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Uzumaki #1
Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror, Vol. 1
Shortly after Shuichi Saito's father becomes obsessed with spiral patterns, he dies mysteriously, his body positioned in the shape of a twisted coil, and soon the entire town is afflicted with a snail-like disease. A Graphic Novel. Original.
208 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1998
About the author
Junji Ito
244 books12.8k followersJunji Itō (伊藤潤二)
Born in Gifu Prefecture in 1963, he was inspired from a young age by his older sister's drawing and Kazuo Umezu's comics and thus took an interest in drawing horror comics himself. Nevertheless, upon graduation he trained as a dental technician, and until the early 1990s he juggled his dental career with his increasingly successful hobby — even after being selected as the winner of the prestigious Umezu prize for horror manga.
The most common obsessions are with beauty, long hair, and beautiful girls, especially in his Tomie and Flesh-Colored Horror comic collections. For example: A girl's hair rebels against being cut off and runs off with her head; Girls deliberately catch a disease that makes them beautiful but then murder each other; a woman treats her skin with lotion so she can take it off and look at her muscles, but the skin dissolves and she tries to steal her sister's skin, etc.
Ito's universe is also very cruel and capricious; his characters often find themselves victims of malevolent unnatural circumstances for no discernible reason or punished out of proportion for minor infractions against an unknown and incomprehensible natural order.
His longest work, the three-volume Uzumaki, is about a town's obsession with spirals: people become variously fascinated with, terrified of, and consumed by the countless occurrences of the spiral in nature. Apart from the ghastly, convincingly-drawn deaths, the book projects an effective atmosphere of creeping fear as the town's inhabitants become less and less human, and more and more bizarre things begin to happen.
Before Uzumaki, Ito was best known for Tomie, a comic series about a beautiful, teasing and eternally youthful high school girl who inspires her stricken admirers to murder each other in fits of jealous rage. Eventually, unable to cope with her coy flirtation and their desire to possess Tomie completely, they are inevitably compelled to kill her — only to discover that, regardless of the method they chose to dispose of her body, her body will always regenerate.
In 1998, during the horror boom that followed the success of Ringu, Tomie was adapted into a movie. Since Tomie, many of his works have been adapted for TV and the cinema.
Born in Gifu Prefecture in 1963, he was inspired from a young age by his older sister's drawing and Kazuo Umezu's comics and thus took an interest in drawing horror comics himself. Nevertheless, upon graduation he trained as a dental technician, and until the early 1990s he juggled his dental career with his increasingly successful hobby — even after being selected as the winner of the prestigious Umezu prize for horror manga.
The most common obsessions are with beauty, long hair, and beautiful girls, especially in his Tomie and Flesh-Colored Horror comic collections. For example: A girl's hair rebels against being cut off and runs off with her head; Girls deliberately catch a disease that makes them beautiful but then murder each other; a woman treats her skin with lotion so she can take it off and look at her muscles, but the skin dissolves and she tries to steal her sister's skin, etc.
Ito's universe is also very cruel and capricious; his characters often find themselves victims of malevolent unnatural circumstances for no discernible reason or punished out of proportion for minor infractions against an unknown and incomprehensible natural order.
His longest work, the three-volume Uzumaki, is about a town's obsession with spirals: people become variously fascinated with, terrified of, and consumed by the countless occurrences of the spiral in nature. Apart from the ghastly, convincingly-drawn deaths, the book projects an effective atmosphere of creeping fear as the town's inhabitants become less and less human, and more and more bizarre things begin to happen.
Before Uzumaki, Ito was best known for Tomie, a comic series about a beautiful, teasing and eternally youthful high school girl who inspires her stricken admirers to murder each other in fits of jealous rage. Eventually, unable to cope with her coy flirtation and their desire to possess Tomie completely, they are inevitably compelled to kill her — only to discover that, regardless of the method they chose to dispose of her body, her body will always regenerate.
In 1998, during the horror boom that followed the success of Ringu, Tomie was adapted into a movie. Since Tomie, many of his works have been adapted for TV and the cinema.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,858 reviews
October 11, 2022
Can a comic--a horror manga, in this case--creep you out or even scare you? You know movies can do it, such as Psycho or Halloween. Stephen King can do it. I like some of Joe Hill's work such as Locke and Key, and that works to unsettle me, but this is different, atmospheric, black and white. . . and gory, at times, creepy, nightmare-inducing (maybe). It proceeds less from plot than from images of spirals, of the vortex, proliferating with a growing intensity.
Uzumaki, or spirals, seem to take over a town. Possibly curse it. No real reason why that we can say for sure. Some theories are hinted at: The sort of aesthetic need to see patterns? Or is that OCD? Collective madness centered in a single coastal Japanese town? This pattern is everywhere, though at first you just see it through the eyes of one man, then others see it, and then everyone sees it, and we see it! AUGH!!! Help!! They. Are. Everywhere.
It reminds me of how the threatening bird population seems to grow in Hitchcock's The Birds. And these spirals are artistically powerful, beautiful, horrifying. In Camus’s The Plague a disease strikes a single town, with some possible allegorical purposes, but what can be the purpose for these spirals?!
We get to know adults and kids in this one, and things get increasingly crazy. The central characters are Kirie Goshima (a sculptor's daughter), and Shuichi Sato, who at different times discuss leaving town, which seems like it would have been the best thing. . . but then we would have not had horror, right?! I know they say don't go into the basement, or the attic, but we have to!
In one chapter Azami's swirling scar seems to be a guy magnet, femme fatally drawing them to their doom.
In another chapter Kazunori and Yoriko are in love, living in housing projects, where everyone seems to be insane, and the love relationship seems doomed. There's a nice visual of two intertwined (right, spiraling) snakes they see that. . . let's just say figures in the end. Love and horror.
