![]() Pleasant nightmares.It’s been 35 years since Junji Ito debuted on Japan’s manga scene with the first installment of Tomie, a long-running tale of a demonic young woman whose beauty drives her lovers murderously insane. Because after seeing these sorts of pictures, I’m curious as to how they’re translated into the cinematic world. I’m glad I did, and I will try to track down the move version as soon as possible. If you enjoy horror and don’t mind visual reading like comic books and manga, definitely check out Uzumaki. ![]() On a scale of 1 to 5, I’m giving Uzumaki a 4.8 out of 5. At least make an attempt!īut other than that, Uzumaki is a terrifying story of cosmic horror that takes something harmless and give it a weird, disturbing form that will surely stay with you for a while after you finish reading it. Even the guy who’s constantly saying they should leave doesn’t. At a certain point, it becomes impossible not to face what’s happening in the town, but up until then, there are plenty of signs that something’s up, and not one of the main characters realize they have to get up and get out before it’s too late. If there is one criticism I have, it’s that the people of the town don’t really come to terms with what’s going on as fast as they should. It’s very unnerving in a Lovecraftian sense to see how this town becomes part of some strange curse around a geometric shape, and never get an explanation.ĭoesn’t look scary at first. In Uzumaki, Ito leaves it up to the imagination as to what’s happening. With ghosts or vampires, you get a mythology on how they work and how to deal with them. It’s made even better that you don’t actually get a lot of explanation. I won’t say what happens, but things like snails or pregnant women get matched with the spiral, and it becomes terrifying. And best of all, Ito just takes things in the most unexpected directions, inserting the spiral into strange places we normally wouldn’t see it. You’d never think a spiral shape like the one below would be scary, but Ito uses his illustrations, storytelling, and the turn of a page to weave this frightening tale where we’re forced along to find out what happens, fining stranger and stranger things on the succeeding pages. ![]() A geometric shape, the spiral, is what we’re supposed to be afraid of. Unlike other horror stories, the horror is based on abstract concepts. He’s concerned with just making you squirm, and he does that so well with his illustrations.Īnd on top of that, his storytelling abilities are great. You look at most animation, and it’s meant to be pleasing to the eye. And the best part is, Ito is not concerned with aesthetic beauty. Holy crap, that is both well-drawn and scary! You can see every detail, how much work is put into each stroke of ink to make the imagery look realistic despite being an illustration. Ito illustrates with incredible attention to detail, which in a horror manga is necessary if you really want to convey a sense of terror. ![]() And once the curse sets in, it doesn’t let go.įrom the very beginning, Uzumaki is quite extraordinary. This leads to a gruesome series of events that reveal a curse upon the town and the surrounding area, a curse involving spirals, spirals that hypnotize and entrance, spirals that terrify and excite, spirals natural and unnatural. One day, her boyfriend Shuichi tells her that his father has become obsessed with spiral shapes, to the point that he is losing his grip on reality. The story follows Kirie Goshima, a teenage girl living in the town of Kurozou-cho. Uzumaki literally translates into “spiral,” which is the essence of the manga. Case in point, Uzumaki by Junji Ito, who is considered one of the greatest horror manga artists from Japan, and it shows in this series. So when I actually hear and find some manga or anime that is actually scary, I rejoice. Other times I have heard of a scary one, but I can’t get my hands on it (still trying to get my hands on Corpse Party), and other times I just don’t know of some series that I should. I’ve found plenty with ghosts, zombies, homunculi, serial killers, and death games, to name a few, but often they’re mixed with other genres to make them more palatable for non-horror fans. I love manga and anime, but I often have trouble getting my hands on horror manga and anime that is actually scary.
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