Originally written for my YouTube channel. Abridged and edited for AniList. So how bout that new Uzumaki huh? 100https://lostinanime.com/wpcontent/uploads/2024/09/Uzumaki01281.jpg It should come as a surprise to absolutely no one that the 24 adaptation of Uzumaki is a resounding flop. And were all really upset about it. At the time of writing I can assure you that several AniList reviewers will make that veryjustified anger known over the coming days. Uzumaki is a beloved modern horror classic from the mind of mangaka Junji Itohttps://anilist.co/staff/97410/JunjiItou who was yet again done dirty by a comically bad adaptation of arguably his most beloved work. So if youve come here to hear some thorough thrashing of this disasterclass of an anime Yeah Im not really interested in doing that. Sorry. You dont need me to tell you that this adaptation is disappointing. I trust that your gut will tell ya how goofy some scenes are in this. What Im curious about exploring isnt the how but why. Why did the people behind Uzumaki 24 make the decisions that they did? Unlike the shows color palette this situation isnt exactly blackandwhite. This isnt just another tale of a soulless profitdriven production. If anything evidence suggests that Uzumaki was anything but and that most signs point to this being a chaotic result of flying too close to the sun. I believe that theres more to this story that plenty of people havent really considered amidst collective rage and sensationalization in the anime community. For both present and future newcomers Im gonna give you a quick rundown of the bizarre circumstances surrounding Uzumaki 24. Were going to go over what parts of the anime worked what didnt and even make the admittedly subjective case for why this show maybe isnt as godawful as the Internet has made it out to be. Finally well perform a thorough investigation on Uzumaki s production and attempt to identify the culprits behind one of the biggest disappointments of the year. So without further ado I say its high time we descend into the downward spiral of Uzumaki. Uzumaki never really left. Junji Itos horror manga serial of three volumes published back in 1998 is arguably his most famous work. Its an account of events from a girl named Kirie Goshima and her strange experiences in the small fictional town of Kurouzucho told through mostly episodic short horror stories each featuring the titular Uzumaki spirals in English. In the same way that Itos classic manga captivated the public consciousness in the years since the shape of the spiral took hold of Ito when he first conceived the premise of Uzumaki. The mangaka drew from his lived experiences growing up in Nakatsugawa a city in the Gifu prefecture. He was raised in a machiya househttps://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15363659: a traditional wooden accommodation built in a row. I was really just interested in making a story about people who lived in a traditional Japanese rowhouse and seeing what happened. I lived in a crowded rowhouse myself a long time ago you know. If you live there it can be hard to get along with your neighbors so I started by wanting to draw a bunch of wasted people living in that sort of place I wanted to draw an incredibly long house and in trying to find a way to draw it that way it became a spiral. Inspired by a mosquito coil. Junji Ito Ghost Story Roundtable 2003https://teradyneblog.tumblr.com/post/19774764781/aninterviewwithjunjiitofromdavincimagazine What started out as a journey to explore discontent and conflict in everyday life quickly morphed into a terrifying exhibition of the many unsettling ways Ito incorporates the spiral into his story. Itos more than ready to prove just how many spirals could fit in this bad boy. Uzumakis initial pages depict individual blades of grass and fauna coiling up as clouds in the sky and lakes below swirl in like manner. Patterns emerge in everyday scenes. Etchings appear on the sides of buildings and even the backs of people. Somethings not right about any of this. Because while the sheer quantity of the spiral motif in Uzumaki is creative and impressive just on its own Ito grounds this recurring visual in the Uncanny. Elements such as the environment laws of nature daily mundane occurrences and even the characters themselves are each warped just enough to still be recognizable before inevitably spiraling out of control. Uzumakis short chapters are guided by the spiral motif but dictated by the way things are and extracts horror from pushing elements from our reality further and further into the unknown. Itos detailed linework art striking