In another chapter Kiri grows hair into spirals and so does another girl, and their hair does battle! Funny premise? Weird, macabre, initially amusing, maybe, but things turn darker. The visuals, again, are crazy, but amazingly imaginative. Ito is inspired, as he shows in a chapter focused on his creating the series. Top notch, but creepy and kinda gross with body horror in places. But hey, I already told you it is horror, so that's what you're paying for. A masterpiece of the genre!
I read the first volume 2013, the second for a class in 2015 and now again in 2017 I read volume 1 for a class. But the whole series is worth it.
Uzumaki, or spirals, seem to take over a town. Possibly curse it. No real reason why that we can say for sure. Some theories are hinted at: The sort of aesthetic need to see patterns? Or is that OCD? Collective madness centered in a single coastal Japanese town? This pattern is everywhere, though at first you just see it through the eyes of one man, then others see it, and then everyone sees it, and we see it! AUGH!!! Help!! They. Are. Everywhere.
It reminds me of how the threatening bird population seems to grow in Hitchcock's The Birds. And these spirals are artistically powerful, beautiful, horrifying. In Camus’s The Plague a disease strikes a single town, with some possible allegorical purposes, but what can be the purpose for these spirals?!
We get to know adults and kids in this one, and things get increasingly crazy. The central characters are Kirie Goshima (a sculptor's daughter), and Shuichi Sato, who at different times discuss leaving town, which seems like it would have been the best thing. . . but then we would have not had horror, right?! I know they say don't go into the basement, or the attic, but we have to!
In one chapter Azami's swirling scar seems to be a guy magnet, femme fatally drawing them to their doom.
In another chapter Kazunori and Yoriko are in love, living in housing projects, where everyone seems to be insane, and the love relationship seems doomed. There's a nice visual of two intertwined (right, spiraling) snakes they see that. . . let's just say figures in the end. Love and horror.
In another chapter Kiri grows hair into spirals and so does another girl, and their hair does battle! Funny premise? Weird, macabre, initially amusing, maybe, but things turn darker. The visuals, again, are crazy, but amazingly imaginative. Ito is inspired, as he shows in a chapter focused on his creating the series. Top notch, but creepy and kinda gross with body horror in places. But hey, I already told you it is horror, so that's what you're paying for. A masterpiece of the genre!
I read the first volume 2013, the second for a class in 2015 and now again in 2017 I read volume 1 for a class. But the whole series is worth it.
July 3, 2022
The story, imagery, and overall package that this vol 1 contains will stick with me for a really long time. I read it two days back and I still get chills from this manga whenever I think about it . I might have even experienced a few nightmares from this story in just two days.
Highly highly recommended!♥️🤌
Highly highly recommended!♥️🤌
October 18, 2018
Re-read 2018
OCTOBER read. So worth it. Perfection. :)
Original Review:
Creepy awesomeness. This pacing is perfect and I love the MCs.
The whole town has gone truly sideways. Lovecraft or the Golden Spiral, it doesn't matter, it's all so damn connected anyway. I love it. I love it. He's turned nature and the normal state of reality into something truly horrific and awe-full. These images are going to stay with me for a very long time, and I say that with utter abandonment and joy.
Setup, punch, knock-out. This isn't the slow burn of Naoki Urasawa's Monster, Volume 1, which had a serious impact on me. This is quick, disturbing, and while I want to say it's truly creative, I've read and seen enough wonderful works using the golden ratio that I can only tip my hat at how WELL it was pulled off. And it was. Seriously good.
No one needs to know the whole Lovecraftian genre to enjoy this. It's fully self-contained and truly magical. There's only twenty issues -- or three volumes, so it's a quick read, complete, and worth every moment. :)
OCTOBER read. So worth it. Perfection. :)
Original Review:
Creepy awesomeness. This pacing is perfect and I love the MCs.
The whole town has gone truly sideways. Lovecraft or the Golden Spiral, it doesn't matter, it's all so damn connected anyway. I love it. I love it. He's turned nature and the normal state of reality into something truly horrific and awe-full. These images are going to stay with me for a very long time, and I say that with utter abandonment and joy.
Setup, punch, knock-out. This isn't the slow burn of Naoki Urasawa's Monster, Volume 1, which had a serious impact on me. This is quick, disturbing, and while I want to say it's truly creative, I've read and seen enough wonderful works using the golden ratio that I can only tip my hat at how WELL it was pulled off. And it was. Seriously good.
No one needs to know the whole Lovecraftian genre to enjoy this. It's fully self-contained and truly magical. There's only twenty issues -- or three volumes, so it's a quick read, complete, and worth every moment. :)
October 11, 2014
Lovecraft approves of your spirals.
(Except for that last story, with the hair. That was weak. Still creepy, but weak.)
(Except for that last story, with the hair. That was weak. Still creepy, but weak.)
February 2, 2019
This is going to be hard to put into words but I'll give it my best. The best way to describe this manga is weird. It is so peculiar and strange and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. I liked it enough but I didn't keep turning the page because I was intrigued. I kept turning the page because my brain was short circuiting and looking for answers. In all honesty, it's a very interesting premise but it was a bit too random for me. The characters from one chapter to another had no interaction or connection, except for living in the same town. I think I would've enjoyed this more if subsequent chapters followed a minor character introduced in the previous one. It was definitely creepy, and I'll never see a spiral without thinking of this book but I'm not sure I'll continue reading the rest of the series. I would only recommend this if you are a fan of bizarre horror.
