Uzumaki

This article is about the Japanese manga. For the feature film adaptation, see Uzumaki (film). For the Naruto character, see Naruto Uzumaki.

Uzumaki
First tankōbon volume cover
うずまき
Genre	Dark fantasy Psychological horror Supernatural
Manga
Written by	Junji Ito
Published by	Shogakukan
English publisher	NA: Viz Media
Magazine	Big Comic Spirits
English magazine	NA: Pulp
Demographic	Seinen
Original run	January 19, 1998 – August 30, 1999
Volumes	3
Anime television series
Directed by	See episodes
Produced by	Maki Terashima-Furuta Haruyasu Makino
Written by	Aki Itami
Music by	Colin Stetson
Studio	Fugaku (#1, 4) Akatsuki (#2–3)
Licensed by	Warner Bros. Television Netflix (streaming)
English network	CA: Adult Swim US: Adult Swim (Toonami)
Original run	September 29, 2024 – October 20, 2024
Episodes	4
Live-action film
Uzumaki (2000)

Uzumaki (うずまき, lit. 'Spiral') is a Japanese horror manga series written and illustrated by Junji Ito. Appearing as a serial in Shogakukan's weekly seinen manga magazine Big Comic Spirits from 1998 to 1999, the chapters were compiled into three bound volumes published from August 1998 to September 1999. In March 2000, Shogakukan released an omnibus edition, followed by a second omnibus version in August 2010. In North America, Viz Media serialized an English-language translation of the series in its monthly magazine Pulp from February 2001 to August 2002. Viz Media then published the volumes from October 2001 to October 2002, with a re-release from October 2007 to February 2008, and published a hardcover omnibus edition in October 2013.

The series tells the story of the citizens of Kurouzu-cho, a fictional town which is plagued by a supernatural curse involving spirals. The story for Uzumaki originated when Ito attempted to write a story about people living in a very long terraced house, and he was inspired to use a spiral shape to achieve the desired length. Ito believes the horror of Uzumaki is effective due to its subversion of symbols which are positively portrayed in Japanese media, and its theme of protagonists struggling against a mysterious force stronger than themselves.

Uzumaki continues to receive critical acclaim, deemed by many as Ito's magnum opus. The manga has received generally positive reviews from English-language critics. It was nominated for an Eisner Award in 2003, and placed in the Young Adult Library Services Association's list of the "Top 10 Graphic Novels for Teens" in 2009.

In 2000, the manga was adapted into two video games for the WonderSwan and a Japanese live-action film directed by Higuchinsky. An anime television miniseries adaptation co-produced by Production I.G USA and Adult Swim aired from September to October 2024 in the United States on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block.

Plot

Uzumaki follows a high-school student, Kirie Goshima (五島桐絵); her boyfriend, Shuichi Saito (斎藤秀一); and the citizens of the small, quiet Japanese town of Kurouzu-cho (黒渦ー町, Black Vortex Town), which is enveloped by supernatural events involving spirals. As the story progresses, Kirie and Shuichi witness how the spiral curse affects the people around them, causing the citizens to become either obsessed with or paranoid about spirals, including transforming them into grotesque monsters such as contorting their bodies, making pregnant women act like mosquitoes, raising the dead, and mutating most of the citizens into snails. The curse also affects Kurouzu's environment as it simultaneously creates whirlwinds and whirlpools, especially turning the abandoned lighthouse into a hot furnace while making whoever looks at it walk in circles.

Shuichi becomes reclusive after both of his parents die from the horrific psychological and physical powers of the spirals, but also gains the ability to detect when the spiral curse is taking place, although he is often dismissed until the next paranormal effects of the curse become obvious. Eventually, Kirie is affected by the curse as well, when her hair begins to curl into an unnatural spiral pattern, drains her life energy to hypnotize the citizens, and chokes her whenever she attempts to cut it off. Shuichi is able to cut her hair and save her. As the community begins to break down, the curse continues to plague the town until a series of typhoons conjured by the curse destroys most of its structures. The only remaining buildings are ancient abandoned row houses, which the citizens are forced first to move into, and then begin expanding as they grow more and more crowded, but have become mutated as a consequence of overcrowding, their limbs twisting and warping into spirals.

