Ratings167
Average rating4.4
Kurôzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but by a pattern: uzumaki, the spiral, the hypnotic secret shape of the world. It manifests itself in everything from seashells and whirlpools in water to the spiral marks on people's bodies, the insane obsessions of Shuichi's father and the voice from the cochlea in our inner ear. As the madness spreads, the inhabitants of Kurôzu-cho are pulled ever deeper into a whirlpool from which there is no return!
Series
3 primary booksUzumaki is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 1998 with contributions by Junji Ito and Yuji Oniki.
Reviews with the most likes.
Deliciously twisted body horror with forgettable characters
Masterpiece, only sold short by its abrupt ending.
There's so much to talk about in this particular omnibus (only the second horror manga I've ever read) - body horror, cannibalism, and so on - that you must read it to believe it. A small coastal town in Japan is cursed (hence the name, which means spiral in Japanese), and everything goes to hell. There are short stories on everything - such as mosquitoes (whose flying pattern is similar), snails (with the shape of their backs), and even tornadoes.
There's little to no characterization here, and I didn't know beforehand that this was a loose collection of short stories with a joining narrative, but that didn't detract from my immersion. There are the usual tropes here - a slightly unhinged deuteragonist with a gory past, the protagonist who's somehow not affected by the mania happening, and so on. Where Uzumaki shines is in creating a sense of helplessness - at no point do you feel that the characters are in control of what's happening, and this is different from the horror we're used to (the main character saving the day). I'd recommend this only for second-hand helplessness if nothing else.
actually made me recoil and cringe at times.. it took disturbing to a new level. The art is so phenomenal and actually might give me nightmares lol
I read Gyo and this within 28 hours and I need help xD
I found Gyo more “enjoyable” if that's a word you can use with art like this. But don't ask me which was more terrifying. I've never read or seen better horror, this is absolute madness. I don't think written word and my imagination can compare to this. Movies for some reason can't do it justice either. Manga/comic book is perfect for this and Ito is absolute madman. People compare him to Stephen King but that's not right. This is H.P. Lovecraft squared. King has never terrified me in this way. While he's a master of personal horror Ito is king (pun intended) of cosmic horror.
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2,373 booksWhen you think back on every book you've ever read, what are some of your favorites? These can be from any time of your life – books that resonated with you as a kid, ones that shaped your personal...