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うずまき [Uzumaki] #1-3
Uzumaki
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 According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but by a pattern: uzumaki, the spiral — the hypnotic secret shape of the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 available in a single volume. Fall into a whirlpool of terror!
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 According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but by a pattern: uzumaki, the spiral — the hypnotic secret shape of the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 available in a single volume. Fall into a whirlpool of terror!
653 pages, Hardcover
First published March 7, 2000
3731 people are currently reading
54176 people want to read
About the author
Junji Ito
260 books14.4k followersJunji Itō (Japanese: 伊藤潤二, Ito Junji) is a Japanese cartoonist and illustrator, best known for his horror manga.
Ito was born in Gifu Prefecture, Japan in 1963. He was inspired to make art from a young age by his older sister's drawing and Kazuo Umezu's horror comics. Until the early 1990s he worked as a dental technician, while making comics as a side job. By the time he turned into a full time mangaka, Ito was already an acclaimed horror artists.
His comics are celebrated for their finely depicted body horrors, while also retaining some elements of psychological horror and erotism.
Although he mostly produces short stories, Ito is best known for his longer comic series: Tomie (1987-2000), about a beautiful high school girl who inspires her admirers to commit atrocities; Uzumaki (1998-1999), set in a town cursed with spiral patterns; Gyo (2001-2002), featuring a horde of metal-legged undead fishes. Tomie and Uzumaki in particular have been adapted multiple times in live-action and animation.
Ito was born in Gifu Prefecture, Japan in 1963. He was inspired to make art from a young age by his older sister's drawing and Kazuo Umezu's horror comics. Until the early 1990s he worked as a dental technician, while making comics as a side job. By the time he turned into a full time mangaka, Ito was already an acclaimed horror artists.
His comics are celebrated for their finely depicted body horrors, while also retaining some elements of psychological horror and erotism.
Although he mostly produces short stories, Ito is best known for his longer comic series: Tomie (1987-2000), about a beautiful high school girl who inspires her admirers to commit atrocities; Uzumaki (1998-1999), set in a town cursed with spiral patterns; Gyo (2001-2002), featuring a horde of metal-legged undead fishes. Tomie and Uzumaki in particular have been adapted multiple times in live-action and animation.
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June 10, 2025well, that really spiraled out of control quickly
July 23, 2020
i'm traumatized but in a good way
June 4, 2022
I entered this story unafraid of snails.
I leave this story afraid of snails.
Do with this information what you will.
I leave this story afraid of snails.
Do with this information what you will.
October 26, 2022
Is Junji Ito ok
January 15, 2019
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 chapter. I don't think I could have taken these drawings in color. This story is twisted and at the same time, so brilliant. I am really blown away. I am so glad I read it and I'm so glad I'm done and it was astonishing. I mean, this was master storytelling. It was amazing.
Thank goodness the artwork is in black and white except for one chapter. I don't think I could have taken these drawings in color. This story is twisted and at the same time, so brilliant. I am really blown away. I am so glad I read it and I'm so glad I'm done and it was astonishing. I mean, this was master storytelling. It was amazing.
June 14, 2022
Ok, so this is the first manga I've ever read.
I'm giving it 5 stars because I'm just assuming the translation process made the dialogue sound somewhat simplified. Maybe that's just a thing?
I don't know, and more importantly, it wasn't as though it is terribly written or anything, so I'm not knocking anything off for it.
The story itself was a really nice slow-burn horror that centers around a teenage girl named Kirie, and her boyfriend, Shuichi. These two start to notice that the town and its inhabitants are quietly being driven mad by SPIRALS.
Now, that's a really silly premise but Ito pulls it off like a boss.
Spirals are one of those naturally occurring shapes and are fairly common to see if you're looking for them, and Junji Ito uses that fact to scare the shit out of us. To say the images in this leave quite an impression is an understatement.
For me personally, the freakiest story was Mosquitos. Kirie is recovering from injuries in a hospital, and patients all around her are dying. Why? Well, she discovers that something is very wrong with a group of pregnant women who are about to give birth.
Nightmare fuel.
I thoroughly enjoy horror comics, so it was a nice sideways step to slide into horror manga. Not sure I would recommend this to just anyone who was looking to get into manga, though.
Whether or not you like body horror will also definitely be a determining factor in your enjoyment level.
However, if all of that sounds like your jam?
Highly Recommend.
I read this as part of a Shallow Buddy Read, partially because I'm trying to branch out in my old age, but mostly because a couple of my kids really love manga and they're always trying to get me to read the stuff. Many thanks to both of them for sitting there with me for a good 15 minutes showing me (over and over) what order to read the panels.
I'm giving it 5 stars because I'm just assuming the translation process made the dialogue sound somewhat simplified. Maybe that's just a thing?
I don't know, and more importantly, it wasn't as though it is terribly written or anything, so I'm not knocking anything off for it.
