Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror

Manga and anime do not scare me easily. Disturb me in some cases with grotesque imagery and copious amounts of gore, yes, but nothing that would constitute in giving me nightmares. I've found the medium as something that I would always gain enjoyment from no matter the genre. I would spend my time with a work, ponder on it for a while, and leave it at that. Rinse and repeat. That is, until I came across Junji Ito's Uzumaki. The manga is brief, as it is only 19 chapters long with one extra story, but it drags the reader through so much. The manga's first twochapters set the stage for all the events that are to follow: a man's obsession with all things spiral-shaped, smoke that forms a spiral when it reaches the sky, the protagonist's boyfriend becoming paranoid over the mysterious activities that have been occurring in the small, sea-side town where the story is set, and so on. Once the main points of the story are established, Ito assumes that the reader is aware of the basics and takes a completely episodic approach with his storytelling until the last few chapters. Each chapter is dedicated to one object that is associated with spirals, notably snails and curly hair. He sometimes cuts corners with this concept, though, and dedicates chapters to mosquitoes and lighthouses (Apparently, his excuse for this is that they move around in spiral shapes). What the reader doesn't realize, though, is that this is all build-up for the conclusion of the story, making this one of the most depressing manga I have ever read. I won't say much to avoid spoiling you, but the spiral concept of the story becomes all the more encompassing. Part of the horror that comes from this story is obsession and giving in to that obsession. It comes from watching the gradual downfall of a once peaceful town that has its daily life completely transformed (no pun intended...oops) by the psychological breakdowns of its townspeople. It comes from some of the characters' realization of what is going on, screaming in fear that they don't want to die, and knowing that they not only do not have any control over the situation, but that they know that they will never be the same again. I could go on, but my point is that the horror in this is completely psychological, but this is not Perfect Blue we're talking about. The terror in this is slow and painful, making the story all the more engrossing and terrifying. Another major part of the story's appeal is Ito's unique drawing style. You could probably read the manga just for the artwork and still gain some enjoyment from that...that is, if you don't suddenly close your book in shock. It's one thing to read in text what is going on and another to see it. The artwork magnifies the reader's imagination hundredfold and presents possibly the only way to visually express everything that Kirie, the protagonist, is experiencing. Some of the scarier images include Shuichi's father rolling up his tongue into a spiral, half-human/snail hybrids, an army of pregnant women with blood-stained drills, and the lost souls that are the townspeople of Kurozu-cho who have resigned to the fate of "becoming one with the spiral", so to speak. That's not even half of the grotesqueness that the art has to offer. Some of the less scary art, such as the spiral-shaped grass and amusingly-spiraled hair, are cool to look at, but at the later points in the chapters, those only serve as distractions from the horror contained within the story. My favorite aspect of the art, however, is the fact that some of the worst images are usually hidden as two-page spreads beneath some of more harmless panels on the previous page. It's almost as if Ito is daring the reader to look on to the next page. One prominent example can be found in the "moon scar" chapter, and you'll know what I mean once you read it. That sort of suspense made the manga all the more thrilling to read. The art is not only creative and nice to look at, but adds its own layer of horror to the story. I feel bad for the characters in the story. I really do. By the end of the manga, they almost become completely different people. Even Kirie, who seems to consistently remain pure and untainted by the spiral's allure, has trouble facing some of the greater moral choices that she has to make during the story. She is always exposed to some kind of human flaw that is caused by the spiral's influence, such as vanity and lack of motivation. Because of how consistent Kirie remains through all of this, she seems almost like a Mary Sue character. Normally, this can be harmful to character development, and it is in some cases, but in the world of Uzumaki, her innocence is a virtue. She is spared from experiencing the same kind of insanity and corruption as her peers, and yet she has to witness everything first hand. At the same time, it seems like that that is her form of corruption, watching her family, significant other, and the people of her home gleefully give in to the madness surrounding them. Although that is not a form of character growth in the most traditional sense, the characters are growing based on the events happening to them rather than conjuring some kind of growth based on dialogue and interaction. Uzumaki has a very isolated form of character development that occurs in the foreground due to the highly-detailed story elements that take center stage. Before I finish, I would like to state that this is a review for a manga that I read last, for the first time, in June 2011. The story, imagery, and overall package that this manga contains has stuck with me since. I still get chills from this manga whenever I get flashbacks to it. I might have even experienced a few nightmares from this story a short while after reading it, but my memory of that is a little hazy. Leave it to Junji Ito to take some of the most insignificant things that we take for granted and enlarge them into things to avoid with dread and disgust. If you are looking for some great Lovecraftian horror to sink your teeth into for Halloween, or anytime for that matter, look no further than this manga. Just be weary of any escargot on the menu next time you eat at a fancy restaurant.

