Uzumaki
Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror

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This is still my favorite Junji Itoh's piece of work. From top to bottom, every nook and cranny of this series is everything that most horror manga should take as a study case. I'm very glad it's going to get a good anime adaptation because surely a lot of people are going to love this series a lot. The story tells about the curse of the spiral that took over the small coastal town of Kurouzu-cho in Japan. It isn't just about that 'Oh, the spiral taking over, it's going to be spiral everywhere.' Spiral everywhere is one part, but what's more interesting and creepier ... about it is the way the Spiral haunts the city and people in the town, being described throughout the story to show that even if it's just the spiral, it could have been worse than you would have thought. Amazing horror manga, you need to read this if you like horror pieces of stuff.

I guarantee that this manga will not be what you expect it to be, and I mean that in a positive way. If you like stories with a clear sense of closure to everything, this is not for you. A lot is not explicitly explained, and that's what I loved about it. I liked that each chapter could be read individually and still be interesting, and yet each chapter built off of the previous ones in a unique way. It wasn't so much that there was a clear cut story, but each piece gave you a different kind of insight into ... the situation itself. The thing I loved most was that the story began in a relatively normal town that was a little strange, but by the end, everything became completely chaotic and terrifying. That's why it's important to keep reading if you're bored with it at first; a lot of changes occur throughout the story.

If you're into the macabre, you'll find the images intriguing. A lot of human disfigurement goes on, which is interesting to look at, though at times very terrifying. Like I said earlier, it's interesting to watch everything go from a little strange to completely horrifying, on a storyline level as well as from a visual perspective.

Read this if you want to be freaked out and have your mind scrambled!

How can we make something simple like "circles" into something so macabre and manipulative that it breaks your mind?

Uzumaki brilliantly transposes through a clean and detailed art, a theme that for many today in works called "manga" are very difficult to reproduce without being cliché, repetitive, tiresome, plagiarized as the "psychological horror."

This work can be unique in its concept, because Junji Ito did not use openly visual horror, or gore, without a reason and free way, all parts of visual horror has a meaning, which you can analyze through the visual and Mental, which often becomes dubious.

Many may commend the gore scenes or visual horror, ... which are very well designed and that make them wonderfully terrifying pictures, but what strikes me in a charming way is the script, so well written and intertwined. Many of the readers who read Uzumaki will always have a different view of what the manga really is or what it wanted to convey. The way it was written, transposed, the real and the mental, for me, is what makes this manga one of the best works that the manga genre can ever transpose.

For me, I was very happy to have read this work, it opened for me a new door on what is a work of Horror and literature. Getting 3 volumes quickly transpose a fine art, a simplistic concept, a brilliant horror and a perfect script must be valued.
Any fan of the Horror genre should read this work, it is a must have masterpiece.

I wish you a great reading!

"... Looking at your huge collection of spirals"

(no spoilers contained)

Successful horror stories scare or repulse, assaulting the audience with an arsenal of monsters, shocking or unexplainable events, and playing with the character's mind and feelings. Horror is frequently supernatural, though it can be non-supernatural. Horror is about fear and tragedy, and whether or not one is capable of overcoming those things. It’s not all about severed heads or blood-glutton vampires. It’s an existential thing, a tragic thing, and somewhere in every story this dark heart beats. One of the defining traits of the genre of horror is that it provokes a response; emotional, psychological or physical, within readers that causes them to ... react with fear.

Inspired by manga horror greats like Hideshi Hino (Hell Baby) and Kazuo Umezu (The Drifting Classroom) but working in a highly detailed style all his own, Junji Ito successfully managed to create a story that has many - if not all - of the characteristics that makes a horror story, good and scary. There's no doubt that he is one of the most popular horror manga artists.

But let's go deeper...