After the town has been nearly destroyed by increasingly powerful storms and whirlwinds generated by fast movements and loud noises, Kirie and Shuichi gather everyone to devise a plan to escape Kurouzu, but when they attempt to escape, their efforts are unsuccessful. After returning to the town, they discover that several years have passed since they left, as time speeds up away from the spiral. The other citizens expanded the row houses until they connected into a single structure, forming a labyrinthine spiral pattern. Kirie and Shuichi decide to search for Kirie's parents, which brings them to the center after many days of walking through the labyrinth which leads them directly to Dragonfly Pond, now converted into a structured staircase.

When they begin walking down the steps, Shuichi is hurled down the pit leading deep beneath Kurouzu by a mutated citizen, with Kirie herself descending via a colossal spiral staircase to find him. She falls but is saved by countless bodies making up the ground of a vast, ancient city consisting entirely of spiral patterns in various arrangements. As Kirie looks for Shuichi, she finds her parents twisted and petrified, resembling stone statues, along with many other citizens of Kurouzu who have met the same fate. Then, she hears Shuichi call for her and goes to him. Both are overwhelmed by the ancient spirals surrounding them and Shuichi points out how it seems as though the spiral ruins have a will of their own. Noticing that the petrified citizens of Kurouzu are all facing the spiral city, Shuichi theorizes that this is the source of the curse; the city expands on its own periodically and has cursed the land above out of jealousy from having no one to view it.

Shuichi urges Kirie to leave without him as he can no longer walk and the curse should be over soon, but she replies that she does not have the strength and wishes to stay with him. The two embrace with their bodies twisting and intertwining together, signifying their acceptance of the never-ending curse. At the same time, a stone tower in the shape of a drill bit rises out of the city and breaches the surface, forming the centerpiece of the abandoned town. As Shuichi and Kirie lie together, Kirie notes that the curse ended at the same time it began, for just as time speeds up away from the center, it freezes at the center. The spiral's curse is eternal, and all the events will repeat when a new Kurouzu is built where the previous one lies.

Characters

Kirie Goshima

Voiced by: Uki Satake (Japanese); Abby Trott (English)

Shuichi Saito

Voiced by: Shin-ichiro Miki (Japanese); Robbie Daymond (English)

Yasuo Goshima

Voiced by: Toshio Furukawa (Japanese); Doug Stone (English)

Chizuko Goshima

Voiced by: Shino Kakinuma (Japanese); Dorothy Elias-Fahn (English)

Mitsuo Goshima

Voiced by: Yuko Sanpei (Japanese); Laura Stahl (English)

Toshio Saito

Voiced by: Takashi Matsuyama (Japanese); Aaron LaPlante (English)

Yukie Saito

Voiced by: Mika Doi (Japanese); Mona Marshall (English)

Azami Kurotani

Voiced by: Mariya Ise (Japanese); Cristina Vee (English)

Tokuo Katayama

Voiced by: Katsutoshi Matsuzaki (Japanese); Max Mittelman (English)

Okada

Voiced by: Wataru Hatano (Japanese); Kaiji Tang (English)

Kazuki Tsumura

Voiced by: Tatsumaru Tachibana (Japanese); Sean Chiplock (English)

Ikuo Yokota

Voiced by: Kōichi Tōchika (Japanese); Jonah Scott (English)

Shiho Ishikawa

Voiced by: Ami Fukushima (Japanese); Erica Mendez (English)

Kazunori Nishiki

Voiced by: Yūto Uemura (Japanese); Khoi Dao (English)

Yoriko Endo

Voiced by: Satomi Hanamura (Japanese); Brianna Knickerbocker (English)

Mitsuru Yamaguchi

Voiced by: Kappei Yamaguchi (Japanese); Erik Scott Kimerer (English)