Originally posted by me on The Moon is a Dead World (http://ryneb.blogspot.com) I'm always interested in different forms of media that manage to tie in the horror genre, and being a manga and anime fan myself, I sometimes find myself perusing the various manga shelves at my local bookstores to see what good ol' Japan has in store for us. A few years ago, I stumbled on Uzumaki, a manga which immediately grabbed my eye because of its psychedelic spiral book cover and the words "Spiral Into Horror" printed over the title. Obviously, anything that incorporates horror is going to increase my interest, so I pickedit up, sat down on the couch, and started reading it until my parents came to get me. That was the last I saw of Uzumaki until now, pretty much. I remembered the manga and started reading it again, only to find myself as enthralled with it as the last time. The manga is done by Junji Ito, known for other horror works besides this one. It follows Kirie Goshima, our narrator, who lives in Kurôzu-cho with her family. Her boyfriend, Shuichi, is the first to experience any happenings with the spiral - his father becomes obsessed with anything of spiral formation, and finally breaks all of the bones in his body to become a spiral. If that's not trauma enough for the poor kid, his mother becomes so crazy with grief and obsession about spirals that she begins to purge any on her body, including the whorls on her fingertips, and eventually, she kills herself. There's some strange stuff going on in Kurôzu-cho, and Shuichi knows it, so he becomes a recluse, hiding out in his house. Kirie, on the other hand, is not fazed by the madness of the spiral, and continues living at her house. Through a series of experiences, including spiral obsessions that turn people into spirals themselves, people turning into snails with spiral shells on their backs, violent hurricanes that want only Kirie, and pregnant mosquito ladies who need blood for their unborn children, Kirie begins to realize that Kurôzu-cho is a cursed town. But it's a little too late, for the town won't let them leave, at least not until they join the spiral themselves. Just from that summary, Uzumaki seems like a lot of fun, right? Very true. Never have I read a comic or manga that sucked me into the story and artwork as Uzumaki. It's ironic that the story is so compelling, almost mimicking the fact that spirals have an inescapable, hypnotic effect to them. The main characters are pretty rich and developed, especially Kirie, because we associate most with her. Most of the secondary characters are flat, but if they are important to a segment of the story, they get some sort of backstory and development to give the reader a little more interest in them. Obviously, this is a horror manga first and foremost, and at only three volumes, there's barely any time to establish a host of characters. However, the reader easily gets a feel for Kirie and her brother, as they begin to take more important roles in the narrative. In the beginning, each chapter feels almost like a one-shot, presenting a story and concluding it (or giving as much of a conclusion as possible) at the end of the chapter. Most scenes have little to no bearing on the last one, and at first I felt that all of the chapters felt really disjointed to the point where it felt like the author was just throwing out cool ideas that incorporated spirals. Towards the end of the manga, though, scenarios start to tie together a little more cohesively. That's not to say that all of the mystery is cleared up, because much of why certain events happen are left ambiguous. This is one of the downfalls of Uzumaki; there's a really amazing lead-up of events, with creative monsters or horrifying situations, and then the chapter drops off, never clearing up why the spiral chose to manipulate the people in this way. It's very fun and care-free, but there's a sense that the audience is missing an explanation. Even towards the end, when some of the earlier story arcs come into play again, there's a generic exposition of "the spiral made them do it," but it doesn't cut it for me. I want to know exactly why some people turn into snails while others willingly make themselves into spirals. The conclusion to the story feels like a cop-out too. Shuichi and Kirie have worked non-stop throughout the manga to avoid the spiral, and for the finale, we are forced to accept the fact that there is no other way to survive except to complete the town's spiral. It gives a large sense of abandonment and futility for the reader, but it also lets them down, because all the events that occurred could have been left out, Kirie could have died in the first chapter, and the outcome would still be the same. Other than these nitpicks with the story, though, Uzumaki is creative enough to stand out from other J-horror titles about curses. Sure, the city is cursed with a spiral instead of a ghost, but there are endless possibilities for strange happenings, and Ito certainly uses his imagination, both