Junji Itou is a creator of horror manga from Japan. His works have been extremely influential in Japanese media and even beyond. Though his manga stories are generally considered excellent, most TV/movie adaptations fail miserably. You need look no further than Uzumaki, one of Itou’s short horror manga series published in 1998-99. It was made into an anime in 2024. I was excited to try my first taste of Junji Itou’s works, so the Uzumaki anime was sort of special to me. However, while there were some redeemable and enjoyable aspects, the four-episode series was not well-received and failed in many ways. Please join me for a brief review of Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror.

(Warning: This mini anime review may contain spoilers)

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Story

Score: 5/10

There was a lot of potential for the story of Uzumaki, but it was never realized. The premise is that a small rural town in Japan has been cursed or infested with the concept of spirals. It eventually destroys the entire town. The best way to think of it is that spirals are mental contagions or even demons that spread between people and affect them in various cursed ways. For instance, a girl’s scar changes to a spiral that slowly grows and devours her like a black hole. For another example, a boy grows a spiral shell and eventually transforms into a human-sized snail. There is an immense amount of body horror and general discomfort in this series as the townspeople are all cursed with supernatural tragedy, all revolving around spirals.

Though I felt there were all sorts of interesting directions to choose from, the story simply didn’t bother choosing one. The truth behind the spirals was never explained. There’s something to be said about chaotic stories that leave a lot up to interpretation; I usually enjoy that kind of anime. But in this case, the story felt completely directionless to me – and not in a funny or entertaining way like in some more comedic shows. Since I haven’t read the manga, I can’t really say whether this is the anime’s fault or not. Was the manga writing also this mediocre and unorganized? Or does it just read better in manga form and doesn’t translate well into a screen? I don’t know. But I wanted so much more for Uzumaki than the sloppy narrative mess that we were given.

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Visuals

Score: 5/10

Two tiny anime studios, Akatsuki and Fugaku, came together to create the animation for Uzumaki. Famously, though the first episode of Uzumaki looked generally excellent, the production team did a terrible job with their animation budget, leading to extremely poor visuals in subsequent episodes. Most anime is bright and colorful, but Uzumaki is black-and-white like a manga. This choice was a creative gamble that didn’t work out. The visual dreariness and lack of life ended up making the show harder to get through, in my opinion. Much of the animation is also done with 3D, which can work for me if it looks smooth or stylized enough (like it does in Beastars). But in Uzumaki, the lack of creative vision and execution meant the 3D stood out to me in a jarring way more often than not. I was not impressed with this mediocre animation.

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Audio

Score: 7/10

We’ll start with the music and then go over sound design. The memorable OST was composed by Colin Stetson. The main theme, “Uzumaki,” is beautiful and genuinely unsettling. There are several other good tracks, too. There were no opening or ending songs; the theme music plays during the title card and credits. At several points, while watching this adaptation, I was impressed with the sound design and directing – granted, I don’t know much about that stuff. I just know that the ambience and sound effects were creepy in an enjoyable way for me, especially during the first and last episodes.

The Japanese voice-acting was alright and featured a fair number of skilled, veteran seiyuu. Takashi Matsuyama voiced Toshio Saitou, the father of male co-lead Shuichi. Matsuyama did an amazing job with the role. As for Shuichi, he was voiced by the talented and sexy Shinichiro Miki. I felt like his role as Shuichi wasn’t as good as some of his other acting, but the voice-directing of Uzumaki may be responsible for this. Regardless, it was a treat to hear his voice. The ladies of the cast included Uki Satake as female lead Kirie Goshima. Satake has had relatively few roles in anime, but most have been memorable, such as QT from Space Dandy.

Continuing with voice-acting, a personal favorite seiyuu of mine, Mariya Ise, played Azami Kurotani. I loved that she used her distinct, insane laughter for the role. Horie Yui, a prolific voice-actor with a cute, high-pitched voice, played Eri Kujou. It was also great to hear the talent of Mika Doi, who played Yukie Saitou. The voice-acting was a little bland at times, despite featuring some good veterans and moments of excellence. Overall, I would only give the audio category 7/10 because it wasn’t super memorable to the average viewer.

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Characters

Score: 5/10

Uzumaki failed on the front of providing interesting or well-written characters. Most characters were bland and forgettable (like Kirie), while several of the ones that stood out were annoying (like Shuichi sometimes). Consistently, the characters all make stupid choices and show a lack of development. Also, there was insufficient time for growing attached to these characters. I’m not sure if these are issues with the anime or the manga itself. Horror manga isn’t typically known for its stellar depictions of character psychology. Maybe it’s hard to write interesting people when most of them die off in horrific ways. Still, I wanted better. Since the character writing wasn’t actively bad, I won’t give it a 4/10; but it was certainly no better than average, so 5/10 seems fair.

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Personal Enjoyment

Score: 5/10

When I first watched Uzumaki in 2024, I probably would have rated it 7/10 for personal enjoyment. However, upon attempting to rewatch the short series for this review, I found myself much less entertained. After hearing so many critiques of this adaptation, my opinion must have shifted in that direction, too. That being said, I don’t hate or even dislike Uzumaki strongly; I just find it mediocre and boring. There were definitely aspects of it that I enjoyed, especially when watching it for the first time. Let’s go over some of the positives.

First off, I am a big enjoyer of the spectacle of artistic violence. There was a good amount of shocking violence at which to gaze and shudder. In addition, by watching Uzumaki, I was introducing myself to body horror for the first time. I don’t consume much horror content, so this was very new to me. Body horror is plentiful in Uzumaki, and I enjoyed seeing some of it, though I also found it too disgusting to dive deeper into that kind of horror. On a semi-related note, I enjoyed the general absurdity and bizarre nature of the story and art in this series. Everything just felt so weird and uncanny – even funny at certain moments. The Japanese voice-acting, music, and sound design were also elements of Uzumaki that I found enjoyable.

Now, as for things I didn’t like, there are numerous examples, including the stupidity and shallowness of the characters, the cheap and lifeless-looking visuals, the lack of interesting story theme exploration, and the way the episodes and events felt so disjointed. Furthermore, the character of Katayama was handled poorly. I felt that he was portrayed as a child with mental and physical handicaps, so seeing him as nothing but a victim for the whole story was heartbreaking. The bullying he went through was so intense that I wonder if he even feared the loss of his humanity and consciousness. And if Katayama was indeed supposed to be a kid with something like Down Syndrome, why did the narrative seem to lean into him being physically gross? I disliked that. Though some aspects of this anime were enjoyable, the negatives outweigh the positives for me.

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Overall Score

Score: 5.4 out of 10.0 Spirals

It’s rather disappointing that my first taste of Junji Itou ended up being so poorly executed. Uzumaki was sadly an example of an adaptation gone wrong. That being said, provided I don’t have to sit through it again, I don’t regret having watched this anime to judge it for myself. It was still an experience out of which I got something, even if that something was just an introduction to Junji Itou and in particular to body horror and loss of humanity. I do not recommend this anime, as you’re better off reading the manga. But if you want, listen to the Uzumaki OST by Colin Stetson while you read. With a cool soundtrack like that, you can’t say nothing good came of the Uzumaki anime.

~Thanks for Reading~

Written by 7Mononoke at Anime Rants

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