Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror

This was just incredible. I loved the way that the art style went from straight lines and as the characters devolved into insanity, there was way more curvature until everything was a spiral. The way that those artistic elements played into the plot was just masterful

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thegayestghost's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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bohboh's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Uzumaki by Junji Ito is a whirlwind horror read that picks up spectacularly in tension, terror, and mystery the further you probe into it. Every issue is just so imaginative and unique. Very rarely was I ever able to figure out what would happen next.

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fluffywhiskers's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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chazaiya's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

while, yes, dark and deeply unsettling, i think people are undercutting just how funny this story can be. there is an undertone of anxiety that permeates the whole thing, and certain chapters are greatly disturbing (the first two chapters and hospital section stand out to me as easily the most horrifying parts), but as the story progresses and the town sinks further into the spiral the scenarios get more and more absurd. like the whole snail thing? i was laughing my ass off that entire chapter. and those kids blowing away houses like a gang of big bad wolves? they say comedy and horror are closely interlinked, i find a lot of what happens here to be a perfect example of that relationship.
story-wise for most of the run it's alright. it goes through a new scenario every chapter with a new horrifying idea relating to spirals. it's cool how creative Ito gets with how exactly he can make something as simple as a spiral scary. but the real greatness of this work starts to show in the later chapters once Chie enters. at this point the story has more structure to it and Ito is writing not purely for the sake of being scary but to reach a logical conclusion. those last few chapters are incredible.
and needless to say Junji Ito is masterful with his art and how he uses it for worldbuilding. the way he uses his pen draw such unnerving figures and settings is unlike anything i've seen.
it's good. i get why people praise Ito so highly for this. i might check out some of his other multi-chapter stories like Tomie or Gyo. i'm particularly interested in his adaptation of No Longer Human, so maybe that next.

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leonormsousa's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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kianga_black's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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mirrorbug's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I always like finding books with weird premises and this is definitely one of them. It's a horror classic for a reason. The body horror in this manga is absolutely fantastic, that is one of its strong points.

Spoiler

The snail people is probably my favorite part of this story due to how absolutely odd and disturbing it is. The mating scene cemented it in my head as one of my favorite sections.

The ending left me with questions that I wonder if there's a real answer for.
The bonus chapters were definitely the weakest. Even if it's not technically a part of the main story, there are things I would've preferred to explore in the bonus chapter. It's not the horror in them was bad or anything, it was great, but it wasn't anything particularly special to me.
Shuichi was my guy. Kirie has serious "this is fine" syndrome when it is, very clearly, not fine.

Spoiler

how kirie can stay in that town after her boyfriend talked about how evil the town feels in the first chapter is incredible to me. Maybe that's a symptom of the spiral, but shuichi should've just gotten the fuck out of there.

I do wish we saw more of kirie and shuichi being a couple. It didn't always feel like they were to me, mostly good friends.

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