February 7, 2017
CONFESSION: This is the first manga I’ve ever read. IT’S TRUE! While I love graphic novels in general, for whatever reason, I’d just gloss over the manga titles like they were telephone books. Perhaps it’s because they read backwards from the English titles that I’m used to. In case you’re wondering, the answer is yes, I had to give myself a bit of a learning curve when it came to the mechanics of the Japanese-style book design when I started this thing. Even the word balloons read from right to left. It was confusing at first!
But that said, I picked up the first volume of Uzumaki on the behest of a friend and HOLY COW I HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS MISSING! This is one of the best graphic novels I’ve ever read. Granted, it’s only volume one (of three) so there’s no resolution to the main storyline here, but in this tale of a town that is terrorized by the shape of a spiral (weird, right?) told in episodic fashion, it is near-perfect in execution. The pacing couldn’t be more spot on, and I could barely stop myself from turning each page. And there’s so much strange and gross and gory things going on in here - and an impeccable coalescence of cosmic and body horror (all of it brought to life by the haunting panels of Ito’s art) - that as far as beginnings go, I couldn’t ask for more. Seriously can’t wait to dive into volume two!
But that said, I picked up the first volume of Uzumaki on the behest of a friend and HOLY COW I HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS MISSING! This is one of the best graphic novels I’ve ever read. Granted, it’s only volume one (of three) so there’s no resolution to the main storyline here, but in this tale of a town that is terrorized by the shape of a spiral (weird, right?) told in episodic fashion, it is near-perfect in execution. The pacing couldn’t be more spot on, and I could barely stop myself from turning each page. And there’s so much strange and gross and gory things going on in here - and an impeccable coalescence of cosmic and body horror (all of it brought to life by the haunting panels of Ito’s art) - that as far as beginnings go, I couldn’t ask for more. Seriously can’t wait to dive into volume two!
November 19, 2015
The small town of Kurozu-Cho (a Japanese version of Lovecraft’s Innsmouth) is haunted by… a pattern! Wooooo! Yup, spirals - lines going round and round - are deadly. It sound silly but that’s pretty original really. I don’t think I’ve read a horror that’s got so abstract a big bad, AND Junji Ito manages to make them disturbing too so kudos!
Our hero is schoolgirl Kirie whose boyfriend’s father is obsessed with spirals – and then terrible things happen to him! Then later the boyfriend’s mother is obsessed with spirals – and then terrible things happen to her! Then another girl is obsessed with the boyfriend and gets involved with spirals – and terrible things happen to her! And so on. Spirals are bad news, people!
So there’s a pattern about this book about patterns. The book is made up of several short stories that build up to a big spiral-centric horror reveal and then ends only to repeat in the next story – an approach that gives it a bumpy stop/start rhythm. Short story collections are often like this except Uzumaki uses the same characters/events/settings, so they’re all meant to be connected. Instead of there being an overarching storyline though it’s a series of isolated stories, almost self-contained given how little the events in each one affects the recurring characters.
Maybe that’s the intention, that you’re supposed to wind up at the end where you began, the structure itself mimicking a spiral, but I thought it was unsatisfying how we never know why spirals are so important or why any of this is happening. It’s just one horror story involving spirals after another until it’s over.
That said, the stories for the most part are interesting with some nightmarish body horror imagery. The first story involving the boyfriend’s parents was my favourite with some amazing art – Shuichi’s father’s fate and the smoky visuals of the crematorium were chilling! The boyfriend’s mother’s madness was disturbing too even if I didn’t buy that a hospital would allow scissors anywhere near a patient with severe mental problems.
The last two stories are definitely the weakest. Two teenage lovers who want to be together but whose parents disapprove take their desire to an extreme, and Kirie’s hair becomes haunted with spirals – bah, so stupid! Kirie’s gone through so much in this book, she has from the same problem as all horror protagonists when they’re in a haunted place: why don’t they leave? Why doesn’t anybody leave this obviously cursed place!?
Even though the series is only three volumes long (extremely short by manga standards) there’s not much incentive for me to keep reading. I wonder, is the whole series going to be like this – one story after another of evil spirals taking the lives of these townspeople? That approach, as seen in this book, is effective only for so long before the formula becomes overly familiar and predictable. But there's no indication otherwise that the series will be anything more than these people getting it from the spirals ad nauseam!
Uzumaki Volume 1 is a fine horror manga with some good stories mixed in with some mediocre ones and featuring excellent black and white artwork throughout - definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of the genre but don’t expect a masterpiece going in.
Our hero is schoolgirl Kirie whose boyfriend’s father is obsessed with spirals – and then terrible things happen to him! Then later the boyfriend’s mother is obsessed with spirals – and then terrible things happen to her! Then another girl is obsessed with the boyfriend and gets involved with spirals – and terrible things happen to her! And so on. Spirals are bad news, people!
So there’s a pattern about this book about patterns. The book is made up of several short stories that build up to a big spiral-centric horror reveal and then ends only to repeat in the next story – an approach that gives it a bumpy stop/start rhythm. Short story collections are often like this except Uzumaki uses the same characters/events/settings, so they’re all meant to be connected. Instead of there being an overarching storyline though it’s a series of isolated stories, almost self-contained given how little the events in each one affects the recurring characters.
Maybe that’s the intention, that you’re supposed to wind up at the end where you began, the structure itself mimicking a spiral, but I thought it was unsatisfying how we never know why spirals are so important or why any of this is happening. It’s just one horror story involving spirals after another until it’s over.
That said, the stories for the most part are interesting with some nightmarish body horror imagery. The first story involving the boyfriend’s parents was my favourite with some amazing art – Shuichi’s father’s fate and the smoky visuals of the crematorium were chilling! The boyfriend’s mother’s madness was disturbing too even if I didn’t buy that a hospital would allow scissors anywhere near a patient with severe mental problems.
