 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | VIZ MEDIA | | | ▪ | AUTHOR / ART: | | JUNJI ITO | | | ▪ | FORMAT: | | JAPANESE / BW | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 208 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | OT | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 02/12/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 03/24/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | SCOTT CAMPBELL |
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 According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being - but by a pattern: Uzumaki, the spiral, the hypnotic secret shape of the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 small ways: seashells, ferns, whirlpools in water, and whirlwinds in air. And in large ways: the spiral marks on people's bodies, the insane obsessions of Shuichi's father, the voice from the cochlea in your inner ear. As the madness spreads, the inhabitants of Kurôzu-cho are pulled ever deeper, as if into a whirlpool from which there is no return.
In volume two, the haunting spirals continue to destroy the minds and lives they grab hold of. With their town devastated by titanic hurricanes, the citizens of the spiral-haunted town of Kurozu – including Shuichi, Kirie and her family – find themselves cut off from the outside world. Reporters and rescue teams cross the mountain range into Kurozu-cho only to find themselves unable to leave. Trapped inside the cursed ruins, the desperate survivors struggle and huddle together, waiting to change into giant snails or worse. The very laws of nature are changed as the spiral sucks them in. And to fight it, or to escape, the last survivors must go to the heart of the horror to witness what may be their eventual fate. It’s almost amazing how such a funny little idea as a shape being something horrific has turned out to be such an imaginative and frightening read. Uzumaki continues to delve deeper and deeper into horrible places and ideas – things you would never have contemplated until this book decided to show it too you. It’s so great when horror is imaginative and tries to do something different. The unknown and the misunderstood can be just as frightening as a ghost or a monster – mental things inside people’s minds that drive them insane can be even more frightening than what we can see. This is such an imaginative and involving work – it is a total page turner, and a great, clean looking product. The art continues to impress just as much as the story does. It has such a dark, grubby, evil feel to it – it’s almost as if the art knows it is portraying something horrific, so it swirls and melts off the page. A very effectual piece of horror manga – read Uzumaki. IN SUMMARY:
A very involving escape from reality, Uzumaki takes you where you’ll be glad that you aren’t actually going. A unique piece of horror – a must for any mature reader looking to be entertained by great story and fitting artwork.
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