REVIEW: ‘Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror’ Deserves Your Unwavering Attention

After years of production hell, Adult Swim and Jason DeMarco‘s Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror is finally here. Well, it was worth the wait. Bold in its creative gray and black vision, the series tackles Junji Ito’s art as much as it does his storytelling. With series like The Junji Ito Collection and Junji Ito: Maniac already in the world, studio Drive and Production I.G. USA had the added task of differentiating its take on Ito’s iconic horror work from what is already out there. Something extremely important is that Maniac was released just last year.

Uzumaki is a story that showcases multiple avenues of horror. The psychopathy that obsession breeds is on display. The sense of impending doom consistently forces the narrative lens tighter on its subjects. Finally, the grotesque movements of the body are the disturbing sprinkles on top of an already unsettling story.

Uzumaki follows Kirie Goshima (Uki Satake), a high school girl who lives in a Japanese seaside town called Kurouzu-cho. The town is sleepy and still until the spirals start to emerge. Kirie and her boyfriend, Shuichi Saito (Shin’ichirô Miki), discover that Kurouzu-cho is cursed. As Saito’s father becomes obsessed with a spiral, the shape emerges everywhere. In scars, in landscapes, everywhere. The curse affects the bodies, minds, and souls of Kurouzu-cho’s residents, causing mass obsession over spirals.

Having watched both the English dub and Japanese versions of Uzumaki, it’s awesome to highlight the strength of both voice-acting casts. Every voice actor captures the tone and atmosphere of the scenes they’re involved in. The abject horror displayed in one-particular spine swirling scene hits hard, adding more to the story’s rushing dread.

A tall order, studio Drive nails the style, atmosphere, and depth that have made Ito and his stories stand the test of time and define him as a master of horror. It’s difficult to capture Uzumaki in words without giving away the entirety of the series and story. Even with the series’ fidelity to originality, beauty, and repulsion are at play in the animation style and approach that will make even the most faithful readers gobsmacked.

As a medium, animation often improvises and adapts written and illustrated work like live-action does. It changes and adjusts small aspects that work better in the format. Here, those small choices never detach the work from the original work but rather hone in on the moments that have crafted Uzumaki into a mainstay in horror writing.

Uzumaki is a testament to Junji Ito’s work as much as it’s an adaptation. It was made by people who truly understand how terrifying gray and black can be, letting the linework do the heavy lifting. That also means the animators have chosen a path with very little to hide behind. The fidelity is balanced by a bleak rawness that evokes what I felt when I first read Ito’s work.

Until this point in the review, I have raved about what this animation means for the source material, but the reality is that Drive and Production I.G. have done something I thought impossible. They have made the page come to life and blur the line between management and animation without ever feeling like a stale motion comic. The skill of the animation team is clear, and the deft eye of director Hiroshi Nagahama and Aki Itami‘s tight screenplay is truly to thank for the most thoughtful and beautiful take on Uzumaki to date.

Uzumaki premieres Saturday, September 28, 2024.