![うずまき [Uzumaki]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1447411020i/2209445._UY200_.jpg)
483 books
—
396 voters
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “Uzumaki” as Want to Read:
Uzumaki
(Uzumaki #1-3)
by
Spirals... this town is contaminated with spirals...
Kurouzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but by a pattern: uzumaki, the spiral — the hypnotic secret shape of the world. This bizarre masterpiece of horror manga is now ...more
Kurouzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but by a pattern: uzumaki, the spiral — the hypnotic secret shape of the world. This bizarre masterpiece of horror manga is now ...more
Get A Copy
Hardcover, Deluxe edition, 653 pages
Published
October 15th 2013
by VIZ Media LLC
(first published March 7th 2000)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
Uzumaki,
please sign up.
Popular Answered Questions
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30
Start your review of Uzumaki
well, that really spiraled out of control quickly
Wow, what a macabre masterpiece. This was gory and grotesque and very disturbing and at the same time the story is amazing and I could hardly put it down. It was amazing and it had boundless imagination. The story kept getting more and more hopeless until the bitter end. I mean this really is a horror story, but man, it's so good at the same time. It's a nightmarish brilliant piece of art. I can't explain it better than that.
Thank goodness the artwork is in black and white except for one chapte ...more
Thank goodness the artwork is in black and white except for one chapte ...more
i'm traumatized but in a good way
...more
“Spirals... this town is contaminated with spirals...”
If all horror manga is as fucked-up and disturbing as Uzumaki, then my bank balance will have something else to worry about, in addition to my coffee addiction.
Kurouzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. However, the town is not haunted by a person or a being, but a pattern - uzumaki, the spiral.
That synopsis sounds a bit ridiculous, doesn’t it? Yet Ito manages to make such a concept absolutely terrifying! His imagina ...more
If all horror manga is as fucked-up and disturbing as Uzumaki, then my bank balance will have something else to worry about, in addition to my coffee addiction.
Kurouzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. However, the town is not haunted by a person or a being, but a pattern - uzumaki, the spiral.
That synopsis sounds a bit ridiculous, doesn’t it? Yet Ito manages to make such a concept absolutely terrifying! His imagina ...more
This was crazy good. The artwork, the disturbing imagery, the originality of the stories, just...all of it.
That's it. That's the review.
*I bought this with my hard earned cash. If I hadn't I would buy it right now because I'll be re-reading this, perhaps many times.* ...more
That's it. That's the review.
*I bought this with my hard earned cash. If I hadn't I would buy it right now because I'll be re-reading this, perhaps many times.* ...more
Dec 28, 2018
jade
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
fans of uncanny body horror
Recommended to jade by:
got it from a Very Old Internet Thread on creepypasta
this three-in-one collection tells the story of a town completely unravelling through unsettling, disgusting, horrifying, and mind-bending body horror.
and i am so here for it.
the setting is kurouzu-cho, a sleepy town surrounded by mountains and hills on one side, and the sea on the other. our main protagonist is kirie goshima, a high school student, whose boyfriend shuichi saito has a bit of a depressive streak.
the slow, uncanny creep of horror starts when shuichi’s father discovers a new hobby: ...more
and i am so here for it.
the setting is kurouzu-cho, a sleepy town surrounded by mountains and hills on one side, and the sea on the other. our main protagonist is kirie goshima, a high school student, whose boyfriend shuichi saito has a bit of a depressive streak.
the slow, uncanny creep of horror starts when shuichi’s father discovers a new hobby: ...more
Possibly one of the most inspired hunks of derangement I have ever had the pleasure to thumb through. Manga maker Junji Ito conjures up an epic phantasmagoria that obsessively plumbs the most modest of shapes, a spiral, for all the perversity and horror to be found within its endless contours. Set in a small town, the first segment of chapters presents various ways in which a spiral can configure into madness, mutation and murder. A slow-moving fatso turns into a lusty snail. A battle for popula
...more
A man in a Japanese village becomes obsessed with spirals found in nature until he meets a horrific end. Things spiral further out of control with each chapter. The story focuses on a teenage couple as they watch this town become further and further unhinged with each chapter. Junji Ito sprinkles in some Lovecraft into the story. Later chapters were very reminiscent of House of Leaves. Like a lot of Japanese horror I've come across, it doesn't always make sense. It can be more about horrific ima
...more
Creepy. Awesome. Enough said.
Mar 06, 2020
NReads
marked it as to-read
this sounds exactly what I need right now
![destiny ♡⚔♡ [howling libraries]](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1614916030p2/15335689.jpg)
If you've been following my reviews for a while, you may remember that, a few months back, I accidentally got Volume 2 instead of Volume 1 from the library and decided to read it, anyways. I was less than impressed (and incredibly confused) and chalked it halfway up to not having read the beginning of the story (my mistake) and halfway up to this manga just not being my cup of tea. I decided recently that I wanted to give it another try by reading the entire story, since I know this is a very po
...more
Absolutely terrifying and disturbing. I’m slightly traumatized, yet I could not look away because the illustrations were amazing! I wonder what goes on in Junji Ito’s mind because never in my life have I read anything like this before. That being said, I will now proceed to devour the rest of Ito’s works.