The story itself was a really nice slow-burn horror that centers around a teenage girl named Kirie, and her boyfriend, Shuichi. These two start to notice that the town and its inhabitants are quietly being driven mad by SPIRALS.
Now, that's a really silly premise but Ito pulls it off like a boss.
Spirals are one of those naturally occurring shapes and are fairly common to see if you're looking for them, and Junji Ito uses that fact to scare the shit out of us. To say the images in this leave quite an impression is an understatement.
For me personally, the freakiest story was Mosquitos. Kirie is recovering from injuries in a hospital, and patients all around her are dying. Why? Well, she discovers that something is very wrong with a group of pregnant women who are about to give birth.
Nightmare fuel.
I thoroughly enjoy horror comics, so it was a nice sideways step to slide into horror manga. Not sure I would recommend this to just anyone who was looking to get into manga, though.
Whether or not you like body horror will also definitely be a determining factor in your enjoyment level.
However, if all of that sounds like your jam?
Highly Recommend.
I read this as part of a Shallow Buddy Read, partially because I'm trying to branch out in my old age, but mostly because a couple of my kids really love manga and they're always trying to get me to read the stuff. Many thanks to both of them for sitting there with me for a good 15 minutes showing me (over and over) what order to read the panels.
March 20, 2025
It's been a long time since my manga days, but Junji Itō makes me want to get back into it.
Uzumaki is a horror graphic novel about a town that becomes obsessed with, and possessed by, spiral symbols. I imagine Itō sitting there with the phrase "spiral into madness" in his head and then running with it to the extreme. It's a combination of graphic body horror-- freakish and grotesque mutations --and a creeping, eerie sense of wrongness.
The imagery will stay with me, but so will the overwhelming sense of inevitability that permeates the book. The spiral is a force that cannot be reasoned with or escaped—it simply is, an existential nightmare that erases free will and consumes all in its path. Strangely, I never once felt like the point of this story was to overcome or escape the spirals.
Each chapter introduces new and ever more disturbing ways in which the spiral takes over the town and the minds of the residents, all of it building towards a climax that is simultaneously unsatisfying and surely the only way it could end.
Uzumaki is a horror graphic novel about a town that becomes obsessed with, and possessed by, spiral symbols. I imagine Itō sitting there with the phrase "spiral into madness" in his head and then running with it to the extreme. It's a combination of graphic body horror-- freakish and grotesque mutations --and a creeping, eerie sense of wrongness.
The imagery will stay with me, but so will the overwhelming sense of inevitability that permeates the book. The spiral is a force that cannot be reasoned with or escaped—it simply is, an existential nightmare that erases free will and consumes all in its path. Strangely, I never once felt like the point of this story was to overcome or escape the spirals.
Each chapter introduces new and ever more disturbing ways in which the spiral takes over the town and the minds of the residents, all of it building towards a climax that is simultaneously unsatisfying and surely the only way it could end.
![Profile Image for s.penkevich [mental health hiatus].](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.gr-assets.com%2Fimages%2FS%2Fcompressed.photo.goodreads.com%2Fusers%2F1735525095i%2F6431467._UX200_CR0%2C11%2C200%2C200_.jpg&w=128&q=75)
March 13, 2025
Hey you, wanna be traumatized? Eh?
If you ever wanted to be forever haunted by spiral imagery, step right up because Junji Ito’s Uzumaki is the book for you. And by haunted I mean deeply disturbed and plausibly psychologically scarred for life. This book slaps. And sure, everyone has always talked up the “spiral eyes” and the image is pretty well known to even those who have only vaguely heard of Junji Ito but everyone was sleeping on talking about the snail. Fuck those snails they are so scary. I will never look at a snail the same way again and escargo was never on my menu but it certainly will not be now. Feast your eyes:
I had to see it so now you do too, thats how this work.
Anyways, Uzumaki is a horror fest for the ages and one I won’t soon forget. I can’t, its haunting me forever now. Thanks, Junji Ito. We follow Kirie as her town of Kurouzu-cho completely unravels as a spiral curse whirls in and…well it fucking murders everyone in the most horrific ways you can image. All with a cute spiral theme though, so like wedding planning around a theme if that wedding is a marriage to body horror of deadly transformations as metaphors for social decay. I’m throwing my invite away but you should definitely not skip attending Ito’s fight fest here. The manga is comprised of short traumatic chapters that each are fairly self-contained, like interconnected short stories (and eventually we’ll see interconnected people like the unsettling Romeo and Juliet-esque story of Kazunori and Yoriko ending in a “lovers embrace” of sorts…) of the town completely falling apart. You can have a blast wondering who will die next. Or will all of them?