key visuals and uncanny horror combine to deliver what I believe is Uzumakis greatest strength atmosphere. While a good half of chapters in Uzumaki are mostly standalone and largely reset to a status quo there are overarching developments that carry over and pay off throughout the narrative. One such narrative thread encapsulates what I believe powers the haunting daunting atmosphere of Uzumaki: the tale of Kirie Goshimas boyfriend Shuichi Saito. To avoid spoilers Ill spare you the details of where he ends up but I think its noteworthy to observe where he started. From the getgo Shuichi is the doomerpilled skeptic a knowledgeable teen trying and failing to make sense of the world around him. His hometown is affecting his mind showing him unsettling signs that others arent seeing. He confides in Kirie and tells her of his intentions to get the hell out of Kurouzucho only to have his pleas laughed off. He seemingly develops a paranoia of suburbia but his anxious intuition is usually correct. The spirals are taking over every inch of the town but no one listens to him until its too late. With the character of Shuichi I think Ito manages to tap into a specific feeling hearkening all the way back to the strife among neighbors that he lived amidst as a child. That smalltown discontent that emerges from poverty entropy and otherwise. The nagging urge to change the trajectory of discomfort while lacking the tools to do so. The jadedness of wasted people as Ito puts it who succumb to dread and despair. Its this existential tension over our human lack of control that lies at the heart of Uzumaki connecting the dots between Itos frightening imagery. While not exempt from Itos weaknesses as a storyteller the manga as a whole never overstays its welcome and is a spinechilling pageturner that rarely fails to up the ante at every turn. Uzumaki never really left and its no wonder that fans were as obsessed as ever in 2019. Roughly 20 years after Uzumaki was first published Production IG USA and Adult Swim announced a 4episode limited series anime adaptation of Uzumaki. And its here where this story takes a turn for the worse. If theres anything we can say for certain about Uzumaki 24 its that the series knows how to stand out from the crowd. Rather than settle for average mediocrity the show instead winds up making an impression on both ends of the spectrum. 5 long years after the animes announcement it seemed as if the anime community breathed a collective sigh of relief when Uzumakis first episode dropped and turned out to be wellworth the wait. Sure the lipflaps were largely outofsync and the use of 3D rotoscoping took some getting used to. In terms of writing this highly faithful adaptation of the source material led to a couple of small questionable moments awkwardly carried over from page to screen. But at the time I was willing to wave off those gripes because of how effective Episode 1 turned out to be across the board. The linework felt straight out of the manga the animated body horror was grotesque and the original soundtrack OST was stellar. That unmistakably uncanny atmosphere of Junji Itos Kurouzucho the aspect that Uzumakis production absolutely HAD to get right came alive throughout that first episode. Cue Episode 2. 100https://staticg.sportskeeda.com/editor/2024/10/4f418172820937019701920.jpg I know why youre here lets not beat around the bush any further. Calling Episode 2 of Uzumaki disappointing is an understatement. At the top of the list of Things That Ruined Peoples Childhoods in October 24 are 1 this anime episode and 2 the Game Freak leaks. But how did the public reception to Uzumaki change so drastically? If you ask me horror is a genre that heavily relies on suspense. In order to trigger our fear response horror media usually needs to immerse you in the characters shoes and raise the tension effectively. Therefore what separates Episode 1 from the rest of the series is how effective it was at maintaining suspense. It was certainly flawed in some areas but never enough to significantly affect my immersion in the shows dark atmosphere. In contrast the rest of Uzumaki is littered with distractions. Subpar animation cuts frequently interrupted my escapism. Compositing and image quality varied wildly to the point where some characters looked as if they were cut out from the manga and scanned in low resolution I actually checked the manga to see if this was the case thankfully it wasnt. The continuity of events and internal logic of the show also landed poorly. For all these reasons I disagree with the Internet consensus that Episode 2 necessarily suffered a