Uzumaki by Junji Ito Review – Creepy Horror Manga

Horror isn’t always a genre of choice for me, but as my love for dark manga has expanded, I was open to trying something new. The Uzumaki 3-in-1 complete edition was a book that caught my eye many times while manga shopping in London (pre-pandemic). So while being stuck in-doors I decided it was finally time to purchase this twisted series.

Uzumaki follows a high-school teenager, Kirie Goshima and her boyfriend Shuichi Saito. After a series of strange occurrences involving spirals in their town of Kurouzu-cho they begin to realize the town might be cursed.

Through various short stories, Uzumaki shows how the people of Kurouzu-cho are changed by the curse and the stories begin to directly affect the lives of Kirie and Shuichi. Things soon escalate to the point where the town of Kurouzu-cho will never be the same again.

When I read the first chapter of Uzumaki, I found it so bizarre that I honestly thought about shelving it and not continuing. But there was something in the back of my mind that was itching to keep reading the story to see just how weird and twisted it would get. And I thankfully gave in to that part of my brain.

I was soon at the point of no return. Getting sucked into the weird stories that slowly build up to a grander series of events in the town of Kurouzu-cho. That’s the thing about Uzumaki. At first it merely comes off as a series of strange short stories that are only connected through the eyes of Kirie and Shuici. But when it gets to the middle mark (of the deluxe edition), you begin to see that all of these stories have greater relevance to where the plot is taking you.

To some, this shift from small horrific stories to the book becoming a large survival event might be off-putting. Some prefer the short bursts of slice of life horror in the first part of the series and resent the big shift towards survival themes. But I enjoyed reading through the early fast-paced horrific stories with the assumption that Junji Ito was building towards something huge.

The ending is extremely ambiguous, which may upset many. I’m no stranger to ambiguous endings that force you think about what the heck you just read, so I wasn’t too beat up by it. Uzumaki has the type of closing that will have you Googling to find all the theories. But when it’s all said and done, the journey of the characters is more meaningful than the ending itself. Uzumaki takes Kirie, Suichi and the readers through a memorable journey.

I can’t end this off without mentioning how incredible some of the artwork is in Uzumaki. It’s Ito’s unique brand of creepy illustrations that give this book so much intensity.

If you love horror, Uzumaki is basically a must-read. If you’re into manga and want something a bit more dark and twisted then I recommend giving Uzumaki a try. But if horror is off-putting for you then you might want to avoid this one.

Uzumaki isn’t for the feint-heated. I’m actually impressed with how twisted some of the visuals in this book are without it needing to be graphically violent at the same time. It’s a unique form of creepiness. So be prepared.