Uzumaki

Plot

Uzumaki follows a high-school student, Kirie Goshima (五島桐絵); her boyfriend, Shuichi Saito (斎藤秀一); and the citizens of the small, quiet Japanese town of Kurouzu-cho (黒渦町, Black Vortex Town), which is enveloped by supernatural events involving spirals. As the story progresses, Kirie and Shuichi witness how the spiral curse affects the people around them, causing the citizens to become either obsessed with or paranoid about spirals, including transforming them into grotesque monsters such as contorting their bodies, making pregnant women act like mosquitoes, raising the dead, and mutating most of the citizens into snails. The curse also progressively affects Kurouzu's environment. Among other things, it causes smoke from cremations to form spirals in the sky, turns the abandoned lighthouse into a hot furnace while making whoever looks at it walk in circles, creates whirlwinds and whirlpools, and warps vegetation into spiral patterns.

Shuichi becomes reclusive after both of his parents die from the horrific psychological and physical powers of the spirals, but he also gains the ability to detect when the spiral curse is taking place, although he is often dismissed until the next paranormal effects of the curse become obvious. Eventually, Kirie is affected by the curse as well, when her hair begins to curl into an unnatural spiral pattern, drains her life energy to hypnotize the citizens, and chokes her whenever she attempts to cut it off. Shuichi can cut her hair and save her. As the community begins to break down, the curse continues to plague the town until a series of typhoons conjured by the curse destroys most of its structures. The only remaining buildings are ancient abandoned row houses, which the citizens are forced to move into.

The curse's power increases dramatically, resulting in loud sounds or sudden movements generating whirlwinds. Kirie and Shuichi gather everyone to devise a plan to escape Kurouzu, but when they attempt to escape, their efforts are unsuccessful. After returning to the town, they discover that several years have passed since they left, as time speeds up away from the spiral. The other citizens expanded the row houses until they connected into a single structure, forming a labyrinthine spiral pattern. Almost everyone in the town has been mutated by the curse due to them being forced into the overcrowded rowhouses, with their bodies twisting into spiral arrangements. Kirie and Shuichi decide to search for Kirie's parents, which brings them to the center after many days of walking through the labyrinth which leads them directly to Dragonfly Pond, which has drained to reveal a spiral staircase.

Characters

Kirie Goshima

Voiced by: Uki Satake (Japanese); Abby Trott (English)

Shuichi Saito

Voiced by: Shin-ichiro Miki (Japanese); Robbie Daymond (English)

Yasuo Goshima

Voiced by: Toshio Furukawa (Japanese); Doug Stone (English)

Chizuko Goshima

Voiced by: Shino Kakinuma (Japanese); Dorothy Elias-Fahn (English)

Mitsuo Goshima

Voiced by: Yuko Sanpei (Japanese); Laura Stahl (English)

Toshio Saito

Voiced by: Takashi Matsuyama (Japanese); Aaron LaPlante (English)

Yukie Saito

Voiced by: Mika Doi (Japanese); Mona Marshall (English)

Azami Kurotani

Voiced by: Mariya Ise (Japanese); Cristina Vee (English)

Tokuo Katayama

Voiced by: Katsutoshi Matsuzaki (Japanese); Max Mittelman (English)

Okada

Voiced by: Wataru Hatano (Japanese); Kaiji Tang (English)

Kazuki Tsumura

Development

Junji Ito's initial desire was to create a story about strange changes that would occur to people living in a very long, traditional Japanese terraced house. This story would have been based on Ito's personal experience living in such a house as a child. During the process of finding a way to draw such a long building, Ito was inspired by the shape of a mosquito coil and decided he could make the building long by having it spiral. Ito has noted that the spiral is a "mysterious pattern" and described writing Uzumaki as an attempt to learn the secrets of the spiral. Ito sought inspiration by methods such as staring at spirals, researching spirals, creating spiral patterns by draining water from bath tubs, eating foods with spiral patterns, and raising snails. Looking back on the series in 2006, Ito stated that while he was still uncertain what the spiral stood for, he thought it might be representative of infinity.