The last two stories are definitely the weakest. Two teenage lovers who want to be together but whose parents disapprove take their desire to an extreme, and Kirie’s hair becomes haunted with spirals – bah, so stupid! Kirie’s gone through so much in this book, she has from the same problem as all horror protagonists when they’re in a haunted place: why don’t they leave? Why doesn’t anybody leave this obviously cursed place!?
Even though the series is only three volumes long (extremely short by manga standards) there’s not much incentive for me to keep reading. I wonder, is the whole series going to be like this – one story after another of evil spirals taking the lives of these townspeople? That approach, as seen in this book, is effective only for so long before the formula becomes overly familiar and predictable. But there's no indication otherwise that the series will be anything more than these people getting it from the spirals ad nauseam!
Uzumaki Volume 1 is a fine horror manga with some good stories mixed in with some mediocre ones and featuring excellent black and white artwork throughout - definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of the genre but don’t expect a masterpiece going in.
March 14, 2016
Okay fuck that was creepy.
I'm only at Chapter 4 yet and won't probably be able to continue for quite a while because I have to return the book, but holy fuck, I've never been so disgusted and creeped out by a book.
Junji Ito, what kind of world do you live in?
I'm only at Chapter 4 yet and won't probably be able to continue for quite a while because I have to return the book, but holy fuck, I've never been so disgusted and creeped out by a book.
Junji Ito, what kind of world do you live in?
May 22, 2018
I adored the died of a horror manga simply based on the idea of a "spiral." I now genuinely get freaked out by the idea that part of the inner ear has a "spiral." My main and only issue is that it dived straight into the horror aspect before we get to know the characters. Because of that, part of me didn't care if everyone died.
October 18, 2018
A creepy comic about a town in Japan that suddenly gets cases of people going crazy and it all has to do with spirals.
The comic (manga) consists of 6 chapters, short stories within a larger context if you will, all detailing events in the same town as seen through the eyes of a young teenage girl.
We have her best friend's father going crazy as well as the resulting consequences for that friend's mother, before another friend of the protagonist's as well as neighbours and even her own family are getting sucked into the whirlpool of madness (though the story about the neighbouring kids was actually very sweet/romantic).
All in all, it's a downward spiral (excuse the pun), a town's descent into horror and madness.
The manga is black-and-white, the images detailed and always as weird as the scenes they are depicting. I wouldn't call myself a fan of the art / the artist's style, but it was nice and appropriately creepy and the black-and-white actually helped intensifying the sense of abstract dread and downright weirdness.
There are two more volumes and, supposedly, we'll get an answer as to WHY this is happening by the end of volume 3. Only one way to find out ...
Definitely a great read for October.
The comic (manga) consists of 6 chapters, short stories within a larger context if you will, all detailing events in the same town as seen through the eyes of a young teenage girl.
We have her best friend's father going crazy as well as the resulting consequences for that friend's mother, before another friend of the protagonist's as well as neighbours and even her own family are getting sucked into the whirlpool of madness (though the story about the neighbouring kids was actually very sweet/romantic).
All in all, it's a downward spiral (excuse the pun), a town's descent into horror and madness.
The manga is black-and-white, the images detailed and always as weird as the scenes they are depicting. I wouldn't call myself a fan of the art / the artist's style, but it was nice and appropriately creepy and the black-and-white actually helped intensifying the sense of abstract dread and downright weirdness.
There are two more volumes and, supposedly, we'll get an answer as to WHY this is happening by the end of volume 3. Only one way to find out ...
Definitely a great read for October.
August 26, 2024
This was creepy!
July 28, 2011
[Review of whole series.]
I’m skeptical of comics’ power to truly horrify using supernatural elements. Because the reader controls entirely the pace of a story’s execution, one of the primary tools of the horror genre is kept from authors in the comics medium. Additionally, revulsion is increasingly difficult to elicit from static imagery—a gross drawing is merely that and draws forth none of that sense of fear or terror that aficionados of the genre tend to relish. Certainly a compelling story about the affects of war on a civilian population can horrify, but only because it is humanity who is the monster and not some lumbering creature of the imagination. There seems little room for the supernatural to scare us from the immobile, two-dimensional page.
When I first approached Junji Ito’s Uzumaki, I hoped for my understanding of comics horror to undergo a dramatic shift. I hoped that his mind-bending work would bring me to see that the comics page could truly deliver terror. Not so much because I like being frightened but simply because I love experiencing the expanding boundaries of what the medium is capable of. And Ito seemed the perfect guide if anyone was.
Junji Ito is, so I read, considered to be a master of Japanese horror. He’s created several works that have been lauded for their depiction of strange horror. But as inventive as his stories are and as horrifying as I would find these tales had they been committed to film, they come off rather sterile in screentones.
Which is not to say that Ito’s Uzumaki isn’t a good time. It is. What it isn’t, however, is in any way horrifying.
Uzumaki, in Japanese, means “spiral” (hence the helpful English subtitle for the book: Spiral into Horror) and throughout these three volumes we become well acquainted with a town that is becoming possessed by the idea of the spiral. The theme of spirals makes its mark across every chapter and in numerous inventive (and usually gruesome) ways. In one case, a girl’s hair takes on a spiraling, hypnotic life of its own. In another, a boy grows a spiraling shell on his back and gradually becomes a snail. A scar bores into one girl’s mind. Another girl finds herself the love interest of a typhoon.
Uzumaki begins as a collection of interrelated short stories, each exploring one more aspect of the town’s strange connection with spirals, but gradually takes on the form of a longer, more interconnected narrative. There isn’t much in the way of character development because apart from the protagonist and her boyfriend (who wants desperately to get out of Dodge), most characters don’t last much farther beyond the chapter of their introduction. There is a lot of death (and worse) in Uzumaki and so the story soon becomes the question of how this couple will survive the increasingly manic terror being visited upon their town.
