Ranked #278

Uzumaki (Manga)

Imagine any one of your friends, family members, or classmates and go over in your mind what you think of them. Try and picture them doing and saying revolting and/or loathsome things. Could you imagine any of them ever doing something truly morally objectionable? Something that would turn your stomach just thinking about it?

Worse things are in store for the main protagonists of this horror manga by Junji Ito.

The town of Kurozu-cho literally begins to spiral out of control when a curse hits the unprepared residents and everything else within its vicinity. The effect it has on some of the townspeople start off as simply being bizarre but grow in intensity as the true motive of the curse becomes clear. The supernatural entity brings chaos and misery with it as no one is able to escape its wrath. It's fun to see them try though.

Uzumaki's main character is Kirie, a girl who, despite the terror she frequently experiences as a result of the curse, shows genuine concern for the welfare of others. Her inner strength is most noticeable when she is speaking with her nervous wreck of a boyfriend, Shuichi. Shuichi is the person in the town of Kurozu-cho who is most affected by the curse of the spiral. Everyone else seems eerily calm in comparison, almost as though they believe it's a trial that will pass or that someone or something will eventually save them.

The most frightening aspect of Uzumaki's story is that the characters feel so very real even though most appear to either be abnormally unaware of the hopelessness of their situation or in denial of it. The foreshadowing is wonderfully done. It's one of those cases where even if you know what the book will be about, it somehow still ends up being a shock when what appears to otherwise be a normal setting is disturbed by something so horrific that it can spoil a strong-stomached person's appetite. I, for one, will not be eating mushrooms anytime soon. And I'll try to repress my once strong urge to try escargot, as much as I would have loved to eat something that looks like living mucus in the first place.

This manga has characters doing revolting and loathsome things. Morals are broken in uncountable ways. And, after my statements about mushrooms and snails(two very different things which share a few things in common in this manga), do I really have to tell you that it completely turned my stomach? I was eating pizza while writing this(I hadn't eaten in about 7 hours) and I had to throw away my leftovers due to being reminded of some unpleasant images. I must say that I was both addicted to and repelled by the material. That's a sign of a good horror story. And Uzumaki is not just a good story, but a horror masterpiece.

The art is beautiful, as always. As beautiful as such nauseating and creepy stuff can be, really. The character designs are the best I've seen of Ito's work so far. Everything is wonderfully detailed and clean. The art is just as engrossing as the story. It's difficult to look away. I was most impressed with it during the chapter of 'The Snail'. But that's only a personal preference because no chapter or volume is overshadowed by any other. The contrast between the 'normal' characters and those who clearly aren't doesn't feel far-fetched but believable.

Uzumaki is a must read if you're looking for anything to do with horror. I had heard of the live action Japanese film adaptation of the same name but never bothered to actually watch it. Obviously, this manga has convinced me that it is worth a watch after all.

It's always nice to come across horror writers who relate their stories to reality. In reality, lives don't always end happily or satisfyingly. And in reality, everyone is capable of committing inhumane acts. We just don't know what buttons need to be pressed before any one of us snaps. But, thankfully, most of us will never witness or experience such things. We just read about them. And the funny thing is, most atrocities in reality are inspired by those described or presented in works of fiction. read more

Originally posted by me on The Moon is a Dead World (http://ryneb.blogspot.com)

I'm always interested in different forms of media that manage to tie in the horror genre, and being a manga and anime fan myself, I sometimes find myself perusing the various manga shelves at my local bookstores to see what good ol' Japan has in store for us. A few years ago, I stumbled on Uzumaki, a manga which immediately grabbed my eye because of its psychedelic spiral book cover and the words "Spiral Into Horror" printed over the title. Obviously, anything that incorporates horror is going to increase my interest, so I picked it up, sat down on the couch, and started reading it until my parents came to get me. That was the last I saw of Uzumaki until now, pretty much. I remembered the manga and started reading it again, only to find myself as enthralled with it as the last time.

