Status
Available
Call number
Publication
VIZ Media: VIZ Signature (2018), Edition: Deluxe ed., 648 pages
Description
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 According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but by a pattern: uzumaki, the spiral--the hypnotic secret shape of the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. It manifests itself in everything from seashells and whirlpools in water to the spiral marks on people's bodies, the insane obsessions of Shuichi's father and the voice from the cochlea in our inner ear. As the madness spreads, the inhabitants of Kurouzu-cho are pulled ever deeper into a whirlpool from which there is no return!
User reviews
LibraryThing member krau0098
This was an amazingly well done (and disturbing) manga. The story was incredibly well done, you can tell there is a heavy HP Lovecraft influence here. All of the Uzumaki story is included in this one large volume, which was awesome.
I enjoyed this a ton and had trouble putting it down. The story is
The illustration is beautifully detailed and so interesting to look at. Ito-san much have taken a ton of time drawing this manga; it was amazing.
The characters also have a lot of depth to them. You really feel for Shuichi; whose parents were taken by the spiral’s madness early on. He is smart and savvy, but also ends up struggling to stay engaged in day to day life after his ordeals. Kirie is an interesting character as well; she is almost strangely innocent and passive to the horrors that go on around her. Despite her innocence she has a keen sense of survival as well.
Overall I would highly recommend to those who enjoy horror manga. This was an incredibly well done manga that obviously had a lot of time and thought put into both the story and the illustration. It is incredibly gory and disturbing so I would recommend to adult readers only (older teen would probably be okay too if they are really into horror). Highly recommended.
I enjoyed this a ton and had trouble putting it down. The story is
Show More
strangely engaging. I kept wanting to read chapters to see what bizarre new horror would overtake the town of Kurozu-cho. I was absolutely dying to know how it would all play out.The illustration is beautifully detailed and so interesting to look at. Ito-san much have taken a ton of time drawing this manga; it was amazing.
The characters also have a lot of depth to them. You really feel for Shuichi; whose parents were taken by the spiral’s madness early on. He is smart and savvy, but also ends up struggling to stay engaged in day to day life after his ordeals. Kirie is an interesting character as well; she is almost strangely innocent and passive to the horrors that go on around her. Despite her innocence she has a keen sense of survival as well.
Overall I would highly recommend to those who enjoy horror manga. This was an incredibly well done manga that obviously had a lot of time and thought put into both the story and the illustration. It is incredibly gory and disturbing so I would recommend to adult readers only (older teen would probably be okay too if they are really into horror). Highly recommended.
Show Less
LibraryThing member PhoenixTerran
Junji Ito's Uzumaki, originally released in Japan between 1998 and 1999, is one of the most well-known horror manga series to have been translated into English. Viz Media has actually published three different English-language editions of Uzumaki, not counting its initial serialization in the
Kurouzu-cho is a small, quiet seaside village under a curse. It's manifestation starts with the Saito family. First, Mr. Saito begins acting strangely, developing an unhealthy obsession with spirals. This leads to his demise and in turn his wife understandably becomes terrified of spirals as well, her complex becoming just as severe as her husband's. In the end, their son Shuichi is the only one left in the family and his girlfriend Kirie Goshima is his only ally. Already uncomfortable with Kurouzu-cho, the fate of his parents convinces Shuichi that the town is contaminated with spirals, though most people believe this to be his own form of insanity. But stranger and stranger things begin to happen in Kurouzu-cho. Kirie becomes witness to so many bizarre occurrences and horrifying deaths that she can't deny that something is very, very wrong with the town. Tragedy after tragedy befalls Kurouzu-cho, its inhabitants, and anyone unfortunate enough to enter the immediate area as events both figuratively and literally spiral out of control.
