Uzumaki Arrives Just In Time For Spooky Season

What is Uzumaki? Uzumaki 'Spiral' is a Japanese horror manga series written and illustrated by Junji Ito. The series tells the story of the citizens of Kurouzu-cho, a fictional town plagued by a supernatural curse involving spirals. Spiral patterns in the clouds, everyday objects, hair, insects, and skin. With spirals appearing in disturbing places, can anyone escape their horrible draw?

My history with Uzumaki: We are going to journey back to my 14-year-old self. I recently discovered manga from our local library and I was obsessed. I would check out stacks of manga without even knowing what the stories were about. We were going to leave on a family camping trip and I thought it would be fun to read a scary manga but also have some fun ones. I picked up Uzumaki, along with Fullmetal Alchemist and some other fun stories just in case I got scared which I already knew I wasn't. I feel as if there are two different kinds of parent filters, there are parents who don't want you to see anything scary and then there are parents who don't want you to see anything sexual. Most people have parents who protect them from scary images. I got the parents who didn't want us to see anything sexual but scary was completely normal. To this day whenever I see a scary movie it is ruined by my mom's voice saying "You know it's not real" I went to horror nights at Universal and was so disappointed I didn't even flinch the whole night. My mom's Netflix suggestions would make anyone check her sanity. What does this have to do with Uzumaki? 

I saw it was a horror manga but went into it pretty nonchalantly because "It's not real" It was the first night of our camping trip, and I shared a little tent with my sister. It happened to also be Friday the 13th and the most windy night ever. My sister fell right to sleep and I grabbed my lantern and manga. With the tent shaking and shadows of tree branches filling the tent I read Uzumaki. It was well into the night when I finished and I was traumatized… I couldn't get the images out of my head and quickly went to grab my happy manga only to realize I took them out of my bag and never put them back in. You know when you can see exactly where the item you forgot is and you're mad at yourself for forgetting it. I could see my stack of happy manga sitting on my bedroom floor. No problem I will just get on my phone and distract myself. No service. No internet. No music. I lay on the floor of the tent listening to the wind and didn't sleep a wink. The rest of the trip I saw spirals everywhere. 

Was it that traumatizing? Considering that happened over 10 years ago and I can still describe it in great detail yet I don't remember what I had for breakfast, I'd say it burned into my brain. 

I also made my sister read it that next day. We were both trying to make light of it and joke but we trama bounded over it.

It was up in the air for a while if we were going to get an anime. A long time in production for it to be paused and then almost canceled. However, this story was meant to traumatize the next generation and the first episode was released on AdultSwim on September 28th. 

My sister came over today so we could relive our trauma together. Here are my thoughts on episode 1.

My thoughts: It was extremely fast-paced. Within 5 minutes your stomach is already turning. It follows the manga pretty closely but does mix the chapters a bit. The art is unbelievable. For it to be a black-and-white art style, with no flashing lights, no bright colors, or insane fight scenes to keep your attention and still have your eyes locked onto the screen is amazing. I couldn't take my eyes away for a second, and I felt completely sucked in. 

If the manga was that disturbing, imagine it animated with sound effects that make your skin crawl. I feel as if this is true horror, something American movies could never do. I can watch horror movies and not think about people getting ripped to pieces but a simple spiral shape has me traumatized for over 10 years.

My sister's thoughts: It's good so far. I liked the animation it's uncanny and captured Ito's style really well. Looks like they are blending the chapters together which I think flows a bit better, each episode has more things going on, and rather than focusing on one thing they're spread out but more so it seems like there is a progression happening at the same time.

This is going to be a 4 episode series Rated TV-MA

Episode 1 has already released both subbed and English-dubbed

Episode 2 - October 5th both subbed and English dubbed

Episode 3 - October 12th both subbed and English dubbed

Episode 4- October 19th both subbed and English dubbed

You can watch it on Adultswim or Max.

Rating:

IMDb: 8.8/10

Anime-Planet: 4/5

Juni Ito and Hayao Miyazaki

Since I just went into a deep dive into Hayao Miyazaki and his films it only felt right to talk about the personalities of Juni Ito the creator of Uzumaki and Hayao Miyazaki the creator of most of the Studio Ghibli films. 

Hayao Miyazaki's art style is bright

and soft. He creates magical worlds full of adventure. He brings joy to the screen and has impacted the lives of countless people. He is also extremely negative. He has lived through war which has made him into a cynical and harsh person.

Juni Ito's art style is black and white with harsh black lines. His worlds are dark, stomach-turning, and pure horror. He leaves you feeling uncomfortable and paranoid and has traumatized countless people. He is also extremely positive and bubbly. He is a delight of a person and is kind to everyone. 

These two are a true representation of don't judge a book by its cover.

With today being the official start of spooky season I think this is the perfect way to get into the Halloween spirit. If you enjoy horror anime make sure to subscribe. The week of Halloween I will be posting a new horror anime to watch every day and on Halloween, I will be creating a list of 10 horror anime to watch. I hope you are ready to make your stomach turn for 17 horror anime.

What were your thoughts on the first episode of Uzumaki? Do you have a favorite horror anime to recommend to me? 

I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comment below 

Thanks for reading!! 

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