Yea so that happened…
You know how when you watch horror movies and you scream at the tv “get out, just go, get the fuck out of there what is wrong with you GO!” Anyone else? Okay well imagine that but for literally everyone in this entire town. People’s dead relatives are floating in the sky, people are getting snailed as shit, just so many teenager deaths in the most distrubing way imaginable and everyone is like “huh thats a bummer guess I’ll go to bed and try again tomorrow.” NO, get out of this town (they wont…at least not alive). And we have characters being like “hehe maybe we should go?” and everyone else being like…eh nah lets open this scary door instead. And now we’re all dead. It’s actually a pretty great look at how society and humanity is just at the mercy of forces of nature. Like, a big curse comes through or a spiral plague and everyone utterly fails at doing anything useful to survive it. Which might have seemed a bit far fetched if I read this 6 years ago but….
Anyways, don’t think about spirals too much. Because the spirals are just a decent into madness and the obsessions that drag us six feet under. Junji Ito is a master of horror and this is so unforgettable. Because you’re emotionally damaged by it. And you’ll love him for it.
If you ever wanted to be forever haunted by spiral imagery, step right up because Junji Ito’s Uzumaki is the book for you. And by haunted I mean deeply disturbed and plausibly psychologically scarred for life. This book slaps. And sure, everyone has always talked up the “spiral eyes” and the image is pretty well known to even those who have only vaguely heard of Junji Ito but everyone was sleeping on talking about the snail. Fuck those snails they are so scary. I will never look at a snail the same way again and escargo was never on my menu but it certainly will not be now. Feast your eyes:
I had to see it so now you do too, thats how this work.
Anyways, Uzumaki is a horror fest for the ages and one I won’t soon forget. I can’t, its haunting me forever now. Thanks, Junji Ito. We follow Kirie as her town of Kurouzu-cho completely unravels as a spiral curse whirls in and…well it fucking murders everyone in the most horrific ways you can image. All with a cute spiral theme though, so like wedding planning around a theme if that wedding is a marriage to body horror of deadly transformations as metaphors for social decay. I’m throwing my invite away but you should definitely not skip attending Ito’s fight fest here. The manga is comprised of short traumatic chapters that each are fairly self-contained, like interconnected short stories (and eventually we’ll see interconnected people like the unsettling Romeo and Juliet-esque story of Kazunori and Yoriko ending in a “lovers embrace” of sorts…) of the town completely falling apart. You can have a blast wondering who will die next. Or will all of them?
Yea so that happened…
You know how when you watch horror movies and you scream at the tv “get out, just go, get the fuck out of there what is wrong with you GO!” Anyone else? Okay well imagine that but for literally everyone in this entire town. People’s dead relatives are floating in the sky, people are getting snailed as shit, just so many teenager deaths in the most distrubing way imaginable and everyone is like “huh thats a bummer guess I’ll go to bed and try again tomorrow.” NO, get out of this town (they wont…at least not alive). And we have characters being like “hehe maybe we should go?” and everyone else being like…eh nah lets open this scary door instead. And now we’re all dead. It’s actually a pretty great look at how society and humanity is just at the mercy of forces of nature. Like, a big curse comes through or a spiral plague and everyone utterly fails at doing anything useful to survive it. Which might have seemed a bit far fetched if I read this 6 years ago but….
Anyways, don’t think about spirals too much. Because the spirals are just a decent into madness and the obsessions that drag us six feet under. Junji Ito is a master of horror and this is so unforgettable. Because you’re emotionally damaged by it. And you’ll love him for it.
February 19, 2022
This is still one of the scariest things I've ever read, and it's my first time reading this tie-in version, which is stunning. 'REALLY LOVELY'..
January 13, 2022
Well, this will be a short review.
To a certain extent, there is no reason to review this. I have nothing to add to what everyone else has already said. It is the perfect horror manga. The plot seems ridiculous (haunted spirals! Soooooo spooooooky) but it works. The art is wonderful, the plot intriguing from start to finish and it's deeply unsettling.
This book is just high octane nightmare fuel and it will undoubtedly go down as Ito's masterpiece. 5/5 stars
To a certain extent, there is no reason to review this. I have nothing to add to what everyone else has already said. It is the perfect horror manga. The plot seems ridiculous (haunted spirals! Soooooo spooooooky) but it works. The art is wonderful, the plot intriguing from start to finish and it's deeply unsettling.
This book is just high octane nightmare fuel and it will undoubtedly go down as Ito's masterpiece. 5/5 stars
April 9, 2023
the snail people and the placenta mushrooms are gonna be stuck in my head forever. 🐌
July 20, 2018
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 is then instantly killed while nothing much happens to the main cast until much later. Especially the first half of this volume bored me to tears at times. The most creepy to me were the two chapters on mosquitos, because it felt like there was actual suspense, despite the utter predictability of it all.
Overall, I'm extremely disappointed in what was done with such a spectacular premise and such a phenomenal art style. In no way did it live up to its potential and if you need a little more than creepy pictures to actually freak you out then I recommend steering clear of this book.
