Summary
After five long years of waiting, and uncertainty about whether this series would actually be released. Thenewest adaptation of a Junji Ito work,Uzumaki, has been released on Adult Swim and HBO Max. The story of Kirie and Shuichi in the cursed town of Kurouzo-cho immediately entraps audiences with a distinct animation style, eerie music and atmosphere, and a stellar voice cast. Fans have been begging for a worthy adaptation of one of Junji Ito’s enthralling works. Is this finally it?
Studio Drive’s efforts are palpable in this first episode. Along with directorHiroshi Nagahama’s vision. Was the long wait worth it? Or is this yet another dud in the Junji Ito curse?
Animation Bringing Ito’s Pages onto the Screen
A Distinct, Unnerving Style
The series is produced entirely in black and white, making the visuals all the closer to the original manga. Studio Drive also seems to be implementing Rotoscoping as the main animation method. While this technique is often criticized for its awkward result, it may be on purpose.The characters' overly fluid, unnatural movementgoes a long way to enhancing the unnerving feel of the scenes. Just from watching a few seconds from the episode, the audience gets this continuous sense of uneasiness, as if something is wrong at all times.
The black and white color palette and the detailed, carefully crafted artwork perfectly translate Ito’s art into animation. It feels like watching an extremely well-done motion manga, in the best sense possible. Often, anime adaptations stray far from the original manga art, but in Uzumaki,every frame seems pulled directly from the book.
Sound and Music Providing what the Manga Couldn’t
Terror Directly Into Your Brain
Colin Stetsonis an accomplished Canadian-American composer who composed the soundtrack forHereditaryandThe Menu, so he already had experience with horror. The music employed here is subtle but incredibly effective. Stetson strays away from the usual high-pitched, generic music often used in Horror media. Instead, he opts for continuous and organic sounds that enhance the visuals and ensure you’re not distracted from the scenes, but rather pulls you in along with the characters. There are no jump scares or loud sounds,it’s all subtle tones that drive the terror directly into your eardrums.
Uzumaki’s voice cast is nothing but stellar. The episode has just a few characters, but every single one is voiced in the best way possible. Shin’ichiro Miki (Kisuke Urahara inBleach, Roy Mustang inFullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood) is a long-standing star in Japan. He delivers Shuichi’s turmoil perfectly, from his justified paranoia about the Spiral Curse to his terror once he experiences the occurrences first-hand. Azami Kurotani is a key character in this first entry, as she is the main monster of the week of"The Scar", she’s portrayed by the talented Mariya Ise (Killua inHunter X Hunter, Himeno inChainsaw Man). Ise expertly conveys Azami’s descent into the abomination she becomes,a psychological spiral into a horrifying creature.
Directing and Script: Hiroshi Nagahama Proves His Worth
An Impossible Task Made Possible
Hiroshi Nagahama is famous for directingMushishiandThe Flowers of Evil. He’s no stranger to horror or thrillers. His style lends itself perfectly to Uzumaki, as, along with the visuals and sound, his way of directing the scenes makes sure the audience is constantly uncomfortable. Every scene is slow and creepy, anticipating the events with great precision. Uzumaki and Junji Ito’s works in general, are all about careful build-up and intrigue leading to a shocking, unexplainable climax. Nagahama fully understood the assignment.
The first episode adapts three and a half chapters of the manga:“The Spiral Obsession"Parts 1 and 2,“The Scar"and"The Snail”. These stories are intertwined, making the anthology format of the manga into a continuous coherent story. This episode, adapting some of the most famous stories and panels from the manga, instantly entraps the audience into the spiral. Manga fans and first-watchers alike are hooked by these terrifying images.
The Uzumaki anime starts off really strong with excellent visuals and sound. While the pacing may be a bit too fast for some fans, the story is adapted in a way that makes the events coherent and linked to each other. If the remaining episodes continue this level of quality,the Junji Ito adaptation cursemay have finally been broken.
Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror
Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror is an adaptation of Junji Ito’s acclaimed manga, directed by Hiroshi Nagahama. The series unfolds in the town of Kurôzu-cho where inexplicable events related to spirals plague the inhabitants, leading to terror and madness. Highlighting the psychological and supernatural, the show follows high school student Kirie Goshima and her boyfriend, Shuichi Saito, as they confront the spiraling horrors that engulf their town.
