Junji Itō

Kurôzu-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 According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but by a pattern: "uzumaki," the spiral, the hypnotic secret shape of the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 which causes the inhabitants to go mad.

Spiral Into Horror

Uzumaki

Junji Ito

A masterpiece of horror manga, now available in a deluxe hardcover edition! Kurôzu-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 According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but by a pattern: uzumaki, the spiral, the hypnotic secret shape of the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 Kurôzu-cho are pulled ever deeper into a whirlpool from which there is no return!

Uzumaki (Deluxe Edition)

Saw sparks flying when we had the monster prompt on my creative writing class (make a monster and justify why it is and how it became a monster) and I was stuck with a blank document for days until the due date when I submitted a reflection about monsters instead of a story. I thought that I should grab the chance to ignite this, and do something about the block and so I decided to expand my knowledge about this archetype by exploring more of it through horror literature, specifically.

I’ve watched a lot of films and series about ghosts, cults, vampires, demons, mythological creatures, other cursed spirits, or the plain evilness inherent in humans and so, I am already acquainted with different kinds of monsters—I was just not paying enough attention to be able to utilize them in a story, which frustrated me. I think the fact that my go-to medium for this genre is motion pictures is an additional factor. I have to switch things up. I’ve read fantasy mangas before but not one mainly centered around horror. This is the first one.

It is okay, for most part. It’s not scary—gross (bearable) on some level because it involves a lot of body horror (one way the curse manifests itself to the people of Kurouzu-cho) but never too scary that it would send a chill down your spine or send you to a spiral of paranoia you won’t be able to get out of for days. It’s not haunting nor is it disturbing. But it is intriguing. The whole history of the curse and the way the mangaka purposely left further details open to questioning and the ending “unresolved” is a wise decision and a good writing direction, I believe, because that is the essence of the story: a curse with unknown origins and indefinite ending. A spiral!

frances

Borrowed from the campus library (-:

Saw sparks flying when we had the monster prompt on my creative writing class (make a monster and justify why it is and how it became a monster) and I was stuck with a blank document for days until the due date when I submitted a reflection about monsters instead of a story. I thought that I should grab the chance to ignite this, and do something about the block and so I decided to expand my knowledge about this archetype by exploring more of it through horror literature, specifically.

I’ve watched a lot of films and series about ghosts, cults, vampires, demons, mythological creatures, other cursed spirits, or the plain evilness inherent in humans and so, I am already acquainted with different kinds of monsters—I was just not paying enough attention to be able to utilize them in a story, which frustrated me. I think the fact that my go-to medium for this genre is motion pictures is an additional factor. I have to switch things up. I’ve read fantasy mangas before but not one mainly centered around horror. This is the first one.

It is okay, for most part. It’s not scary—gross (bearable) on some level because it involves a lot of body horror (one way the curse manifests itself to the people of Kurouzu-cho) but never too scary that it would send a chill down your spine or send you to a spiral of paranoia you won’t be able to get out of for days. It’s not haunting nor is it disturbing. But it is intriguing. The whole history of the curse and the way the mangaka purposely left further details open to questioning and the ending “unresolved” is a wise decision and a good writing direction, I believe, because that is the essence of the story: a curse with unknown origins and indefinite ending. A spiral!

Ryan Mateyk

Some of the gnarliest body horror ever, with the added bonus of not having to imagine what you're reading since the visuals are right there on the page. Loved it.

Marz 

My fave junji ito manga I've read so far!

Sarah Sammis

These horror shorts are narrated by a girl and a boy who live in the village. The boy loses his father to the spirals and then his mother. The girl's father is a potter and his pieces become distorted by the spirals.

663399 marginalized rural labyrinth

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2020/comm...