At first, Uzumaki seems as though it's a series that is mostly episodic. Each chapter is largely told and seen from Kirie's perspective and explores an individual incident involving spirals in some way. But as the manga continues, the stories become more and more closely tied to one another, eventually forming a single, coherent narrative. As previously mentioned, Uzumaki is very graphic, the images that Ito creates, while mesmerizing, can be extraordinarily disturbing and gruesome. But there is more going on in the manga than gore and body horror; there is also a very strong, and very dark, psychological element to Uzumaki which makes the entire series especially effective in its terror. Uzumaki is bizarre and surreal but at the same time is completely convincing in its unnatural horror. It's hard to believe that something so benign as a simple shape--a spiral--could be so terrifying, but Ito accomplishes the seemingly impossible with Uzumaki. It's an exceptionally disconcerting work.
Although the imagery in Uzumaki is frequently disturbing, grotesque, and even nauseating, almost as frightening are the characters' reactions--or, in many cases, their non-reactions--to the terrible events surrounding them. Shuichi is one of the very few people who seem to be completely aware of what is happening in Kurouzu-cho, but he is barely able to maintain his own sanity and becomes increasingly haunted and withdrawn. Surprisingly, hidden within the nightmare that is Uzumaki, there is actually a love story of sorts, granted a tragic one considering the nature of the manga. Despite everything, Kirie is always there to support and look out for Shuichi and his well-being. And even when Shuichi is nearly catatonic and barely able to function within society, he repeatedly risks his life to save hers. But in the end, Uzumaki is ultimately an incredible work of horror. There are things that I've seen in the manga that I will never be able to unsee. And I will never be able to look at spirals in quite the same way again.
Experiments in Manga
Show More
monthly manga magazine Pulp. The first edition, published as three individual volumes, was released between 2001 and 2002. These volumes were reissued in a second edition between 2007 and 2008. And then, in 2013, Uzumaki was released by Viz in a deluxe, single-volume hardcover omnibus complete with color pages and gorgeous production values and design. (Though I had previously read and enjoyed the series, it was the spectacular omnibus edition that finally convinced me that Uzumaki was a manga that I needed to own.) An emphasis should be placed on the "gore" of gorgeous--Uzumaki, while it has deservedly been called a masterpiece of horror, is most definitely not a work intended for the faint of heart or weak of stomach.Kurouzu-cho is a small, quiet seaside village under a curse. It's manifestation starts with the Saito family. First, Mr. Saito begins acting strangely, developing an unhealthy obsession with spirals. This leads to his demise and in turn his wife understandably becomes terrified of spirals as well, her complex becoming just as severe as her husband's. In the end, their son Shuichi is the only one left in the family and his girlfriend Kirie Goshima is his only ally. Already uncomfortable with Kurouzu-cho, the fate of his parents convinces Shuichi that the town is contaminated with spirals, though most people believe this to be his own form of insanity. But stranger and stranger things begin to happen in Kurouzu-cho. Kirie becomes witness to so many bizarre occurrences and horrifying deaths that she can't deny that something is very, very wrong with the town. Tragedy after tragedy befalls Kurouzu-cho, its inhabitants, and anyone unfortunate enough to enter the immediate area as events both figuratively and literally spiral out of control.
At first, Uzumaki seems as though it's a series that is mostly episodic. Each chapter is largely told and seen from Kirie's perspective and explores an individual incident involving spirals in some way. But as the manga continues, the stories become more and more closely tied to one another, eventually forming a single, coherent narrative. As previously mentioned, Uzumaki is very graphic, the images that Ito creates, while mesmerizing, can be extraordinarily disturbing and gruesome. But there is more going on in the manga than gore and body horror; there is also a very strong, and very dark, psychological element to Uzumaki which makes the entire series especially effective in its terror. Uzumaki is bizarre and surreal but at the same time is completely convincing in its unnatural horror. It's hard to believe that something so benign as a simple shape--a spiral--could be so terrifying, but Ito accomplishes the seemingly impossible with Uzumaki. It's an exceptionally disconcerting work.