sharp decline in quality at least not in the manner one would expect. Even in this dumpster fire of an episode there are some pretty good animation cuts that simply wont make the rounds on social media the same way that the beach scene did. Negative bias does affect how we perceive things and Im inclined to push back on that with a more critical perspective. I believe that Episode 1 isnt really all that far off from the rest of the series in terms of creative approach and quality. But Episode 1 was an allrounded experience that covered all its bases emerging in an experience greater than the sum of its individual parts. Meanwhile the latter entries failed in increments that built up over time. These many mistakes crept up constantly in the following episodes crucially getting in the way of audiences wanting to take Uzumakis fiction seriously. And for me that makes all the difference in this genre. Uzumakis atmosphere and aura begins and ends with that pilot episode. In the span of just a week grotesque horror turned into unintentional comedy. Theres one aspect of the show Im especially keen on critiquing. And no its not the animation for now. Coming up in this investigation Ill reveal something truly shocking that explains a lot about why Uzumaki looks the way it does. But in the meantime were going to touch on an area that arguably killed Uzumaki 24 from the getgo: the series questionable pacing. Now I dont think Uzumakis pacing is the worst idea Ive ever heard onpaper. Theory will only take you so far and Uzumaki just couldnt go the distance. Red flags were raised as early as 2019 when the anime was announced as a limited series lasting just four episodes. 19 main story chapters across four 25minute timeslots would be too damn fast But rather than consider either condensing or excluding chapters to deliver experiences worthy of the Uzumaki intellectual property IP the production team decided to double down with the hopes that they could deliver the definitive Uzumaki adaptation within their tight runtime. It seemed as if everyone involved on the project genuinely believed that the episode length was a nonissue thanks to their allstar screenwriter Aki Itamihttps://anilist.co/staff/118556/AkiItami. Interviews with Production I.G. U.S.A. and Junji Ito himself both sang Itamisans praises claiming that she came up with a master plan fans could rally behind. Needless to say that didnt work. Im not bringing this up to cast doubt on Itamisans abilities because no amount of knowledge regarding story beats can make up for needing to cram 19 said stories with the runtime allotted. Poor Aki Itami was set up to fail from the very start although she really did give her best crack at things. The pacing of Episode 1 was promising. Initially I was drawn to the idea of having several spiral oddities occur concurrently. It broke away from a more traditional Monster of the Week structure that Itos source material felt bound to and instead hinted at a version of events that felt fresh and constantly kept me on my toes. In retrospect the chapters featured in Episode 1 turned out to be uniquely suited to this writing approach. Since they were relatively light on content and featured periods where time would elapse between scenes Episode 1 actually benefited from a dynamic adaptation: one where the script hopped backandforth between chapters and aligned their climaxes at the very end. Episode 2 on the other hand couldnt capitalize on this staggered adaptation. Not only did the episode tackle a good part of FIVE chapters but it felt as if it was doing the bare minimum to maintain any semblance of continuity between plot points. Pretty much every change in plotlines feels unnecessarily contrived with some sections lasting for barely over a minute before yet again shifting gears. Moving forward the manic manner in which the show regurgitates the source material works against Uzumakis atmosphere. The storytelling feels forcefully itemized as if crossing off boxes on a list. PostEp1 Uzumaki was only set on getting things done as opposed to getting things done well. Now with all that said do I think the Uzumaki anime is worth watching? It might come as a surprise to us both that my answer isnt a flatout no. Whether youre a newcomer or an existing Ito stan Id recommend that you ignore the noise online and judge Episode 1 for yourself. I genuinely believe its almostmandatory viewing for weebs that arent faint of heart by virtue of just how unique and realized this blackwhite experience is. Anything afterwards is optional. IMO the main variable at play would be your tolerance for mid animation. If