Uzumaki has a lot to live up to, especially after several delays and a total of five years of development. Up to this point, animated adaptations of Junji Ito’s comics have often been panned for not adequately representing Ito’s art or the tone of his stories. Adult Swim and Production I.G. USA were quite ambitious in believing they could finally break the curse that has loomed over prior adaptations of Ito’s work, but I am of the opinion that they have in fact done exactly that.
In the fictional town of Kurouzu-cho, the citizens are plagued by a supernatural curse involving spirals. This is where Kirie Goshima and her boyfriend Shuichi Saito live and bear witness to the horrors the spirals raught. Some citizens become obsessed with the spirals while others grow terrified of them. Periodic twisters and all manner of bizarre happenings start occurring all over town. Shuichi is particularly troubled by his growing paranoia of the spirals and would like nothing more than to flee Kurouzo-cho with Kirie.
Uzumaki gives a striking first impression with a quiet foreboding mood that ebbs and flows but never allows the viewer to completely relax. Otherwise unassuming slices of life feel infused with tension. The character’s own paranoia spirals outward to the audience and you would be hard-pressed not to look at the world differently after witnessing Ito’s creative spin on everyday sights.
Uzumaki is a feast for the eyes. Using a combination of rotoscoping and CG models then drawing on top of the rendered frames allows for detailed art to move beautifully as well as unnervingly. The disquieting moments reinforce the building tension and you can feel the madness overtaking the characters. The director Hiroshi Nagahama was well suited to this production having previously done notable supernatural slice-of-life series Mushi-Shi as well as Flowers of Evil, which used extensive rotoscoping. The monochrome color palette allows the art to pop off the screen, especially when it turns grotesque. The visual presentation took years to get just right and it shows.
The visuals are equally matched by excellent sound design. Effective use of silence and foley are complimented perfectly by the eerie score composed by Colin Stetson (The Menu). All of that would fall apart if the vocal performances could not convey the tension, but thankfully both the Japanese and English voice casts are phenomenal. There is no element of this production that feels out of sync with the rest, creating an undesirable dissonance that will take the viewer out of the moment. Uzumaki gets its hooks in early and does not let go till the credits roll.
I cannot speak for how well the work is being adapted because I have never read the comic it’s based on and have only read a few of Ito’s short stories. I generally do not seek out psychological horror media and tend to be squeamish about such things. The first episode of Uzumaki has key moments of body horror and only one instance made me want to avert my eyes. But I did not in fact look away. It was too enthralled to do so. So let that be a testament to the quality of Uzumaki; it can even draw in a viewer who avoids horrific imagery, such as myself. I think this is an excellent series to introduce new readers to Ito’s body of work.
I feel it’s remarkable that an auteur monochrome subtitled anime is airing on basic cable at all, and how impressively it brings Ito’s haunting imagery off of the page. It’s such a breath of fresh air for the Toonami block which is best known for high octane action programming. It is a bold choice all around and a miraculous spectacle that Adult Swim made possible against all odds. Uzumaki has the potential to catch the attention of people who generally do not watch anime or think that animation is a lesser medium. Though its time on Toonami will be brief, it is sure to be a memorable one.
Join us in the spiral by bearing witness to the Japanese language world premiere of Uzumaki Saturdays at 12:30 a.m. on Toonami, with English language encore on Thursday’s at 12:30 a.m. and both versions Sunday mornings on Max.
Special thanks to Adult Swim PR for providing early screeners for review.