Uzumaki

Uzumaki is a massive failure. Nevertheless, it is one of the best anime series of 2024.
The anime is not as good as the manga. However, I actually believe that the first part of the anime is better than the source material. There is a crucial difference – while the manga narrates each of the unsettling episodes separately, the anime decides to tell you multiple ones at the same time. This way the whole story feels more interconnected and the characters, especially Shuuichi, have more space for personal development, or rather descent.
Having said that, after a very strong start, the anime fails spectacularly. The second part ... almost feels like a self-parody. The pacing is off, the feeling of horror is almost completely gone. Instead of being mesmerised and unsettled by the story, one almost laughs at it. You are almost encouraged to see the lack of logic, consistency and seriousness that is inherent to the entire horror genre (and is supposed to be covered by the lingering aura of mystery and fear). I believe that this horrible pacing is partially caused by the wrong decision to cover every single part of the manga. Some of it just should have been left out. However, it is also clear that a lot of bad decisions and other problems must have led to such a poor result.
Fortunately, the anime gets back on its feet in the 4th episode. The ending of the story is actually coherent and relatively closely resembles the manga (even though the pacing still is not always quite right).
All in all, some parts of the series are just bad. Still, it remains a fact that the first episode of Uzumaki is one of the best things that happened in the anime world of 2024.

The human mind is home to every single one of the greatest inventions that we, as a species, have seen; be them practical devices or amazing stories, there's a near infinite amount of beauty which originates in the brain of many a-homo sapiens sapiens out there. The human mind is also home to whatever the fuck this is, so it more or less evens things out to a middle-ground between "wonderful" and "God please we need another great flood and this time without Noah's ark".

Junji Ito is, undeniably, one of the greatest horror writers in recent history, and Uzumaki is by many considered to be ... his magnum opus, his créme de la créme, and for those who don't understand Latin nor French: his bestest, goodest work. It takes a single man's mind to come up with such a story as that of Uzumaki, and when I mean "a single man's mind", it is in the sense that absolutely nobody else would have imagined such blasphemy which would have gotten him burnt at the stake a few centuries ago. In simple terms, he should consult a psychiatrist.

Uzumaki provides a rather basic horror plot: "some small rural town has a curse!", but the main thing about it is that the curse in Uzumaki is one that revolves around spirals, which at the time in which this story was originally written, were generally seen as a good or positive symbol in Japanese society, which prompted Mr. Ito to subvert said notion to create the basis of the story's plot. The first problem you'll find here is that such notion is, well, part of Japanese society, and perhaps also too localized in time (1990s), which makes at least a part of this anime's appeal be lost, since there's no real perception being subverted as a ways to achieve greater impact on the audience given that most Western audiences and perhaps many Asian/Japanese audiences do not (any longer) have any "positive" perception of spirals; in fact, while spirals might refer to cycles, beauty or nature in Japanese aesthetics, they are often associated with negative connotations in western audiences, such as madness, hypnosis, chaos and else, which in turns, completely nullifies any attempt at having a cultural impact on most of the younger people, specially those who are not from the Japans.

Now, the cultural impact of Uzumaki's plot might be an important root for the story's whole existence, but it is far from being what truly seeks to make an impact on those consuming it. This piece of Junji Ito's works does not rely on cultural cues to make the audience feel horrified, but on sheer visceral depravity: the type of events that are seen throughout Uzumaki will certainly make a lot of people want to look away due to the incredibly disgusting and morbid nature of it: ever wanted to see two humans turn into giant snails and then mate? Here you will get to see it... lord, believe me, you WILL get to see it. Such morbidity is what Uzumaki relies on for shock, and while it is certainly its most interesting aspect, it is, however, one of its greatest problems: the nature of everything revolving around spirals, and the rapid onset madness of the plot, which in turn leads to the aforementioned morbid events, make it so that it very quickly becomes predictable and much less impactful, which will make those with a stronger stomach rapidly find the anime to lose appeal given that whatever remains to be seen won't feel as horrid as that which has been already showcased earlier.