Really, by series’ end, the moral becomes clear: Girls, when your high school boyfriend says that the town is possessed and you two should run away together, you’d be crazy not to do as he says. Perhaps Ito is projecting his own childhood’s discreet woes. Really, after even just one of these incidents, it’s not entirely clear why any of the witnesses don’t flee the town immediately. Perhaps they find the spirals too hypnotic.
Uzumaki, though boasting its share of faults (both in art and in storytelling), still stands out as something that may be worth your time. While it probably won’t frighten you or give you any kind of nightmares, you may find Ito’s images, in a certain sense, indelible. In the couple weeks since I finished the book’s last chapter, I have continually found myself reminded of particular story moments or ideas that were rather strikingly composed.
[review courtesy of Good Ok Bad]
I’m skeptical of comics’ power to truly horrify using supernatural elements. Because the reader controls entirely the pace of a story’s execution, one of the primary tools of the horror genre is kept from authors in the comics medium. Additionally, revulsion is increasingly difficult to elicit from static imagery—a gross drawing is merely that and draws forth none of that sense of fear or terror that aficionados of the genre tend to relish. Certainly a compelling story about the affects of war on a civilian population can horrify, but only because it is humanity who is the monster and not some lumbering creature of the imagination. There seems little room for the supernatural to scare us from the immobile, two-dimensional page.
When I first approached Junji Ito’s Uzumaki, I hoped for my understanding of comics horror to undergo a dramatic shift. I hoped that his mind-bending work would bring me to see that the comics page could truly deliver terror. Not so much because I like being frightened but simply because I love experiencing the expanding boundaries of what the medium is capable of. And Ito seemed the perfect guide if anyone was.
Junji Ito is, so I read, considered to be a master of Japanese horror. He’s created several works that have been lauded for their depiction of strange horror. But as inventive as his stories are and as horrifying as I would find these tales had they been committed to film, they come off rather sterile in screentones.
Which is not to say that Ito’s Uzumaki isn’t a good time. It is. What it isn’t, however, is in any way horrifying.
Uzumaki, in Japanese, means “spiral” (hence the helpful English subtitle for the book: Spiral into Horror) and throughout these three volumes we become well acquainted with a town that is becoming possessed by the idea of the spiral. The theme of spirals makes its mark across every chapter and in numerous inventive (and usually gruesome) ways. In one case, a girl’s hair takes on a spiraling, hypnotic life of its own. In another, a boy grows a spiraling shell on his back and gradually becomes a snail. A scar bores into one girl’s mind. Another girl finds herself the love interest of a typhoon.
Uzumaki begins as a collection of interrelated short stories, each exploring one more aspect of the town’s strange connection with spirals, but gradually takes on the form of a longer, more interconnected narrative. There isn’t much in the way of character development because apart from the protagonist and her boyfriend (who wants desperately to get out of Dodge), most characters don’t last much farther beyond the chapter of their introduction. There is a lot of death (and worse) in Uzumaki and so the story soon becomes the question of how this couple will survive the increasingly manic terror being visited upon their town.
Really, by series’ end, the moral becomes clear: Girls, when your high school boyfriend says that the town is possessed and you two should run away together, you’d be crazy not to do as he says. Perhaps Ito is projecting his own childhood’s discreet woes. Really, after even just one of these incidents, it’s not entirely clear why any of the witnesses don’t flee the town immediately. Perhaps they find the spirals too hypnotic.
Uzumaki, though boasting its share of faults (both in art and in storytelling), still stands out as something that may be worth your time. While it probably won’t frighten you or give you any kind of nightmares, you may find Ito’s images, in a certain sense, indelible. In the couple weeks since I finished the book’s last chapter, I have continually found myself reminded of particular story moments or ideas that were rather strikingly composed.
If you’re curious what Ito’s all about, his short story “The Enigma of Amigara Fault” is a good starting place. It’s pretty representative of the kind of horror that is found in Uzumaki.
[review courtesy of Good Ok Bad]
October 17, 2022
No ha estado mal, los dibujos bien no espectaculares, se nota ya el paso del tiempo y la historia un poco como los terrores tipo Lovecraft.
Sinopsis: Uzumaki, el grandioso manga de horror sobrenatural de Junji Ito. Un torbellino de escalofriantes sucesos se desata sobre el pueblo donde vive Kirie Goshima. Suichi Saito, un joven preparatoriano y novio de Kirie, es el primero en hacerle notar el extraño influjo que el pueblo es capaz de producir en la mente y el comportamiento de las personas. El horror se presenta como una fascinación, ¡pero arranca la vida de las personas arrastrándolas en grotescas espirales!
Valoración: 6/10
Sinopsis: Uzumaki, el grandioso manga de horror sobrenatural de Junji Ito. Un torbellino de escalofriantes sucesos se desata sobre el pueblo donde vive Kirie Goshima. Suichi Saito, un joven preparatoriano y novio de Kirie, es el primero en hacerle notar el extraño influjo que el pueblo es capaz de producir en la mente y el comportamiento de las personas. El horror se presenta como una fascinación, ¡pero arranca la vida de las personas arrastrándolas en grotescas espirales!
Valoración: 6/10
March 26, 2017
Daha bu gün başladım, başlar başlamaz öykülere, çizimlere, karakterlere saplandım ve bitene kadar elimden bırakamadım. Obsesyon yaratan, eserin ana konsepti gibi sipiraller, sarmallarla sizi ele geçiren bir yönü var. Çok başarılı buldum. Her hikaye birbirinden güzel. Manga severler bir tarafa korku, tekinsiz, gizem sevenler muhakkak edinmeli. Son olarak çizgilerin tipik Japon / Kore karakteristiği yansıtmadığını, çok güzel betimler bulunduğunu söylemeliyim. Müthiş. Kaçırmayın :)
October 11, 2015
Ooooookay... That was the creepiest thing I've ever read. But since I love creepy, of course I enjoyed it.