Uzumaki was influenced by the positive representation of spirals in media, which inspired Ito to subvert them to create horror, stating: "Usually spiral patterns mark character's cheeks in Japanese comedy cartoons, representing an effect of warmth. However, I thought it could be used in horror if I drew it a different way." The story in which Kirie's hair is cursed by the spiral reflects a recurring theme in Ito's work in which a heroine's hair has a life of its own. Ito uses this imagery because it lends itself well to horror due to its association with the Japanese feminine ideal (Yamato nadeshiko), as well as the unnerving flowing motions of long hair, which he describes as snakelike. Ito also noted that horror writer H. P. Lovecraft was one of his inspirations when creating Uzumaki, stating that the gradual development of the spiral curse was patterned on Lovecraft's storytelling and that "Lovecraft's expressionism with regard to atmosphere greatly inspires my creative impulse."

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Junji Ito, Uzumaki was serialized in Shogakukan's seinen manga magazine Big Comic Spirits from January 19, 1998, to August 30, 1999. Shogakukan compiled the chapters into three bound volumes and published them from August 29, 1998, to September 30, 1999. To celebrate the release of the live-action film, the manga series was released in an omnibus volume in March 2000, with an additional "lost" chapter. Shogakukan released another omnibus edition on August 30, 2010, with the same content and additional commentary from Masaru Sato.

In North America, Viz Media serialized an English-language translation of the series in its monthly magazine Pulp from the February 2001 issue to the August 2002 issue. It published volumes of the series from October 2001 to October 2002. Viz Media re-released the series with new covers from October 2007 to February 2008, and published the omnibus volume in hardcover with twelve color pages on October 13, 2013. The series has also been translated into other languages, such as Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Swedish, Mandarin, Korean, and Serbian.

Video games

Two video games were developed and published by Omega Micott for the Bandai WonderSwan. The first, Uzumaki: Denshi Kaiki Hen (うずまき 〜電視怪奇篇〜, Spiral – Television Mystery), was released on February 3, 2000, and is a visual novel retelling the events of the manga. Kirie Goshima's actor, Eriko Hatsune makes a special appearance. The second game, titled Uzumaki: Noroi Simulation (うずまき 〜呪いシミュレーション〜, Spiral – Curse Simulation), was released on March 4, 2000, and is a simulation game. Players are tasked by the Uzumaki Sennin (うずまき仙人; Spiral Master) to spread the spiral curse. The objective is to spread the curse across the town and find hidden objects to gain more "Spiral Power" and progress the story. The title also includes a mini-game involving one of the snail-human hybrids.

Live-action film

On February 11, 2000, a live-action adaptation of Uzumaki was released in Japan. Directed by Higuchinsky, it featured Eriko Hatsune as Kirie Goshima, Shin Eun-kyung as Chie Maruyama, Fhi Fan as Shuichi Saito, Keiko Takahashi as Yukie Saito, Ren Osugi as Toshio Saito, and Hinako Saeki as Kyoko Sekino. The film consists of four parts ("A Premonition", "Erosion", "Visitation", and "Transmigration"), and as a result of being produced before the manga's conclusion, uses a different ending than the manga.

Anime

At 2019's Crunchyroll Expo, a 4-episode anime television miniseries adaptation was announced. The miniseries is co-produced by Production I.G USA and Adult Swim's in-house production arm Williams Street. The anime is directed by Hiroshi Nagahama, with Colin Stetson composing the music. It premiered on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block before its Japanese premiere. This is the fourth time that Cartoon Network, as an entire network, was directly involved in the production of a Japanese anime, with The Big O II, IGPX (both the 2005 micro-series and 2006 anime), and the FLCL sequels, all receiving some form of animated production that was backed by the network. Creative director Jason DeMarco stated that as of March 25, 2020, production was still in progress, and that the COVID-19 pandemic had no effect on production. In an interview with Ito, he speaks of Hiroshi Nagahama in respect calling him "quite talented". He also said that being faithful to his original manga made him "quite happy". Ito confirmed that the screenplay of the series was finished since he checked. He said "Four episodes are way shorter than the original manga. They did a good job of rearranging the series. For example, someone who dies early on now plays an important role later on. They did a fantastic job of crafting things together like that. The screenwriter is a very talented individual." The anime is produced entirely in black and white.