you like me dont find the inconsistent animation quality too bothersome then you may find some appreciation for the shows detailed linework and shading made all the more technically impressive in the absence of color. Across all four episodes in spite of the animation the individual frames of this show are more intricate than people give credit for and at times feel as if the manga itself is coming to life. As for the people whove either decided that this anime isnt for them or just havent seen what the fuss is all about Id still suggest giving the manga a try. And while youre at it I absolutely recommend doing so while listening to the animes OST composed by Colin Stetsonhttps://anilist.co/staff/144471/ColinStetson. Hes a GRAMMY Awardwinning composer with credits on Western titles like Red Dead Redemption and Hereditaryhttps://www.crunchyroll.com/news/interviews/2024/10/4/colinstetsonuzumakicomposerinterview?srsltid=AfmBOoqWIXgUbuTylwofWtLjZGH0d1jfCnPP47qIaC4vhvn0Uuckd. His inexperience with composing for anime isnt even a bad thing because this soundtrack is so unnervingly unlike anything Ive heard in the medium. Inspired by spirals the music of Uzumaki sounds equal parts haunting and hypnotic. It perfectly complements the striking spirals of the source material which threaten to scare your lights out while also being too entrancing to take your eyes off. As an artist working in the West Stetson stands out as an acquisition that simply wouldnt have been linked to a traditional Japanese production and comes out as possibly the only faultless member of an otherwise disappointing Adult Swim collaboration. Speaking of which its now time to take a closer look at a mysterious production cycle spanning five years and attempt to answer the allimportant question: How did things turn out this bad? First things first. Lets establish a brief timeline of events. A fourepisode anime adaptation was announced back in Fall 2019. Storyboards of Episode 1 would be shown to the public in the first half of 2020. This time period would be where promotional material would be at its highest until full trailers for Uzumaki were finally released four years later. Official social media presence implied that the show was targeting an early2021 release. However the tune of the narrative begins to shift. Updates regarding the show slows for the second half of 2020. In November 2020 Director Hiroshi Nagahamahttps://anilist.co/staff/99346/HiroshiNagahama and Maki TerashimaFurutahttps://anilist.co/staff/104578/MakikoTerashima President of Production I.G. U.S.A. appear in an interview. They acknowledge challenges regarding the production but remain confident in broadcasting the show by 2021. Radio silence for the first half of 2021. Director Nagahama gives a teaser and update published in Summer 2021. He announces that the anime would be delayed indefinitely. Despite this the teaser was received positively as being the first animated cut of the show wed seen up till this point. In hindsight a couple key details stand out. Firstly Nagahama makes an alarming claim that Uzumakis production needed twice as many animatorshttps://www..com/watch?v=hnQOO8Y1Ck0 as what would be industry standard. Secondly all the key visuals shown in this announcement are limited to just the first episode. Hmm. Junji Ito is filmed in a studio as he records voice acting lines for his cameo in the anime as a tornado. Thus concludes our updates for the second half of 2021. Director Nagahama and the Uzumaki production team release an official statement again delaying the anime indefinitely. No further news for the rest of 2022. A year goes by. A new trailer drops in July 2023 showcasing a first look at the anime. Comparing the trailer to the final product the trailer footage was evidently in the latter stages of production 7085 complete only missing adjustments in coloring and additional shading. However this animated sequence happens very early in the episodes runtime and were left to speculate the progress of other scenes in Episode 1. What we do know is that it has been at least 3 years since initial storyboards for this episode were produced all the way back in 2020. 