Kyoko Sekino

Voiced by: Yoko Hikasa (Japanese); Jenny Yokobori (English)

Keiko Nakayama

Voiced by: Shiori Koshikawa (Japanese); Amber Lee Connors (English)

Wakabayashi

Voiced by: Yūji Ueda (Japanese); Stephen Fu (English)

Pregnant Woman L

Voiced by: Sumi Shimamoto (Japanese); Larissa Gallagher (English)

Chie Maruyama

Voiced by: Ai Kobayashi (Japanese); Courtney Lin (English)

Tanizaki

Voiced by: Satoshi Mikami (Japanese); Patrick Seitz (English)

Butterfly Tribe Leader

Voiced by: Yuto Nakano (Japanese); Kirk Thornton (English)

Takemoto

Voiced by: Yukito Soma (Japanese); Brent Mukai (English)

Development

Uzumaki was written and illustrated by Junji Ito. Junji Ito's initial desire was to create a story about strange changes that would occur to people living in a very long, traditional Japanese terraced house. This story would have been based on Ito's personal experience living in such a house as a child. During the process of finding a way to draw such a long building, Ito was inspired by the shape of a mosquito coil and decided he could make the building long by having it spiral. Ito has noted that the spiral is a "mysterious pattern" and described writing Uzumaki as an attempt to learn the secrets of the spiral. Ito sought inspiration by methods such as staring at spirals, researching spirals, creating spiral patterns by draining water from bath tubs, eating foods with spiral patterns, and raising snails. Looking back on the series in 2006, Ito stated that while he was still uncertain what the spiral stood for, he thought it might be representative of infinity.

Uzumaki was influenced by the positive representation of spirals in media, which inspired Ito to subvert them to create horror, stating: "Usually spiral patterns mark character's cheeks in Japanese comedy cartoons, representing an effect of warmth. However, I thought it could be used in horror if I drew it a different way." The story in which Kirie's hair is cursed by the spiral reflects a recurring theme in Ito's work in which a heroine's hair has a life of its own. Ito uses this imagery because it lends itself well to horror due to its association with the Japanese feminine ideal (Yamato nadeshiko), as well as the unnerving flowing motions of long hair, which he describes as snakelike. Ito also noted that horror writer H. P. Lovecraft was one of his inspirations when creating Uzumaki, stating that the gradual development of the spiral curse was patterned on Lovecraft's storytelling and that "Lovecraft's expressionism with regard to atmosphere greatly inspires my creative impulse."

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Junji Ito, Uzumaki was serialized in Shogakukan's seinen manga magazine Big Comic Spirits from January 19, 1998, to August 30, 1999. Shogakukan compiled the chapters into three bound volumes and published them from August 29, 1998, to September 30, 1999. To celebrate the release of the live-action film, the manga series was released in an omnibus volume in March 2000, with an additional "lost" chapter. Shogakukan released another omnibus edition on August 30, 2010, with the same content and additional commentary from Masaru Sato.

In North America, Viz Media serialized an English-language translation of the series in its monthly magazine Pulp from the February 2001 issue to the August 2002 issue. It published volumes of the series from October 2001 to October 2002. Viz Media re-released the series with new covers from October 2007 to February 2008, and published the omnibus volume in hardcover with twelve color pages on October 13, 2013. The series has also been translated into other languages, such as Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Swedish, Mandarin, Korean, and Serbian.