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 is then instantly killed while nothing much happens to the main cast until much later. Especially the first half of this volume bored me to tears at times. The most creepy to me were the two chapters on mosquitos, because it felt like there was actual suspense, despite the utter predictability of it all.
Overall, I'm extremely disappointed in what was done with such a spectacular premise and such a phenomenal art style. In no way did it live up to its potential and if you need a little more than creepy pictures to actually freak you out then I recommend steering clear of this book.
May 8, 2020
“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 imagination reminds me of Clive Barkers in so many ways, I almost can’t fathom how they come up with such insane, disturbing ideas.
The illustrations are INCREDIBLE, just mind-bending and horrifying. Some will live long in the memory! I loved how each chapter had its own self-contained story or theme, therefore it’s very easy to pick up and read a single chapter and still get a satisfying experience.
Uzumaki really has it all: fucked-up body horror, Lovecraftian elements, boundless imagination, and an unnerving sense of dread that pervades throughout its entirety. Highly, HIGHLY recommend. I need ALL the Junji Ito now! 4.5 stars.
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 imagination reminds me of Clive Barkers in so many ways, I almost can’t fathom how they come up with such insane, disturbing ideas.
The illustrations are INCREDIBLE, just mind-bending and horrifying. Some will live long in the memory! I loved how each chapter had its own self-contained story or theme, therefore it’s very easy to pick up and read a single chapter and still get a satisfying experience.
Uzumaki really has it all: fucked-up body horror, Lovecraftian elements, boundless imagination, and an unnerving sense of dread that pervades throughout its entirety. Highly, HIGHLY recommend. I need ALL the Junji Ito now! 4.5 stars.
September 6, 2020
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.*
February 6, 2023
¡¡Un manga demencial!! 🔝😱
Por fin me decido a leer la obra cumbre del mangaka Junji Ito.
Con un estilo de dibujo exquisito y en una edición de lujo, con 18 capítulos más contenido extra y que incluyen varios epílogos con un tono cómico donde el propio autor se caricaturiza, nos adentraremos en el pueblo de Kurouzu (que significa remolino negro), un pueblo en apariencia tranquilo, entre montañas y que da al mar, y en el que no pasa nada más allá de lo común, hasta que todo estalla, pero de manera muy sutilmente al principio con la obsesión de uno de sus habitantes por las espirales, dando lugar a una serie de sucesos sobrenaturales que irán sumiendo a Kurouzu y a sus habitantes en un mundo de delirio que terminará afectando de manera irremediable a nuestra psique.
Y es que nosotros también pasaremos a formar parte de ese pueblo y lo que allí acontece.
Seremos un protagonista más.
Todo parece estar relacionado con una ancestral maldición que recae sobre el pueblo de manera cíclica.
Será la protagonista principal Kirie Goshima sobre la que recaerá gran parte del peso de la trama, y será ellla junto con su novio Shûichi Saitô quienes tratarán de dar explicación a tan extraños hechos. Poco a poco veremos como los personajes van evolucionando en un viaje directo hacia la locura.
Nosotros incluidos.
Cada capítulo parece ser independiente, nos va relatando los hechos que van teniendo lugar en el pueblo y sus gentes, pero todo está magistralmente hilado para dar forma a una historia donde se ve claramente la influencia que ha tenido y sigue teniendo Lovecraft en Junji Ito; ese miedo a lo arcano, a lo desconocido que tan bien sabe mezclar con los mitos y folklore del país nipón.
Junji Ito logra algo que muy pocos son capaces de hacer y es coger algo totalmente inocuo y anodino como una espiral y con su poder hipnótico traza una historia que rebosa terror y originalidad en estado puro.
Su punto fuerte se centra en el llamado body horror, causando nuestra repulsión al instante, apelando a aquello que más asco nos puede dar, siendo imposible no apartar la cara y sentir un ligero apretón en el estómago.
Nos sorprenderemos constantemente al pasar la página y observar lo que nos aguarda al otro lado.
No podremos ver con los mismos ojos elementos tan inofensivos como un remolino en el agua, en las nubes, o un simple caracol, los cuales nunca me habían dado asco hasta ahora.
Pedazo de imágenes nos regala con estos babosos moluscos.
Para no olvidar.
Y es que si nos damos cuenta las espirales están por todas partes, desde nuestras huellas dactilares hasta la probóscide o trompa por la cual las mariposas liban el néctar de las flores.
Algo en lo que no me había percatado hasta leer Uzumaki.
🔝📘Resumiendo, el dibujo y el estilo de Junji Ito me han producido auténtico pavor, sobre todo al inicio de la lectura, no sé si porque me he ido acostumbrando o simplemente se han ido suavizando hasta cierto punto, pero he llegado incluso a tener sueños muy extraños con ellos.
Y mira que es difícil que a los lectores asiduos al género algo nos incomode de esta manera, por eso el valor añadido de esta obra es mayor si cabe, lograr ese grado de sorpresa y angustia no es nada fácil, pero él lo hace con gran maestría.