in concept and artwork. The drawings are, for the most part, typical manga style, except when characters are abnormal or are going crazy because of the spiral. The latter characters begin to develop dark splotches around their eyes, have strange postures, and become plain creepy. The chapter on the pregnant women sucking blood is hypnotically creepy, in fact. Everything is so twisted in the story that you can't help but feel the atmosphere of depression. Ito tends to present complex choices that the characters must make, normally with frightening results either way. Food becomes scarce in Kurôzu-cho and our protagonists are forced to cook and eat the snail-people, trying to convince themselves that the snails have ceased to be human. However, this is still a sickening and twisted turn of events, especially when Kirie's brother becomes a snail, and I felt disgusted and actually fearful when reading. The moments stated above are just some of the respectable plot lines that Ito brings to the table, and rather than read my lackluster attempt at a review, it would be much more fun to read the 500 or so pages of the manga instead. Expect a few uncomfortable moments, however, as Ito finds it fun to get under the reader's skin.

While Uzumaki starts off strong with its truly creepy first few chapters, it then loses everything that made those chapters great and becomes neither scary nor interesting. With the first chapters, even though the events that take place could obviously never happen, the author succeeds in making them believable. This is not the case for the majority of what follows, the plots become ridiculous to the point where the entire manga just doesn't work anymore. What is perhaps the scariest part of the manga after the first few chapters doesn't even come from the deeper, more psychological horror that is intended, but rather something thatfeels overtly done before, people who become zombies at night and feast on the blood of others. It's more complicated than that, but instead of those complications being scary, as they're supposed to, it's just the drawings at that point. There are some stories (the manga generally works in the fashion of telling interrelated stories every chapter, with each chapter having a closure, the exception being the last set of chapters, which is the manga at its best other than the beginning due to its continuity) that are not only ludicrous and completely separated from reality (as opposed to the beginning, which succeeds in seeming as more of an extension of reality, something that could actually happen, which is the root of it's creepiness that isn't present for the rest of the manga), but aren't even remotely scary on the most basic level. Marvel as... a blinding light causes select people to walk in circles! The horror! The overall story is interesting and unique, much different from your average example of horror, as the "evildoer" is something as ambiguous as a shape. Now, if done correctly, this could make for a chilling manga that would haunt some readers' sleep for weeks. However, once again, the beginning of the manga is the only section that comes anywhere near accomplishing this. Many of the stories are barely even related to spirals (the shape in question), the "zombie" story mentioned earlier in particular, which also lessens the blow, making the stories feel much less related to each other, and the spiral as well. This takes away the feeling of the spiral taking over the town, one of the main elements of horror that's meant to be present. The characters here have absolutely no personality. At all. The vast majority of characters are just generally kindhearted people whose dialogue is the same as everyone elses'. The only exceptions: Shuichi, who becomes a recluse early on in the story, mumbling to himself about how the spiral is taking over. No, he's not interesting (probably more interesting than any other character though). Kirie's (the main character's) little brother, whose name doesn't come to me despite having just read the last few chapters (a sign of how forgettable the characters are?). He's whiny. That's it. The final exception are the "bad people," the people who become possessed by the spiral and have a mean disposition. But nothing else. Yes, they're all cruel, but they're all the same type of cruel. There is a subsection of "bad people," however, attention cravers. And that's the only thing setting them apart. And yes, like the others, they're all the same as each other. So let's sum the characters up: We have nice people. We have mean people. We have attention craving mean people. We have Shuichi. We have Kirie's little brother. The characters are another thing that takes away from the horror of the manga; if I was at all interested in the characters, all these terrible things happening to them would have a much greater impact. Uzumaki is a unique idea that lost all its steam early on. We can at least be glad that we got to see it live up to its potential, for a few chapters anyway.

