Uzumaki anime Review: Not What I was Hoping For
Article at a glance:
- Uzumaki’s anime adaptation struggles to capture the essence of Junji Itou’s episodic horror, with episodes 2 and 3 significantly dragging down the quality due to pacing and production issues.
- Both Kirie and Shuuichi suffer from lack of development in the anime, with much of their characterization from the manga being omitted.
- Despite animation inconsistencies, the anime shines in its voice acting, music, and attempt to preserve the unique black-and-white aesthetic of the manga.
Uzumaki was always going to be a difficult anime for me to review. Partly because of how much reverence I have for the source material and partly because of how unconventional it is. Junji Itou’s works are not your typical stories. Yes, they do have an over-arching plot but they are meant to be experiences first. This is one of the reasons why his works are so hard to adapt into anime.
And to add more complexity to all this, there is also the whole issue with episodes 2 and 3 being quite bad and they were apparently made by a different studio. Yeah, the production of this anime is a whole different rabbit hole that I don’t want to go down right now.
Before I begin this review though, I do want to make it clear that I enjoyed watching this anime. There is nothing else quite like this so I do still that you check this out if you are into horror. So welcome to my first anime review for the fall 2024 season and today we are talking about Uzumaki!
Plot
As I said, Junji Itou’s works are meant to be experiences rather than consistent stories. And Uzumaki is no different. The show is a collection of events taking place in the small town of Kurouzu-cho. And most of the time, there is no throughline connecting all these events aside from the “curse of the spiral”. But this is much worse in the anime because most of the explanations are omitted, Yes, the manga was episodic as well but the anime manages to feel even more disjointed even though each episode covers multiple manga chapters.
I will get into this more later but episodes 2 and 3 harmed the show. I don’t know if this was because of all the production issues but along with a dip in animation quality, episodes 2 and 3 were also the worst paced. They had the most amount of content omitted. And given that chapters Episode 3 covered, it should’ve been the best episode of the bunch but no. I won’t pretend that Uzumaki had a deep plot or anything but it did have a plot that is almost entirely absent from the anime adaptation.
Characters
Once again, Junji Itou doesn’t do character development. This is because he mostly works on short stories that don’t have room for character development. In the manga though, both Kirie and Shuuichi had more character. Because of all the content omitted from the anime, neither of them are fleshed out. Kirie at least gets some moments but Shuuici is kind of absent outside of episodes 1 and 4. The anime never even explained why Shuuichi isn’t as susceptible to the curse of the spiral.
Animations and Soundtracks
So let’s get the praise out of the way first. The voice acting and music are phenomenal throughout all episodes. There is no inconsistency in either of those aspects and they stand out in a good way. As for the animations, none of the episodes look as good as Episode 1. Episode 4 came close but it still wasn’t that good. Again, Episodes 2 and 3 are the weak links here. The quality drop in those episodes was tangible.
Still, I am happy that the anime still somewhat preserves the aesthetic of the manga’s art. Going with the black-and-white art for anime certainly helps.
Summing Up
Here are my final review scores for the Uzumaki anime adaptation:
- Plot – 6/10
- Characters – 6/10
- Animations – 8/10 (Extra points for episodes 1 and 4)
- Soundtracks – 8/10
- Enjoyment – 7/10
- Overall – 7/10
Overall, I am kind of disappointed with the Uzumaki anime adaptation. It could’ve been THE perfect adaptation but we were robbed of that. Again, episode 3 should’ve been the best episode by all means but as it stands, it is the weakest episode of the bunch. Still, though, I enjoyed the Uzumaki anime for what it was, it made me uncomfortable. I am so harsh on it right now because this is a review. I can still easily recommend it if you are into horror. It is just that it doesn’t live up to the iconic status of the manga.
So yeah, those were my thoughts on Uzumaki. Let me know yours in the comments and I will take my leave here. See ya!
Also, check out this week’s anime recommendation here!
