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When you think of the genre of horror, the first things that might come to your head are words like blood, fear, and death. Junji Ito takes the word horror and literally twists and squeezes the life out of it towards a whole different meaning.

Looking at the cover you may notice the abundance of spirals. And Spirals there are a plenty. The symbol of the Spiral can often mean mesmerizing, entrancing or hypnotic, but Ito has turned this rather beautiful symbol into a deranged, inescapable hellhole.

Story: 8
Without trying to spoil the mystery that awaits interested readers, Junji Ito weaves his precious symbol the spiral by ... incorporating the opposite side of this coin. With concepts such as passion-turned-twisted obsession, phobias turned into day and night realistic nightmares, and even has the chance to play with the innocence of love be it romantic or maternal. Guaranteed, Ito has something in store for everyone of different circumstances.

The story begins rather from rather small suspicious events and drills further deep into the limits of the human psyche in a dreadfully consistent manner. Ito guides the reader into the bowels of the rather simultaneous happenings within the town of Kurouzu-cho. These events are divided into chapters in which each could be a high-rating horror one-shot all on its own.

Art: 9
Very well done for its time. The artwork beautifully (for the lack of a better word) reflects the happenings of each chapter beginning from it's rather ordinary and simply living inhabitants to the twisted rather monstrous outcomes of the events. It's old, heavy pencil drawn designs add to the plain, but gritty nature of the story as you can tell the amount of detail difference in the human characters and the other "entities" that exist in the manga.

Character: 7
The main protagonist Kirie Goshima, is followed throughout the novel as strangely, but predictably enough everything that goes wrong happens around her. Her character doesn't exactly change or develop in comparison to her counterpart Shuichi Saito who reveals the most mental instability as can be seen from the first chapter. I won't reveal what happens around him but he appears to understand the most of what's going on throughout the novel. These characters appear to have little to no development other than learning and surviving, perhaps because the interesting ones aren't the main ones.

Junji Ito puts a plethora of different entities that Kirie encounters, each with their own unique story to tell. Although, aside from a few, most of them are simply discarded and unheard of after Kirie flees from them. Regardless, at least in my point of view, it only adds on to the slowly, spiraling and deteriorating world around the main characters.

Enjoyment: 8
It takes an iron stomach and "experienced" eyes to truly enjoy the horrific and twisted masterpiece that is Uzumaki. One can easily be turned away by the first two chapters if he/she can't appreciate what it takes to make a psychologically disturbing piece without going into mindless gore and mutilation.

The best part, at least in my opinion would not be the end, but how Junji Ito crafts the individual stories so well that each story can become more disturbing than the next without losing it's essence of giving readers a feeling of "being sucked in and the inability to escape from it's gaze".

Overall: 10
I classify this manga a masterpiece in it's own unique right. I am no experienced horror genre junkie, but I can sense a classic when I see one. I warn potential readers that this is not your everyday blood and guts horror show, but a truly psychological tragedy. A story that might disgust or disturb you, but will definitely make you feel like there's no escape but death itself.

Drama and Violence, two things that should be kept apart, but do so well together especially when it comes to weaving them into an almost art-like form.

Elfen Lied, gives the audience a truly tragic and unique romance that is definitely not for the faint of heart.

The Story revolves around the lost souls of the Diclonius searching for a purpose. From time to time the scenes drift from two main settings which gives the audience the perspective of seeing the hell of seclusion versus the paradise of life. This duality is one of the main themes of the story; good versus evil within the individual.

That ... being all said, the story does a captivating job with surprises and twists which ultimately lead to a dramatic and nearly tearful conclusion. Although it doesn't capture my eye in terms of originality, it does an incredible job of devising it's own way to let the audience forgive such horrible violence...

The Art may come to surprise many viewers as it definitely frees itself from censorship to an "extent" which gives the anime it's art-like form. The viewer is not spared from constant blood and gore, but in terms of character detail, it is nearly perfect as it gives the familiar "innocence-gone-wrong" aura. In terms of the mild nudity, this anime really shouldn't be considered an ecchi-type, because it provides the anime with a unique style that sheds purity for art. (You'll see what I mean during the beginning song.)

The Sound is extremely well done in this anime which add (once again) to it's artistic form. The theme song is basically the heart and soul of the main heroine Lucy and of the entire anime itself. As for the sound effects, the anime again spares no expense for that "bloody" gush we all love. The voices aren't half bad either and seem to fit the characters nicely.

The Characters play a slight harem in this anime, but it isn't really what this anime is. Each individual has their own separate role in the story which greatly enhances it's way out of a harem essence. As the episodes progress, the characters gradually shift from dark and heartless to warm and loving which is a result of the clever character revelations in the story.

Overall, I pretty much enjoyed this anime as it was really close to hitting a 10, but some parts in the story were left unresolved unfortunately.

However, I highly recommend this anime to viewers who enjoy a fascinating drama and can withstand a little mutilation here and there.