Although the imagery in Uzumaki is frequently disturbing, grotesque, and even nauseating, almost as frightening are the characters' reactions--or, in many cases, their non-reactions--to the terrible events surrounding them. Shuichi is one of the very few people who seem to be completely aware of what is happening in Kurouzu-cho, but he is barely able to maintain his own sanity and becomes increasingly haunted and withdrawn. Surprisingly, hidden within the nightmare that is Uzumaki, there is actually a love story of sorts, granted a tragic one considering the nature of the manga. Despite everything, Kirie is always there to support and look out for Shuichi and his well-being. And even when Shuichi is nearly catatonic and barely able to function within society, he repeatedly risks his life to save hers. But in the end, Uzumaki is ultimately an incredible work of horror. There are things that I've seen in the manga that I will never be able to unsee. And I will never be able to look at spirals in quite the same way again.
Experiments in Manga
Show Less
LibraryThing member TheCrow2
Spirals, spirals everywhere.... not for everyone, not for the faint hearted but if you love bizarre horror mangas this is the one you’re looking for.
LibraryThing member 53bryanm
,I loved this book., everything about it, from the scary story to it was all in one book, to the feel of the pages, the feel of the cover, the smell of the ink. I read it slowly so I could enjoy the pleasure of it all.
The book is a true Japanese horror story, there were many places in the story
The book is a true Japanese horror story, there were many places in the story
Show More
that really creeped me out, you know the feeling, it makes your skin crawl...this is such a great horror story that there will be something there to scare even the most hardcore horror readers. Show Less
LibraryThing member Max-Tyrone
If one would claim that they know everything there is to know about the horror genre without having read "Uzumaki", then that person would know nothing about it at all.
As a caution, horror, as a genre alone, isn't for everybody; and "Uzumaki," along with almost all of Ito's works, is very hard to
As much as "Uzumaki" is a horror, I can't go without thinking that maybe Ito has something to say about general fear, the human condition, and the genre as a whole. (Look at who's working on a thesis paper...)
The entirety of it is worth all the snail people, the pregnant mosquito ladies, and really fucked up body horror.
5 outta 5
As a caution, horror, as a genre alone, isn't for everybody; and "Uzumaki," along with almost all of Ito's works, is very hard to
Show More
stomach if this is the first sampling of the genre. And if you like and/or love the whole thing, then there's definitely something wrong with you. Like, it isn't even in question. Insanity? That's the livelihood of the manga.As much as "Uzumaki" is a horror, I can't go without thinking that maybe Ito has something to say about general fear, the human condition, and the genre as a whole. (Look at who's working on a thesis paper...)
The entirety of it is worth all the snail people, the pregnant mosquito ladies, and really fucked up body horror.
5 outta 5
Show Less
LibraryThing member titania86
Kurouzo-Cho is a normal town unlike every other until spirals can be seen everywhere in plants, ashes coming for a crematorium, whirlpools, whirlwinds, and even the topography of the town itself. Uzumaki is an anthology of stories about this town with two main characters that connect all of the
Much like Tomie, the stories told have that seed of obsession throughout on a bigger and bigger scale as the book goes on. Each story is related in some way to something that has happened. An artist gets clay from Dragonfly Lake and becomes obsessed with his pottery that comes out of the kiln with bizarre spirals with a much sinister origin. Shuichi's mother fears spirals with as much furvor as her husband loved them, even removing them from her own body in hair, her fingerprints, and eventually inside her ear. Kirie herself becomes effected as her hair spirals, growing larger and larger, and attacking her when she tries to cut it. Classmates and others flock to her hair's mesmerizing power until another classmate vows to be more popular than her. Azami, a Tomie-esque girl, entrances anyone she sets her eyes on. When Shuichi rejects her, she becomes obsessed with him. A lighthouse with no power lights up again and hynotizes people to go to it. People start turning into giant snails. Spiral cursed mosquitoes bite pregnant women with monstrous, disgusting results plus even more stories. These stories have transformations, murder, mayhem, and, beneath it all, a town that largely ignores every instance and goes back to some semblance of normal.
