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To many, September is the start of “Spooky Season,” so what better way to get in the horror spirit than exploring the work of Japanese mangaka Junji Ito, and specifically focusing on the author’s second publication “Uzumaki.”
The three-volume series originally released in 1998 is an instant classic that should hold shelf-space in any horror or horror manga collector’s collection. In “Uzumaki,” Ito takes the town of Kurouzo-cho, a fictional city, and makes it become victim to a curse involving spirals along with its community. While spirals may not necessarily inflict fear directly onto people, Junji Ito uses storytelling and illustrating to manifest fear from this inanimate object. The scenarios Ito presents his readers are creative, mindboggling, grotesque, and are sure to stay embedded in the readers’ minds. After reading “Uzumaki,” Junji Ito is sure to intrigue readers to explore his other works.
“Uzumaki:” Spirals, So Many Spirals
In “Uzumaki,” Ito has readers see the town of Kurouzo-cho spiral into its downfall under the curse of the spiral through Kirie. Kirie is a teenage high schooler from a family of four and also in a relationship with Shoichi, a male high schooler who is already paranoid of his hometown and has always sensed something wrong with the area. While the story primarily follows Kirie, some of the chapters in “Uzumaki,” do follow other characters in the town, showing the impact of the curse which Kirie ultimately encounters as the story unfolds.
From the very first chapter, Junji Ito introduces us to the spiral. While nothing horrific is presented on the first page, one can admire Ito’s illustrations as he shows us Kirie walking on her way to school through a field filled with spiral-shaped grass and plants. In this first instance, one can admire the beauty Ito can illustrate through his work as well as the horror he provides readers throughout the story. The use of spirals increases as the story progresses. The manga format helps the story flow episodically, allowing for scenarios to unwrap right before the reader’s eyes with every flip of a page.
Our first encounter with the obsession of spirals reels us in through a typical format that most people associate spirals with, hypnosis. These swirling shapes have always had a connection to being used to reel in and draw someone’s attention. Whether it’s on an image online or a painting in-person, spirals have had the ability to change someone’s perspective. For example, certain spirals appear tunnel-like and immediately reel in the naked eye. The first spiral-obsessed individual Junji Ito has readers encounter is Shoichi’s father, Mr. Saito. Kirie attempts to greet him while heading to school, but instead, she receives no response as Mr. Saito is focused on the shell of a snail on the wall. The illustrations Ito uses here provide accurate detailing of what the snail’s shell would look like. There is also an eeriness about Mr. Saito ignoring Kirie and keeping his attention focused on the spiral.
What seems like a man intrigued by a snail is an obsessive trait that has been occurring for longer than Kirie has seen. As Kirie talks more with Shuichi, he reveals his father has turned his own work/study room into a collection of spiral-filled items, which Ito illustrates profoundly as the whole page showcases Mr. Saito’s room filled with posters, kimonos, fossils, plates, chandeliers, and anything he has encountered with a spiral on it.
The Beginning Of The Horror
Everything that has been mentioned up to this point is disturbing or unsettling, but the real horror has yet to be put on full display by Junji Ito. All Ito needs to reel in his readers is this first chapter. As we learn more about Shuichi’s obsessive father, we are quickly introduced to the craze that has taken over his regular life. After Kirie thinks Shuichi exaggerates this obsession with spirals, she accompanies Shuichi home, only to find an angered Mr. Saito yelling at his wife for throwing away his collection. After expressing his anger, he demonstrates to everyone that he doesn’t need the spirals since he can form his own, rolling his eyes individually forming the shapes of spirals.
If this was not disturbing enough, Kirie visits the house once again on a separate occasion to which Mr. Saito demonstrates another self-forming spiral with his tongue as he grotesquely rolls it into the shape of a spiral. Ito’s illustration of the tongue features a salivating Mr.Saito that is as disturbing as they come. But Ito takes Saito’s obsession a step further, leading to his own death. Now, this is where the obsession ultimately leads to the first death of many to come in “Uzumaki.” Mr. Saito’s death is one that is a complete tone shifter in the story; it is one that’s grim and unpredictable, a theme Ito continues throughout the story. As Shuichi and Mrs. Saito are looking for him, they find a circular wooden tub with a lid on.
The two lift the lid to reveal Ito’s first horrific death. The illustration speaks for itself.
Creative Kills And A Twisted Town
The deaths Junji Ito brings to life onto the rest of the story continuously range in creativity. If a man twisted and elongated to fit into a tub was not enough to widen your eyes, the rest of the deaths and kills that occur for the rest of the 19 chapters are sights to behold. Without giving away the rest of the story, just understand that Ito breaks away from the traditional deaths of a regular slasher or gorefest-themed movie or manga. Ito is capable of doing so since there is no main character amongst the town of Kurouzo-cho who is doing the killing. The main reason for the cause of these characters and the town’s manipulation is a higher power that is certainly otherworldly. Ito’s use of the “other” and mystery allows him to have full creativity and still keep association with his theme of spirals when killing off characters and manipulating the town. The spiral curse leads to kills involving cannibalism, stalkers, humans morphing into snails, blood-thirsty pregnant women, house-sucking whirlpools, spiral-shaped hair, and flashing light beams. These are just a few of the murderous entities one will encounter while reading this three-part series.
While members of Kurouzo-cho are suffering under these otherworldly conditions, the town itself is also victim to the curse, as the curse leads to horrendous conditions and even takes over the town in the form of natural disasters shredding it to the point of no return.
“Uzumaki” Now
The legacy of “Uzumaki” will only continue to spiral for years to come. The manga had originally been adapted into a full-length live adaptation film in 2000 that was received relatively well at the time. But of Junji Ito’s work, “Uzumaki,” had not yet received an animated adaptation until this upcoming October 2022. The series will stay true to Ito’s illustration style and will be animated in black and white.
Staying true to the manga is something Ito himself valued after the negative feedback his previous works received when they were animated in 2018 under an anthology series titled The Junji Ito Collection, which was done in color and mainly received backlash for not living up to the original manga. “Uzumaki” currently has a trailer and is set to release on Adult Swim. If you are interested in entering Junji Ito’s magnificent world of horror, “Uzumaki” would serve as a great starting point that’ll make for an entertaining read that is sure to spiral you into more of Ito’s work.