Hello before we get into the review just wanted to bring to your attention that I also have this review in video format on my channel for those that preffer that format. If you dont feel free to skip this paragraph and jump into the review for those that do you can find it by clicking herehttps://www..com/watch?v=H5Jazi78EQs thank you Whenever someone thinks of Horror Manga its very likely that the first name that pops on their head is Junji Ito. Ito is well known among anime manga and even horror fans in general. Since 1987 that he has been giving us horrific nightmares something that he still does even till this day. But among all of his works one stands out the most. 1998s Uzumaki a story about a city consumed by The Spiral. Uzumaki has since been adapted into a liveaction movie and more recently its being adapted into a 4 episode anime miniseries. It seems that now more than ever is a good time to see what Junji Ito is all about. https://i1.wp.com/ambrosia.com.br/wpcontent/uploads/2019/09/uzumaki.jpg In Uzumaki we follow Kirie and Shuichi two citizens of Kurozucho as they slowly see their town be more and more haunted by anything and everything spiral related. Thats the gist of it so lets address point one: Spirals are not scary right? Well Junji Ito rarely uses things that are scary by themselves he generally grabs things that we take as granted and distorts them until they are frightening and it is just that that he does here. Part of the reason to read Uzumaki is to see and discover just how much he can do with just a pattern. With 19 chapters spread along 3 volumes eventually released in that giant omnibus we all know and having an extra chapter Uzumaki isnt necessarily a huge manga but its still one of the longer works of Junji Ito as he mostly focuses on writing oneshots and oneshot compilations and sure Uzumaki isnt the ONLY long work of Ito but his nononeshots are still the vast minority when compared to sheer size of his bibliography. Now Im bringing this up because it shows that hes a oneshot writer. Itos oneshots focus on having short mysterious and unexplainable events happening to random people. It doesnt have big deep stories it doesnt have complex and interesting characters its all about the primal raw feeling that it invokes on people who read it. Uzumaki is very much the same with almost every chapter feeling like a selfcontained oneshot with the exception of the final couple chapters. And yes there is a story being slowly told across all of them but it doesnt really go much further than this town is being haunted by spirals. Sometimes there are two chapters in a row who might be connected but for the most part I could show you chapters in a random order and you probably would not notice it with the exception of maybe a line of dialogue. And while we do follow the same character through all of the 20 chapters its not like I can say that she is a complex or interesting character it still feels very much like any other Junji Ito character a blank state that we can use to selfinsert and explore the actual main character of the story the horror. Kiries boyfriend Shuichi is the only character that has a bit more going for him and thats mostly the fact hes the only one who seems to understand what the fuck is going on. With that said one does not read Itos manga for complex stories or characters we read it for the fantastic and horrific payoffs he delivers and Uzumaki does deliver having some of the most iconic of Itos imagery. Each chapter is a wild and fun ride full of weird events. We start with pretty basic ideas first chapter is about a man in love with anything that has a spiral pattern and the second chapter follows his wife who has a deep fear of anything spiral related. These chapters are ideal to start with since not only eases you in into the idea it also shows you just how much this hypnotizing pattern exists in our lives. Youll come back out of these two chapters noticing it everywhere. The first chapter also has one of the best page turns in the entire series. For those that may not be familiar with the term pageturn its a technique that is very used in horror and comedy manga the idea is to build upon something that is revealed in the next page turn this means that it can have some seconds or even minutes if you really dont want to change the page to build up on your expectations and then subvert them. In horror specially Junji Ito horror it can be used to let you know that in the next page something horrible is gonna happen but not tell you exactly what so its up to you decide if youre feeling brave enough to see whats on the other side. This is something that is present in pretty much every chapter of Uzumaki and each page turn is fantastic. This is where the artstyle of Ito comes into play his artstyle is hardly the most beautiful to look at but its perfect for a horror series its weirdly realistic and he is known to spend hours upon hours on some of these pages making all of them mesmerizing and haunting with so much detail that it wont look like something out of painting but something disgustingly real. It calls upon a very visceral and raw feeling and this is the strong point of Uzumaki pages that will most definitely stay burned in your mind forever. Everything else is pretty much a slow buildup for those reveals. Some of the chapters deal with some ridiculous ideas some too ridiculous that just make it all too silly and feel more comedic than scary but even those are enjoyable and even those have visceral pages. Its in its final chapters that Uzumaki starts flowing more fluidly as it develops its conclusion. Its some of the best chapters in the whole manga and its good to see it call back some events that had not been mentioned again. The ending without spoiling is not the most indepth conclusion but you should not expect that from Uzumaki. Junji Ito follows the mantra of Lovecraft and his stories are not to be explained the horror lies in the mysterious and the unknown so it makes sense that story concludes by keeping most things a mystery just giving us small details of why it could have happened. Junji Ito does not use Uzumaki as a way to explore his weak points or to expand much on his strong ones. Ultimately this is still a Ito manga 101 so if youre coming into Uzumaki expecting more you probably will leave disappointed. If youre not a Junji Ito fan or dont like horror either this is also not going to be the manga thats going to convert you. But if you know his works and youre a fan or if you know what to expect and that still sounds interesting to you then youll probably enjoy what this manga has in store. Uzumaki isnt a masterpiece but what it does it does it very well.