Reviews

Uzumaki (Anime) add (All reviews)
Oct 20, 2024
It's hard to talk about Uzumaki without making sincere comparisons to Junji Ito's original manga. Announced in 2019 and only released in 2024, with years of delay, COVID, staff changes, and other internal problems, Uzumaki is the perfect example of what not to do with such a renowned and popular story.

Among the numerous mangas we recognize as difficult to adapt to audiovisual media, Uzumaki is certainly cited by fans of Japanese horror. It's evident. There are three volumes of a story that is episodic and continuous at the same time, playing with the reader about its intentions and with a lyrical ending. The thing is, it's not just because of its conceptual structure that Uzumaki is so difficult to adapt.

Its creator, Junji Ito, is an excellent artist. Although I don't like his stories and don't consider Uzumaki a good manga, I have to say that his style is enchanting. It's a paradox, really; I can't even explain why myself. Ito leveraged his fame in the West, mainly through the 16-volume "Junji Ito Collection," but what we see in these four episodes is little compared to the legacy Ito means to horror fans.

The main problem, obviously, is the production and continuity. I never trusted that four episodes would be enough to adapt 20 chapters, but I reconsidered as soon as I saw the first episode. As a rather picky critic of everything that comes with the "Junji Ito seal," the attempt to compile the chapters into a kind of distinct cause and effect from what happens in the manga is daring but works for an introduction.

It's evident that this was not a unanimous choice; many Uzumaki fans claim that the best way to adapt the manga is around 6-8 episodes, and I agree. From the second episode, the problems with this decision start to become bigger, and the animation becomes another issue. The fluid animation with rotoscope inspirations gave way to practically static images with no quality. This was justified by someone responsible for the anime, who said they had no choice. Either Uzumaki would be a project delivered without any polish, or it would be an even greater financial loss with a demoralizing cancellation.

Today, we know what was chosen, but it's still a disappointment. The second half of the anime is less chaotic, and I must say that it elevated my perception of what Junji Ito means to otaku culture. Certainly, it is not a project that represents his legacy, much less do I think it needs to be remembered as a successful adaptation, but it was good to follow the episode releases with fans making videos and analyses over time. Honestly, we haven't had anything promising to this day. Gyo is limited by the short execution time, and I don't need to mention what Junji Ito Collection and Junji Ito Maniac mean. They are all inferior animes that don't represent their main honoree.

However, I must recognize something. Although my disappointment intensified in the first half of the anime, the final episodes were more competent. They are equally limited, I admit, but at least they delivered a sense that it would be better if the entire anime were like this. There were still polish issues, and the script was certainly desperately betting on an apathetic conclusion, but I understand that this is a problem not only in the anime. The manga is like that too. The main theme is to bring increasingly grandiose events, assuming the impossibility of improvement in the society portrayed in his works. Whether it's a world where sharks come out of the sea to kill humans, spirals that represent a kind of social purification, or even the great Tomie, a crucial character for Japanese horror, what I see is that the anime's carelessness goes beyond just a bad adaptation.

Many who read this review may think I hate the author, but in reality, I value him in the way I can and always like to remember his stories. It's a paradoxical enjoyment, where I can extract artistic quality in his beautiful images, but unfortunately, there isn't the same care in the narratives. It's also important to say that not everything popular is automatically good, and that the culture of my country is used to a different kind of horror from the Japanese. It's a cultural shock that many like, and I also quite enjoy other authors like Hideshi Hino, for example. But it's necessary to realize that not everything will please us, and Uzumaki, both the anime and the manga, best represent this feeling for me.

Finally, I want to offer my condolences to the big fans of Ito. The delay of a project like this is unacceptable and hurts these people a lot. This only delayed a new incompetent production with little approval. Perhaps the Spiral of Horror is exactly that. A dirty game of poorly made projects that always repeats, repeats, and repeats...
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
What did you think of this review?
Nice Nice0
Love it Love it0
Funny Funny0
Show all
It’s time to ditch the text file.
Keep track of your anime easily by creating your own list.
Sign Up Login