I never really thought of spirals as a scary thing but after reading Junji Ito’s Uzumaki (now collected in one 600+ page book by Viz Media, ) I don’t know if I ever really want to see one again. Ito’s story of a small Japanese town, Kurouzo-cho focuses on the madness that infests it as spirals begin terrorizing the town and its inhabitants. Kirie, our heroine, first notices the madness festering in her boyfriend Shuichi’s father. On a walk to school, she finds Shuichi’s father huddled in an alley, intently studying a snail’s spiral shell. An obsession develops in Shuichi and his father around the spirals that drives this family insane. It’s a meme infection on a familial level that’s insidious enough but it’s only the beginning of Ito’s own maddening horror that infects the reader as much as it does the characters and their village.
Originally produced in 1998 and 1999, Ito’s artwork is incredibly tight and it needs to be for the type of horror story that he’s creating. The gut punch of Ito’s horror lands in the images he draws, characters infected by spirals who undergo horrific transformations. Early on, a whirlpool opens in one girls head, pulling her completely into it. She’s consumed by a spiral and Ito’s representation of that event is an early signifier that something more than just psychological horror is happening here. As Ito twists bodies and nature in this book, the horror becomes so physical through his drawings. The physical malformations that people and the town go through in this book are lead the reader into the more insidious types of horror that Ito is working with here.
To make those physical manifestations of bodily mutations have any kind of impact, Ito has to build up the suspense to those moments, which he does masterfully. Uzamaki is a page turner as Kirie and Schuichi’s investigations into the strange spirals out slowly but continues to get more and more dangerous with each occurrence. As clouds and dust whirl into spirals, as people start going mad, as their bodies begin turning into snails and as the food runs out and the snails are the only meat available, Ito’s madness worms its way into the reader’s mind. It’s the Alfred Hitchcock method of horror where the really scary stuff isn’t in the horrific images but it’s in the moments leading up to those twisted and monstrous bodies that jump out at you. There are many such reveals throughout the book where Ito builds up and teases out the tension and each next one keeps multiplying on top of the last.
The 5 Best Chapters In Junji Ito's Uzumaki
The horror in Uzamaki is ultimately the horror of nature. The expressions of the infecting spirals take on many forms that should be natural; tornados, whirlpools, snails and whirling clouds. As the town gets pulled deeper and deeper into these unnatural forms of common occurrences, it’s the environment around Kurouzo-cho that becomes the truly sinister villain of the book. Sometimes it’s easy to brush off horror if the antagonist is just another person, some mustache twirling villain for our heroes to defeat. But in Ito’s Uzumaki, it’s not a person who’s the enemy; it’s existence itself that turns against Kirie and Schuichi and everyone else. Every moment is lived inside of this fear and horror. It’s not something that can be escaped by running away.
For all of the many ways that Ito builds up the horror and suspense, there’s no big release of all of that pent up anxiety at the end. Instead of a triumphant conclusion, the story of Kirie and Schuichi resigns itself to the forces at work around them. It’s threats aren’t something to be overcome. Instead, this is a story about the inevitable and about defeat. Everything and everyone in this town lose themselves to these destructive forces so why should our “heroes” be any different? Ito spends so much time on these two characters, centering the mystery and the tragedy of this town around them that the ending fizzles as Kirie and Schuichi become just two more inevitable victims of the forces at work here. It ends the way it ends because that was always how it was going to end. It’s cynical and defeatist
Uzumaki is an insidious book, not because of the fictional horror that Ito plays with but in the way that it spreads the madness into its readers. This isn’t a story of monsters or of killers but of people who are driven into madness. That makes it so much easier and dangerous for the reader as they get infected along with the characters. Uzamaki is a great book to get lost in. Kirie and Schuichi’s struggles and fears become your struggles and fears. It’s magic that Ito is weaving here as he makes you more than just readers; you become a participant in the fear that’s infecting this town. It’s real and palpable so when he races through the ending and just gives into the fear, it’s not exciting and freeing as much as it is retiring and giving up.Since it is October, the month of spooky ghosts and monsters, I thought it would be fun to write a blog on somethingfrightening! Uzumaki might not make you scream or jump out of your seat, but it will certainly make you uncomfortable with its insanely detailed art. Hope you guys enjoy me talking about it!
Uzumaki Deluxe: Spiral Into Horror
[Editor’s Note:This is an old post and does not reflect the type of content or writing style currently found on Atop the Clouds.]
