Warning: This post contains Images that may be disturbing for some

Article Contents

1. Introduction
2. Audio-visual
3. Story and Characters
4. What was Most Horrifying?

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Introduction

Uzumaki is a Fall 2024 anime based on the manga by famous horror author Junji Itou. Though I’m familiar with the name and fame of this artist/storyteller, this was actually my first time experiencing one of his works. I watched the first episode of Uzumaki on Sunday Sep 29th and feasted on a classic of anime horror for the first time. I also read a short manga by Junji Itou the next day (The Enigma of Amigara Fault) to familiarize with myself with the style further. I’ve been quite impressed so far.

The story of Uzumaki begins in a small town where strange occurrences are happening – and they all involve spirals, AKA uzumaki. Our audience surrogate at least for the first episode is Kirie, a highschool girl who is dating a boy named Shuuichi. He is the only one who seems to understand that the spirals are a curse on this town. Though Shuuichi constantly warns his girlfriend, Kirie can’t yet believe or understand it.

I’m not going to recap the entire episode this time, but that introductory synopsis should help people find their footing who didn’t watch the episode yet. Rather than focusing on recap, this episode review will examine my thoughts on the episode’s visuals, audio, plot, characters, and horror elements.

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Audio-visual

The animation style is unique and avant-garde. For one thing, it’s black-and-white, without a trace of any colors. The style is supposed to look like a manga come to life, closely resembling Junji Itou’s drawings. According to Junji Itou fans, it just wouldn’t be right in full color. Keeping it monochrome is the best way to honor Junji Itou as well as keep the look as eerie and bizarre as possible.

The animation itself is largely 3D, and I normally don’t like this in anime. However, as long as it looks natural in the style it appears in, I don’t mind it at all. In fact, I think 3D was a good choice for this particular anime. It means more fluid face expressions, better ease of movement for characters within the 3D settings, and uncanny motions. The characters walk in a wobbly way and the framerate seems slightly “off,” but I believe this was intentional. It adds to the uncomfortable atmosphere.

When it comes to the visuals – especially the shocking ones that elicit horror in the characters – they are often a strange mix of humorous and unsettling. For example, when Toshio Saito (Shuuichi’s father) makes his eyes spin around in opposite directions, I couldn’t take it seriously because it looked very silly. But as the episode went on and there were more grotesque images, I realized that the combination of goofy and horrendous was perfect. It feels like when you’re stuck in a really bad drug trip.

These visuals are well-made and addictive to watch, but what about the audio? It’s also high-quality. Although the music so far has sounded generic, there is also a lot of ambient noise and wind sound effects that I like. In addition, the voice-acting is amazing. This episode’s best performances – in my opinion – belonged to Mariya Ise (playing Kurotani Azami) and Takashi Matsuyama (voice of Toshio Saito). Mika Doi also did great as Yukie Saito (Shuuchi’s mother).

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Story and Characters

The plot introduced three storylines: the case of Shuuichi’s father, the case of Kurotani Azami (the girl with a spiral scar), and the case of Katayama (the bullied kid with special needs). The first two cases were already wrapped up in this first episode, but it remains to be seen what will happen with Katayama. Of the three stories, Katayama’s is definitely the most uncomfortable to me, as I hate watching bullying – especially bullying of an already disadvantaged person.

The character of Shuuichi is a little bit annoying, but I don’t mind him personally. Kirie is our audience surrogate, as I mentioned earlier. Kurotani Azami was a fascinating and beautiful girl, if a little bit selfish. It’s sad what happened to her. I also felt awful for Yukie Saito as she lost her mind following her husband’s gruesome death. All in all, the characters are perfectly adequate for a horror story.

Now, we must ask ourselves the question we can’t avoid: what the hell are these spirals? Why are they taking over the town? Unfortunately, at the current time, I still have no solid idea about the spirals and their true nature. All I can gather so far is that there is a strong supernatural element to them. The spirals definitely seem more demonic than extraterrestrial. I could also be missing a metaphor here, where the spirals mean something about human nature. I’m not sure yet.

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What was Most Horrifying?

To wrap things up, I’ll share what I thought was the best “horror moment” from the pilot episode. The runner up would be the smiling smoke face made from the cremation of Toshio Saito. However, for me, the moment that made me cringe most – and almost look away – was when Yukie cut the tips off her fingers. Good Lord! That hurt to watch!

Epsiode Rating: 10/10

I’m very impressed with Uzumaki so far and I can’t wait for another episode this weekend! What about you? Did you see the episode yet and what did you think?

~Thanks for reading~

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