The manga is done by Junji Ito, known for other horror works besides this one. It follows Kirie Goshima, our narrator, who lives in Kurôzu-cho with her family. Her boyfriend, Shuichi, is the first to experience any happenings with the spiral - his father becomes obsessed with anything of spiral formation, and finally breaks all of the bones in his body to become a spiral. If that's not trauma enough for the poor kid, his mother becomes so crazy with grief and obsession about spirals that she begins to purge any on her body, including the whorls on her fingertips, and eventually, she kills herself. There's some strange stuff going on in Kurôzu-cho, and Shuichi knows it, so he becomes a recluse, hiding out in his house. Kirie, on the other hand, is not fazed by the madness of the spiral, and continues living at her house. Through a series of experiences, including spiral obsessions that turn people into spirals themselves, people turning into snails with spiral shells on their backs, violent hurricanes that want only Kirie, and pregnant mosquito ladies who need blood for their unborn children, Kirie begins to realize that Kurôzu-cho is a cursed town. But it's a little too late, for the town won't let them leave, at least not until they join the spiral themselves.

Just from that summary, Uzumaki seems like a lot of fun, right? Very true. Never have I read a comic or manga that sucked me into the story and artwork as Uzumaki. It's ironic that the story is so compelling, almost mimicking the fact that spirals have an inescapable, hypnotic effect to them. The main characters are pretty rich and developed, especially Kirie, because we associate most with her. Most of the secondary characters are flat, but if they are important to a segment of the story, they get some sort of backstory and development to give the reader a little more interest in them. Obviously, this is a horror manga first and foremost, and at only three volumes, there's barely any time to establish a host of characters. However, the reader easily gets a feel for Kirie and her brother, as they begin to take more important roles in the narrative.

In the beginning, each chapter feels almost like a one-shot, presenting a story and concluding it (or giving as much of a conclusion as possible) at the end of the chapter. Most scenes have little to no bearing on the last one, and at first I felt that all of the chapters felt really disjointed to the point where it felt like the author was just throwing out cool ideas that incorporated spirals. Towards the end of the manga, though, scenarios start to tie together a little more cohesively. That's not to say that all of the mystery is cleared up, because much of why certain events happen are left ambiguous. This is one of the downfalls of Uzumaki; there's a really amazing lead-up of events, with creative monsters or horrifying situations, and then the chapter drops off, never clearing up why the spiral chose to manipulate the people in this way. It's very fun and care-free, but there's a sense that the audience is missing an explanation.

Even towards the end, when some of the earlier story arcs come into play again, there's a generic exposition of "the spiral made them do it," but it doesn't cut it for me. I want to know exactly why some people turn into snails while others willingly make themselves into spirals. The conclusion to the story feels like a cop-out too. Shuichi and Kirie have worked non-stop throughout the manga to avoid the spiral, and for the finale, we are forced to accept the fact that there is no other way to survive except to complete the town's spiral. It gives a large sense of abandonment and futility for the reader, but it also lets them down, because all the events that occurred could have been left out, Kirie could have died in the first chapter, and the outcome would still be the same.

Other than these nitpicks with the story, though, Uzumaki is creative enough to stand out from other J-horror titles about curses. Sure, the city is cursed with a spiral instead of a ghost, but there are endless possibilities for strange happenings, and Ito certainly uses his imagination, both in concept and artwork. The drawings are, for the most part, typical manga style, except when characters are abnormal or are going crazy because of the spiral. The latter characters begin to develop dark splotches around their eyes, have strange postures, and become plain creepy. The chapter on the pregnant women sucking blood is hypnotically creepy, in fact.

Everything is so twisted in the story that you can't help but feel the atmosphere of depression. Ito tends to present complex choices that the characters must make, normally with frightening results either way. Food becomes scarce in Kurôzu-cho and our protagonists are forced to cook and eat the snail-people, trying to convince themselves that the snails have ceased to be human. However, this is still a sickening and twisted turn of events, especially when Kirie's brother becomes a snail, and I felt disgusted and actually fearful when reading.

The moments stated above are just some of the respectable plot lines that Ito brings to the table, and rather than read my lackluster attempt at a review, it would be much more fun to read the 500 or so pages of the manga instead. Expect a few uncomfortable moments, however, as Ito finds it fun to get under the reader's skin. read more