Nobody knows the origin of the universe. We can only perceive what is logical through theoretical analyses or imprints of what the galaxies have for us. Probably, questions about the existence of our world are also deeply rooted in how humanity acts, and how close encounters with our origin may lead to questionable actions that portray the primal truth of humanity. Uzumaki is a manga made by Junji Ito, known by some as the master of horror in the medium. This particular series is hailed by many as a masterpiece and Ito's magnum opus, known for its hyperrealistic depictions of a blend of supernatural and humanhorror through the use of spirals. Unbelievably deep in philosophy and complex in terms of artistic narrative, Uzumaki captures the essence of the aforementioned themes with disturbing imagery and wholesome character development— WHAT A LOAD OF TOTAL BULLSHIT. If anything, this manga can be compared to my first two paragraphs—totally redundant. Uzumaki is no less a "horror" that can only go as far as to provide shock value. What some present as one of the most horrifying contribution to the genre in manga is nothing but B-movie quality episodical tales through the first two thirds of the entire series, then shows off in the later third as an apocalyptic environment filled to the brim with disturbing imagery. Not much plot progression is even present as you get a rinse and repeat for the first eleven chapters and nothing afterwards but an exploration of the mess their town has become, which could have been good world-building IF ITO DECIDED TO BUILD ON THE STORY TOO. The entire pacing of this manga is abrupt—nothing is ever consistent with how it runs throughout the course of the story, and that includes in-between chapters. I thought that what is necessary in horror is a proper buildup to scenarios so as to truly scare readers, but all it had done was give me a few shaky moments that could barely classify as terror from reading this manga. If there is one thing to commend, it would be the well-detailed art. In most times, the anatomically correct art style cements its quality as a good shocker, albeit in some moments the art surpasses life that it's more hilarious than anything. There were some real high points that this manga had to qualify as a terrifying read, but I was too caught up with how over-the-top everything is for it to become believable in the first place. Now I know horror should require some suspension of disbelief, but Uzamaki pays little attention to the logic it should have and the whole structure of the series at one point is a repetitive "spiral-of-the-week" of which their conclusions are not only detrimental to the plot but also to my biggest gripe about the series. What little character development Uzumaki has can be seen in the series' main led Shuichi, and you can see his slow descent into insanity as the spirals take over Kurozuchou—which could have made the story so much better if it was his perspective that we were looking at. All Ito provides us is the world of spirals through the eyes of Kirie, Shuichi's girlfriend, who has the habit of dismissing everything he is saying about the impending danger EVEN AFTER FALLING VICTIM TO AN EVENT just a chapter ago. Kirie as a character is as dense as you're ever going to get from a horror plot; and it's a surprise that her bland archetype is what makes it out alive at the end of each chapter. Maybe if you count the spirals themselves as a single entity, then I can probably say that Uzumaki has one of the best character developments of any manga. Aside from that, this is by far one of the worst selection of cookie-cutter characters in such a would-have-been intriguing storyline about spirals. I don't know when I got tired of it, but Uzumaki immediately became formulaic to me after the first few chapters. I couldn't keep my hopes up with how poor the execution is, and I just kept making excuses to allow myself to finish reading it. While it is at best an entertaining read, in no ways is this even qualifiable as a masterpiece in horror, nor in manga.