3 years 80 completion on one episode. The industry average tends to be 3 MONTHS per episodehttps://blog.sakugabooru.com/wpcontent/uploads/2021/11/liesanddeceit.png. As weve established by now Uzumaki appears to be anything but your ordinary production so this timeframe doesnt apply in the same way. Its still a very alarming gap however and doesnt bode well for the latter episodes in the series. Well keep an eye closed on this point for now. July 2024. A new trailer for Uzumaki drops with an official release date of September 28. Thats a whole 1795 days since Uzumakis initial announcement. The rest is history. Now that weve laid out our timeline the first thing Im going to draw your attention to are those storyboards: 100https://pbs.tw.com/media/EaK5YjhUYAA63cd?format=jpgname=medium Notice that logo on the top right titled Drive. That refers to Drivehttps://anilist.co/studio/6289/Drive a studio that started out with work in music productionhttps://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/company.php?id=15371 before slowly building up a resume in the animation industry. In promotional material over the years Studio Drive was attached to the Uzumaki anime. Today we now know that theyve completely vanished from the project with no credited involvement in any of the episodes. The Studio Drive trail runs cold and Im only left to speculate as to whether or not this relatively small studio left the project due to scheduling conflicts or some other behindthescenes drama I dont know about. Instead the studios we did get onboard the longawaited adaptation of this modern classic manga are Studio Fugakuhttps://anilist.co/studio/7369/Fugaku and Studio Akatsukihttps://anilist.co/studio/6601/Akatsuki. The reason why youve likely never heard of these names outside of Uzumaki is because their portfolios mostly reflect production work associated with support studioshttps://blog.sakugabooru.com/2021/06/09/whatactuallyisanimeoutsourcingthehistoricalcontextandcurrentrealityofanimeslifesupport/. Think of regular anime studios as contractors working for anime production committees i.e. the entities responsible for funding the anime and think of support studios acting as subcontractors for the contractors. As subcontractors support studios usually dont pursue their own creative endeavors from the groundup but instead work on the behalf of contractors in a process referred to as outsourcing. Outsourced work can include drawing key animation for another studios sequences inbetween frames and even whole episodes. So yeah thats what Fugaku and Akatsuki have been mostly up to this whole time. Theyre two relatively small teams whove stumbled upon an opportunity to make a name for themselves yaaaaay. Well talk more about Fugaku and Akatsuki soon enough. Right now lets revisit an earlier point about Uzumakis unusual production timeline. We can gauge that Episode 1 alone took roughly 34 years to complete from the storyboard phase to the final product. Which begs the question: Was this reasonable? Was this large timeframe necessary or justified for just 4 episodes of anime given extenuating circumstances? Well as someone without enough expertise in this topic I cant give you a concrete answer. What I can offer is research and arguments for why this long wait is ridiculous. And Im going to do that with Director Nagahamas own words. Weve already heard how Nagahama admitted to needing twice as many animators as ordinary production teams. With so many animators to work alongside surely a certain COVID19 would have had a considerable impact on this story. But to my surprise Nagahama doesnt seem to agree claiming that the pandemic had minimal effects when it came to animationhttps://www..com/watch?v=FXuQ9VbOlo4 since animators were already used to working remotely at their desks. The only challenge that the Uzumaki team acknowledged throughout the pandemic was that of recording lines from their voice actorshttps://www..com/watch?v=FXuQ9VbOlo4 during a time where safe distancing measures were implemented. Granted these quotes appeared in late2020 so theres a chance the pandemic did hurt them in the later years. However I think Nagahamas claims offer a different perspective to consider given that news outlets reporting on Uzumakis delays often pinned things on the pandemic as a blanket statement. Barring a severe viral outbreak Nagahamas team had twice the manpower and no excuse. If it isnt already apparent something very strange has happened in the making of this anime. Who is responsible for this maddening disaster? Theres a lot more information to share so Im going to present my evidence and claims alongside our suspects. Thats right what started out as an investigation out of curiosity has now turned into a crime scene. The victim: Uzumaki 24. The crime: homicide. Down the spiral we go. Suspect 1: Adult Swim / Cartoon Networkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdultSwim For the uninitiated Adult Swim is an American TV programming block airing on Cartoon Network. The people behind Adult Swim are responsible for broadcasting and producing media catering to mature audiences. Throughout its history the company carried a level of prestige seeing adult swim attached to a project was a sure guarantee that audiences were in for something bold provocative and creative. Its this specific marker of quality coupled with the companys deep history with anime as a cultural export that really separates Adult Swim from the rest of the pack. But wait I hear you say. When it comes to East versus the rest the West is far from the best. Americans couldnt do this manga justice the way Japan would Well Japan also had a 20year head start and no one in the anime industry laid a finger on Uzumaki. Adult Swim being outside of Japan has little to do with why Uzumaki 24 failed. If anything I cant think of any other producer today who would greenlight a faithful attempt at adapting Uzumaki for better or for worse. Times have changed. We live in a day and age where projects like Cyberpunk: Edgerunnershttps://anilist.co/anime/120377/CyberpunkEdgerunners/ Star Wars: Visionshttps://anilist.co/anime/138060/StarWarsVisions/ and Terminator: 0https://anilist.co/anime/177814/Terminator0/ represent a recent trend of Western producers ordering anime renditions of IP that are proven successes in the Western markets. Suddenly the prospect of financing a blackwhite anime adaptation of a preY2K manga aimed at an untested Western market starts to sound like a hard sell even for Adult Swim. The company isnt on this list because they are foreigners. Adult Swim are here because they were the only option and subsequently let us down by ordering a mere 4 episodes crucially less than what the IP almost certainly needed to survive. Poor pacing at the expense of Uzumakis atmosphere spelt the death knell for the anime. Dont get me wrong Im not suggesting that Adult Swim are pure antagonists in this story. Its easy for me to make the peoplepleasing choice when Im not risking hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line. I also have reasons to believe that the company involved did their best to support the production by generously providing resources accommodating Uzumakis many delays and offering creative freedom for Nagahama and his team. But compromising on the episode count is a mistake too big to ignore and truly reveals how the company perceives Uzumaki. For Adult Swim this is their first Japanese horror anime adaptation I wouldnt really say its a trial but in a way it is. Maki TerashimaFuruta Uzumaki Anime Work in Progress 2020https://www..com/watch?v=FXuQ9VbOlo4 Picture this. You are an avid fan of Junji Itos work and waited patiently for an adaptation that would do the famed author justice. Adult Swims legendary 2019 teaserhttps://www..com/watch?v=VDEQyK5ZHE drops and fills you with hope. You start to believe that your wish might finally be coming true only to hear that corporate executives werent treating Uzumaki like a beloved story but a test subject. I accept the perspective of higherups at Adult Swim I just hope they understand mine. Because this stuff really hurts. 100https://pbs.tw.com/media/GZU4NxMXAAA4PuT?format=pngname=small It appears that Im not alone in expressing discontent towards the executives at Adult Swim as evidenced by a nowdeleted post on Bluesky. Fortunately it was kept up just long enough to fall under the radar of media outlets who quickly spurred speculation about how exactly Adult Swim screwed over the Uzumaki production team. Also noteworthy was the rather hefty claim that the actions of one or two people nearly held back Uzumaki from ever seeing the light of day. Wow these are some insightful claims Its reassuring to hear that amidst all the drama theres at least some people who are on the side of the audience. As for who made the post? Well the Bluesky account can be traced back to Suspect 2: Jason DeMarcohttps://anilist.co/staff/245993/JasonDeMarco This section almost writes itself. DeMarco is impossible to omit from this list simply because the guy carries one of the most cringeworthy resumes in anime history. This includes Executive Producer credits on groundbreaking titles such as: Isekai Suicide Squadhttps://anilist.co/anime/166710/IsekaiSuicideSquad/ Rick and Morty: The Animehttps://anilist.co/anime/150103/RickandMortyTheAnime/ all 4 FLCL sequelshttps://anilist.co/anime/21746/FLCLProgressive/ and Shenmue the Animationhttps://anilist.co/anime/123752/ShenmuetheAnimation/ WHO THE HECK IS ASKING FOR ANY OF THESE SHOWS? DeMarcos track record is an unenviable symbol of a guy who appears to have the anime inverse of the Midas Touch almost everything he touches turns to shit. At a certain threshold it becomes increasingly difficult to ignore a pattern this egregious. But in the spirit of good faith discourse I think its unfair to characterize this real person in such a onedimensional way. DeMarco does have credentials in the visual artshttps://toonami.fandom.com/wiki/JasonDeMarco and probably knows more about Japanese anime production than I ever will in my lifetime. Perhaps its possible to be a passionate champion of the medium and Itos creative vision while also being a producer who has a chronic tendency of supervising trash anime. I learned in an interview that the inspiration to adapt Uzumaki in blackwhite came not from Nagahama but DeMarcohttps://www..com/watch?v=FXuQ9VbOlo4 Presenting this medium in monochrome is no easy feat and is a risky move that goes against mainstream preferences. No this is a choice made out of passion for the fans. DeMarco dared to differ from the other Junji Ito anime adaptations preceding Uzumaki 24 and I honestly think this adaptation was better off for it despite losing its legs in the long run. Why did DeMarco make those defiant comments on Bluesky? Was he trying to deflect criticism and appear as an infallible saint to normies who dont write overlylong investigative essays about nightmarish anime productions? Or does DeMarco genuinely have the interest of the fanbase at heart? Until I get more context proving otherwise Im inclined to believe the latter. Suspect 3: The Staff Probably the least impactful culprit out of the lot. Ive decided to add them to the watchlist as a response to bad takes on Reddit. Its vital to distinguish how the animation team are less of a root cause and more likely a symptom of systemic issues plaguing Uzumaki 24. A common opinion found online is that Fugaku Eps 1 4 is responsible for the good animation in Uzumaki while Akatsuki Eps 2 3 botched their assigned episodes. At the time of writing Im dismissing this theory outright. Its a reductive assessment which ignores how both Fugaku and Akatsuki are relatively onpar in terms of experience having mostly filled in the role of support studio prior to Uzumaki. Instead its quite apparent that the real differencemaker in this narrative is Director Hiroshi Nagahama. Because interestingly enough hes nowhere to be seen in the key credits for Episodes 24. The most crucial revelation surrounding this story is unfortunately a rumor. However the claim does come from a credible source and echoes what DeMarco might have meant with his assertion that the Uzumaki production team were screwed over. Dimitri Seraki Chief Editor of blog site Fullfrontal.moe alleges that Nagahama singlehandedly corrected most of the drawings in Episode 1 and was therefore banned from overseeing the production of Episodes 24https://x.com/pizzarigatoni/status/1843407983553982700. If true this claim neatly explains why Episode 1 took up to 4 years to produce and even implies that Nagahama got NO key animation work done beyond that single episode. Looking back at the evidence we can surmise that Nagahama was heavily demoted besides 3D modeling and storyboards presumably completed towards the beginning of the production cycle Nagahama only took on limited duties in postproduction offline editing inbetweens for Episode 4. A rumor emerged that Nagahama had been fully reinstated for Episode 4. The only evidence I found that supports this claim appears to be a misunderstanding of this posthttps://x.com/nekoseijinn/status/1840272544957641074. It was Kouichirou Soutomehttps://anilist.co/staff/105569/KouichirouSoutome who would return as an Episode Director on parts of Episode 4 not Nagahama. Adding credence to this theory is that Episode 4 of Uzumaki literally does not credit a directorhttps://pbs.tw.com/media/GaL4foRacAAk505?format=jpgname=4096x4096. It only credits 3 separate entities with the role of Episode Director which would be below a Director in the industry chainofcommand. What this tells me is that Adult Swim would rather blacklist its own director and proceed with Episode 4 without executive directorial approval rather than let Nagahama back onboard. With all this in mind Im no longer bitter towards the staff at Fugaku and Akatsuki frankly Im even amazed they finished the show at all in spite of their relative lack of expertise and the dismal circumstances that weve just learned about. I could go into more detail about how one of the Episode Directorshttps://anilist.co/staff/152705/TaikiNishimura is allegedly blacklisted from the industry for being terrible to work with but that barely matters when were dealing with a production fallout this gigantic. Its time we turn our