No.	Original release date	Original ISBN	English release date	English ISBN
1	August 29, 1998	4-09-185721-3	October 28, 2001 (1st ed.) October 16, 2007 (2nd ed.)	978-1-56-931714-3 (1st ed.) 1-4215-1389-7 (2nd ed.)
1. "The Spiral Obsession Part 1" (うずまきマニア: その1, Uzumaki Mania: So no Ichi) 2. "The Spiral Obsession Part 2" (うずまきマニア: その2, Uzumaki Mania: So no Ni) 3. "The Scar" (傷跡, Kizuato) 4. "The Firing Effect" (窯変, Yōhen) 5. "Twisted Souls" (ねじれた人びと, Nejireta Hitobito) 6. "Medusa" (巻髪, Maki Kami) Afterword
2	February 26, 1999	4-09-185722-1	July 28, 2002 (1st ed.) December 18, 2007 (2nd ed.)	978-1-59-116033-5 (1st ed.) 1-4215-1390-0 (2nd ed.)
7. "Jack-in-the-Box" (びっくり箱, Bikkuri-Bako) 8. "The Snail" (ヒトマイマイ, Hitomaimai) 9. "The Black Lighthouse" (黒い灯台, Kuroi Tōdai) 10. "Mosquitoes" (蚊柱, Kabashira) 11. "The Umbilical Cord" (臍帯, Saitai) 12. "The Storm" (台風1号, Taifū Ichi-gō) Afterword
3	September 30, 1999	4-09-185723-X	October 28, 2002 (1st ed.) February 19, 2008 (2nd ed.)	978-1-59-116048-9 (1st ed.) 1-4215-1391-9 (2nd ed.)
13. "The House" (鬼のいる長屋, Oni no Iru Nagaya) 14. "Butterflies" (蝶, Chō) 15. "Chaos" (混沌, Konton) 16. "Erosion" (続・混沌, Zoku・Konton) 17. "Escape" (脱出, Dasshutsu) 18. "The Labyrinth" (迷路, Meiro) 19. "Completion" (遺跡, Iseki) Lost chapter: "Galaxies" (銀河, Ginga) Afterword

Video games

Two video games were developed and published by Omega Micott for the Bandai WonderSwan. The first, Uzumaki: Denshi Kaiki Hen (うずまき 〜電視怪奇篇〜, Spiral - Television Mystery), was released on February 3, 2000, and is a visual novel retelling the events of the manga. Kirie Goshima's actor, Eriko Hatsune makes a special appearance. The second game, titled Uzumaki: Noroi Simulation (うずまき 〜呪いシミュレーション〜, Spiral - Curse Simulation), was released on March 4, 2000, and is a simulation game. Players are tasked by the Uzumaki Sennin (うずまき仙人, Spiral Master) to spread the spiral curse. The objective is to spread the curse across the town and find hidden objects to gain more "Spiral Power" and progress the story. The title also includes a mini-game involving one of the snail-human hybrids.

Live-action film

Main article: Uzumaki (film)

On February 11, 2000, a live-action adaptation of Uzumaki was released in Japan. Directed by Higuchinsky, it featured Eriko Hatsune as Kirie Goshima, Shin Eun-kyung as Chie Maruyama, Fhi Fan as Shuichi Saito, Keiko Takahashi as Yukie Saito, Ren Osugi as Toshio Saito, and Hinako Saeki as Kyoko Sekino. The film consists of four parts ("A Premonition", "Erosion", "Visitation", and "Transmigration"), and as a result of being produced before the manga's conclusion, uses a different ending than the manga.

Anime

At 2019's Crunchyroll Expo, a 4-episode anime television miniseries adaptation was announced. The miniseries is co-produced by Production I.G USA and Adult Swim's in-house production arm Williams Street. The anime is directed by Hiroshi Nagahama, with Colin Stetson composing the music. It premiered on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block before its Japanese premiere. This is the fourth time that Cartoon Network, as an entire network, was directly involved in the production of a Japanese anime, with The Big O II, IGPX (both the 2005 micro-series and 2006 anime), and the FLCL sequels, all receiving some form of animated production that was backed by the network. Creative director Jason DeMarco stated that as of March 25, 2020, production was still in progress, and that the COVID-19 pandemic had no effect on production. In an interview with Ito, he speaks of Hiroshi Nagahama in respect calling him "quite talented". He also said that being faithful to his original manga made him "quite happy". Ito confirmed that the screenplay of the series was finished since he checked. He said "Four episodes is way shorter than the original manga. They did a good job of rearranging the series. For example, someone who dies early on now plays an important role later on. They did a fantastic job of crafting things together like that. The screenwriter is a very talented individual." The anime is produced entirely in black and white.

