Junji Ito's 'Uzumaki' Horror Manga Gets Anime Series

by Vindstot
Aug 30, 2019 6:05 PM | 72 Comments

An anime adaptation of Junji Ito's supernatural horror manga Uzumaki (Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror) was announced at his Crunchyroll Expo panel on Friday.

Hiroshi Nagahama (Mushishi, Aku no Hana) is directing the anime series, featuring musical score by Colin Stetson (Hereditary). The four-episode mini anime series will debut on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block in 2020, ahead of the Japanese premiere.

Synopsis
In the town of Kurouzu-cho, Kirie Goshima lives a fairly normal life with her family. As she walks to the train station one day to meet her boyfriend, Shuuichi Saito, she sees his father staring at a snail shell in an alley. Thinking nothing of it, she mentions the incident to Shuuichi, who says that his father has been acting weird lately. Shuuichi reveals his rising desire to leave the town with Kirie, saying that the town is infected with spirals.

But his father's obsession with the shape soon proves deadly, beginning a chain of horrific and unexplainable events that causes the residents of Kurouzu-cho to spiral into madness. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Uzumaki ran in Big Comic Spirits from 1998 to 1999 and was compiled into three volumes. Shogakukan published two omnibus versions in March 2000 and August 2010.

VIZ Media serialized the manga in English in its monthly Pulp magazine between February 2001 and August 2002 and published the three volumes in October 2001-2002. The company later reprinted the series with new covers from October 2007 to February 2008 and released a hardcover omnibus in October 2013. The manga has also been published in multiple foreign languages.

A live-action film adaptation starring Eriko Hatsune, Shin Eun-kyung, and Fhi Fan opened in Japan in 2000.

Teaser PV

Official Twitter: @UzumakiAnime1

Source: Crunchyroll

Uzumaki on MAL

20 of 72 Comments Recent Comments

Uzumaki is a magnum opus in the horror genre. For what we've seen, it looks very good. The director has already established himself well. I've great hopes for this adaptation. Not to mention, Colin Stetson's score. He's a brilliant composer.

Aug 20, 2021 5:15 AM by Ophiomorphos

As an avid horror fanatic I couldn't get past this manga and I want to say that it left its mark on me as an impressionable person. I guess it all depended on the environment in which I was exposed to it, because I started reading it when I was away from home.
First of all, every work has its own atmosphere, but this particular manga has a particularly strong, gripping atmosphere. Manga leave a great impression underneath after reading, and the emotional load should be in every work. If you read something that doesn't even make you think, you've simply wasted your time.
Secondly, this work is food for thought in turn because that is the plot. It is a classic Japanese horror with an unclassical storyline.
Thirdly, the manga that was released between 1998 and 1999 can also be compared to the current one in terms of its drawings.
The manga deservedly gets a 9/10 from me.

Aug 20, 2021 12:08 AM by Dolly22

As a huge fan of the manga i can't wait. But at the same time, i'm a little worried since what happened with tomie & gyo...hopefully theyll get it right

Aug 18, 2021 2:55 AM by NEMESIS95

4 episodes! Are you being serious?
I wonder how it's gonna go.
I'm not really sure how they are planning to cover the plots but show me what y'all got!!
Love how they are keeping the monotone style and the ost is making me uncomfortable too.
so you might never know.

Sep 16, 2019 7:25 AM by Miichiku

Keen for sure and hopefully it will be a good adaptation

Sep 16, 2019 5:22 AM by Therealcfb

Watched the live action movie when it came out and that was weird as hell (I really enjoyed it although I have no idea how close it followed the manga). This adaption looks great so far.

Sep 2, 2019 11:18 PM by modboy

Didn't really pay that much attention to it at first, but after watching the trailer more: god damn is that music good! It's even more impressive considering it's mostly just Colin Stetson with a saxophone somehow making all of those noises. Dude's a genius.

Sep 2, 2019 9:32 PM by TsukuyomiREKT

I want to give this series a chance. I couldn't bring myself to watch The Junji Ito Collection.

Sep 2, 2019 8:04 PM by removed-user

DarthSomebody said:

Skittles said:
I remember completing this long ago. One of the wackiest manga I've ever read, but the second half was a borderline unintentional comedy with the exaggerated supernatural elements. Hope the adaptation can do it justice!

I don't think it was unintentional. Junji Ito's manga have always been partly comedic. It's just a weird kind of humor. He wanted to become a comedy mangaka after all. Uzumaki was legit funny.