The horror genre is a complicated one: it is certainly hard to write a story that's convincing, after all, most horror relies on supernatural phenomena, which in turn needs to provide a coherent argument as to why such phenomena happens which can then cancel any necessity for suspension of disbelief by those consuming it: having a story about a ghost haunting a house, and not providing a coherent reason why the people who live in the house just don't go live fucking elsewhere, makes for lazy writing, since it'll require the audience to ignore all logical thinking in order to be capable of enjoying the story, which certainly makes it harder to take seriously. Perhaps the greatest problem with Uzumaki is that it cannot be said that it manages to do just that; watching this miniseries implies a rather large amount of suspension of disbelief, because the characters tend to act irrationally, and no explanation is ever given for such behavior. For reasons not explained (or at least not explicitly-enough so), most of the characters have highly illogical reactions to even highly more illogical events: it'd seem as if everyone wants to pretend everything is a-ok in a town where people are dying in inhumane ways and in which everything is clearly NOT ok by any interpretation of the word. Because of this, Uzumaki's plot quickly becomes void of rationality, which in consequence makes the story feel highly forced and convenient, thus, it makes it appear to be badly written, which will certainly bother those who are here for things other than human snail mating or watching people's body contort and deform way past natural limitations.

As stated at the very beginning of the previous paragraph, creating horror is complicated, and this is because the sense of "horror" consists of many negative feelings which need to be transmitted onto the public: anxiety, despair, restlessness, disgust, and many more emotions and states of the mind are the building blocks of a good piece of horror media, and to achieve them, you need to build an atmosphere through many audiovisual aspects, and in the case of an anime, these include the animation, color palettes, soundtrack, sound design, character design, voice acting, the plot, and many other bits and tads which make up the whole picture. Uzumaki, however, lacks much of them. The sound design is mediocre, the soundtrack mostly absent, the character design ranges from regular to absurd, the voice acting is at many times devoid of effort, the animation is hit or miss... there's just too many issues here. Uzumaki's production value is less consistent than a bipolar teenager's emotions, and it is not only clear throughout the 4 episodes of the anime, but it varies even throughout the very same episodes: the first episode starts off well, but the second has some horrendous animation quality, while the third and fourth tend to switch between good and bad. The whole anime is in black and white, and while this manages to make the entire thing a bit more unsettling, it also feels like a lazy way to avoid greater detail through color, lightning and other visual cues. The fluidity of the animation creates a bit of an uncanny valley feeling; it attempts to feel human-like, but it is not nearly fluid enough to feel convincing, which makes it perhaps be more awkward than anything else. All of this makes Uzumaki feel annoying to watch, since it creates no real atmosphere, no real horror, no real "art"; it instead feels like a bad attempt at adapting the story and adding the label "avant-garde" to justify the crappy production, crappy plot, crappy pacing, crappy you, crappy me, we are a crappy family!

No, Uzumaki is hardly a "good" anime in technical terms, it is just simply shock content disguised as horror, with a lackluster production and lots of issues everywhere; it is a pathetic adaptation of an acclaimed manga, but as bad as it is, it still somehow manages to provide a decent amount of entertainment, and it is not bad at making you go "Jesus what the fuck is this shit, I feel bad for those poor bastards who were asked to animate this" in many occasions. That said, it only works as entertainment, not so much as an impactful story or something memorable for anything other than its horrid morbidity. Give it a try if you got guts, but don't show it to your kids, like, really, that's not a good idea.

Uzumaki is, in my opinion, a true masterpiece of the horror manga genre. If you're even remotely curious about manga horror or willing to give it a shot, check out the manga—because this anime only manages to butcher it. The only redeeming factor is the innovation in art style in the first episode, which seemed like a good idea at first. Unfortunately, the quality drops quickly, and the changes to the source material are ultimately unwarranted.

With that said, let’s start by exploring what this manga is about and the themes it seeks to convey. We’ll discuss whether the beginning is misleading, how it approaches its ... themes, and how effectively it utilizes the major elements of the medium.

