2. Uzumaki by Junji Ito

Junji, Ito. (2007). Uzumaki: Spiral into horror. San Francisco, CA: Viz Media. ISBN-13:978-1-4215-1389- 8. p. 202

Genre: Horror/Manga

Interest Age: 13+

Curriculum: NA

Reader’s Annotation

Something strange is happening in the Kirie’s quiet town. The town and its people are becoming possessed by spirals and no one can image the horror which is to follow.

Plot Summary

Uzumaki (spiral in Japanese) tells the story of Kirie Goshima, an average high school student in the small town of Kurozu, Japan. She leads a normal life until she slowly notices her town and its people are becoming possessed by spirals. Kirie first notices her boyfriend’s father develop an increasing obsession with the spiral shape which leads to a bizarre and tragic death. The spiral then begins to “infect” her classmates. One develops a spiral like birthmark that literally consumes her. A young couple, whose parents seek to keep them apart, become both emotionally and physically intertwined. Even Kirie herself falls victim to the spiral as her own hair begins possessing medusa like characteristics. This is the first in a three volume series.

Critical Review

Who could have known something as benign as a spiral could lead to such terror? Uzumaki is a brilliantly paced decent into horror. Ito’s artwork is crisp, clean, and lush with detail. Most impressive is Ito’s sense of pacing, which is very deliberate and brooding. A sense of dread slowly builds throughout these first six chapters which make up volume one of this series. This volume (and most of volume 2 for that matter) focuses on building a sense of terror while keeping explanations to a minimum.

The weakest parts of this series are the characters. There is little in the way of character development. Kirie, her family, and boyfriend Shuichi seem to merely move from one sinister event to another without ever really stopping to ask, “I wonder what could be causing this?” or “I think we should get out of town.” To be far, they do try the latter but by the time they do it is too late. But a deep character study is not Ito’s goal. The goal is to create a sense of dread, terror, and horror. In this respect, Uzumaki is an absolute success. Each episode builds slowly to a shocking conclusion. This is highly recommended to anyone with an interest in horror or the macabre.

Author Info

Junji Ito was born in 1963 in Gifu Prefecture, Japan. Originally Ito went to school and worked as a dental technician until his career as an artist and writer began taking off in the 1990s. Inspired by people like horror manga artist Kazuo Umezu as well as American horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, Ito has become one Japan’s most well known as successful horror manga artists. Many of his stories focus on young girls and obsessions with beauty. This can be seen in both the Tomie series as well as Uzumaki.

Ito has had several of his works adapted into films including the Tomie series (5 films to date) and Uzumaki (2000). Ito continues to draw and write for numerous magazines in Japan.

Book Talking Ideas

1. What every day, seemingly benign and harmless things creep you out?

2. How does Ito build tension and atmosphere throughout the comic?

Challenges

While I have not read of any challenges to this series, I imagine its due to the fact that it is not as widely read as other manga such as Dragonball, Naruto, or Death Note. There is no offensive language or sexual content but it does contain plenty of violence and macabre imagery.

• · Be aware of the content and the fact that this is a horror comic; the goal is to being horrific and this will inevitably offend some people.

Why I choose this title

I read this entire series in one sitting. It is a brilliant piece of horror fiction and is an excellent gateway into other similar masters of the macabre such as Poe, Lovecraft, and King. As an avid fan of horror literature and film, I’m always looking for ways to introduce people to one of my greatest passions. There is also a film version which is equally as weird.