On June 10, 2020, the anime's official Twitter account presented some pictures of storyboards. On July 22, 2020, the official Twitter announced the Japanese voice cast. On July 26, 2020, Adult Swim reran the same teaser trailer during its Adult Swim Con and presented an interview with series director Nagahama. In addition to this, it was confirmed that the series was being moved back a year from its originally planned 2020 release. On July 29, 2020, the Japanese voice cast officially started recording. A second teaser video was posted on June 15, 2021, with comments from director Hiroshi Nagahama describing how the pandemic forced the team to "restructure" their plan for the anime from scratch. The video also confirmed that the anime would be delayed again to October 2022.

In June 2022, Corus Entertainment confirmed through a press release that the series would also be broadcast on Adult Swim in Canada. Later that same month, the anime was once again delayed indefinitely at the request of the production staff. In 2023, Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen's company Square Peg was revealed to be involved with producing the series. On July 22, 2023, during Adult Swim's "Toonami on the Green" panel at San Diego Comic-Con, the network debuted a new clip from the series. Despite it not unveiling any release timeframe at the end, Jason DeMarco later stated on Twitter that the series would premiere later in 2023, although that did not happen. The series premiered in Japanese with English subtitles on September 29, 2024, and its English dub premiered on October 4 of the same year. Netflix announced on October 25, 2024, that the series is set to be streamed on the platform in Asia by the end of the year.

The series was originally announced as being animated by Drive by producer Maki-Terashima Furuta. In July 2023, some articles mentioned that it was being produced by both Drive and Akatsuki. However, when the series premiered in September 2024, Drive's name was not included in the credits. Animation production for the first episode was instead credited to planning and production company Fugaku. The second and third episodes were credited as being produced at Akatsuki; however, Nagahama was only credited for the storyboards, with Yuji Moriyama credited as director in his place. The fourth and final episode credits neither Nagahama nor Moriyama as director, and omits the title entirely.