Durante sus más de 600 páginas veremos personajes atormentados, una historia muy retorcida, y nunca mejor dicho 😉😉, y unos dibujos muy grotescos para dar forma a esta historia épica del manga de terror japonés.
Estas imágenes tardarán en irse, si es que algún día lo hacen, se han quedado grabadas a fuego en mi retina y es que no he podido resistirme a caer en el poder hipnótico de las espirales.
Una historia que todo amante del buen terror debería leer.
📖 Próxima lectura:
"Mi esposa y yo compramos un rancho" - Matt y Harrison Query.
📚 https://www.facebook.com/LaLocadelosL... 📚
Por fin me decido a leer la obra cumbre del mangaka Junji Ito.
Con un estilo de dibujo exquisito y en una edición de lujo, con 18 capítulos más contenido extra y que incluyen varios epílogos con un tono cómico donde el propio autor se caricaturiza, nos adentraremos en el pueblo de Kurouzu (que significa remolino negro), un pueblo en apariencia tranquilo, entre montañas y que da al mar, y en el que no pasa nada más allá de lo común, hasta que todo estalla, pero de manera muy sutilmente al principio con la obsesión de uno de sus habitantes por las espirales, dando lugar a una serie de sucesos sobrenaturales que irán sumiendo a Kurouzu y a sus habitantes en un mundo de delirio que terminará afectando de manera irremediable a nuestra psique.
Y es que nosotros también pasaremos a formar parte de ese pueblo y lo que allí acontece.
Seremos un protagonista más.
Todo parece estar relacionado con una ancestral maldición que recae sobre el pueblo de manera cíclica.
Será la protagonista principal Kirie Goshima sobre la que recaerá gran parte del peso de la trama, y será ellla junto con su novio Shûichi Saitô quienes tratarán de dar explicación a tan extraños hechos. Poco a poco veremos como los personajes van evolucionando en un viaje directo hacia la locura.
Nosotros incluidos.
Cada capítulo parece ser independiente, nos va relatando los hechos que van teniendo lugar en el pueblo y sus gentes, pero todo está magistralmente hilado para dar forma a una historia donde se ve claramente la influencia que ha tenido y sigue teniendo Lovecraft en Junji Ito; ese miedo a lo arcano, a lo desconocido que tan bien sabe mezclar con los mitos y folklore del país nipón.
Junji Ito logra algo que muy pocos son capaces de hacer y es coger algo totalmente inocuo y anodino como una espiral y con su poder hipnótico traza una historia que rebosa terror y originalidad en estado puro.
Su punto fuerte se centra en el llamado body horror, causando nuestra repulsión al instante, apelando a aquello que más asco nos puede dar, siendo imposible no apartar la cara y sentir un ligero apretón en el estómago.
Nos sorprenderemos constantemente al pasar la página y observar lo que nos aguarda al otro lado.
No podremos ver con los mismos ojos elementos tan inofensivos como un remolino en el agua, en las nubes, o un simple caracol, los cuales nunca me habían dado asco hasta ahora.
Pedazo de imágenes nos regala con estos babosos moluscos.
Para no olvidar.
Y es que si nos damos cuenta las espirales están por todas partes, desde nuestras huellas dactilares hasta la probóscide o trompa por la cual las mariposas liban el néctar de las flores.
Algo en lo que no me había percatado hasta leer Uzumaki.
🔝📘Resumiendo, el dibujo y el estilo de Junji Ito me han producido auténtico pavor, sobre todo al inicio de la lectura, no sé si porque me he ido acostumbrando o simplemente se han ido suavizando hasta cierto punto, pero he llegado incluso a tener sueños muy extraños con ellos.
Y mira que es difícil que a los lectores asiduos al género algo nos incomode de esta manera, por eso el valor añadido de esta obra es mayor si cabe, lograr ese grado de sorpresa y angustia no es nada fácil, pero él lo hace con gran maestría.
Durante sus más de 600 páginas veremos personajes atormentados, una historia muy retorcida, y nunca mejor dicho 😉😉, y unos dibujos muy grotescos para dar forma a esta historia épica del manga de terror japonés.
Estas imágenes tardarán en irse, si es que algún día lo hacen, se han quedado grabadas a fuego en mi retina y es que no he podido resistirme a caer en el poder hipnótico de las espirales.
Una historia que todo amante del buen terror debería leer.
📖 Próxima lectura:
"Mi esposa y yo compramos un rancho" - Matt y Harrison Query.
📚 https://www.facebook.com/LaLocadelosL... 📚
August 20, 2022
Wow!! Uzumaki was my first Junji Ito manga and it was everything I wanted it to be. Great story, beautiful artwork, and brutal...So brutal.