Can't wait to read Vol. 2 'cause I've god a feeling that it will be even creepier.
Can't wait to read Vol. 2 'cause I've god a feeling that it will be even creepier.
November 1, 2020
꩜ IT'S REALLY GOTTEN TO ME, Y'ALL. ꩜
September 5, 2015
You can't win with this thing...
I think... I enjoyed it... Now off to find some snails...
I think... I enjoyed it... Now off to find some snails...
April 15, 2022
fuck this is disturbingly too good
August 14, 2021
Uzumaki is probably the worst illogical book I've ever read. Controversial statement, but I stand by it.
See I'm not saying it should be realistic af. Ik It's a horror manga and I've the least sense that horror can defy logic. But presenting headless stories in name of Horror It can't be justified. This is a collection of stories that denies normal human instincts or behaviour. Say someone dies infront of your eye what will be your reaction. You'll freak out, have nightmares. Right? Here people are having full course meal with family after witnessing two people being engulfed by some supernatural force. And It's not the only example. Literally every fucking story in this book is this way. Each story has numerous plot holes. And i simply could not endure this bullshit.
Uzumaki could be a three line story,
*OMG this town is infested by spiral.
*Lets Move out, oaky.
* HEA
But of this couldn't be the case, cause our protagonists are stupid and we readers are CHUTIYA!
Let me present to you the most Illogical Uzumaki Logic [Read at your own Risk]
✨ Law Enforcement is a myth in this town. Literally people are getting crushed, twisted and vanished but not a sign of cops or anything. Not even a single missing report! Huh?
✨ Main leads are indestructible like typical third class Bollywood film hero. Literally they can not be killed.
✨ Parents Don't care for their children. Let them die, let them vanish into the air. We are of no concern.
✨ Main lead can cut the twisted spirally hair of the female lead, ahem which btw professional hairdressers failed to cut. How? Nah, we will not question that.
✨ Teens witnessed some horrible death and that actually Didn't bother them at all No mental breakdown, no remorse, no emotions. Nothing. And you're supposed to feel it, root for them?
Sorry hon, WE SIMPLY CAN'T.
✨ Knowing that the city is infested by spiral, They will not move out, cause that would be too easy, too realistic. Bullshit.
✨ No background, no explanation or story development is needed. motherfuckers, Enjoy the disjoint discrete stories none of which makes any sense.
I wish I could give it 0 star. But It's a manga, so the art also counts. Therefore I can't be to harsh. The art is disgustingly creepy and terrifyingly beautiful. Story wise Uzumaki should Be rated in negative but solely for the art style I'm giving it 2 star
See I'm not saying it should be realistic af. Ik It's a horror manga and I've the least sense that horror can defy logic. But presenting headless stories in name of Horror It can't be justified. This is a collection of stories that denies normal human instincts or behaviour. Say someone dies infront of your eye what will be your reaction. You'll freak out, have nightmares. Right? Here people are having full course meal with family after witnessing two people being engulfed by some supernatural force. And It's not the only example. Literally every fucking story in this book is this way. Each story has numerous plot holes. And i simply could not endure this bullshit.
Uzumaki could be a three line story,
*OMG this town is infested by spiral.
*Lets Move out, oaky.
* HEA
But of this couldn't be the case, cause our protagonists are stupid and we readers are CHUTIYA!
Let me present to you the most Illogical Uzumaki Logic [Read at your own Risk]
✨ Law Enforcement is a myth in this town. Literally people are getting crushed, twisted and vanished but not a sign of cops or anything. Not even a single missing report! Huh?
✨ Main leads are indestructible like typical third class Bollywood film hero. Literally they can not be killed.
✨ Parents Don't care for their children. Let them die, let them vanish into the air. We are of no concern.
✨ Main lead can cut the twisted spirally hair of the female lead, ahem which btw professional hairdressers failed to cut. How? Nah, we will not question that.
✨ Teens witnessed some horrible death and that actually Didn't bother them at all No mental breakdown, no remorse, no emotions. Nothing. And you're supposed to feel it, root for them?
Sorry hon, WE SIMPLY CAN'T.
✨ Knowing that the city is infested by spiral, They will not move out, cause that would be too easy, too realistic. Bullshit.
✨ No background, no explanation or story development is needed. motherfuckers, Enjoy the disjoint discrete stories none of which makes any sense.
I wish I could give it 0 star. But It's a manga, so the art also counts. Therefore I can't be to harsh. The art is disgustingly creepy and terrifyingly beautiful. Story wise Uzumaki should Be rated in negative but solely for the art style I'm giving it 2 star
January 21, 2020
Many of Junji Ito’s themes and motifs are simple and even nonsensical, but they tend to stick in the mind. They have the ineluctable quality of nightmares, of good horror films. His concepts have the same staying power as a cheesy slasher flick, with the advantage of impressive artwork. No matter how far he takes the mutilation and monstrosities, they are rooted in true nightmares and real-life phobias. One gets the sense that the author is of a delicate sensibility and exorcises these demons in his work. Maybe horrors accumulate inside his mind and he has no choice but to draw manga for temporary relief.
Inanimate objects take on ominous contortions and morph into a dramatic diorama of blood and guts in most examples. Something as tame as clay pots are twisted into mesmerizing terror in his most representative work, Uzumaki. More so than in Tomie or Gyo, this is considered his stand-out production.