No.	Title	Series director	Episode director	Storyboarder	Original air date	English dub air date
1	"Episode 1"	Hiroshi Nagahama	Kouichirou Sohtome	Hiroshi Nagahama	September 29, 2024 (2024-09-29)	October 4, 2024
Shuichi Saito tells his girlfriend Kirie Goshima that his father, Toshio, has become obsessed with spirals to the point of madness. Kirie sees for herself when she returns home and sees Toshio insanely demanding her potter father, Yasuo, make a spiral pattern pottery for him. Later at school, Kirie and classmate Azami Kurotami discuss Azami's crescent-shaped forehead scar, which seems to attract boys to her. After class, Kirie introduces Azami to Shuichi, but she startles Shuichi and he runs off with Kirie. Later, Kirie delivers her father's finished pottery to Toshio. But Toshio now claims he can become a spiral, and shows he can contort his tongue into a spiral, frightening Kirie away. Meanwhile, Azami runs into Shuichi and admits that she's now infatuated with him because, unlike other boys, he was repelled by her scar. Shuichi points out that her scar has now turned into a spiral, and warns her that the town is infecting her with a curse. Sometime later, Shuichi and his mother Yukie arrive home, only to discover that Toshio had contorted his entire body into a long spiral crammed inside a tub, killing himself in the process. Later, the smoke from Toshio's cremation forms a spiral and then an image of his face, driving Yukie insane as to require hospitalization. Back at school, Kirie discovers a classmate, Tokuo Katayama, also has a large spiral pattern on his back. After school, she runs into Azami again and discovers that her spiral scar has grown into a vortex that has consumed half her head. Later, Azami tricks Okada, a classmate who has a crush on her, into bringing Shuichi to her. The vortex then grows uncontrollably, swallowing Okada whole, and then devouring the rest of Azami's body.
2	"Episode 2"	Yuji Moriyama	Taiki Nishimura	Hiroshi Nagahama	October 6, 2024 (2024-10-06)	October 11, 2024
Katayama arrives at school late again and is noticed to have swelling from where the spiral is on his back. Elsewhere, teenage lovers Kazunori Nishiki and Yoriko Endo are hiding from their parents in an abandoned rowhouse. Following the incident at Toshio's funeral and others, Kurouzu-cho has outlawed cremation and restarted whole-body inhumations. After school in the town cemetery, Kirie and her friend Shiho Ishikawa are ambush-pranked by Mitsuru Yamaguchi, nicknamed 'Jack-In-The-Box' for his trademark pop-up surprises on everyone. Yamaguchi confesses his feelings for Kirie, which she rejects and the girls walk away. After departing from her friend, Kirie witnesses Yoriko's family assaulting Kazunori for spending time with her. Kazunori tells Kirie that their families hate each other, and as a result won't let the two come into contact. He also tells Kirie that the two are planning to run away from town soon. Later, Kirie discovers that her hair is becoming long and distorted into curls. After the class witnesses Katayama on the school's windows crawling around as a snail person, Kirie runs away during the chaos to a barber where she requests to get her hair cut. Before the barber can cut it, the hair reacts in a hostile manner in order to stop them. Kirie's hair becomes even more distorted and soon becomes the center of attention with people, which makes her friend Kyoko Sekino jealous. Later, Yamaguchi presents Kirie with a present, which she rejects. In an attempt to impress her, Yamaguchi runs onto the street to try and make a car stop but it instead runs over and kills him. The next day at school, everyone discovers that Tsumura has also become a snail person and they place him in the school's chicken coup with Katayama. Kyoko arrives to confront Kirie, now also with the same curled hair, in an attempt to win over classmates' attention. Shuichi arrives and stops both hairs from attacking each other, proceeding to cut all of Kirie's off. Kyoko declares herself the winner and walks off into town where her hair consumes all her energy. Tsumura and Katayama escape the coup and the two lay eggs on a local pathway. Kirie and Shuichi discover school teacher Mr. Yokota destroying the eggs before running off to see that Kazunori and Yoriko leave town safely. They meet up with the couple at the train station, but they tell them that their parents spotted them and are actively chasing them. Shuichi suggests they cut through to the beach and all four run off. Both Nishiki and Yoriko's families spot them and catch up on the beach. Refusing to be separated once again, the couple twists their bodies to intertwine with each other and crawl off into the ocean. Sometime later, Kirie encounters townspeople walking in endless circles. Rumors catch on about the town lighthouse's recent reactivation at school where everyone discovers that Mr. Yokota has also turned into a snail person. Traveling home after school, Kirie's brother Mitsuo convinces her to go to the lighthouse with him as a boat had crashed into nearby rocks, with the crew having walked in circles. Mitsuo and his friends travel up into the lighthouse and Kirie follows him in. Walking up the lighthouse's stairs, Kirie discovers the corpses of men who were assigned to investigate the lighthouse's reactivation and encounters two of Mitsuo's friends who don't go up any further upon seeing them. Kirie reaches the top where her brother and his friend are and discovers the tower's light is severely melted, realizing it becomes extremely hot when it turns on. She warns them to run back down and as they do the light goes on at sundown, burning Mitsuo's friend who failed to escape in time and injuring Kirie.
3	"Episode 3"	Yuji Moriyama	Shigeki Awai	Hiroshi Nagahama	October 13, 2024 (2024-10-13)	October 18, 2024