So, what is this manga about?

At its core, Uzumaki is a story about obsession. The obsessive nature of spirals is an ingenious choice by Junji Ito, as spirals carry a natural, almost primal allure—there’s something entrancing about them, something that pulls you in. Spirals have long symbolized fascination, even madness, in various cultures, making them a fitting visual metaphor for the ever-tightening grip of obsession. The story uses this motif as a springboard for exploring how deeply and dangerously fixation can affect the human psyche, and how that fixation can spread like a curse through a town.

First things later, let’s talk art direction.

The true genius of Uzumaki lies in Ito’s exceptional art. His work captures an unsettling, almost Lovecraftian horror that is notoriously difficult to visualize. While Lovecraft relied on vague, indescribable horrors to terrify his readers, Ito makes the unexplainable tangible—without losing any of the dread that comes with it. From the first panels depicting the town of Kurouzu-cho and its residents, there's a persistent sense of unease, a feeling that something is inherently wrong. Even the mundane feels off, and once the spiral begins to take hold, the escalating absurdity feels strangely inevitable.

When the horrors occur, they are both shocking and eerily appropriate for the world Ito has crafted. Kurouzu-cho itself feels alive, transforming along with its inhabitants in grotesque and fascinating ways.

The anime tries to capture Ito's art by maintaining the black-and-white palette and replicating some iconic shots. It even succeeds in the first episode. But by the second episode, the animation becomes more cursed than the town itself. I wouldn’t mind if the animation were merely passable, but it is truly terrible.

At least the theme song is appropriately creepy and fitting.

So, how does it start?

The beginning of the Uzumaki anime is its only saving grace, although the last episode is also passable, as it follows the original structure. It manages to prove that an adaptation of Junji Ito works can be done with some creativity. Unfortunately, that is horribly misleading and some will even take it to heart and start thinking it really was impossible.

What about the characters?

Kirie, the protagonist, is a fascinating take on the “audience insert” character. Despite the surreal events unfolding around her, she maintains a calm detachment. Kurouzu-cho has always been strange, so her reactions aren’t as dramatic as one might expect, which allows readers to process the horrors through her more grounded perspective.

However, the real protagonist isn’t Kirie or even her boyfriend Shuichi, but the town itself. Kurouzu-cho becomes the true focal point, with the characters serving more as vehicles for the spirals’ effects than as figures with traditional character arcs.

What about the story itself?

Like much of Lovecraftian horror, Uzumaki doesn’t offer neat explanations. The plot isn’t concerned with wrapping up every mystery. Instead, it leaves much to the imagination, allowing the unease to linger long after the last page. The story provides just enough information to understand the thematic points, while keeping the greater mystery intact.

Structurally, Uzumaki follows an episodic format. However, the anime attempts to streamline the story, catering to a more modern audience obsessed with immersion as the end-all-be-all of fiction. The result? Horrible pacing and an experience far removed from the intended one. No tweaks could have made the immersion work—the story is meant to make you step back and think.

This is perhaps the most egregious change an anime adaptation has ever made to its source material. Altering the structure in such a fundamental way is, at the very least, a bold move.

Then, what did I think of it as a whole?

Uzumaki is a masterclass in horror storytelling. Ito’s ability to merge the grotesque with the philosophical makes it a standout not just in manga, but within the horror genre as a whole. While many horror works rely on shock value, Uzumaki weaves its unsettling imagery into a broader commentary on human nature, obsession, and the unknown. It’s rare to find a work that balances chilling moments with deep, resonant themes, ensuring it stays with you long after you’ve finished reading.

For those seeking a Lovecraftian horror experience that’s more eerie than outright terrifying, Uzumaki delivers in spades. Its growing sense of dread creeps into your mind, much like the spirals that drive the story. It might not be for everyone, but for those willing to embrace its strange world, it’s a journey worth taking.

Unfortunately, the anime doesn’t do the manga justice. It feels more like an experiment—and to be fair, the first episode does show that it can be done. But too many glaring mistakes ultimately sink the adaptation.