Uzumaki, Manga Recommendation of the Week!

Key takeaways from Manga Recommendation – Uzumaki:

• Uzumaki is a horror manga written and illustrated by Junji Ito, known for his works in the horror genre.
• The plot revolves around the town of Kurozu-cho, where the residents become obsessed with the spiral shape, leading to madness and horror.
• Uzumaki is a short manga with a great plot, well-written characters, and effective use of body horror and grotesque imagery, making it a must-read for horror fans.

Now, in my opinion, it is really difficult for a comic or a manga to be ‘scary’. Disturbing or gory is one thing, but ‘scary’ is different. In horror movies, games, or anime, the soundtrack is a huge part of the atmosphere and is the source of most scares as it sets the tension. In a manga though, you don’t have a soundtrack. So the feeling of fear and intimidation is extremely hard to achieve. Uzumaki here is one of the few mangas that manages to pull that off.

So welcome back to another edition of our manga recommendation series. And this week is for my horror fans as we are talking about Uzumaki. An absolutely amazing manga and one that took some real guts to read on my part. If you are a horror fan, this is a must-read work. So let’s get started.

Introduction

Uzumaki is written and illustrated by Junji Ito. He is rather famous for his horror works. The manga was serialized in Big Comic Spirits from January 1998 to August 1999. It is 3 volumes or 19 chapters long, which is very short. It’s not even enough to make a whole cour of anime. Speaking of which, this manga is getting an anime adaptation, which is supposed to come out sometime this year. So you can check that out as well whenever it drops.

Plot

The plot is pretty simple. It is about a couple, Shuuichi and Kirie trying to leave their bizarre town of Kurozu-cho as the residents “spiral” into madness and become obsessed with the spiral shape. Hence the name, “Uzumaki” or “The Spiral”. The whole city has been taken over by the spirals apparently and Kirie and Shuuichi need to leave if they want any semblance of a normal life.

Uzumaki has a pretty simple plot but, it is not about the plot when it comes to horror stories, is it? In a horror story, how good the plot heavily depends on the execution of the plot. Now, fortunately, the execution of this plot is really good. You know right off the bat that not everything is right in the town and this feeling of uneasiness continues throughout this series.

Characters

Uzumaki has its fair share of interesting characters too. While our MCs may come off as a bit basic at first, they are pretty well written too. Wish we had a slightly bigger cast of characters but this manga is short so I like the fact that they went for quality over quantity. The MCs do a pretty good job of driving the plot forward and I like that.

Art

Junji Ito has pretty good art. Art styles are subjective, I know. But I really like Junji Ito’s art style. It is really good for mangas like these. There is a lot of body horror and grotesque imagery, all of which really add an additional impact to the plot.

Why should you read Uzumaki?

Quick pointers on why you check out this manga:

• Great plot
• Good characters
• Really short
• Scary as hell

Conclusion

That is all for now. Let me know what you guys think in the comments. Uzumaki is actually pretty damn scary and I look forward to seeing how the anime adaptation takes on this manga. With that said, I will take my leave here. See ya!!