For those not in the know, Junji Ito is known somewhat iconically in the manga industry for his amazing work with the horror genre. Most of his work are just one chapter shots, each one telling its own unique (and disturbing) story. I haven’t actually ever gotten around to reading all of his works, even though they are all pretty short yet incredibly interesting reads. One of the few works of his I have read over the years is his most notable work, Uzumaki. In it, Junji Ito takes a fairly mundane and normal construct and twists it into a dark tale of a town gone mad and the supernatural events that occur.
At its core, Uzumaki is the story of the townKurôzu-cho and all of the crazy, frightening events that transpire there as the town descends into madness. It all starts when Shuichi Saito’s father becomes transfixed with looking at things with spiral patterns. It doesn’t matter what it is, be it snails or works of art with spirals on them, Saito’s father spends hours upon hours looking at them and analyzing them. This becomes a central theme to Uzumaki, which literally translates to spiral in English. The spiral is mesmerizing, causing the viewer to follow the pattern to its center.
Junji Ito Uzumaki Manga Panel Small Promo Display Poster Viz Media Japan
Other people in town soon start to exhibit strange or outright frightening behavior as they too become cursed by the spiral. Some people walk in circles, supernatural events involving a birthmark turning into a tunneling spiral through someones head and a lighthouse that turns on every night for no reason all happen one after another. These events keep piling up and escalating to the point where it is clear nothing in this town is normal, and it is clear that the citizens need to leave immediately. The problem is no one really knows about all the happenings going on, and those who do are already cursed or try to explain the events away with logic.
This brings me to one of my main complaints with the story of the manga, being that it follows the stereotypical horror thread that all the characters don’t believe what is happening. Those who do know whats going on choose to stay in the town for some reason I cannot comprehend, leaving it hard to believe anyone who was not already under the influence of the spiral would actually be still living in the town. The main characters are two such people, who are constantly seeing some of the most horrifying stuff imaginable. Why they just didn’t pack up and leave is beyond me.
Aside from the rather stereotypical plot structure of Uzumaki, I quite enjoyed Ito’s take on a town gone mad as supernatural forces take hold. Most of the events that take place in the town were unique and twisted, showing interesting ways in which a spiral pattern can be used in horror. The overarching plot that starts to take shape in the later half of the manga is also interesting and gives off vibes of lovecraftian horror. As the town spirals more and more into madness (in a very literal sense) we start to see that there is some greater being or power at work here that is warping the entire town ofKurôzu-cho.
Uzumaki Manga Panel Redraw.
The characters of Uzamaki were not very interesting to me. Most side characters that are introduced outside of a handful were introduced and killed off in the same chapter. It made it hard to really get to know much about these characters outside of the
Other people in town soon start to exhibit strange or outright frightening behavior as they too become cursed by the spiral. Some people walk in circles, supernatural events involving a birthmark turning into a tunneling spiral through someones head and a lighthouse that turns on every night for no reason all happen one after another. These events keep piling up and escalating to the point where it is clear nothing in this town is normal, and it is clear that the citizens need to leave immediately. The problem is no one really knows about all the happenings going on, and those who do are already cursed or try to explain the events away with logic.
This brings me to one of my main complaints with the story of the manga, being that it follows the stereotypical horror thread that all the characters don’t believe what is happening. Those who do know whats going on choose to stay in the town for some reason I cannot comprehend, leaving it hard to believe anyone who was not already under the influence of the spiral would actually be still living in the town. The main characters are two such people, who are constantly seeing some of the most horrifying stuff imaginable. Why they just didn’t pack up and leave is beyond me.
Aside from the rather stereotypical plot structure of Uzumaki, I quite enjoyed Ito’s take on a town gone mad as supernatural forces take hold. Most of the events that take place in the town were unique and twisted, showing interesting ways in which a spiral pattern can be used in horror. The overarching plot that starts to take shape in the later half of the manga is also interesting and gives off vibes of lovecraftian horror. As the town spirals more and more into madness (in a very literal sense) we start to see that there is some greater being or power at work here that is warping the entire town ofKurôzu-cho.
Uzumaki Manga Panel Redraw.
The characters of Uzamaki were not very interesting to me. Most side characters that are introduced outside of a handful were introduced and killed off in the same chapter. It made it hard to really get to know much about these characters outside of the
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