Reading it once is enough to start seeing spirals, to be infected by the madness. He points out society’s flaws indirectly, and you can usually dig beneath his nonsensical fables for subtle commentary. It was easy for me to acquire a taste for this brand of obscuring reality and blending it with nightmare. There is a gnawing madness to this and most of his other stories. Everything from marionettes to advertisements to snails to hot air balloons become objects to be questioned, or even to be abhorred. In Junji Ito nothing is as it seems. But under the horrid images, I can sense humor. The surface is only one layer. The true heart of his manga lies in a pervading irony and solid sense of grotesque joy that is easy to miss if you only consider the bones of the story.
Like in any good horror story, the characters in Uzumaki are constantly acting contrary to reason. I have heard of the unsuccessful live action film based on the manga. His ideas really only work on paper if you ask me. The exaggeration becomes silly when mishandled. That's why I'm a fan of the manga alone, and will remain a fan, as we're finally getting more of his titles and collections in English.
Inanimate objects take on ominous contortions and morph into a dramatic diorama of blood and guts in most examples. Something as tame as clay pots are twisted into mesmerizing terror in his most representative work, Uzumaki. More so than in Tomie or Gyo, this is considered his stand-out production.
Reading it once is enough to start seeing spirals, to be infected by the madness. He points out society’s flaws indirectly, and you can usually dig beneath his nonsensical fables for subtle commentary. It was easy for me to acquire a taste for this brand of obscuring reality and blending it with nightmare. There is a gnawing madness to this and most of his other stories. Everything from marionettes to advertisements to snails to hot air balloons become objects to be questioned, or even to be abhorred. In Junji Ito nothing is as it seems. But under the horrid images, I can sense humor. The surface is only one layer. The true heart of his manga lies in a pervading irony and solid sense of grotesque joy that is easy to miss if you only consider the bones of the story.
Like in any good horror story, the characters in Uzumaki are constantly acting contrary to reason. I have heard of the unsuccessful live action film based on the manga. His ideas really only work on paper if you ask me. The exaggeration becomes silly when mishandled. That's why I'm a fan of the manga alone, and will remain a fan, as we're finally getting more of his titles and collections in English.
June 25, 2017
5* STARS!
Uzumaki is Japanese for Spiral.
Fucking blow my mind! Obsession for spiral? It started from a small town, Kurōzu-cho which is cursed by supernatural events. The main lead, Kirie asked by her boyfriend, Shuichi to leave the town. Shuichi has eerie feeling with his surrounding but Kirie didn't really buy it. Then, the bizarre phenomenon start from Shuichi's father. His obsession towards spiral caused several deaths including him.
After what happened to his parents, Shuichi rarely leave his house. He believed with the spiral curse. But Kirie is still continue her daily life. Anyway, both characters are okay but I totally love the story from each chapters. From a strange new girl in town who bewitched boys; not include Shuichi till a Romeo and Julie kinda couple but in twisted way. Just.. WOW!
Uzumaki is Japanese for Spiral.
Fucking blow my mind! Obsession for spiral? It started from a small town, Kurōzu-cho which is cursed by supernatural events. The main lead, Kirie asked by her boyfriend, Shuichi to leave the town. Shuichi has eerie feeling with his surrounding but Kirie didn't really buy it. Then, the bizarre phenomenon start from Shuichi's father. His obsession towards spiral caused several deaths including him.
After what happened to his parents, Shuichi rarely leave his house. He believed with the spiral curse. But Kirie is still continue her daily life. Anyway, both characters are okay but I totally love the story from each chapters. From a strange new girl in town who bewitched boys; not include Shuichi till a Romeo and Julie kinda couple but in twisted way. Just.. WOW!
January 25, 2016
I don't know if it's because I've read too many horror manga or watched too many horror anime but I can't find this manga terrifying. It's weird all right but when I finished the volume I just asked myself So what? Why should I be scared? It just doesn't make any sense. Usually I get scared pretty easily but this is just a bunch of weird stories with some disturbing images, but there are a lot of disturbing manga out there and I've read a few. It wasn't enough to make an impression. Maybe it was the absence of a story, maybe the characters (I didn't really care for any of them) or maybe the fact that I can't get afraid of a spiral.. I'll finish this manga but I don't have high hopes for the other volumes.
July 2, 2018
Sincerely, this style of manga don't like me at all. Too much gore and obscure...
Read
May 13, 2022In the mood for the surreal and the grotesque? Junji Ito has you covered. His epic manga of a town’s descent into madness and destruction because of a ‘contamination with spirals’ starts off as a series of creepy vignettes, and culminates in an unsettling view of the ancient horror buried beneath the town’s foundations. Not for the squeamish, but as an avid horror reader (in both manga and text form), I very much enjoyed this trippy journey into the macabre. My favorite vignette was the lighthouse, but the ending tops it all. Spirals…they’re everywhere…
- Hillary D.
- Hillary D.
October 31, 2023
এ বই দিয়ে জুনজি ইতোকে চিনেছিলাম। গল্পগুলো যতটা ডার্ক তারচেয়েও অনেকবেশি ডার্ক আঁকার স্টাইল। পড়ার সময় আমার মনে হয়েছিল লেখকের মানসিক অসুস্থতা রয়েছে ।
জুনজি ইতো একটা দু:স্বপ্নের জগৎ তৈরি করেছেন এবং দারুণ সফলভাবে।
জুনজি ইতো একটা দু:স্বপ্নের জগৎ তৈরি করেছেন এবং দারুণ সফলভাবে।
March 2, 2008
Well, that was messed up.