During the last few stories, the curse of spirals amps up to completely isolate and change Kurouzo-Cho. The spiral curse is simply too big to ignore at this point since life has completely changed for its inhabitants and anyone unlucky enough to fight their way there. Six hurricanes (of course as giant spiral storms) surround the city along with deadly whirlpools in the ocean, keeping rescue away and keeping people from leaving. Inside the city, any sound above a whisper creates a twister that will tear through the city. Some people use this power liberally as a weapon while others prefer to live as peacefully as they can. As a result, the enture city is in shambles with the only true shelter being old row houses that were deemed as slums in more normal times. The row houses are rebuilt, but the curse doesn't spare them even where the whirlwinds can't enter. If people move too slow, they turn into giant snails, a source of food for the starving and less morally burdened. I didn't know how a story at this scale could end, much like Gyo kind of had a non-ending, but it eventually settles down until the next cycle (or spiral) who knows how many years later.
Through all of this, Kirie goes about her life as normally as she can while Shuichi becomes a sullen, justifiably antisocial harbinger of the harm these spirals can do. However, they still remain in Kurouzo-Cho for no reason. In Tomie, the title character is the connective tissue for the stories, but this one doesn't quite work for me. If any normal person had seen a fraction of what they have, why would anyone stay in that one city? It's stated early that none of the surrounding cities are affected so they would have been safe if they moved even one town over. The only other thing I have a problem with is Ito's habit of characterizing the majority of the young women in his stories as completely vain and obsessed with popularity. It's a rehashing of the Tomie story which was proven to be much more than just a misogynistic stereotype. In these small moments, it seems more like that is the case and it's disappointing.
Uzumaki is another successful horror anthology that serves up surrealistic horror, gut punching and grotesque surprises, and horrifically detailed art. Each story is more extreme than the last even when I think it can't go any further. While I see some storylines or concepts that Ito likes to return to, many of the stories are completely unique and go places I never expected horror to go. I especially enjoyed the Sunnydale vibe about the town that refuses to see what's really going on and eager to go back to normal as soon as possible. If you like Japanese horror films or Lovecraftian, surreal horror, I would highly recommend just about anything Junjo Ito produces.
Show More
stories: Kirie Goshima and Shuichi Saito. These two are teens that are going to the local high school and dating each other until Shuichi's father becomes obsessed with spirals. He collects every object he can that is spiral shaped or has spirals on it. His wife becomes concerned by his behavior as he only stares at his objects, forgoing work and anything else not spiral related. She throws all of his things away and he opts to find spirals within himself leading to his grotesque death when he crushed his entire body into an elongated spiral. When he is cremated, his ashes take a spiral shape and fall into Dragonfly Lake.Much like Tomie, the stories told have that seed of obsession throughout on a bigger and bigger scale as the book goes on. Each story is related in some way to something that has happened. An artist gets clay from Dragonfly Lake and becomes obsessed with his pottery that comes out of the kiln with bizarre spirals with a much sinister origin. Shuichi's mother fears spirals with as much furvor as her husband loved them, even removing them from her own body in hair, her fingerprints, and eventually inside her ear. Kirie herself becomes effected as her hair spirals, growing larger and larger, and attacking her when she tries to cut it. Classmates and others flock to her hair's mesmerizing power until another classmate vows to be more popular than her. Azami, a Tomie-esque girl, entrances anyone she sets her eyes on. When Shuichi rejects her, she becomes obsessed with him. A lighthouse with no power lights up again and hynotizes people to go to it. People start turning into giant snails. Spiral cursed mosquitoes bite pregnant women with monstrous, disgusting results plus even more stories. These stories have transformations, murder, mayhem, and, beneath it all, a town that largely ignores every instance and goes back to some semblance of normal.
During the last few stories, the curse of spirals amps up to completely isolate and change Kurouzo-Cho. The spiral curse is simply too big to ignore at this point since life has completely changed for its inhabitants and anyone unlucky enough to fight their way there. Six hurricanes (of course as giant spiral storms) surround the city along with deadly whirlpools in the ocean, keeping rescue away and keeping people from leaving. Inside the city, any sound above a whisper creates a twister that will tear through the city. Some people use this power liberally as a weapon while others prefer to live as peacefully as they can. As a result, the enture city is in shambles with the only true shelter being old row houses that were deemed as slums in more normal times. The row houses are rebuilt, but the curse doesn't spare them even where the whirlwinds can't enter. If people move too slow, they turn into giant snails, a source of food for the starving and less morally burdened. I didn't know how a story at this scale could end, much like Gyo kind of had a non-ending, but it eventually settles down until the next cycle (or spiral) who knows how many years later.