Story: 8

The story follows what must seem like a bizarre, absurd premise even by the standards of weird fiction. A small Japanese town is “infested by spirals.” This means spiral shapes begin to appear everywhere: blades of grass, clouds, pottery baking in a kiln, whirlpools in creeks. The story quickly goes into the scary stuff, where townspeople begin obsessing over the spiral. This situation becomes even more menacing when terrible things happen to human bodies which leads to some truly disturbing images of the horrifying pliability of the human body, culminating in an iconically nightmarish scene that will have a profound effect on how you view personal baths.
For the most part, each chapter has it's own story, characters and events, which means that sometimes, an event or a character won't affect the story in any way, in later chapters. Which is something that some people may not like. Though, that isn't always the case. There are some very noticeable moments who trully managed to capture my interest. Also, the story is narrated from one of the main characters.

Art: 8

Not many things to write here. As a horror manga, the art is pretty good overall. Sometimes the backround isn't very detalied, but it's not necessary. Characters have a realistic style, which fits with the story and the atmosphere, and some pages, mostly the scary scenes, are really well drawned. Ito knew what was important and needed more detail, and what not.

Characters: 7

The "characters part" wasn't the highlight of this manga, but that doesn't mean that it makes the manga repulsive. There isn't much of character development, which isn't unprecedented, considering that the story is mostly based on short stories. The main characters are likeable, both with their own personalities and flaws. Despite their flaws of either being too naive and the other too self conscious, they complement each other which helps the story to move forward. Secondary characters support the story good enough to make the story interesting and scary. But other than that, nothing remarkable about them.

Enjoyment/Overall: 7

This was actually my first time reading a horror manga, and i really liked it. It is a great example of how scary and weird a horror and supernatural manga can be. It leaves you guessing until the climatic conclusion, which is also part of the horror that this manga wants to pass to the readers. This series contains a bunch of disturbing images, violence and gore, nudity, and intense scenes of horror, so if you think you can't handle all these, then this manga probably isn't for you. I would recommend it, but if you never have read any horror manga before, then you might want to read something else first.

Uzumaki was the first Ito manga I ever read. For most people, when they hear "Uzumaki" they think of that mediocre Naruto bullshit and not this masterpiece of manga.

Story / 9

The story follows teenage Kirie and her boyfriend Shuichi as they embark on their journey in their cursed town of Kurôzu-Cho. As time advances, the town "spirals" into more and more insanity. For me, the story was very interesting and I never knew what truly to expect. Many people criticize Ito on his stories "not being scary", but they aren't meant to be in that sense. He writes the sub-genre of psychological horror, where you ... have to think about it for it to truly be scary. As a long time fan, none of his works are "shit your pants scary". Like all Ito series, it has a similar ending to Tomie and Gyo.

Art / 10

For me, the art is what truly drew me in. When I first heard about Uzumaki, I looked it up and was truly astonished by the art. The first image I saw was of Azami and her eye, which I believe to definitely be one of the most popular panels from the manga - having seen many parodies and tattoos of it. The art stayed the same over the course of the series, being both beautiful and abhorrent at the same time.

Characters / 6

In most of his works, his characters don't happen to matter at all in a sense - they just happen to be there or exist within the work. They are usually nothing memorable. Here, since Uzumaki spans over 3 volumes, the characters are slightly more memorable. Kirie is very brave and Shuichi proves again and again that he cares about her. Azami is completely unforgettable with her short chapter - the same with Shuichi's mother and father.

Enjoyment / 9

I very much enjoyed Uzumaki. After reading the first volume (which I had a physical copy of), I remember looking it up online and binge-reading the last two volumes. I was very eager how this story would turn out.

Overall / 10

I absolutely love Uzumaki - it is a completely unforgettable adventure. With it's unique and never-before-heard plotline and amazing art, you'll most likely be sucked in. I know I was when I read it.

Sometimes, that one manga or anime comes around that sets a standard for what that genre should be, and this is definitely the case for Uzumaki, the iconic horror manga written by the ever-so-brilliant Junji Ito.

The story is brilliant. The reason I find this to be the case is that the unknown stays unknown, and that's how a horror should be. I find that in most cases, once the horror is fully explained we learn how to deal with it, and as a result, it becomes less threatening. But the spiral infestation the fictional town is involved in is all but explainable and makes us ... question everything up to our own purpose in the universe and the cause of our existence. (I may be over-exaggerating here, but you will understand if you have read this. If not, I highly urge you to do so, you may or may not regret it.)