Kirie is admitted to the town's hospital for her burns. Multiple pregnant women are also admitted after complaining of being sick from mosquito bites. Kirie's pregnant cousin, Keiko Nakayama, arrives and shares the same room as her due to overcrowding in the maternity ward. The next day, three patients are found dead in the hospital and appear to be completely drained of their blood. The following night, Kirie wakes up and discovers that the pregnant women are roaming the hospital and using manual hand drills to drain and suck the blood of patients. The women spot Kirie and attempt to kill her but she uses Shuichi's mosquito repellant to disperse them. Meanwhile, Yukie continues to mentally deteriorate as a millipede tries to crawl into her ear while she is asleep, the millipede claims to be her husband, who tells her there's a spiral in her ear during hallucinations. Fearing them, she uses scissors to stab herself in the ear and ultimately succumbs to the injury. Sometime later, Kirie and Shuichi walk the hospital hallways, seeing the newly born babies growing spiral-patterned placentas and then discovering in the doctor's surgical room that Keiko's baby has been put back into her womb. Keiko demands blood and the doctor attempts to use Kirie as a sacrifice but she dodges, killing the doctor instead. Kirie immediately leaves the hospital, where her family welcomes her back home with a celebratory dinner along with Shuichi, who becomes startled after discovering Yasuo has been making spiral-patterned pottery and breaks Yasuo's kiln, as he hears his deceased parents from within. The pottery inside disperses and the shed it's located in catches fire. Later, a typhoon descends upon the town and the eye rests over Dragonfly Pond, calling out to Kirie. She and Shuichi attempt to escape the eye but it sucks them up and drags them near the pond before dispersing. Due to damage the Goshima's household took from the storm, they move into one of the town's rowhouses. One of the neighboring tenants dies from an unknown disease. Another tenant, Mr. Wakabayashi, catches the same disease and attempts to attack Kirie outside but is hit by a tree log from another storm. Yamaguchi's corpse randomly appears, jumping thanks to the car suspension spring inside his torso.
4	"Episode 4"	N/A	Wu Hao, Daisuke Sato, Kouichirou Sohtome, Shinrai & Studio Massket	Hiroshi Nagahama	October 20, 2024 (2024-10-20)	October 25, 2024
A news crew arrives in Kurouzu-cho but is lofted by a whirlwind twister, killing two of them and leaving journalist Chie Maruyama alone to fend for herself. She continues on foot to the town, which is now nearly destroyed by whirlwinds generated by fast movements and loud noises. She encounters Kirie and her brother Mitsuo combing the area and joins them on their way back to the rowhouse where her parents and Shuichi are. More people have entered the building to avoid the whirlwinds and Kirie and her family are kicked out. While walking around the ravaged town, the group comes across the Butterfly Gang who are cooking the snail people and eating them. During a confrontation, Yasuo is pushed and thrown far away by a whirlwind caused by the gang. Kirie pushes the gang back and everyone gets taken by whirlwinds, with the Butterfly Gang being sucked up into Dragonfly Pond. Kirie, Chie, and Shuichi wander the town and encounter a group of people who arrive in town but can't escape due to the curse. Some members of the group begin turning into snail people and they begin to suspect they can escape its curse if they take refuge in one of the rowhouses on the outskirts of town. They find one but its occupants won't let any more in due to their bodies becoming intertwined with one another. Their stuffing damages the side of the rowhouse and they begin extending it. The next day, Kirie discovers that a whirlwind has taken away her mother according to Mitsuo, who got buried in building debris. They also discover that Mitsuo is beginning to turn into a snail person. In order to save him, Kirie, Chie, and Shuichi decide to leave town through the mountains. During their travel, they come across some of the men from the earlier group who followed them but somehow ended up walking in the opposite direction. The group continues and one of the men becomes fully inflicted by the snail person curse and the other men begin eating him. Kirie, Chie, and Shuichi abandon them but eventually end up meeting with them the same way as earlier. Mitsuo fully transforms into a snail person and the men attempt to eat him but Kirie and the others force Mitsuo to travel down a cliff to escape. The men succumb to the spiral curse and their bodies become distorted. Later, the trio arrives back in Kurouzu-cho only to discover that many years have passed and the remaining inhabitants have made the town one large spiral of consecutively connected rowhouses. Kirie discovers her parents are still alive and are somewhere near Dragonfly Pond, so they all begin to travel to the middle of town. During their walk, Chie becomes separated from Kirie and Shuichi due to the completion of the rowhouses. The both of them continue to the pond but are instead greeted by a descending stairwell when they arrive. During their descent, Shuichi is attacked by a spiral-inflicted person and falls to the bottom. Kirie arrives at the end of the stairway and also falls due to it being broken halfway down. At the bottom, she is met with a glowing spiral structure and discovers the bodies of many of the curses inflicted, including her own parents. Kirie and Shuichi reunite and both agree that resisting the spiral curse is futile. With all the townspeople finally inflicted, the entrance to the stairway closes. In a post-credits scene, it's revealed that Kurouzu-cho continues its curse in a never-ending loop, with newer townspeople doomed to repeat the same fate every few generations.