December 31, 2021
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: collecting examples of uzumaki, the spiral. what starts relatively innocent soon becomes a full-on obsession, and he devolves into a state where he doesn’t even go to work anymore. he just stares at spirals all day in his study, with devastating results.
and that is when shuichi -- and kirie, by extension -- starts to notice how everything in kurouzu-cho seems to have some strange connection to the symbol of the spiral.
yes, this book is the story of how something as abstract and seemingly harmless as a spiral overtakes an entire town and turns the lives of its inhabitants to ruin. this is illustrated (literally) in several ways: slow, creeping descents into madness, people turning into various creatures, outright murder, hair sucking the life out of the people it’s growing on, sentient hurricanes…
… and eventually a full-on apocalyptic situation with hotel california vibes that ensure everyone that’s still alive is there for the big showdown.
you gotta give ito points for originality, and i love the concept of it. the illustrations are no doubt the absolute best part of this, though. the art is stunning, and by that i mean stunningly horrifying. images just suck you in and you sit there, staring at them for a full minute in hair-raising dread. it’s perfectly designed, too, making excellent use of page layout to ensure the right impact of every individual image.
ito can jangle your chain with outlandish, surrealist scary images as if they were jump scares, but he can also add to slow-creeping dread of the overall story.
that said, there are plenty of criticisms to be had. its format contains a lot of same-structured chapters, where every chapter introduces a Horrific Event Of The Week arc. this is followed by another (and another, and another) until everything gets progressively worse.
you also DEFINITELY need a healthy suspension of disbelief. shuichi is literally the only one who seems to understand that screaming ghosts in pottery seem a little weird. after every Horrific Event Of The Week, the citizens of kurouzu-cho just move along as if nothing happened. and it’s not like it could be ignored, because these are situations in which people actually DIE or are otherwise horrifically altered.
lots of people also felt the ending was anticlimactic. which i can understand, considering all the build-up and physical body horror, but to me it was a nice step away from what ito had been giving me up until that point.
but even if it gets too hilariously outlandish (without spoiling something, consider snails), i was still laughing in horror. like, the reality of it is still frightening, even when it becomes comedic. it’s mostly due to ito’s drawings being rendered in such vivid, excruciating detail.
all in all, this is still my favorite of his works, and ito is the master of this type of visual horror for me. i reread this every halloween and i still have a good time. a hundred percent recommended if you’re fan of really creepy, uncanny stuff.
see you next halloween, mr. ito.
✎ 4.5. stars.
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: collecting examples of uzumaki, the spiral. what starts relatively innocent soon becomes a full-on obsession, and he devolves into a state where he doesn’t even go to work anymore. he just stares at spirals all day in his study, with devastating results.
and that is when shuichi -- and kirie, by extension -- starts to notice how everything in kurouzu-cho seems to have some strange connection to the symbol of the spiral.
yes, this book is the story of how something as abstract and seemingly harmless as a spiral overtakes an entire town and turns the lives of its inhabitants to ruin. this is illustrated (literally) in several ways: slow, creeping descents into madness, people turning into various creatures, outright murder, hair sucking the life out of the people it’s growing on, sentient hurricanes…
… and eventually a full-on apocalyptic situation with hotel california vibes that ensure everyone that’s still alive is there for the big showdown.
you gotta give ito points for originality, and i love the concept of it. the illustrations are no doubt the absolute best part of this, though. the art is stunning, and by that i mean stunningly horrifying. images just suck you in and you sit there, staring at them for a full minute in hair-raising dread. it’s perfectly designed, too, making excellent use of page layout to ensure the right impact of every individual image.
ito can jangle your chain with outlandish, surrealist scary images as if they were jump scares, but he can also add to slow-creeping dread of the overall story.
that said, there are plenty of criticisms to be had. its format contains a lot of same-structured chapters, where every chapter introduces a Horrific Event Of The Week arc. this is followed by another (and another, and another) until everything gets progressively worse.
you also DEFINITELY need a healthy suspension of disbelief. shuichi is literally the only one who seems to understand that screaming ghosts in pottery seem a little weird. after every Horrific Event Of The Week, the citizens of kurouzu-cho just move along as if nothing happened. and it’s not like it could be ignored, because these are situations in which people actually DIE or are otherwise horrifically altered.
lots of people also felt the ending was anticlimactic. which i can understand, considering all the build-up and physical body horror, but to me it was a nice step away from what ito had been giving me up until that point.
but even if it gets too hilariously outlandish (without spoiling something, consider snails), i was still laughing in horror. like, the reality of it is still frightening, even when it becomes comedic. it’s mostly due to ito’s drawings being rendered in such vivid, excruciating detail.
all in all, this is still my favorite of his works, and ito is the master of this type of visual horror for me. i reread this every halloween and i still have a good time. a hundred percent recommended if you’re fan of really creepy, uncanny stuff.
see you next halloween, mr. ito.
✎ 4.5. stars.
October 6, 2020
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 images that haunt your dreams. I like that Ito had his own art style. A lot of Manga I've seen has a certain sameness to the art. Ito maintains his own style throughout. The book is filled with body horror. Really creepy body horror, yet there is very little blood or gore.