The fact that Ito can make such a non-threatening object seem unstoppable and downright disturbing is astonishing, and it makes any reader afraid to turn the page with his masterful image placement that raises the bar especially high for future horror authors. Illustration-wise, we practically feel the same emotion these characters do coming across straight up gory and gross scenes, and some could even make us physically sick. I definitely see that Ito was trying to cause this, and he did a mighty fine job.

I suspect that what makes this manga so terrifying is not just the incredible yet petrifying imagery, but the fact that he's essentially bent what we perceive as normal. Everyone knows that a zombie or ghost are inherently scary, but nobody would suspect that a simple spiral would be so unsettling, and this feeling of surrealness also brings about a feeling of dread as we turn the page to see what gruesome event it has now caused.

The characters are also very well handled, as we see their descent into misery and madness that "the spiral" causes and empathise with them. After all, who on this planet would want to succumb to the same dreadful experiences these poor characters have gone through? We grow to care for almost all of the characters, and Ito rips our heart out page after page after page...

Despite having to take a few breaks here and there, I thoroughly enjoyed this series, and the only regret is that I sunk too far into this spiral and didn't realise I had spent hours utterly mesmerised by this inspirational work of horror. Props to you, Junji Ito.

I bought the deluxe edition of Uzumaki because I wanted to read something new from a author I have not heard before.

I hate horror and usually stay away from it because in a lot of western media and in books/comics, horror has become more of shock value either with excessive blood or cheap jump scares which becomes tiring. However having Uzumaki in 2 days, I can tell the the author really knows well how to keep the reader tense and shocked and keeping the horror genre alive.

The story boils down to the concept of the "spiral". This is pretty much an entire manga about ... it. A town who has been affected by an unknown entity referred to as the "spiral". The entire town starts to change and many things happen to it that leaves the reader shocked but filled with questions as to what this "spiral" is and what it will do next. I remember reading each chapter wondering what will happen in the story using the "spiral" and it never ceased to keep me horrified.

The horror aspect for me was enjoyable(to a non horror reader) because the author used the over exaggerated blood or gore in the manga when it was absolutely necessary and not all the time. The author instead uses mystery and hopelessness in combination with the town and it's people, to create an addicting story that will keep you tense and really unsettled.

I had nightmares when I first finished this and became tense about just thinking about spirals and I think this manga made me not like snails anymore :p.

I would suggest reading this if you're new to the horror genre and I would pick up the deluxe edition which contains all 19 chapters+bonus chapter+something extra from the author.

Story: There aren't enough words to describe the beauty that is Uzumaki. It begins with one man's obsession that overtakes a whole town. It is a collection of stories including the same protagonist in the same setting, some of which are so bizarre, it's laughable and others which are just plain terrifying. The main premise of the manga is the obsession behind the spiral, which is so ironic as the story itself seems to be spiralling into madness as you progress, even the most sane character begins going insane the longer he stays in that town. Towards the end of the story you are thrown ... into a crazy, abnormal world of horror.

Art: The artistic skill of the mangaka really shows in his ability to pervert the human figure. Only someone with a great understanding and knowledge of the way the human body works and functions can pervert it so horrifically and perfectly. Some pages are only filled with art that provides shock value and sends a shiver down your spine. I could only think to myself, 'How on earth did he come up with this?'

Character: The character designing has been done wonderfully as well, we get a grip of individuals personality types quickly and they are easy to remember even if they were in the story only for a short while.

Overall- This story is extremely enjoyable and you can read it over and over again without getting tired of it. The manga is not easily forgettable and every time I see a snail shell I stare at it and begin to understand why he chose to pick the spiral. It is absolutely amazing that the spiral shape is naturally occurring because of how geometric and perfect it is. It does get a bit far fetched and silly at times but I feel that it acts as a relief from the intense mood of the main story.

While putting down the scores for this Review, I put down 10 for story and yet 1 for Enjoyment. This simple setence will make you know how I feel about Uzumaki.

