Uzumaki - Vol 1: Spiral into horror
Ito, Junji (Author, Illustration)and Oniki, Yuji (Translation)
Paperback, 208 pages ISBN13: 9781569317143
Published 2007 by Viz Signature
Based in Kurôzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan follows the story of Kirie Goshima as she discovers that her town is infested by spirals which start to appear everywhere from clouds, pottery baking in a kiln, to whirlpools in creeks. This quickly becomes disturbing as the spirals start to appear on peoples bodies and inspire them to distort themselves. is slow paced with the emphasis on the growing threat of the madness spreading through the normally sleepy town.
While struggling to understand what is happening and figuring out how to survive the cosmic events unfolding Kirie is also dealing with a number of typical teenage problems ranging from jealous and bullying at school to communication problems with her withdrawn boyfriend Shuichi Saito. Strong, resourceful and determined, she is a nice change from some more stereotypical Japanese school girl characters found in manga.
The black and white illustrations are simple and anatomical for a manga but this works to its advantage displaying exceptional precision and beauty suspending disbelief, making what would normally be an outrageous premise seem terrifyingly realistic.
This book is dark and strange but even if you don’t normally like horror, you will appreciate the vast amount of imaginative detail and grotesque beauty in Uzumaki.
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