more than the actual town did. I like how the curse had its own way to get into people, the different manners it could ramified, perverting, tangling and twisting all around it.

I didn't like the main lead, Kirie Goshima, her decisions and actions didn't seem to fit the experience she was having. More often that not, I found her to be a damsel-in-distress type, who needed constant rescue.

But I enjoyed Shuichi Saito, for being the outcast who knew (or felt, or sense) the evil and tried to warn everyone else, even if that meant wearing the freak tag. How do you know you're sane when you're surrounded by insanity?

I love symbolism as much as I love metaphors. I love how art can represent the darkest parts of human nature. I'm not sure if seeing spirals with trigger the hell out of me, but I'm sure I'll remember this manga. I'm looking at you Fibonacci ¬¬

The art is beautiful and just nightmare fuel. I really cared about the main characters Kirie and Shuichi. Chie was a good character but was rushed and shoved into the plot. The story was disturbing, but I felt that there were too many plot holes. Some plot holes really didn't make sense and I felt cheated at times by the way characters unnaturally reacted to certain situations. I didn't like some of the choices taken and the creepy stuff that gets established but gets underused. One chapter out of nowhere turns into a shonen which caught me off guard. The manga is creepy, but the plot really disinterested me.

Story:

This is something that should be a recurring theme for all horror stories. Not just gore and jump scares for the sake of trying to frighten people. Horror should be unsettling and make you feel disturbed. That is exactly what this Manga does. It starts of at a slow and casual pace though I admit by the sixth or seventh chapter, I started wondering about the characters and why they weren't doing something about a certain moment that would have definitely gotten the public's attention. It wasn't until the next set of chapters that I realized they wouldn't have been able to do to certain other part of the ongoing plot. Most of each chapter is a short story of creepy yet creative themes and scary imagery that genuinely makes my skin crawl. Everything involves spirals in some way which can be found in animals, plants, inanimate objects and even with mundane things that involve spirals or things relating to causing spirals. I.E. Spinning, swirling, circling etc. and all of it do with a curse set upon the town of Kurozuo-Cho.

Art:

The style of this manga's art is fitting for the undertones of what terror you witness as the story progresses. It captures the moments where you see any of the shocking illustrations. The spirals were seen many times but remained fresh with the themes of whatever parts of the plot they were about and the creativity behind what they looked like as well as the symbolism was equally well written. The characters facial reactions or expressions were matching with the moments of whenever they're worried, afraid, saddened or losing their minds. All of it was pleasing to see even if I shuddered at some points.

Character:

All the cast might not be the strongest part but still necessary. If nothing else, they did respond to moments I feel would be correct for whatever dangers or challenges to their psyche they were faced with.

Kirie Goshima is the main character and is seen the most but what amazes me is how good she manages to stay throughout the series even when she's faced with difficult choices or dangerous situations. That's not an easy thing to accomplish and I commend her for staying sane through the whole story.

Her friend and main love interest Shuichi Saito is the first to be scarred by the events caused from the curse only because of who was placed under it and throughout the series might struggle the most while attempting to survive like Kirie. I feel if it weren't for her, he would have fallen victim much sooner.

Enjoyment:

Without spoiling too much, the way it ends may not be everyone's cup of tea but it didn't ruin the personal experience for myself. It just depends on the person, I feel. Whether or not you thought it was good, the entire journey is likely to make you anxious and perturbed if you're not somebody with nerves of steel.

Overall: 8/10

I can't really give this manga a high score not because it isn't good but because I didn't enjoy it. I didn't enjoy it not because it's bad but because of the feeling it gave me after reading it.

Be ready to be disgusted and gross out with this manga and blurt out swear words multiple times. The story is quite unique I guess but there are parts of it that made me shake my head and laugh because of the absurdity of it.

So if you're planning to read this, just don't make a mistake of eating food while reading, it's not really a good idea LMAO

Before I started reading this, I thought books couldn't be scary. Well, I was wrong. Although I'm easily scared, Uzumaki really is creepy. I think it's mostly the dark and realistic art style that does that, but also the story. This manga made me realize the horror genre is not for me :).

Story: 7/10
I think all of Junji Ito's stories are very creative and unique, and Uzumaki is no exception. It starts out fairly normal and gets creepier and more weird the further you get in the story. At a certain point it got a little predictable though, but the ending still surprised me and creeped me out.

Art: 8/10
I personally think the art is the best part of this manga. The art style is very realistic, which I think makes it a lot creepier. It makes it feel like it could happen in the real world (luckily it can't!). I also liked that there's quite a lot of colored pages in this manga.

