Well, that was messed up.

The black and white style of manga is very helpful to setting the subdued mood of the stories. The town feels oppressed, prime to a supernatural infection. If you haven't heard, Uzumaki is about the curse of spirals that infests a small town in Japan. They begin arising everywhere: on the local pottery, in the clouds, from the smoke of the crematorium, increasing until the suggestible people become obsessed with them. But once an obsession sets in, the curse triggers tru More...

(Review of whole series)

My first introduction to Junji Ito was through the short piece "The Enigma of Amigara Fault". I consider myself a pretty unshakeable person when it comes to horror, but this little piece had my shivering.

So, obviously I wanted to check out more of Ito's works. In essence, Uzumaki is a series of short stories revolving around the curse of the spiral on a seaside town. Yes, I can already hear you rolling your eyes at me. How is a spiral scary? Well, Ito manages it, through More...

REVIEW ALSO ON: http://bibliomantics.com/2011/04/29/m......

Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror and deals with the horror of the spiral shape, uzumaki itself meaning spiral in Japanese. I know what you’re thinking, “Liek OMG, spirals, how are spirals scary!?!!!!1!!!!”. Well they are in the context of the narrative, so nyah! The story centers around the town of Kurôzu-cho, which is cursed with an abundance of spirals, and the inhabitants obsession and possession with/from these spirals.

Like Tomie, Uzumaki More...

Oh. My. Gawd.

HOW is this NOT an american movie yet??? (I see there IS a Japanese interpretation, but haven't been able to locate a copy- but like "The Ring" (Ringu) and "The Grudge" before it... this has AMAZING pottential for an American Horror Movie...

REAL Horror, not that blood-n-guts stuff they pass off as 'horror' nowdays...

This is the story of a village. A village infected with SPIRALS.

Oh sure. Go ahead. Chuckle.

Go, "yeah... AND?"

But really.

Think about it.

...what happens when something as More...

Warning: This review may contain spoilers.

Kirie is a girl who lives in the small town of Kurôzu-cho. The town is somehow 'surrounded' by spirals. These spirals cause strange occurrences to happen to the people living in the place. People become obsessed with them, leading to madness and insanity.

I don't know what came over me, but I decided to try my first horror manga. This manga by Junji Ito, was a good choice. It's really messed-up. I like the continuity the manga has- each chapter has its ow More...

[Review of whole series.]



I’m skeptical of comics’ power to truly horrify using supernatural elements. Because the reader controls entirely the pace of a story’s execution, one of the primary tools of the horror genre is kept from authors in the comics medium. Additionally, revulsion is increasingly difficult to elicit from static imagery—a gross drawing is merely that and draws forth none of that sense of fear or terror that aficionados of the genre tend to relish. Certainly a compelling story a More...

For a while now, I've been raving about Junji Ito, and folks have been telling me that Uzumaki is his masterpiece. Well, I finally got around to reading it, and they're right.

The first two volumes, like with Ito's Tomie stories, are sort of interconnected short pieces, though the connecting tissues here are much stronger than in the majority of the Tomie stories.

Uzumaki is often mentioned as being Lovecraftian, and it is in its way, but like Laird Barron or Thomas Ligotti, Junji Ito takes Lovecr More...

I became aware of Uzumaki several years ago when the film version (2000, dir. Higuchinsky) made its way onto my Netflix queue. HIguchinsky is a Ukrainian born Japanese director of music videos who has not made a feature since 2003.Uzumaki tells the story of a remote mountainside Japanese village, accessible only by a long tunnel cut through mountain, where the inhabitants fall under the spell of Spirals. That probably doesn't have you shaking in your boots, but the sheer weirdness of the concept More...

This was an atmospheric and creepy series, demonstrating an unsettling vibe that often leaves the reader as intrigued as they are shocked. I have little experience with manga, but Ito’s art style seems more realistic than many, which adds to the horror. The Lovecraftian influence was deeply evident, and it was interesting to see this style of cosmic horror explored through a different culture. The story starts slow with viewpoint character Kirie’s introduction to her isolated town of Kurozu-Cho More...

I have been reading manga, intermittently, ever since I heard the Japanese scholar Shigemi Inaga give an excellent talk on Hitoshi Iwaaki's "Parasyte" in 2000. I try to read mainly the more violent, frightening, or obscene manga, because those are the kinds that are mentioned and used in the art world. I haven't been writing notes on them because most are short and ephemeral. And, although it doesn't seem to bother the manga-reading public, the great majority are very badly or at least carelessl More...

I have never read manga or any other type of comic before this one. I am not even sure what drew me to the manga section in Barnes and Noble. I don't think comics/manga are nerdy or anything like that, but they never appealed to me. With that being said, I am not sure how to review this comic because it's not like anything I have ever read. Initially, I picked this book up because the illustrations appealed to me and the story was kind of interesting. I LOVE horror/thriller books and movies when More...

I heard great things about Uzumaki after looking for something to soothe the disappointment of Another, which was alright, but not remotely scary. Uzumaki can hardly be compared, and part of the reason this gets a three stars is because I'm not sure what to make of it. I've never read anything like this before.