Through all of this, Kirie goes about her life as normally as she can while Shuichi becomes a sullen, justifiably antisocial harbinger of the harm these spirals can do. However, they still remain in Kurouzo-Cho for no reason. In Tomie, the title character is the connective tissue for the stories, but this one doesn't quite work for me. If any normal person had seen a fraction of what they have, why would anyone stay in that one city? It's stated early that none of the surrounding cities are affected so they would have been safe if they moved even one town over. The only other thing I have a problem with is Ito's habit of characterizing the majority of the young women in his stories as completely vain and obsessed with popularity. It's a rehashing of the Tomie story which was proven to be much more than just a misogynistic stereotype. In these small moments, it seems more like that is the case and it's disappointing.
Uzumaki is another successful horror anthology that serves up surrealistic horror, gut punching and grotesque surprises, and horrifically detailed art. Each story is more extreme than the last even when I think it can't go any further. While I see some storylines or concepts that Ito likes to return to, many of the stories are completely unique and go places I never expected horror to go. I especially enjoyed the Sunnydale vibe about the town that refuses to see what's really going on and eager to go back to normal as soon as possible. If you like Japanese horror films or Lovecraftian, surreal horror, I would highly recommend just about anything Junjo Ito produces.
Show Less
LibraryThing member over.the.edge
Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror
By Junji Ito
Viz Media
Uzumaki is a horror manga series, written and illustrated by Junji Ito. A uzumaki is a three dimensional spiral, like a whirlwind or vortex. In this exciting and terrifying series, each of the 19 stories are about an obsession with spirals-the fear
Centered in Kurozu-cho, a small Japanese seaside town, cut off from the rest of the world, all ships coming close are sunk in a whirlpool. Air traffic is impossible with tornadoes. The only way out is through a tunnel, which once entered becomes a never ending spiral leading nowhere. Shuichi Saita and Kirie Goshima are 2 young friends who try to stop the horrors of the spiral. A man becomes mesmerized and commits suicide in his own bathtub. People begin transforming into giant snails. My favorites were 'Twisted Souls'; 'Jack In The Box'; 'Butterflies' and 'Medusa'.
This series originally appeared in the weekly Manga magazine Big Comic Spirits from 1998-1999.
If you like dark, creepy stories with creepy graphics to match, Ito is a master. A true genius of manga horror.
This was also made into a movie, I think but it does not closely follow the book and some of the characters are not in the movie.
By Junji Ito
Viz Media
Uzumaki is a horror manga series, written and illustrated by Junji Ito. A uzumaki is a three dimensional spiral, like a whirlwind or vortex. In this exciting and terrifying series, each of the 19 stories are about an obsession with spirals-the fear
Show More
of their mesmerizing effets. Centered in Kurozu-cho, a small Japanese seaside town, cut off from the rest of the world, all ships coming close are sunk in a whirlpool. Air traffic is impossible with tornadoes. The only way out is through a tunnel, which once entered becomes a never ending spiral leading nowhere. Shuichi Saita and Kirie Goshima are 2 young friends who try to stop the horrors of the spiral. A man becomes mesmerized and commits suicide in his own bathtub. People begin transforming into giant snails. My favorites were 'Twisted Souls'; 'Jack In The Box'; 'Butterflies' and 'Medusa'.
This series originally appeared in the weekly Manga magazine Big Comic Spirits from 1998-1999.
If you like dark, creepy stories with creepy graphics to match, Ito is a master. A true genius of manga horror.