Reception

Uzumaki was nominated for an Eisner Award in the category of "Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material" in 2003. The Young Adult Library Services Association chose the first volume for its list of the "Top 10 Great Graphic Novels for Teens" in 2009. The manga was also included on its list of the 53 "Great Graphic Novels for Teens". Viz Media's Deluxe edition ranked No. 172 in Diamond's Top 300 Graphic Novels in October 2013 with a total of 784 copies sold. IGN placed Uzumaki at #2 under their "Top 10 Horror/Thriller Manga" list. About.com's Deb Aoki placed Uzumaki in her list of recommended horror manga, describing it as a classic of the genre. Uzumaki appeared in 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die (2011), and the reviewer wrote that it reminded him of the works of H.P. Lovecraft. MyM magazine praised the manga, calling it "one of the scariest manga series around."

In Manga: The Complete Guide (2007), Jason Thompson gave Uzumaki three and a half stars, and wrote that, taken as a whole, the manga succeeds as "an elegant and sometimes blackly humorous story of dreamlike logic and nihilism." Thompson featured the manga again in his House of 1000 Manga blog, praising it for its originality, in that it revolved around "a certain nightmarish, fatalistic way of looking at the world". ComicsAlliance author and comic artist Sara Horrocks also praised the manga, stating "What makes Uzumaki such a strong work is how precise it is in its mechanics. It is meticulous in the way that a curse might be."

For the first volume, Theron Martin from Anime News Network gave it a 'B', praising the art style and character designs, including Viz Media's new cover design. He stated, however, that "some of the attempts at horror get too preposterous for their own good." Greg Hackmann of Mania gave it an A, praising both its "well-honed" art and Ito's ability to form an effective overarching plot out of Uzumaki's loosely connected substories. Barb Lien-Cooper of Sequential Tart gave it a 7 out of 10, stating "The art is clean and simple. It works to help maintain the paranoia. The tone and pacing of this story are also just right. Altogether, one of the better horror stories I've read this year." Ken Haley of PopCultureShock gave it an 'A' and praised Ito's effective use of body horror, though he noted that some of the curse's effects were more humorous than frightening.

For the second volume, Lien-Cooper gave it 8 out of 10 stating, "What astounds me about Junji Ito's work is its deceptive simplicity and its flawless execution." Sheena McNeil, also from Sequential Tart, instead gave it a 9 out of 10, citing the novel effects of the curse Ito invented. Hackmann, however, gave it a 'B', explaining that "Unfortunately, this shift in story format is largely a failed experiment: with the overarching escape storyline put on hiatus, a good number of these disconnected episodes degenerate into simple, 'lookit, weird stuff happening' horrorfests that lack much of the creative spark exhibited throughout the first Uzumaki collection."

When reviewing the third and final volume, Haley again gave it an 'A', praising Junji Ito for providing answers to questions previously asked but not answered in a heavy or mundane form. Lien-Cooper gave the conclusion a 6 out of 10, and criticized the initial ending as nonsensical and the expanded background given in "Galaxies" as uninteresting.

External links

• Uzumaki on Twitter (in English)
• Official website at Adult Swim
• Uzumaki (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia