kianga_black's review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Sexual harassment, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Body horror, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Mental illness, Cannibalism, and Medical content
crowcrow's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
- 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
4.75
Fuck you Kirie.
Shuichi is the only sane individual in the whole cursed town.
Also snail people scarred me for life.
Shuichi is the only sane individual in the whole cursed town.
Also snail people scarred me for life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Gore, Pregnancy, Self harm, Fatphobia, Bullying, Blood, Child death, Death, and Medical content
mirrorbug's review against another edition
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. 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. 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.
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 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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Cannibalism, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Stalking, Pregnancy, Cursing, Confinement, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Bullying
Death is essential in this story, first chapter has a scene where a character finds their deceased parent, this is not a happy storysnackattackisback69's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Gore
yourstrulyemi's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
First of all, whenever I'd hear someone talk about Uzumaki, they'd tell me how it's unsettling, giving you a fear of spirals for the rest of your life and so on. But to my disappointment, it ended up being way less scarier than I expected. It could be that I've seen much more grotesque things that the images in Uzumaki didn't faze me at all, but yeah my expectations for the horror element weren't well met.
The story at first seemed kind of dull, with the town slowly falling to its demise under the curse of the spiral. But my mistake when I first read it was focusing too much on the origins of the curse and its mechanism when it was never the author's intention to delve more into it, rather leaving the curse of the spiral as something mysterious and inescapable.
It's only when I reached the essay by Sato Masaru, included at the end of the book that I understood that I've read it wrong. The curse of the spiral was meant as a metaphor for the dangers of a capitalistic society, with some chapter eluding to human greed and selfishness. The overall story meant to describe a societal collapse. This information elevated its value in my eyes. So, of course, I wasn't going to put it down just like that, I had to reread it to truly grasp the meaning behind every chapter and discover which vice of the society the author tried to present under the influence of the curse. While some appeared obvious, others required deeper thinking. And some remained totally abstruse, a well known characteristic of Junji Ito's style.
But overall, the societal issues were marvellously well portrayed, even going as far as to show us that some of our reactions to real life events come off as absurd if we think about it seriously. How remaining firmly as you are can save you from being swayed by the pressure put on us by society. How in the end, human love can still be the solution out of the madness created both by curse and the society.
The story at first seemed kind of dull, with the town slowly falling to its demise under the curse of the spiral. But my mistake when I first read it was focusing too much on the origins of the curse and its mechanism when it was never the author's intention to delve more into it, rather leaving the curse of the spiral as something mysterious and inescapable.
It's only when I reached the essay by Sato Masaru, included at the end of the book that I understood that I've read it wrong. The curse of the spiral was meant as a metaphor for the dangers of a capitalistic society, with some chapter eluding to human greed and selfishness. The overall story meant to describe a societal collapse. This information elevated its value in my eyes. So, of course, I wasn't going to put it down just like that, I had to reread it to truly grasp the meaning behind every chapter and discover which vice of the society the author tried to present under the influence of the curse. While some appeared obvious, others required deeper thinking. And some remained totally abstruse, a well known characteristic of Junji Ito's style.
But overall, the societal issues were marvellously well portrayed, even going as far as to show us that some of our reactions to real life events come off as absurd if we think about it seriously. How remaining firmly as you are can save you from being swayed by the pressure put on us by society. How in the end, human love can still be the solution out of the madness created both by curse and the society.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Gore
tobermueller's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Cannibalism, Violence, Self harm, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Child death
Moderate: Blood
bibyabs's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Death, Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Dementia, Gore, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Car accident, Cannibalism, and Confinement
triple_m's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
A really creative and 🌀twisty🌀 story about a town cursed by spirals.
Shuichi may have been an odd ball and was definitely going through some shit but he always had Kirie back.
Shuichi may have been an odd ball and was definitely going through some shit but he always had Kirie back.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Death of parent, Body horror, and Death
livsparks01's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Body horror
natcrash's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
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
4.0
I really liked it, but wouldn't reread due to its length. The main topic of the book is the spiral, but the main focus shifts from chapter to chapter, eventually coming together around the middle of the book.
I couldn't really connect with the characters a lot. I like how Shuichi's character changed due to the events of the first and second chapter. Kirie, the main character, I felt like she wasn't really there for the first half of the book, as the events start to really affect her later and we then see how the events affect her.
I couldn't really connect with the characters a lot. I like how Shuichi's character changed due to the events of the first and second chapter. Kirie, the main character, I felt like she wasn't really there for the first half of the book, as the events start to really affect her later and we then see how the events affect her.
I don't know what I was expecting for the ending,
Spoiler
but I really wished that Kirie and Shuichi would have escaped Kurouzu-Cho. I think that was the point, though, to show how the entire town was consumed by the spiral and no one could escape it, in the end. I just like happy endings, to be honest.Spoiler
Despite all of this, I still really liked the book. I found it entertaining and captivating. The art style is beautiful and the expressions are on point. I loved how everything was connected, and even though things don't make a lot of sense, it was a fun read.
I can read manga and graphic novels in a short period of time, but i was still surprised that i was able to read this almost in one sitting/less than 24 hours (took a break to sleep and continued the next day).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Blood, Car accident, Child death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Medical content
Moderate: Bullying and Stalking
Minor: Grief and Toxic friendship
There is a lot of gory/graphic imagery, including: - blood - body horror - child death - injuries - (attempted?) murder - medical content. Bullying occurs once, but since the bullying is so brutal I placed it at moderate.