On June 10, 2020, the anime's official Twitter account presented some pictures of storyboards. On July 22, 2020, the official Twitter announced the Japanese voice cast. On July 26, 2020, Adult Swim reran the same teaser trailer during its Adult Swim Con and presented an interview with series director Nagahama. In addition to this, it was confirmed that the series was being moved back a year from its originally planned 2020 release. On July 29, 2020, the Japanese voice cast officially started recording. A second teaser video was posted on June 15, 2021, with comments from director Hiroshi Nagahama describing how the pandemic forced the team to "restructure" their plan for the anime from scratch. The video also confirmed that the anime would be delayed again to October 2022.

In June 2022, Corus Entertainment confirmed through a press release that the series would also be broadcast on Adult Swim in Canada. Later that same month, the anime was once again delayed indefinitely at the request of the production staff. In 2023, Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen's company Square Peg was revealed to be involved with producing the series. On July 22, 2023, during Adult Swim's "Toonami on the Green" panel at San Diego Comic-Con, the network debuted a new clip from the series. Despite it not unveiling any release timeframe at the end, Jason DeMarco later stated on Twitter that the series would premiere later in 2023, although that did not happen. The series premiered in Japanese with English subtitles on September 29, 2024, and its English dub premiered on October 4 of the same year. Netflix announced on October 25, 2024, that the series is set to be streamed on the platform in Asia by the end of the year.

Reception

Uzumaki was nominated for an Eisner Award in the category of "Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material" in 2003. The Young Adult Library Services Association chose the first volume for its list of the "Top 10 Great Graphic Novels for Teens" in 2009. The manga was also included on its list of the 53 "Great Graphic Novels for Teens". Viz Media's Deluxe edition ranked No. 172 in Diamond's Top 300 Graphic Novels in October 2013 with a total of 784 copies sold. IGN placed Uzumaki at #2 under their "Top 10 Horror/Thriller Manga" list. About.com's Deb Aoki placed Uzumaki in her list of recommended horror manga, describing it as a classic of the genre. Uzumaki appeared in 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die (2011), and the reviewer wrote that it reminded him of the works of H.P. Lovecraft. MyM magazine praised the manga, calling it "one of the scariest manga series around."

In Manga: The Complete Guide (2007), Jason Thompson gave Uzumaki three and a half stars, and wrote that, taken as a whole, the manga succeeds as "an elegant and sometimes blackly humorous story of dreamlike logic and nihilism." Thompson featured the manga again in his House of 1000 Manga blog, praising it for its originality, in that it revolved around "a certain nightmarish, fatalistic way of looking at the world". ComicsAlliance author and comic artist Sara Horrocks also praised the manga, stating "What makes Uzumaki such a strong work is how precise it is in its mechanics. It is meticulous in the way that a curse might be."

For the first volume, Theron Martin from Anime News Network gave it a 'B', praising the art style and character designs, including Viz Media's new cover design. He stated, however, that "some of the attempts at horror get too preposterous for their own good." Greg Hackmann of Mania gave it an A, praising both its "well-honed" art and Ito's ability to form an effective overarching plot out of Uzumaki's loosely connected substories. Barb Lien-Cooper of Sequential Tart gave it a 7 out of 10, stating "The art is clean and simple. It works to help maintain the paranoia. The tone and pacing of this story are also just right. Altogether, one of the better horror stories I've read this year." Ken Haley of PopCultureShock gave it an 'A' and praised Ito's effective use of body horror, though he noted that some of the curse's effects were more humorous than frightening.

For the second volume, Lien-Cooper gave it 8 out of 10 stating, "What astounds me about Junji Ito's work is its deceptive simplicity and its flawless execution." Sheena McNeil, also from Sequential Tart, instead gave it a 9 out of 10, citing the novel effects of the curse Ito invented. Hackmann, however, gave it a 'B', explaining that "Unfortunately, this shift in story format is largely a failed experiment: with the overarching escape storyline put on hiatus, a good number of these disconnected episodes degenerate into simple, 'lookit, weird stuff happening' horrorfests that lack much of the creative spark exhibited throughout the first Uzumaki collection."