July 5, 2024
This book was SO good! I absolutely loved this. The body horror was on another level. Having to actually look at the horror and not just have it described really enhances the experience.
I also thought the concept was super interesting and I was super invested. I never really thought of spirals as scary before but the book mentions spirals in ways I never really thought.
Also, I’ve never read a book that grosses me out to where I feel gross touching the page but this book definitely has a few of those moments. I thought it was just amazing!
I also thought the concept was super interesting and I was super invested. I never really thought of spirals as scary before but the book mentions spirals in ways I never really thought.
Also, I’ve never read a book that grosses me out to where I feel gross touching the page but this book definitely has a few of those moments. I thought it was just amazing!
February 26, 2020
Claramente no voy a volver a mirar un espiral de la misma forma que solía hacerlo. Este mundo retorcido, enfermo y derruido es perfecto. Hasta el momento, mi manga favorito de Junji.
Para más detalles, los invito a ver mi videoreseña: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDuga...
Para más detalles, los invito a ver mi videoreseña: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDuga...
January 14, 2018
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 popularity ensues between two high-school divas with increasingly treacherous coifs. The local incinerator for the dead starts pumping out winding trails of ash that wreak ecological havoc. A woman decides to rid her body of any spiral that may naturally form within her body. The eye of a tornado gets the hots for a particular girl and hilarity ensues. Bad things happen with a maternity ward and umbilical cords. And then things get even weirder. By the time the reader reaches the last two-hundred pages, chaos reigns as the town turns into a wasteland of freakish mutants and good old-fashioned human depravity. This is a horror yarn of grand scope that is filled with wild free-wheeling inventiveness, wicked black humor and grotesquely detailed drawings.
May 24, 2020
the most horrifying book i’ve ever read
April 20, 2022
Este es un manga de terror (para ser exactos, horror), que gira en torno a la figura del espiral, algo aparentemente anodino que cambiará para siempre al pequeño pueblo donde viven Kirie y Shuichi.
Como ya había comentado: no es una lectura rápida. Las ilustraciones tienen tantos detalles que mientras más segundos pasas observándolas más perturbadoras y maravillosas te parecen, por ello creo que es mejor avanzar con calma y disfrutar cada capítulo. Lograr que cada uno de los elementos resalte en una ilustración en blanco y negro no es tan sencillo, y este mangaka ha hecho un trabajo increíble, así que considero que se merece más reconocimiento del que ya tiene.
En cuanto a personajes, siento que debo dejar en claro que esto es terror del crudo, lo único que pretende es alimentar tus pesadillas con sus imágenes y sus diálogos extraños. En consecuencia, los personajes son algo básicos, aunque dentro del contexto del manga me parece que tienen lo necesario; su desarrollo se nutre en base a la negación y la locura que pueden provocar acontecimientos como los que aquí suceden, no hay una construcción de personalidad tan rica como en otros mangas más extensos o de temáticas más "serias", pero lo reitero: no es necesario. Entonces, ¿por qué anteriormente dije que la trama «no es para nada sencilla»? Porque que algo no esté hecho para ser leído entre líneas no significa que sea sencillo, siento que este es uno de esos libros que si te lo lees de golpe no logras disfrutarlo como se merece ni logras sumergirte en la atmósfera que se plantea. Esta es mi opinión, claro, habrá quien se lo bebió y aún así lo amó.
En resumen, esta es una excelente lectura para relajarte, pasar el rato. No es una historia pretenciosa, es solo terror y en eso se lleva un sobresaliente:)
Como ya había comentado: no es una lectura rápida. Las ilustraciones tienen tantos detalles que mientras más segundos pasas observándolas más perturbadoras y maravillosas te parecen, por ello creo que es mejor avanzar con calma y disfrutar cada capítulo. Lograr que cada uno de los elementos resalte en una ilustración en blanco y negro no es tan sencillo, y este mangaka ha hecho un trabajo increíble, así que considero que se merece más reconocimiento del que ya tiene.
En cuanto a personajes, siento que debo dejar en claro que esto es terror del crudo, lo único que pretende es alimentar tus pesadillas con sus imágenes y sus diálogos extraños. En consecuencia, los personajes son algo básicos, aunque dentro del contexto del manga me parece que tienen lo necesario; su desarrollo se nutre en base a la negación y la locura que pueden provocar acontecimientos como los que aquí suceden, no hay una construcción de personalidad tan rica como en otros mangas más extensos o de temáticas más "serias", pero lo reitero: no es necesario. Entonces, ¿por qué anteriormente dije que la trama «no es para nada sencilla»? Porque que algo no esté hecho para ser leído entre líneas no significa que sea sencillo, siento que este es uno de esos libros que si te lo lees de golpe no logras disfrutarlo como se merece ni logras sumergirte en la atmósfera que se plantea. Esta es mi opinión, claro, habrá quien se lo bebió y aún así lo amó.