Hes actually said outright he views almost all of his works as being comedies. It's pretty clear he's an author that is having fun with his works and there are a few that outright just turn into jokes, one of the best was this one, (i'm not spoiling the best page)

I mean we are also talking about the guy who made an entire manga about him and his wife adopting a cat, but its drawn completely in the same style as all of his other manga and has a bunch of horrific imagery for mundane slice of life stuff.

Sep 2, 2019 5:16 PM by JizzyHitler

I want to have high expectations. But it's better to have no expectations so you will never be disappointed. It looks interesting however.

Sep 1, 2019 5:48 PM by Loknir

I want to be optimistic about it but it's one of those manga that I can't imagine them animated.. Let's hope that this time they will do Ito's work justice. Uzumaki is a masterpiece, hopefully this time they won't do such a degrading adaptation as they did last time with his 'Itou Junji: Collection'

Sep 1, 2019 1:30 PM by Kap92

I wonder how hard they gonna fuck this up.

Sep 1, 2019 1:26 PM by neulin

It looks pretty good! Is it finally time for a good adaptation? I'm looking forward to this.

Sep 1, 2019 8:03 AM by javitaxy

Greyleaf said:

Nutella71 said:

I went to watch Hereditary with my friend (who is a big horror fan,unlike me) and...I dunno the music was definitely disturbing and fitting,but the movie itself wasn't scary to me,just awkward,even funny at some bits. Maybe because I watched like only 3 horror movies in my life so I don't know what is scary and what's not? But I have hopes for Uzumaki to be at least decent,unlike the former adaptation.

That's fair, haha. What's scary to one person won't even phase another. Idk, I've seen like 200+ horror movies and I thought it was one of the most frightening films ever (and most horror flicks don't even phase me), but to each their own! xD

I know but I feel kinda guilty 'cause I was not frightened in the least and I've seen many people praising it as one of the scariest horrors of the 21st century. And there I am,sitting at the cinema straight out laughing at some of scenes. I'm more scared that I dissapointed my horror loving friend ;-; Maybe I'm just not a person for horror movies.

Sep 1, 2019 6:01 AM by Nutella71

Uzumaki was my first manga and it means a lot to me personally.
From the trailer it looks like this anime is identical as the manga art, its like the manga came alive.

Sep 1, 2019 3:23 AM by Mila91

DarthSomebody said:

I don't think it was unintentional. Junji Ito's manga have always been partly comedic. It's just a weird kind of humor. He wanted to become a comedy mangaka after all. Uzumaki was legit funny.

Aye, glad someone else gets this.

Sep 1, 2019 1:19 AM by ReaperCreeper

Nutella71 said:

Greyleaf said:
I really hate to get my hopes up over and Itou adaptation, because up until this point they've all been complete and utter shit. Junji Itou's stories are the kind that play directly on the strengths of his medium, and that's unfortunately never translated well into anime.

But with that said...

... I can't help but be a little excited about this. Uzumaki is actually the first manga I ever read, and it remains—by leaps and bounds—my favorite of Itou's catalogue. Are they actually sticking with 100% black and white aesthetics? Because that might just be what this series needs to truly fulfill the atmosphere of the story. And lastly: COLIN STETSON SOUNDTRACK?! Holy shit, dude. His work in Hereditary was unbelievable, and for anyone unfamiliar, it's genuinely one of the most frightening horror flicks of the 21st century. Anyway, yeah.. let's hope this one finally hits the mark and makes Itou proud.

Aug 31, 2019 4:50 PM by Greyleaf

I don't think it was unintentional. Junji Ito's manga have always been partly comedic. It's just a weird kind of humor. He wanted to become a comedy mangaka after all. Uzumaki was legit funny.

Aug 31, 2019 1:16 PM by DarthSomebody

Yoo I saw the title and thought Prod IG has to be animating this or else it's just gonna be another failure like all of his other works adapted to anime.. hell to the yes and the trailer looks good!

I haven't read the series yet but I've heard a lot about it. About time we get another horror anime. Hopefully this one is actually scary rather than just being abstract and weird.

Aug 31, 2019 1:13 PM by ToG25thBaam

it's only going to be 4 episode Can I adapt all the manga I was worried. 😥

Can anyone tell me how many minutes these episodes will be?

Aug 31, 2019 1:09 PM by 245678

See All Comments