Firstly... this is absolutely bizarre. And gruesome. When I say gruesome, I mean gruesome! I was sceptical about this series scarring me for life until I got my first blast of graphic imag More...

THE AUTHOR HAS AMAZING IMAGINATION. I found this book after searching for list of disturbing manga (because I got bored of usual fantasy ones and found out there are manga categorized as 'disturbing' after my friend told me about this manga called '15 years old' based on murder of Furuta Junko which was also quite disturbing) lots of people said Uzumaki was unforgettably disturbing and so, but because I had nothing else to read I read Uzumaki. And got addicted to it straight away because the rea More...

I am surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. The story was original and truly horrific. One panel in particular made me gasp and I had to place my hand over the picture in order to continue reading the story. Now that's what I'm talking about, even though part of it is due to my personal aversion of people cutting on themselves. But it made for a frightening addition to the story.

Essentially, there is a town plagued by spirals. The townsfolk are being possessed and consumed with a spiral obs More...

This is volume 1 of a 3 volume series about a town that is haunted by spiral shapes. Each chapter is a standalone story, but they are all set in the same town and a couple of main characters feature from the beginning through to the end, so they are all tied together by that.

Apparently these stories take inspiration from the work of H.P. Lovecraft, though I can't comment much on that as I haven't read any of his work yet, but maybe that will be useful to other people.

What interested me in this b More...

I personally love Juni Ito's works, this being my favorite, mostly because they SCARE the HELL out of me. It's not so much when you're reading them as after you read them. All of those images, be it the image of Kirie's father twisted into a complete spiral himself, or the crazy-ass pregnant women sucking people's blood because they were bitten by some mosquitoes, are stuck in your head. Although, it's more of the ideas that stick than the images, so to speak.

Every day that I read this, I remem More...

In perhaps the most exciting graphic horror novel I've ever read, the premise is one that seems faultily footed: the malevolent impact inherent in naturally-occuring spirals. These spirals, at first simply the ones readily found among plants, animals, and objects, become the obsession of a town which gradually disintegrates into an incubus of claustrophobic horror. Told in an anthology format, the individual tales, which do culminate upon each other, introduces visual instances of the spiral (in More...

While I haven't read all that many manga, Uzumaki is easily the most inventive and entertaining of those that I have read. Junji Ito's twisted tale is alternately hilarious, horrifying, and deeply thought-provoing in ways that I'd come to think that manga could never be. Using spiral patterns as the central conceit of his plot gives Ito's tale an edge that more conventional horror is incapable of delivering, as the author draws ever wider circles (or are they spirals?) around his characters, wit More...

This is the series that got me into Ito's work. I'd passed this manga by countless times before finally picking it up & I'm glad that I did. Ito's haunting artwork & storylines will stay with you for days!

The story of Uzumaki concerns a small town called Kurôzu-cho where a young girl named Kirie lives & goes to school. The tale starts off with her concern over her boyfriend's father's obsession with spirals, but then goes off full tilt towards a fantastical end! Initially the storie More...

Hilarious horror manga. I mean, it is not intentionally funny, and it is actually quite disturbing -- I wouldn't read it at night -- but the premise is that there is a town and it is haunted by an evil ... spiral! The very earth is
contaminated by the evil ... spiral pattern! The mangaka does manage to make it very freaky, but then he spoils it by putting a little biographical comic at the end about the research he did for the manga: "I ate spiral foods: spiral fishcakes, soft-serve ice cream ... More...

Apparently, this is my year to explore new genres, what with the erotica and now the manga. After finishing this book, I looked at my husband and said, "I think I just don't get it." Just like the vapid vixens, I'm sure it appeals to many people out there...I'm just not one of them.

The stories (more like vignettes) were interesting, but not long enough or detailed enough to be satisfying, and I found myself laughing at the absurdity of the (very loose) plot, rather than finding myself in any way More...

I read this series (only putting in one review) after hearing them mentioned online.

The visual design is very striking and creepy. I found the facial expressions particularly effective in setting the mood and evoking response.

The storytelling, however, needs some work. The foreshadowing is a bit heavy handed in spots, robbing the horror elements of a lot of their punch when revealed. Also, I feel like the story went on too long. By the end of the story, I was no longer shocked on uncertain as ye More...

This book was weird and horrifying and delicious.

Basically this kid's dad develops this intense obsession with spirals that completely consumes him to the point where he makes himself into a spiral, killing himself in the process. His mom then develops an intense phobia of spirals and ends up cutting all the spirals off of her body (like her fingerprints) but then problems arise when she learns the inner ear is a spiral... So these two events (which leave their son traumatized and kind of suspic More...

Okay I'm not going to lie, I didn't read this all the way through but I didn't have to. It pretty much starts in what should be the middle of the story. It pretty much jumps in feet first. It's meant to be a horror story but it skips all the building of tension and anticipation and jumps straight to showing you horrible, graphic death. And you're like, who is this person? You've barely introduced this character. Oooohhh, the town is creepy . . . yeah, maybe if you actually show that rather than More...

An insane idea on every page.
-m

too scary