Uzumaki is about a cursed town which strange events happen that center around spirals...and that's about as far as I can go without confusing you into a complete recluse. Sure I could mention the snail people and the man who bend himself into a spiral in the first chapter, but then again I would be ruining all the best points now.

The Story above is probably a unique in it's way to draw you deeper ... and deeper in. The first and second volume are almost like building blocks for the spiral that will draw you in at the third volume.
However, once you get to the end, you will instantly feel...what's the word I am looking for?
Oh yeah, Utterly disapointed!
To say I grew at least attached to the people of the town was understatement, I honestly wished that they would get things back to normal...but here's a spoiler for ya.
They Don't. They all die at the end, turned into stone and wrapped around each other in spirals, waiting for the next sucker to decide "Lets built a Town here!".

==============Segway here=============
But then again, my disappointment could be from Japanese unique horror storytelling.
Whenever you watch American Horror, don't you sort of root for the monster instead of the main hero? Sure you do! Because you don't feel connected to the Hero in any way. He keeps doing incredibly stupid things for no reason other then to waste our time for a hour and a half.
However, When you watch Japanese Horror, You will get sucked in and will be constantly rooting for the Hero's, because they are normal people fighting against what use to be normal people! Ghost in Japan usually are people who died horribly in the hands of evil people, so they become ghosts and haunt others for all eternity, trapping anyone that comes close to the same fate.

And that's what happens in Uzumaki. Anyone who enters the town is doomed to be trapped into the town...trapped for all enternity in a endless torture!
*sigh*
Thats what a true horror story is. Not the threat of Death, but the threat of PAIN.
================================

The Art is okay, not too special or anything like that. Except when things are put into a spiral...it suddenly becomes weird and unfocused, feeling nasuating and truly wondering when it will end.

Overall, this is a good read if your in the mood for something scary and horrible.
However, if your in a down ridden deppression with anxiety about death and blindness...you should go watch naruto instead.

Uzumaki - 8/10
Uzumaki is a great manga classic that even had a live-action movie adaption, while the movie was kinda of meh, I think the manga is truly timeless due to it's genre, which is Horror, and the way it utilizes horror elements to connect to the reader. The artwork has a definite style and has a great amount of detail throughout all the pages, speaking of which it's only 653 pages long, including afterwords and the lost chapter. The Story is quite good, although first 10 or so chapters feel very disconnected from each other as if being separate stories just with the same ... cast of characters, which is a good thing in some ways, as it provides variety and keeps you interested, but is also a bad thing since it creates inconsistencies with the town becoming full of mysteries yet no one believes anything that is slightly not normal. The stories themselves need a bit more atmosphere and tension to them, but this really depends on your taste of horror. If you like atmospheric horror like Silent Hill and stuff with it's own unique world, then you probably won't like this very much, maybe you will enjoy the last 10 chapters which I will talk about later. But if you like sort of more of a creepypasta-esque approach to horror, (chapter 3,5,6,7,8,10) which is less so atmospheric, but more actually creepy much more relatable to real life and very bizarre in their scares and stories, this was certainly my favorite part, and if you like this kind of stuff, then this manga is for you although I think this manga is worth checking out to everyone just thanks to the artwork and the amount of "weird" this manga has. Now the last 7 chapters were way less horror and much more of a conclusion to the story, and generally more story, like the first two chapters, except well, not very scary or entertaining.
The ending, in my opinion was way too stretched out with very little substance added to the story or any horror provided, aside from the whole concept of why were the horrors happening, which wasn't so entertaining, and I'd rather have a much less clear explanation of it or something more mysterious and vague rather than an explanation the characters pulled out of their asses, at least it was no happy end and it made sense within the story.