Character: 6/10
I rated the characters relatively low, because I didn't really bond with any of them. I think a lot of the characters didn't have a lot of personality and some of them looked so alike, sometimes I couldn't even tell them apart.

Enjoyment: 7/10
Did I enjoy reading this manga? That's a hard question to answer. It was definitly too scary for me, yet I couldn't stop reading. It didn't feel like I enjoyed it and I'll probably never buy a horror manga again. Yet I think if you like the horror genre, you will definitely enjoy this manga.

Overall: 7/10
Overall I rated this manga a 7. Horror is really not my favorite genre, but that's no reason to rate it low. It really is a good story with great art. So if you like horror manga, definitely give this one a try!

Uzumaki is truly a one of a kind work, completely [BAD WORD] beautiful. Ito Junji's way of making an odd concept the center of a horror series is so captivating. I'm gonna break it into a few categories:

ART: Ito Junji has the (not arguable) BEST artwork in horror manga. He manages to use the layout of the page to the fullest keeping the horror moving throughout the pages. Uzumaki is about spirals (thats the easiest way to put it) and a town being affected by it. It is hard to talk about art without spoiling the experience but holy lolis it is gruesome and gut wrenching throughout. 10/10

HORROR: Spirals aren't inherently scary so a horror manga about them may seem quiet odd. It is, and very worth your read. Ito Junji is best known for short stories, and that carries into Uzumaki heavily. Every chapter has a mostly contained main spook, but it works since each chapter is given enough attention for this to be managable. 9/10

STORY: Honestly one of the low points of the series, YET is still very good. Watching the town slowly get more corrupted will most definitely keep you interested until its all over. You're not gonna get spoilers from me, go read this one. 9/10

VERDICT: Just go read it, its a masterpiece. 10/10

In many ways, Uzumaki is one of the best horror mangas ever. However, it has some flaws that could be fixed to make the story a true masterpiece. Here are the pros and cons of Uzumaki.


Pros:
- Amazing concept
- Beautiful art
- For the most part has amazing storyline
- Really uses the page turn to it's advantage
- Makes something familiar dreadful
- Quite scary in most cases

Cons:
- ending needs more and reason
- some chapters are more weird than scary
- some characters need more of a backstory


So, in conclusion, it could be a masterpiece but a few issues keep it in the 9 category.

This Manga is a true Masterpiece, it starts slow and almost comical as it takes the subject of spirals as its main horror element , but as the story progresses, it draws you in it. After a while, it gets very difficult to stop reading due to the excitement and at the same time very difficult to continue reading due to the horror, gore and the feeling of hopelessness the manga throws at you.


I would highly recommend it to any one looking for a short good horror/thriller manga.

Things I disliked / liked : Once you move forward in any story, every manga faces the challenge of, how to make the villain or the opposing force more powerful and not cross the line, that it becomes completely unrealistic and pulls the reader out of the narrative. This manga also deals with this issue, but it is able to hold you in the narrative even if the horror inspired by spirals (seriously just geometric shapes) continues to escalate. Kudos to the author for that.

Uzumaki is a horror manga written and illustrated by critically acclaimed horror artist Ito, Junji and in anticipation of the upcoming anime adaption I decided to give it a read.

The story is set in a small town of Kurouzu-cho, following a young girl Goshima, Kirie and her boyfriend Saito, Suuichi as their town and the residents are being plagued and driven to madness by the “spiral curse”.

Uzumaki’s core horror focus are spirals, the various supernatural tragedies related to them and the madness the residents succumb to. On first hearing it makes you wonder how such a concept could work for horror, but Junji Ito finds various creative ways of doing so, it is very commendable. Successfully and creatively being able to visually disturb the reader on various degrees.

A very efficient horror technique that Junji Ito uses and is without a doubt better than any author I’ve seen before is body horror. Body horror the disturbing and horrifying imagery regarding the human body. I have struggled to find an artist that is able to make as horrifying examples as Junji Ito.

It works to his favor even more with the fantastic artwork, when nothing is happening the artwork looks average, but when it wants to disturb you or show detail landscape, it looks exceptional.

Uzumaki is fairly short being only 3 volumes long, volumes 1-2 have an episodic structure each having a different horror theme focus but in entirety all are connected by the spiral curse. While the last volume is an arc of the characters attempting to escape from the town. I did find it a bit baffling how the main characters only decided on escaping once there was no way of escaping despite all the horrific stuff they have witnessed.

Unfortunately, while Uzumaki is very disturbing in its themes, art and sanity deprived characters. Much of the horror really is just creepy imagery rather than psychological or anything deeper. Ryukishi07’s Higurashi, is a prime example of a horror that is able to scare you on a psychological and deeper level rather than by just imagery, while having a great cast of characters.