This was also made into a movie, I think but it does not closely follow the book and some of the characters are not in the movie.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Charrlygirl
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.*
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.*
LibraryThing member ToriC90
Creepy. Very weird illustrations - but purposefully creepy weird. Definitely helped make the story to really see the spirals come to life. Creative idea and concept. Creepy. Will probably read more from the author in the future.
LibraryThing member Jonez
4.0
It was like reading a fever dream someone had after eating bad shell fish...
And I loved it.
It was like reading a fever dream someone had after eating bad shell fish...
And I loved it.
LibraryThing member Adlanji
i see spirals in everything now
LibraryThing member Ranjr
Creepy, gory, fun. It's very Lovecraftian with its themes of madness and otherworldly intrusion. It does read like a fix-up novel with some consequences being carried over to the later chapters. It's around chapter 14 that it becomes a cohesive narrative. I definitely recommend this to anyone who
Show More
likes horror, weird fiction, and definitely monsters. Show Less
LibraryThing member Rosechaser110
Junji Ito is a really popular horror manga creator, I’ve read some one shots from him, and they are really mysterious and intriguing. If you like this genre of manga, I recommend you his works.
Uzumaki takes place in a town named Kurôzu-cho, this town has a curse involving spirals, there are
Uzumaki is the first horror manga I’ve ever read, as I said before, I’ve read some one shots by Junji Ito, but it’s a different experience to read a whole manga with a sequential story. At first I thought Uzumaki was a compilation of unrelated events, because there were random stories that started and ended in one chapter, but as the manga progresses, its more obvious that these events are related to one another and the link between them are the spirals. The story is intriguing and always keeps a mysterious atmosphere, making the reader wonder all the time what is happening, why and if the protagonists will be able to stop it.
The main characters are really relatable, they aren’t perfect and they get frustrated, or take wrong decisions, they are totally normal people. The character design and drawings in general are really particular, they don’t have the abnormal big eyes usually seen in mangas, they have a more realistic look, and the style of Junji Ito is easy to recognize.
I must say that to me the story was good until the end, I actually got confused in the finale and the explanation of the spiral curse wasn’t clear enough or conclusive enough to me, but I suppose it´s part of the charm of this manga, is mysterious till the end.
If you want to read an intriguing story full of strange events and inexplicable things, this manga if for you. If you like the horror manga genre, I would highly recommend it.
Uzumaki takes place in a town named Kurôzu-cho, this town has a curse involving spirals, there are
Show More
spirals everywhere. The main characters are a girl named Kirie Goshima and a boy named Shuichi Saito, and since the beginning of the manga we can see how the curse affects the people around them and all the citizens in general, causing them to become obsessed or paranoid about spirals. This curse causes strange changes in the town and in the people living in it, some die in horrible ways and the main characters will have to try to escape or to find a way to stop this curse. Uzumaki is the first horror manga I’ve ever read, as I said before, I’ve read some one shots by Junji Ito, but it’s a different experience to read a whole manga with a sequential story. At first I thought Uzumaki was a compilation of unrelated events, because there were random stories that started and ended in one chapter, but as the manga progresses, its more obvious that these events are related to one another and the link between them are the spirals. The story is intriguing and always keeps a mysterious atmosphere, making the reader wonder all the time what is happening, why and if the protagonists will be able to stop it.
The main characters are really relatable, they aren’t perfect and they get frustrated, or take wrong decisions, they are totally normal people. The character design and drawings in general are really particular, they don’t have the abnormal big eyes usually seen in mangas, they have a more realistic look, and the style of Junji Ito is easy to recognize.
I must say that to me the story was good until the end, I actually got confused in the finale and the explanation of the spiral curse wasn’t clear enough or conclusive enough to me, but I suppose it´s part of the charm of this manga, is mysterious till the end.
If you want to read an intriguing story full of strange events and inexplicable things, this manga if for you. If you like the horror manga genre, I would highly recommend it.
Show Less
Language
Original publication date
1998-1999 (Big comic spirits)
2000 (Shogakukan, omnibus ed.)
2010 (Shogakukan)
2013-10-15