Uzumaki is truly a one of a kind work, completely [BAD WORD] beautiful. Ito Junji's way of making an odd concept the center of a horror series is so captivating. I'm gonna break it into a few categories:

ART: Ito Junji has the (not arguable) BEST artwork in horror manga. He manages to use the layout of the page to the fullest keeping the horror moving throughout the pages. Uzumaki is about spirals (thats the easiest way to put it) and a town being affected by it. It is hard to talk about art without spoiling the experience but holy lolis it is gruesome and gut ... wrenching throughout. 10/10

HORROR: Spirals aren't inherently scary so a horror manga about them may seem quiet odd. It is, and very worth your read. Ito Junji is best known for short stories, and that carries into Uzumaki heavily. Every chapter has a mostly contained main spook, but it works since each chapter is given enough attention for this to be managable. 9/10

STORY: Honestly one of the low points of the series, YET is still very good. Watching the town slowly get more corrupted will most definitely keep you interested until its all over. You're not gonna get spoilers from me, go read this one. 9/10

VERDICT: Just go read it, its a masterpiece. 10/10

The story begins with a panoramic view of the coastal town of Kurozu-cho and immediately, the art draws you in and sets a somber disturbing tone that effectively delivers the horrifying events that ensue through the eyes of Kirie Goshima. To Shuichi Saito, Kirie’s boyfriend who attends high school in a neighboring town, there is something unnatural about the place and that they should leave at once before they get caught up in it.

This manga isn’t about opening doors that grate ominously or abandoned buildings with a sinister past. There are no chairs that move by itself, no sighting of ghouls nor of ... dolls inhabited by evil spirits. It’s the inconsequential town itself and its inhabitants drawn to actually appear their age, who inexplicably become obsessed and consumed with the spiral. Its disconcerting, the way the townsfolk adjusts with ease to the hair raising events, how they arrogantly justify their actions and how Shuichi is the only one who reacts appropriately aside from the victims prior to their demise even though Kirie experiences it herself. Unfortunately, none of the characters have any technology or gift in dealing with the supernatural for a satisfying resolution and so like them, we get to thoroughly experience and be seized by the disturbing imagination drawn with painstaking detail and expression of one Junji Ito.

Uzumaki is Lovecraftian-Horror at its finest. Talk about one of the greatest works in the horror-medium, which really isn't talked about enough as it should be. Hopefully that will change with 'Toonami's' Uzumaki adaptation next year, but the basic premise is, Kirie and her boyfriend Shuuichi notice that the town they live in now has a strange obsession with spirals, and it becomes corrupted by them. The story is a hell of a lot more nuanced, and detailed, than that but it's the basic gist.

What REALLY drew me into this manga was the art-style. Junji Ito is a MASTER at showing off insanely grotesque ... and frankly downright fucking disturbing imagery. And Uzumaki is no exception, this story is insanely disturbing. I keep going back to the two Hospital chapters, and The Scar as some of the most downright terrifying animation I've seen in any medium.

My favorite chapter HAD to be "Twisted Souls". The first three chapters are fantastic for setting up the direction of the story, and what you should expect from the series...But I was not prepared for Chapter 5, in just its downright insanity and fucking disturbing imagery. But not ONLY disturbing imagery, but beautiful storytelling all-together. The bittersweet Romeo-and-Juliet love-story we get between the couple, and how their family doesn't want them to be together is done so fucking well as the way the chapter plays off its tragic story is done masterfully through art, and in a weird way the two of them end up being the only characters in this entire manga to get a happy ending. So even if it wasn't close to being the scariest chapter, it was my favorite from an emotional storytelling perspective.

All-in-all, if you're looking to be SCARED or TERRIFIED....Uzumaki isn't for you. Its a disturbing, grotesque, fascinating lovecraftian look at a Town being corrupted by Spirals, and although the concept isn't necessarily scary. It is done so well through its visual storytelling, and emotional storytelling, that by the time Chapter 19 finished I just wanted to reread it.

I HIGHLY recommend Uzumaki, and I highly recommend you check out Ito's other work, dudes a genius.

I heard so many good things about Uzumaki before finally deciding to read it.
I had high expectations for this book, but I was so disappointed.

All of the characters are unlikable, bland, irrational, or complete weirdoes. This ensures that no tension can ever be built, because I absolutely do not care what happens to any of them. The best example is a character towards the beginning of the story who becomes increasingly obsessed with spirals. His family becomes concerned and we watch him spiral into madness. Props for thematic storytelling. I was initially invested in this plot thread ... and I saw promise in this setup. I liked exploring his weird psychological issue and wanted to see how it escalated.

So the payoff is that this absolute weirdo stuffs himself into a basket and breaks all his bones so that he can be shaped like a spiral. I assume this was meant to be spooky scary body horror. Props for the art. It is very well drawn. But I just started fucking laughing. After this, Uzumaki becomes a weird goofy comedy. But it's not funny for long, and it isn't scary, either. It's just stupid. It started off gripping and engaging and then completely shits the bed.

This story has very little in the way of coherent logic. Completely outrageous things happen all the time, and I guess you're supposed to take them at face value while questioning nothing. By the time people started turning into snails, I was just so uninvested in every weird little thing that proceeded to happen.

I'm going to give some of Ito's other stories a try eventually. There's no doubt in my mind that he's an extremely talented technical artist, and he is demonstrably very creative, but this just doesn't do it for me. I think my expectations were just too high going into this. A lot of that is my fault. But I also blame you fuckin weird Uzumaki people for hyping it up so much.

If you enjoy campy B-movie horror, you may get a kick out of this. But don't go into this book because of all of those people who say it's a life-changing masterpiece of psychological horror with complex philosophies and themes. It is not, and those people are dumb. You will not learn anything from this book. It will not change your perspective. It will not challenge
your beliefs. If that's what you're looking for, as I was, I'll save you some time. These are the three most profound questions Uzumaki will ask you to consider :

"WHY IS THIS CHARACTER ACTING SO DUMB"

"WHAT THE FUCK IS EVEN HAPPENING"

"HOW DO PEOPLE ENJOY THIS MANGA"

I started to get into Junji Ito's works recently so Uzumaki was on the very top of my list so I got the 3 in 1 volumes special edition and read it all in one afternoon.

It is now it's near the bottom...

Positives first, the art work is god tier. From the perspective work to the little details, this must have taken ages to complete. Sometimes I'd pause just to admire a particular panel it's so beautiful. On that front this manga is an 11/10.

I often hear people complain about Ito's characters. To me they are more like the ones you see in the twilight ... zone. A vehicle for the story, you get from just one panel who & what they are and you move on to the actual tale. They work for a plot driven tale like this.

Now for my main issue with this manga, the story.

A Coastal town is plagued by the curse of the spiral. Things start out normal, a spiral is introduced with some weirdness, then things go to hell in a basket!

Not a bad formula and some of the ideas here can be creepy but the speed and direction taken is so extreme and weird that they're less scary and more... goofy. Honestly if it wasn't for the high tier artwork some of the tales would work as a comedy.

It doesn't help that some of the main plotlines here are puns!

(Storm) for example is a story about a girl that caught the eye of the storm. No, literally, the storm is in love with her and keeps "it's eye" on her no matter where she goes.

Mosquito is probably the most famous tale in the collection and it's beyond silly.

Overall, I think I liked this one the least. It has the best the art I've seen in a manga so far but the story just didn't work for me.

Well I am so sad to give this manga a 7/10 but it deserves it
Let's Begin
*WARNING THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME MINOR SPOILERS READ IT AT YOUR OWN RISK*
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Story 8/10:
The beginning was very good, despite the fact that the sequence of events is rather fast, so the story is strange and until the end is cheap. I liked the first chapters a but in the last 10 chapters the work was successfully destroyed
Characters 5/10:
Well, the characters are the biggest mistakes in this manga, all of them except Shuichi, the main character is kinda stupid after everything that happened to her. She still doesn't believe Shuichi and she missed the chance to escape from the city from the beginning, but the rest is no need to mention them.
Events and dialogues 6/10
As I said before, the events are rather short, the dialogues are a little repetitive, there is nothing that attracts the reader, and the events are not really scary in some chapters, and the writer does not give us any chance to love a character and always finds an illogical way to kill them, and the worst thing in the last chapters is Giving the characters silly abilities such as the ability to create storms or close contact. I am not saying that the work is bad, but it was a little sabotaged by these additions. Unfortunately, I liked the idea of ​​​​damn it, etc.
I'm one of the biggest fans of Junji Ito's work. I didn't mean to criticize the author or the viewers. This is my personal opinion. I hope to respect it, please, and sorry for my broken english
Thx for Reading this review

An ancient curse reawakens in a small town in Japan...

