Review: Uzumaki

Uzumaki

Author

Junji Ito

Personal Opinion

Here comes another review about twisted horror from Junji Ito: Uzumaki. As with Gyo, Junji Ito sure knows his way around in making bizarre horror. The unusual horror you’ll find in Gyo will most likely be found in every single chapter of Uzumaki. It’s nowhere near to what Uzumaki Naruto has to offer.

Uzumaki tells the story of the mysterious events took place in a small town named Kurozu-cho. This small and remote town located on the coast of Japan is cursed by spirals. Yes, spirals. That supposedly common thing actually brings disaster to the people living in Kurozu-cho.

At first, it was more like a plague of obsessions -and a peculiar one at that- toward spirals. After a while, this obsession turns nasty as people are willing to break their own bones to make their bodies formed a spiral. Can you imagine seeing an adult body in the form of a spiral? It’s quite the horror for me and the scene showing that spiral body is the mark of more horrible scenes in the next chapters.

Based on Gyo and Uzumaki, I come to think that Junji Ito is a fast paced story teller. In both manga, it was a roller-coaster ride of twisted and horrible scenes. In every chapter of both manga, Junji Ito kept readers in suspense waiting for another shocking mysteries to unravel.

With the roller-coaster ride in Uzumaki, readers are taken on a journey to unravel the cause of the spiral mystery in Kurozu-cho. Little by little, mystery by mystery, horror scenes by horror scenes, readers are taken to see how the curse has taken the toll on the people of Kurozu-cho.

Twisted bodies, spiral cremation smokes, jack-in-the-box corpse, light house with hypnotizing and super-hot light, man-snails, entangled human beings, and plenty or more surprises are there to raise your eyebrows and gave you goosebumps when reading Uzumaki. When comparing to Gyo, this one hits it a lot better. One point for Uzumaki is that it has more unusual scenes to offer that Gyo and was less predictable than Gyo’s storyline.

This one is a recommended reading for all horror fans, especially those who are fond of unconventional horror an thriller. Expect every aspect of horror brought to you in this manga -everything except ghosts. Last but not least, as with Gyo, any readers with weak stomach should come prepared before reading this manga. I personally experienced losing my appetite for lunch when reading this manga.