Spoilery thoughts about the ending:
(view spoiler) ...more
Spoilery thoughts about the ending:
(view spoiler) ...more
Oh man, Jugs & Capes. This club sure knows how to expand my horizons.
I haven't read much (any?) manga. And this one, which seems to be something of an international cult horror fave, was certainly an interesting place to start.
It'd be tough to be terribly spoilery because any description I give you won't make much sense if you don't read the book. But let's just say that Uzumaki is about a town that gets overtaken by spirals. (I know, right?) This takeover assumes many forms, from spiral-shape ...more
I haven't read much (any?) manga. And this one, which seems to be something of an international cult horror fave, was certainly an interesting place to start.
It'd be tough to be terribly spoilery because any description I give you won't make much sense if you don't read the book. But let's just say that Uzumaki is about a town that gets overtaken by spirals. (I know, right?) This takeover assumes many forms, from spiral-shape ...more
Kurouzu-cho is a small, fogbound town on the coast of Japan, and it is haunted by an unusual curse. The curse of the spiral. A reclusive young man named Shuichi Saito is the first to take notice of the spiral patterns popping up everywhere and having strange effects on people, most of them not even noticing what’s happening to them until it’s too late. No one takes Shuichi’s warnings about the horrifying delusions the spirals cause to those who become entranced by their hypnotic spell seriously,
...more
There are some images in this manga that have haunted me for days. Spirals are terrifying.
Keiko lives in a town cursed by spirals. It starts with one man, her boyfriends father, and spirals (see what I did there?!) outwards from there. The curse effects everyone and everything differently. Pregnant women. Pottery. Children. Weird stalker kids from school. Hair. The spirals get everywhere, and the town gets worse and worse.
Junji Ito has one weird mind. I genuinely don't know how he can think up ...more
Keiko lives in a town cursed by spirals. It starts with one man, her boyfriends father, and spirals (see what I did there?!) outwards from there. The curse effects everyone and everything differently. Pregnant women. Pottery. Children. Weird stalker kids from school. Hair. The spirals get everywhere, and the town gets worse and worse.
Junji Ito has one weird mind. I genuinely don't know how he can think up ...more
Amazing artwork and a creepy story. What more can you ask for?
3.5 stars
It all starts with a man who becomes obsessed with spirals - he collects kimonos with spiral patterns, he looks endlessly at snails, he commissions a spiral bowl from the potter in town. And, well, there are quite a lot of spiral-y patterns in nature, just look at those leaves!
But as time goes by, his obsession grows so much that his wife throws out his spiral collection, and he decides he can turn his body into spirals: he spins his eyes around, he rolls his tongue into a chameleon-like spiral ...more
But as time goes by, his obsession grows so much that his wife throws out his spiral collection, and he decides he can turn his body into spirals: he spins his eyes around, he rolls his tongue into a chameleon-like spiral ...more
This had the potential of being really, really creepy but unfortuantely fell extremely flat for me. The art style was terrifying and the premise of a town being haunted by a spiral was definitely intriguing; however, story-wise this just wasn't interesting at all.
No convincing build-up of suspense, no actual reasons for why what is happening is happening and also no compelling characters to care about throughout the story. Most chapters follow the pattern of a new character being introduced that ...more
No convincing build-up of suspense, no actual reasons for why what is happening is happening and also no compelling characters to care about throughout the story. Most chapters follow the pattern of a new character being introduced that ...more
It’s like a strange dream you’d have ...if you ate too much sugar right before bed, had a low grade fever, over indulged in NyQuil, or fell asleep too fast from exhaustion. As the story continued, it got even weirder —even to the end where I was like, “WTF... did I just read?!” It was worth every twist and turn, so to speak. Nope, I’ll own that one, pun intended. If you don’t mind shoving reason down a disposal, then this book is for you. Every time I wanted to tell Reality to take a hike, I pic
...more
3.75-4/5stars
Wow this one was a RIDE - I was always confused by what people meant about this being a book about a town obsessed with spirals but now I GET IT.
This one started and ended SO STRONG but definitely lost me for about 200-250 pages in there (when the storms started happening and the twisters) which is why it dropped a bit in rating for me but I still HIGHLY recommend - super creepy and unsettling !
Wow this one was a RIDE - I was always confused by what people meant about this being a book about a town obsessed with spirals but now I GET IT.
This one started and ended SO STRONG but definitely lost me for about 200-250 pages in there (when the storms started happening and the twisters) which is why it dropped a bit in rating for me but I still HIGHLY recommend - super creepy and unsettling !
I meant to read this in one day, but it felt like it took me forever. (Maybe I'm turning into a snail person?)
The good:
- The art.
- Some really creepy body horror moments, especially in the early chapters.
The bad:
- The characters don't act like people. There's no clear motivation for what they do, especially staying in town. (Yeah, it's sort of explained right at the end of the book, but that explanation feels too late and too insufficient.) They don't change or grow in convincing ways, and I s ...more
The good:
- The art.
- Some really creepy body horror moments, especially in the early chapters.
The bad:
- The characters don't act like people. There's no clear motivation for what they do, especially staying in town. (Yeah, it's sort of explained right at the end of the book, but that explanation feels too late and too insufficient.) They don't change or grow in convincing ways, and I s ...more
SPIRAL INTO MADNESS
“I saw it myself now. His eyes were spinning around and around…separately."
Among storytellers of whatever stripe, conventional wisdom dictates that there are two genres which you have to work the hardest at to perfect: comedy and horror (the kind that evokes dread, not the one that assaults you with cheap jump-scares). Both are very specific responses to elicit from your audience, and enormously tough to pull off.
It shouldn't come as a surprise then that horror comics rar ...more
“I saw it myself now. His eyes were spinning around and around…separately."
Among storytellers of whatever stripe, conventional wisdom dictates that there are two genres which you have to work the hardest at to perfect: comedy and horror (the kind that evokes dread, not the one that assaults you with cheap jump-scares). Both are very specific responses to elicit from your audience, and enormously tough to pull off.
It shouldn't come as a surprise then that horror comics rar ...more
Dec 27, 2020
verity
rated it
really liked it
Shelves:
2020,
best-of-2020,
age-adult,
genre-horror,
genre-fantasy,
book-owned,
rep-bipoc,
4-stars,
genre-sci-fi,
book-series
Give it a minute. My thoughts are still loading.
Wow. This is one disturbing, chaotic, weird masterpiece. I couldn’t bring myself to look away from Ito’s incredible, grotesque imagery. And now I’ll be having nightmares for weeks.
The premise is not one you’d expect—I’ve never read anything like this before. I mean, a town haunted by a spiral? By not a person or some kind of monster, but by a seemingly harmless pattern? But I’m always down for some bizarre insanity, and I was pleasantly surprised t ...more
Wow. This is one disturbing, chaotic, weird masterpiece. I couldn’t bring myself to look away from Ito’s incredible, grotesque imagery. And now I’ll be having nightmares for weeks.
The premise is not one you’d expect—I’ve never read anything like this before. I mean, a town haunted by a spiral? By not a person or some kind of monster, but by a seemingly harmless pattern? But I’m always down for some bizarre insanity, and I was pleasantly surprised t ...more
When Shuichi Saito's father turns himself into a human spiral killing himself getting cremated, his ashes are accidentally sent up into the atmosphere and land into dragonfly pond. This results in a horrifying curse that is spread onto the small coastal town of Kurôzu-cho, Japan. Can Kirie Goshima and the rest of the town survive the Spiral curse that is Uzumaki? Read on and find out for yourself.
This was a pretty good and freaky horror anime. The artwork is great and it had a good storyline too ...more
This was a pretty good and freaky horror anime. The artwork is great and it had a good storyline too ...more
Junji Ito gives me the absolute best nightmares.
5 stars--amazing. This novel is a frenetic nightmare of imagery. The stories and art combine to create a truly chilling, fascinating tale. If you're a horror fan, it's a must-read.
...more
Gripping, haunting, and super weird. What more could one want from a book? Junji Ito writes and draws Lovecraftian horror quite well. I was pleasantly surprise by how good this was.
Oct 19, 2020
breana / milkyboos ♡
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
books-i-own,
read-2020
this was both the worst and greatest thing i have ever read, thank u for the nightmares junji ito
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Play Book Tag: Uzumaki (Collected Edition)/Junji Ito/5 Stars | 1 | 16 | Jun 04, 2018 07:03AM | |
| 2017 Reading Chal...: Uzumaki By Junji Ito | 1 | 28 | Feb 26, 2015 10:33PM |
Readers also enjoyed
![血の轍 1 [Chi no Wadachi 1] (Blood on the Tracks, #1)](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1514415068l/36009825._SX98_.jpg)
![血の轍 2 [Chi no Wadachi 2] (Blood on the Tracks, #2)](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1514414695l/36615458._SX98_.jpg)
Junji Itō (伊藤潤二) Born in Gifu Prefecture in 1963, he was inspired from a young age by his older sister's drawing and Kazuo Umezu's comics and thus took an interest in drawing horror comics himself. Nevertheless, upon graduation he trained as a dental technician, and until the early 1990s he juggled his dental career with his increasingly successful hobby — even after being selected as the winner o
...more
Other books in the series
Uzumaki
(3 books)
Articles featuring this book
Every December, as we wrap up our annual Goodreads Reading Challenge, we ask our book-loving colleagues a simple yet incredibly tough...
180 likes · 322 comments
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Kirie, did you know that female mosquitoes are the only ones who suck blood? And only when they're carrying a batch of eggs. They need the blood so their eggs will develop and...”
—
5 likes
More quotes…