Story:

Uzumaki is a rather fascinating little manga that revolves around the human psyche. This manga succeeds in changing something that wouldn't usually be considered scary, a simple spiral, into an object of horror. The story becomes progressively gory and disturbed throughout the later chapters. Everyone in the town becomes more and more twisted and psychologically insane. I won't spoil anything, but the ending to this manga is extremely depressing and sad. This manga is all about how people deal with the unnatural and how they try to keep their sanity or completely lose it.

A lot of ... horror mangas are built on exploitation, and Uzumaki is no exception, except that it has a well done story in addition.

Art:

The art in Uzumaki is very well done. A lot of imagination was put in creating this manga as the gory scenes are original and are intriguing in a grim way.

Characters:

I found it strange that most of the characters in the beginning, reacted reacted nonchalantly to the rising number of unnatural deaths around the town. Most characters become completely illogical when taken over by the spiral and usually die shortly afterwords. The main character Kirie Goshima is a rather logical character who seems to always keep her calm no matter how strange the situation is, which contrasts with her boyfriend Shuichi Saito, who becomes more and more paranoid as the spiral curse becomes worse throughout the town.

Overall:

Uzumaki was a highly enjoyable read and it is worth reading.

This manga, everything about it. I love it.
Horror, suspense, love, and wonder.

This is about a town obsessed with spirals. The Spiral is the whole premise of this whole story. You will never be able to see a simple spiral the same way.

When you start off, it's slow.. but then.. the action never stops! You wonder and are amazed. That grips you in for a whirl wind of a read if you ask me!
I own all three volumes at home and read them online.
This is something you would want to read.

This has gore and is not for the faint of heart. One thing I dislike, ... you learn basically nothing about the characters and only their actions.

Now, its been 1.5 years since i first read this, but i still remember how throughly impressed i was with the story, and it remains my favorite work by ito.

I'm not much of a horror person, or well, outside of manga that is. i dislike jumpscares, which is one of the most common tropes nowadays, and it's just not overall my thing most of the time. This was one of the first attemps i gave at trying something new and reading a horror for real, and it blew me away.

Now going into the review properly.

Story (10):

The story of a city slowly going insane because of ... something as simple as spirals is just amazing, and while this isn't exactly a character driven story, you still rooted for everyone until the end. The beginning is fucked up enough as it is, i wont spoil anything, just know it gets real disturbing within the first few chapters already. You think it cant get much worse, yet somehow, Junji finds new ways during each chapter to create a more fucked up story, ending the manga with a total feeling of hopelessness for the characters.

Art (8):
Its good, no one can deny that, but it's a bit too simplistic for my taste. In my opinion, there's the good old same-face-syndrom going on a lot, but aside from the character designs? its amazing

Characters (8):
They are simply not as well written as the rest of the story. They're plenty interesting to follow, it's just the best aspect of the story.

Enjoyment (10):
The most important aspect for me, enjoyment. It has some flaws but hey, so do all stories! It keeps you on the edge of your seat, mostly due to junjis unique storytelling. Its incredible, especialy considering how hard it can be to make comics/manga scary.

Definitely read it if you want something good, and kinda short to enjoy!

Junji Itou is one of the best mangakas in the horror industry, and i think this is his best work in my opinion.

Story: 8/10
I believe the story is amazing as instead of ghosts, vampires and zombies. He manages to make SPIRALS scary, I MEAN LIKE HOW. He also really brings the fear of the unknown to life and can truly captivate the readers attention.

Art: 9/10
Junji Ito's art style really accentuate the horrors of this manga, his art style truly shows the horrors of a mere spiral.

Character:6/10
I think character is probably the worst part of this manga, but it doesn't mean its bad, ... the development doesn't really shine through as most of the characters just experience events and move forward to finding out the truth.

Enjoyment: 10/10
This manga was a blast to walk through, the manga shows the many horrors of the town, Kurouzu-cho. Each scare shows the fear of the unknown that dwells in each of us, which seriously makes this manga scary and exciting

Overall: 9/10