As for the characters of Uzumaki, they’re nothing of note worthy to mention, they don’t really have much characterization or much development, for a story like this it would’ve been more appreciative if Junji Ito spent the time to flesh them out more. A part of makes a horror good is having attachments to the characters.

Overall Uzumaki was a good and entertaining read, definitely interested in seeing how the anime will adapt the material. I would still recommend giving it a read, it is short and fun. I’m giving Uzumaki a 7/10.

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.

I initially read uzumaki when I was in middle school, at the time I had never seen anything like it. The more I read various manga similar to it I started changing my opinion of it. Overall I think Uzumaki is a good example of Junji ito making a multi-volume story instead of short stories. I'd recommend it to someone who wanted to read his work for the first time. I think besides the art, the big stand out to me of Uzmaki is the tone. Uzmaki is a horror story but it has comedic elements to it. the full page illustrations, as technically and stylistically beautiful as they are, they have a bizarre almost funny look to them. a good thing to point out is if you don't like body horror, Uzumaki isn't the manga for you. it's filled with visceral imagery, I wouldn't say its "scary" but it borders more on repulsive and disgusting. kinda like looking at an infection. the thing I think worked best in Uzumaki is the theme of the spiral making itself present in all of the manga. the story is a downward spiral for the characters and the town they live in, based on the quality of full page drawings I'd give it a 10 but I decided to give it an 8 because junji's artwork on character expressions aren't the best in my opinion, you'll see a lot of the characters when they feel nervous or on edge he'll draw them from the side with furrowed brows and a single sweat drop. It just feels like it removes anything character specific to their reactions.

Uzumaki to Junji Ito's most famous work, in a nutshell, is a compilation of very bizarre events in a town called Kurouzu-cho, rather the events of Kirie Goshima where strange spiral-related things happen, in which case a story is told. Part of the Uzumaki universe, if you like well-developed stories, Uzumaki is not a good choice. Speaking of Uzumaki's horror now, the horror doesn't come from the psychological or the scares, it comes entirely from the discomfort and tension that is very very good, and unlike the horror I'm used to seeing, if you like horror, Uzumaki is a good choice.

Uzumaki : Spiral into horror by Junto Ito

Without getting into too many spoilers; the manga features a seemingly normal highschool girl (Kirie Goshima) and her boyfriend (Shuichi Saito) in a small town in Japan. A relatively normal setting for todays standards.
Set in the late 20th century the story starts with a normal day to school. As with all stories something odd needs to happen - a "spiral" obsession. It is through this some form of obsession that everything plays out like it does.
The manga has a lot of philosophic standpoints and draws inspiration from common conflicts that may happen during school and other events. The "spiral" punishes people but also does a lot of collateral as well, a metaphor on fairness of life perhaps?
Although the story has these elements, it does nothing more than just to introduce grotesque scenarioes that end in the same way most chapters. With 19 chapters, the amount of chapters you would have to read to fully understand everything is pretty low because once the "horrific" elements have been established then another "horrific" element does not add much to the story, it just becomes a sidethought. The story and said elements where very rarely re-introduced or made relevant again besides the chapter they were introduced in.
The story also want to root itself in realism while also being super unrealistic in terms of characters.
Story - 7/10

As for the art, it is quite amazing. The main reason I picked this manga up is because of the amazing art. The art style is quite unique and it was pleasing to look at. I do think that some panels were quite redundant while other panels could have been fleshed out more. I mean 4 panels of a centipide moving in the same direction? It adds to the suspense I get that, just nitpicking on small details.
Fantastic art 9/10

With two main characters Kirie and Shuichi that both experience horrific and obscene events surely we should have a lot of character progression in the form of them descending into insanity. Nope, Kirie does not flinch in the slightest. Kirie only really cares about those who close to her. This includes immediate family and Shuichi. Maybe it isn't because she doesn't care but she has the mentality of "there is nothing that could be done" or "It cannot be helped". During the story she just says "no" and leaves this happens in more than one chapter, with this mentality she could have left way earlier.
It is as if her personality gets "reset" at the end of every chapter, it doesn't carry any of the feelings just the memories of past events. This is in itself terrifying but it is frustrating to read.
Shuichi on the other hand experiences quite a bit progression in the start of the series, it however stagnates until the end when he becomes part of the plot again. This guy is like the voice of reason, he uses past observations and events to determine what will happen next. The biggest mistake this guy has made was to not just ditch his girlfriend and leave. The logic to Shuichi's decision was probably love, this would have convinced me if the story had any.
The dynamic between the two main characters is so bad at times. They have a relationship coming from at least middle school, so they have been together for unknown time. A lot of their dialogue is pretty bad and usually involves in Shuichi explaining yet again that... Well there is generally not much dialogue between these two characters and their interactions are limited in 19 chapters. I do firmly believe that Shuichi could have played a more significant role in the story.
Every other character is like Kirie - screaming "AIEEE" when something happens and next chapter back to school. Characters also never mentions that event with that person again. I speculated that all of this could have been a product of Kirie's mind. But no, it is just that nobody cares or maybe they do but off screen, 10 min of grief and then back to school.
Characters - 3/10 would like to see something from Kirie so that I know that not anyone from that school could have been the main with the same luck.