Jun Angelo Cabuguas

terrifyingly gorgeous to look at. creepy as fr*ck, i'll probably revisit it eventually :p

mic shulman

Aloe Han

shaball

my favourite trope :
enemies to snails to snail lovers 😍😍😍😍😍
-1 because this book ruined snails AND spirals for me so

Shortly after Shuichi Saito's father becomes obsessed with spiral patterns, he dies mysteriously, his body positioned in the shape of a twisted coil, and soon the entire town is afflicted with a snail-like disease. A Graphic Novel. Original.

farah farooq

** spoiler alert **
           I’ve never really been a fan of reading horror books or comics, they don’t scare me but after reading this... IVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING MORE SCARY. well actually gory. Because it was usually the human gore that unsettled me. As far as the plot goes there isn’t anything. The relationship between the two leads and how in the end they’re just dying in each other’s arms. Like they didn’t even care about each other through the entirety of the book. But uzumaki is a ride. A very uncomfortable and disturbing one at that. There were times I was scared to flip the page because I was just too scared and then there were times I had to put it down and wait 15 minutes before I could start reading again. Junji ito is a great artist. The art is just out of the world. But you know as a story teller he does lacks a bit. Because it’s not uzumaki but all of his works I’ve read so far, they don’t leave you satisfied. At the end you don’t get any answers... they always just end without resolving or explain anything

Kelsey Munson

I entered this story unafraid of snails.
I leave this story afraid of snails.

Do with this information what you will.

Winona 

Singlehandedly sparked my love for horror as an art form whilst scaring me shitless for weeks when I was 14.

Dimitris Papastergiou

I like it. 

Creepy at times, and it makes you wanna read more and more...

It's got good artwork, well, as good as a manga could ever become, but yeah it is good, especially the creepy stuff that's happening.

It's like episodes that have some continuation on the big picture that it's trying to paint and in general the story it wants to tell us. 

The downside on this one is that the characters are meh, not that interesting, I do not care at all what happens to who, there's no connection no real development whatsoever on characters, and that's sad, it may very well be because of the stories and the chapters being small every time or not having enough time I guess?! Dunno, point is it's not giving its characters room to grow.

Other than that, I really wanna get to the end of it to finally get an answer or see something big happening, and I guess it gets +1 star because it made me get the next volume and then the 3rd too and pretty much take a break from other reads to finish this one.

Gavin

I'm not into horror or surrealism, and I'm only just learning the visual vocabulary of manga, but this is well-executed. Placenta fungi, pregnant zombies, horny hurricanes, gangs using tornados for vandalism, humans becoming fair game, all that. But these garish wonders are secondary to the grossness and power of Ito's atmosphere.

The protagonist Mikie is frustratingly passive and ineffectual - she waits for 10 distinct monstrous things to happen before running away - but this is a classic shortcoming / genre requirement and I don't know how I'd write a powerful horror protagonist myself. The boyfriend, Shuichi, understands everything right from the start, unlike her, and yet he is no better.

There's a few beautiful colour pages, all in pastels, but it makes the rest look incomplete. The price of a weekly medium.

So, a masterpiece in an alien language.

Loved it. Will definitely come back to this one again one day 🍥🍥🍥🍥🍥

Marcus Jeffery

April

Tanya Segarra

Stef

Habis baca ini langsung kerasa vertigo dan kayak baca buku sensei lain nya bikin bergidik mual-mual. Ga nyangka dari spiral bisa kepikiran bikin cerita di luar imajinasi gini 😭😭. Art style nya juga bagus banget. Cerita nya berkesinambungan sampai di akhir dan tetep bikin merinding ending nya. Habis baca ini kayak aku bakalan agak ngeri liat siput 🐌

Taylor

Couldn’t put it down! Gave me a new phobia! Can’t wait to reread!!

Ryan LaFerney

Now I see spirals EVERYWHERE. Thanks Junji Ito!

Emelie

nonchi

2.5.. like the Goodreads description says: it was ok. 
the spiral hair battle was hilarious tho

Sara

This book fucked with my head in the best way possible. I was seeing spirals for a week while reading it.🌀4.5 stars

Ethan Hill

I personally would’ve packed my bags and never looked back after my spiral-possessed hair began choking me but good on them for sticking with their hometown!

Uzumaki Spiral Into Horror

Reviews

Highlights