I’ve only read a few mangas, and Uzumaki was the first manga I had ever read. And it has been a fantastic experience to start with horror and gruesome manga. Now allow us to begin this spoiler-free review.
Plot
Uzumaki by Junji Ito, follows Kirie Goshima, a high-school student, her lover Shuichi Saito, and the residents of Kurouzu-cho (Black Vortex Village), a small, quiet Japanese town haunted by mysterious happenings involving spirals. It all starts when Shuichi Saito’s father becomes obsessed with spiral designs on objects. Saito’s father spends hours upon hours looking at and scrutinising whatever it is, whether snails or works of art with spirals on them. This becomes a recurring subject throughout Uzumaki, which literally translates to “spiral.” The spiral is captivating, drawing the spectator in to follow the pattern all the way to the centre.
There are many more different types of paranormal activities that take place in the series. These do not involve the laws of physics, though. However, I loved how Ito portrayed stereotypical activities in different forms. For instance, some people walk in circles, and supernatural happenings such as a birthmark transforming into a burrowing spiral through someone’s head. A lighthouse that turns on every night for no apparent reason occurs in quick succession. These are sheer uncanny occurrences one after the other. The trouble is that no one knows why nature operates in such a strange way.
ART
The series shines because of Uzumaki’s art style, which is true of all of Ito’s works. He’s a horror expert, creating incredible panels full of weird and scary images. His painting is exceptionally detailed, and he frequently employs shade and realism to ensure that his work elicits the most fright in viewers.
PERSONAL VIEWS
I admire the art and the main character’s instinct to understand all the bad things that are going on around him. Furthermore, Saito is my favourite character because of his bravery in confronting the spiral curse and rescuing a few people. In addition, each chapter of Uzumaki holds some hidden truths that can be applied in real life, such as believing what others say (a typical tendency in fiction, I know) or being envious leads to nowhere, and so on. You could have an idea of what I’m trying to express if you read it yourself. I suggest you to read it because of its overwhelming art and surprising end of the story.
ANIME ADAPTION
A four-episode anime television series adaptation was revealed during the Crunchyroll Expo in 2019. Before airing in Japan, the anime will premiere in the United States on Adult Swim’s Toonami programming block in October 2022. The anime will only be made in black and white.