attention to none other than Suspect 4: Hiroshi Nagahama Nagahama is arguably the best thing to happen to Uzumaki 24. Im now about to make the case for why hes also the worst. Nagahama is the golden boy. An animation veteran known for his attention to detail and expertise in 3D rotoscoping Nagahama won approval from DeMarco Makisan and even Junji Ito himselfhttps://www..com/watch?v=jtM5x4SejA. Across 5 long years Nagahama applied nothing but the highest standards possible and actively combated executive requests to compromise on his animation process which reportedly involved correcting most of Episode 1s frames by himself. Nagahama went allout and hired motioncapture teamshttps://i.ur.com/pyN4ucU.png which do not come cheap to provide animation for his 3D rotoscoping. For his storyboards Nagahama treated Itos source material as his Holy Grail choosing to deviate from the manga panels as little as possible even if it made translating sequences from pagetoscreen that much harder. Hes him. He also spent somewhere around 4 fucking years to produce a single episode of anime. Wouldnt you like to know why production took this long? Wouldnt you like to know how badly Nagahama must have messed up to completely derail his own passion project? Wouldnt you like to know why Nagahama claimed that the unusual production of Uzumaki required twice as many animators as normal? Wouldnt you like to know what on Kamisamas green Earth would it take for Adult Swim to effectively bench their MVP for the remainder of production? Im convinced that Nagahamas biggest mistake was that hes singular. Just one guy. He was never asked to negotiate or compromise until things had gotten well out of hand. He had the full trust and freedom to bloat the staff with a costly motion capture department despite it being a luxury not many anime productions can afford. He delegated a huge chunk of grunt work to both inhouse staff and outsourced labor only to apparently wind up bottlenecking the entire operation by correcting the frames himself. His unconventional methods stalled production leading to the unceremonious exit of Studio Drive for reasons unknown but understandable. As for the workforce that remained Fugaku and Akatsuki were forced to take the brunt of the blame despite putting in nearthankless work that could never live up to the Nagahamas noble aspirations. Nagahama is one of the best things about Uzumaki 24. But hes not without fault. Now that weve rounded up our suspects who do I think killed Uzumaki 24? If you ask me Id say they each contributed to the downfall of this show. Adult Swims mere 4episode order made attaining success a nearimpossible feat. Despite wellmeaning intentions DeMarco enabled his star director to do what he deemed fit and lacked the foresight to intervene before things got as ugly as Uzumakis beach scene. Nagahama in his singular pursuit of artistic integrity wasted resources and precious time with his irresponsible work methods requiring a good part of a decade to be fully realized. Unfortunately we dont live in that timeline where Uzumaki releases 10 years down the line. We live in a world where animators had to be cobbled together from support studios and elsewhere just to have something to show for all of the sunk cost invested in Uzumaki . We live in a world where those animators bore the brunt and blame for poor decisions made by people above them. I lied the animation quality wasnt the scariest part of this situation. The behindthescenes drama is far more horrifying. I started this investigation with the hope that people reading this would find some muchneeded clarity and closure on a disappointing and infuriating situation. But frankly after spiraling down this rabbit hole I feel rather upset myself. Uzumaki isnt a loweffort misfire like other mediocre shows in the medium. They tried to make this amazing and it almost worked. Theres no doubt in my mind that the people behind Uzumaki were passionate about what they were making. Which somehow makes it more painful that they couldnt deliver on their vision in the end. The higher the high the farther the fall. What a mess. 5/10 Thanks so much for checking out the review. I plan on updating this ongoing story if new information is discovered. In the meantime please watch this space or check out my profile for further updates. If you happen to like my verbose rants feel free to check out my other reviewshttps://anilist.co/user/AnimeDweeb/reviews for seasons past and present. I also frequently post writeups under my list updates so definitely take a peek if youd like to see me mald over anime as they hit the airwaves. Peace