I enjoyed it decently. Not the first time I have seen these grotesque scenarios before. Some of them new, others inspired by folklore, movies and so on. I enjoyed the art and the story was nice sometimes, although lacking cohesion and details about scenarios. The last few chapters suffers from what I call a "raw mashed potatoes". I was hoping that Junji Ito would be like trigger and say "Aliens". Alas I was disappointed
Enjoyment - 4/10

The art and the mysterious main plot kept me in but the characters and their interactions were bad
Overall - 6/10, I do recommend it since it is a fairly quick read and you may enjoy the art

Overall Opinion: Easy read, very creepy. Strong HP Lovecraft inspiration.

Story: 6/10. Decent horror story. It's not really explained, but that is in keeping with the motif of horror: over-explaining is bad, mystery is good.

Characters: 7/10. The primary 2 characters are good self-inserts for a horror story. They are trapped in an insane world and behave in realistic ways trying to cope with it/try to escape it. They are believable, and you mostly empathize with them. I don't recall at any point thinking to myself, "Why is this idiot going into that door right now instead of running?" like you do with some horror MOVIES.

Themes: 7/10. Body horror, insanity, recurring visual themes.

Art: 8/10. Disgusting in a good way. Characters and backgrounds are about average, but the centerpieces are always well done and memorable.

I have mixed feelings about this manga.
It's really fascinating yet disturbing. Certains scenes are engraved into my brain, and still get spooked by them even though I read it 3 years ago.
Junji Ito is truly the master of horror manga, giving a really unique storyline with mesmerizing yet terrifying art. At the same time, he uses both psychological and physical approaches to horror. Every scene is unexpected, bringing you to the edge of your seat.
I enjoyed the first half, until I noticed something that kept on bugging me and ruined it for me: the lack of realisme in the main character. she saw traumatizing events and scenes, yet she's fine and ok? Her boyfriend is paranoid, seeing that the village is dangerous and driving people to insanity.
spoiler:
she saw her BF's dad broken into a spiral, and even the fumes from his crematory formed that exact scene. that's a scene from hell. but wait there's more, she sees her brother's friends, kids btw, get burned alive infront of her very own eyes. but wait, there's more, she saw the guy crushing on her, and who's dead, get up from the grave and bounces while his organs are falling. Yet she's like ok? as if nothing happened?! she keeps on as if that's normal. I would've been like ok, maybe the village is manipulated and shit like that. But her BF tells her everytime he sees her to get the fuck out here! yeah, that really bugged me. I wish she was much more realistic and logical, even just a little bit. Because it really took me out of the story.

So basically, the people of this town are seriously mentally ill, because of a shape gone mad/viral.

you know that one mind numbingly stupid girl who always dies first in the horror movies, because of her level of stupidity or otherwise? this manga is FULL of characters like that.

It makes not much sense. I read it yesterday, and I promptly watched something else afterwards, to try and forget it.

The story went up, then down, then back to the beginning again.
nothing went right.

in summary, if you want to read something awful, and scary, and disgusting, just for kicks, then this is probably what you read.

I basically read through the entire thing in one sitting and man, was it a ride.

Story: 7

The story was surprisingly good and felt very well constructed. I really liked the episodic style of it. It gave off a Tales from the Crypt type vibe (this gaijin loves him some crypt keeper) while staying interconnected. The pacing was also great and made each chapter feeling brief but still feeling like its own little thing. The pacing was absolutely ideal for the story, constantly ramping up the tension until the climactic page turn reveal(that moment in the comic where a character's face is focused on, the next page being what they were reacting to, for the uninitiated). Of course a big flaw with the story was that sometimes it got campy. Like, super campy. Otherwise, really well done.

