‘Uzumaki – Spiral Into Horror’ Manga REVIEW

Junji Ito’s horror manga, Uzumaki, will be released in an omnibus edition tomorrow October 15th and will retail for $27.99 US. This edition will be a hardcover format including all 19 chapters plus a bonus “lost chapter” (and 12 color pages).

The story follows young Kirie Goshima and her boyfriend Shuichi Saito who live in a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan. Shuichi believes the town is cursed by spirals. It sounds a little silly at first but this manga is definitively dark and disturbing. In the beginning, the stories are in the format of a “monster of the week” but towards the last third of the book a plot evolves that explores what is behind the spiral curse.

The characters/environment/situations are drawn in a realistic way and sometimes you could say there is too much detail. This makes you become more attached to the characters because they seem like they could be real people. However, there is not a lot of character development besides the two main characters but that is partly because most of the side characters do not survive to the next chapter. The characters are drawn in such a way that all of their emotions are easy to read and when they are exaggerated, they are that much more intense. The art style utilizes shadows and an overall darkness that contributes to the horror feel of the story.

Many of the stories have some of the creepiest and gut wrenching visuals that stay with you. I do not want to give too much away but I included some pages/visuals to give you an idea of the art style and convey some of the gruesome imagery. I would not say it is “scary” but it creeps up on you and grosses you out. Ito did an excellent job of showing movement in stationary 2D images. There is a part (spoiler) where a woman holds a pair of scissors up and is about to smash them into her ear. You do not see it happen but your brain fills in the movement. Numerous parts in this manga are like that. They lead you into a horrendous situation and suddenly another horrible thing is happening.

I enjoyed Ito’s previous collection, Museum of Terror – Tomie, and he did not disappoint with Uzumaki. This is a must for horror readers! You get tons of gore and horror in this big package! Side note, if you feel as wigged out as I did after, make sure to read the humorous afterward to make yourself feel a little better.