En resumen, esta es una excelente lectura para relajarte, pasar el rato. No es una historia pretenciosa, es solo terror y en eso se lleva un sobresaliente:)
July 14, 2021
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 spent almost all of the book wanting to shake most of them.
- Junji Ito never satisfactorily explains why any of the spiraling creepiness is happening. Episodic chapters add up to a disjointed story of WTF-ery that never really coalesces into anything substantial.
I had seen so many isolated, eerie panels around the Internet over the years that, when I realized we had it in my library system, I had to read it. I'm not upset that I did, but I wasn't that impressed, either.
That said, I need a SFX makeup artist to do a look based on the spiral forehead chapter.
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 spent almost all of the book wanting to shake most of them.
- Junji Ito never satisfactorily explains why any of the spiraling creepiness is happening. Episodic chapters add up to a disjointed story of WTF-ery that never really coalesces into anything substantial.
I had seen so many isolated, eerie panels around the Internet over the years that, when I realized we had it in my library system, I had to read it. I'm not upset that I did, but I wasn't that impressed, either.
That said, I need a SFX makeup artist to do a look based on the spiral forehead chapter.
February 17, 2022
truly the weirdest fever dream i’ve ever had
May 15, 2024
A twisted town plagued by…spirals? As always, Junji Ito is not afraid to get weird. This is hands down my favourite of his works. I like that the chapters were interconnected and built toward a larger narrative, yet each also felt like a self-contained story. This was my favourite thing I’ve read so far this year.
May 6, 2024
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 popular horror manga, so I managed to get my hands on a copy of the deluxe edition version, which has all of the volumes in one hardback.
Having learned the beginning of the story now, I'll say that Uzumaki is a very intriguing concept. The book takes place in a city that has been overtaken by spiral designs which are slowly causing the city's inhabitants to go entirely mad. It causes mutations and illnesses in people, and nobody who enters the city is able to leave. Random whirlwinds appear from time to time, destroying houses and sucking people up to never be seen again.
The artwork in this book is probably capable of being pasted beside the dictionary definition of the word "grotesque". There is so much gross imagery (like people slowly turning into massive snails), and while gore doesn't bother me, this is just beyond my comfort level of "ick factor". If you enjoy stuff that makes you squirm and go "ewww", though, this is probably perfect for you.
As far as the plot itself goes, it's bizarre but kind of like a train wreck: it's so god-awful you just can't stop looking. Would I ever read this manga again? Highly doubtful. Did I enjoy it, though? In a weird way... yes.
Having learned the beginning of the story now, I'll say that Uzumaki is a very intriguing concept. The book takes place in a city that has been overtaken by spiral designs which are slowly causing the city's inhabitants to go entirely mad. It causes mutations and illnesses in people, and nobody who enters the city is able to leave. Random whirlwinds appear from time to time, destroying houses and sucking people up to never be seen again.
The artwork in this book is probably capable of being pasted beside the dictionary definition of the word "grotesque". There is so much gross imagery (like people slowly turning into massive snails), and while gore doesn't bother me, this is just beyond my comfort level of "ick factor". If you enjoy stuff that makes you squirm and go "ewww", though, this is probably perfect for you.
As far as the plot itself goes, it's bizarre but kind of like a train wreck: it's so god-awful you just can't stop looking. Would I ever read this manga again? Highly doubtful. Did I enjoy it, though? In a weird way... yes.
September 16, 2020
Creepy. Awesome. Enough said.
April 12, 2021
uma das piores leituras que já fiz na minha vida.
nojento, tudo feio, tudo podre, todo mundo é um lixo, tudo é mt esquisito, fiquei com medo, tive pesadelo, achei perturbador e horroroso.
E EU AMEI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
eu amei totalmente isso aqui, caras! eu já tinha lido um mangá dele antes, qnd eu tinha 18 anos, o Fragmentos do Horror, e já tinha amado totalmente, mas, porra, o que é Uzumaki???? eu amo o jeito como o Junji Ito é podre, como o rtaço dele é sujo e até coisas fofas ficam medonhas e perturbadoras!!!
sério, sei nem o q falar mais, mano, só vai ler essa porra
nojento, tudo feio, tudo podre, todo mundo é um lixo, tudo é mt esquisito, fiquei com medo, tive pesadelo, achei perturbador e horroroso.
E EU AMEI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
eu amei totalmente isso aqui, caras! eu já tinha lido um mangá dele antes, qnd eu tinha 18 anos, o Fragmentos do Horror, e já tinha amado totalmente, mas, porra, o que é Uzumaki???? eu amo o jeito como o Junji Ito é podre, como o rtaço dele é sujo e até coisas fofas ficam medonhas e perturbadoras!!!
sério, sei nem o q falar mais, mano, só vai ler essa porra
November 2, 2020
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:
Spoilery thoughts about the ending:
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