Art: 10

The art in this series is on a whole other level. The art style may be a bit dry but there's also something aesthetically "off" you could say about each frame. like everyone just looks kinda weird in an unnerving way rather than a distracting way. It's these dark nuances that never reduce Uzumaki to a visual bore. Also, elaborating on the page turn reveal. The sheer amount of detail put into these panels is astonishing, Ito's medical training also really contributing to the vivid nature of the visuals. Phenomenal stuff here.

Characters: 6/10

Can you really do much with characters in an episodic format? Of course the lack of any real depth to them is natural and wasn't too much of a bother. We know just enough about the major cast to care about them enough to stay invested. Nothin' much here.

Enjoyment: 10

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I wasn't at all bored when reading and the visuals were awe-inspiring at points. It satiated my hunger as a fan of the genre well.

Overall: 9

Overall I'd recommend this to any horror fan or jkust someone looking for a good (albeit nightmarish) time.

Literally this manga left a nasty taste in my mouth because of Ito's fantastic art by making me feel appalled by the large amount of atrocious events happening in the manga than feeling completely freaked out. If you have a major disgust or bad phobia of snails, then this manga is best to be avoided. It's an easily addictive read.That includes the anime adaptation coming out next year (2021) so y'all are warned lol.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The only scary thing I have in fact experienced while reading this manga, is the two MC's digging up the "Jack in the Box" kids grave and then he suddenly jumps after them with his rotten body. Seriously that certain scene pretty much haunted me and burned my eyes man lol....

Also I have to say, I absolutely hate Kirie like dude wtf, she's absolutely brain dead that doesn't give a f*** if her family was hurt or even listens to her bf Shuuichi if there's an incoming spiral event heading their way. Seriously I hate these types of characters who are dull, dumb and act like "damsel in distress" as if everyone should be looking after them . In fact, I would pair her up with Nao from Liar Game cause they are literally one of the worst girl characters so far in horror manga. Shuuichi might as well get out of the town by himself cause Kirie definitely wins the "useless girlfriend" award.

I give 7/10 for the story and the fantastic disgusting art by Ito himself...

I bought the deluxe edition of Uzumaki because I wanted to read something new from a author I have not heard before.

I hate horror and usually stay away from it because in a lot of western media and in books/comics, horror has become more of shock value either with excessive blood or cheap jump scares which becomes tiring. However having Uzumaki in 2 days, I can tell the the author really knows well how to keep the reader tense and shocked and keeping the horror genre alive.

The story boils down to the concept of the "spiral". This is pretty much an entire manga about it. A town who has been affected by an unknown entity referred to as the "spiral". The entire town starts to change and many things happen to it that leaves the reader shocked but filled with questions as to what this "spiral" is and what it will do next. I remember reading each chapter wondering what will happen in the story using the "spiral" and it never ceased to keep me horrified.

The horror aspect for me was enjoyable(to a non horror reader) because the author used the over exaggerated blood or gore in the manga when it was absolutely necessary and not all the time. The author instead uses mystery and hopelessness in combination with the town and it's people, to create an addicting story that will keep you tense and really unsettled.

I had nightmares when I first finished this and became tense about just thinking about spirals and I think this manga made me not like snails anymore :p.

I would suggest reading this if you're new to the horror genre and I would pick up the deluxe edition which contains all 19 chapters+bonus chapter+something extra from the author.

Now, its been 1.5 years since i first read this, but i still remember how throughly impressed i was with the story, and it remains my favorite work by ito.

I'm not much of a horror person, or well, outside of manga that is. i dislike jumpscares, which is one of the most common tropes nowadays, and it's just not overall my thing most of the time. This was one of the first attemps i gave at trying something new and reading a horror for real, and it blew me away.

Now going into the review properly.

Story (10):

The story of a city slowly going insane because of something as simple as spirals is just amazing, and while this isn't exactly a character driven story, you still rooted for everyone until the end. The beginning is fucked up enough as it is, i wont spoil anything, just know it gets real disturbing within the first few chapters already. You think it cant get much worse, yet somehow, Junji finds new ways during each chapter to create a more fucked up story, ending the manga with a total feeling of hopelessness for the characters.

Art (8):
Its good, no one can deny that, but it's a bit too simplistic for my taste. In my opinion, there's the good old same-face-syndrom going on a lot, but aside from the character designs? its amazing

Characters (8):
They are simply not as well written as the rest of the story. They're plenty interesting to follow, it's just the best aspect of the story.

Enjoyment (10):
The most important aspect for me, enjoyment. It has some flaws but hey, so do all stories! It keeps you on the edge of your seat, mostly due to junjis unique storytelling. Its incredible, especialy considering how hard it can be to make comics/manga scary.

Definitely read it if you want something good, and kinda short to enjoy!