The black and white style of manga is very helpful to setting the subdued mood of the stories. The town feels oppressed, prime to a supernatural infection. If you haven't heard, Uzumaki is about the curse of spirals that infests a small town in Japan. They begin arising everywhere: on the local pottery, in the clouds, from the smoke of the crematorium, increasing until the suggestible people become obsessed with them. But once an obsession sets in, the curse triggers truly supernatural events that cause the victims' lives to spiral down. Each chapter is punchy and tells its own story, loosely linked together by a few observer characters. The punchy chapters are compelling reads; I went through a hundred pages in a half hour. Many comics readers will probably be able to finish this in one sitting. Unfortunately the last chapter in this volume, "Medusa," is the weakest, being downright goofy (EVIL HAIR!).
You turn the page, not to see what's next, but to get away from what you just saw. It's engrossingly disturbing, and definitely not for the faint of heart. It's not as violent or nasty as I was led to believe, but when something disgusting happens (a woman cutting off her fingertips, for instance), Junji Ito is happy to show it. Far more disturbing than the little violence in the story is the surreal warping of human bodies - tongues elongating into spirals, human bodies intertwining, the silhouettes of human faces emerging from the spirals in art. These impossible things are far creepier.
The essence of the spiral (which is never properly explained in this volume) is that it is an unending shape. It's an imperfect circle, and where you might close the circle, the line draws inward, such that you can only swirl the line inward or bump into an existing line. The idea of the spiral is a great analogy for madness, with introversion, the attempt at getting to a truth, and weird fascination. This book is all about that.
The black and white style of manga is very helpful to setting the subdued mood of the stories. The town feels oppressed, prime to a supernatural infection. If you haven't heard, Uzumaki is about the curse of spirals that infests a small town in Japan. They begin arising everywhere: on the local pottery, in the clouds, from the smoke of the crematorium, increasing until the suggestible people become obsessed with them. But once an obsession sets in, the curse triggers truly supernatural events that cause the victims' lives to spiral down. Each chapter is punchy and tells its own story, loosely linked together by a few observer characters. The punchy chapters are compelling reads; I went through a hundred pages in a half hour. Many comics readers will probably be able to finish this in one sitting. Unfortunately the last chapter in this volume, "Medusa," is the weakest, being downright goofy (EVIL HAIR!).
You turn the page, not to see what's next, but to get away from what you just saw. It's engrossingly disturbing, and definitely not for the faint of heart. It's not as violent or nasty as I was led to believe, but when something disgusting happens (a woman cutting off her fingertips, for instance), Junji Ito is happy to show it. Far more disturbing than the little violence in the story is the surreal warping of human bodies - tongues elongating into spirals, human bodies intertwining, the silhouettes of human faces emerging from the spirals in art. These impossible things are far creepier.
The essence of the spiral (which is never properly explained in this volume) is that it is an unending shape. It's an imperfect circle, and where you might close the circle, the line draws inward, such that you can only swirl the line inward or bump into an existing line. The idea of the spiral is a great analogy for madness, with introversion, the attempt at getting to a truth, and weird fascination. This book is all about that.
April 14, 2017
I-didn't-get-the-horror-memo-stars
Spiral Obsession (part 1) : 3/5
Spiral Obsession (part 2) : 4/5
The Scar: 0.35/5
The Firing Effect: 2.75/5
Twisted Souls: i won't bother with any rating
Medusa: WHY??? 1.5/5
Artwork : 4/5 though I wish it was a little less text heavy.
So, over all 2.85 underwhelmed stars
P.S: I liked the Afterword better than most of the stories.
Spiral Obsession (part 1) : 3/5
Spiral Obsession (part 2) : 4/5
The Scar: 0.35/5
The Firing Effect: 2.75/5
Twisted Souls: i won't bother with any rating
Medusa: WHY??? 1.5/5
Artwork : 4/5 though I wish it was a little less text heavy.
So, over all 2.85 underwhelmed stars
P.S: I liked the Afterword better than most of the stories.
September 20, 2020
Çizimler, hikaye çok iyiydi. Çok beğendim.
🌟
🌟
March 1, 2021
Creepy and Fascinating , Uzumaki brings something unimaginable to the plate and delivers a decent Horrifying plot to the reader
Do you think a Spiral design can haunt you, drive you insane or even cause death?
Uzumaki: Vol 1 is all about how the town of Koruzucho is affected all of a sudden by a Spiral design and people either start driving themselves insane or die.
The idea seems funny however there's an Afterword by Junji Ito, the author which makes it even more scarier when imagined.
The only thing I didn't like about this Volume was that the Characters seemed a bit silly and illogical. If one notices something weird such as a person transforming themselves in a spiral shape, one wouldn't wait to find out what happens next, They'd take the necessary actions.
I liked reading this volume overall, the graphics were okay too. Decent mystery here. Another Manga scores!
Do you think a Spiral design can haunt you, drive you insane or even cause death?
Uzumaki: Vol 1 is all about how the town of Koruzucho is affected all of a sudden by a Spiral design and people either start driving themselves insane or die.
The idea seems funny however there's an Afterword by Junji Ito, the author which makes it even more scarier when imagined.
The only thing I didn't like about this Volume was that the Characters seemed a bit silly and illogical. If one notices something weird such as a person transforming themselves in a spiral shape, one wouldn't wait to find out what happens next, They'd take the necessary actions.
I liked reading this volume overall, the graphics were okay too. Decent mystery here. Another Manga scores!
April 9, 2018
4.5 Stars - Who knew that spirals could be so horrifying!?!
Playing with elements of psychological horror, the manga was incredibly dark and twisted. I honestly did not expect to have such a strong reaction to this deceptively simplistic story. The artwork was incredibly disturbing and gruesome. I highly recommend this weird manga to serious horror readers looking for an intense reading experience.
Playing with elements of psychological horror, the manga was incredibly dark and twisted. I honestly did not expect to have such a strong reaction to this deceptively simplistic story. The artwork was incredibly disturbing and gruesome. I highly recommend this weird manga to serious horror readers looking for an intense reading experience.
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