Uzumaki Is Great, But It Has One Major Flaw

Adult Swim’s Uzumaki is finally here and for many, its the Junji Ito anime adaptation of their dreams. The likes of Cartoon Network, Production I.G., and Studio Drive have managed to get to the heart of the master of horror’s artwork, depicting the cursed town in a way that does justice to the original manga. Unfortunately, while this anime series is one that has garnered plenty of positive attention, it isn’t a flawless rendition of the original story. We felt that now would be the best time to break down some of the big problems that Uzumaki needs to deal with in its limited series.

In terms of capturing the sensibilities of Junji Ito on the small screen, you’d be hard-pressed to think of a better story to do so than Uzumaki. While this might have a singular narrative and main characters in Kirie and Shuichi, it branches out to several twisted tales that all take place under the spooky roof of this series. It also includes some of Ito’s most terrifying creations as imagery from the series can be found on numerous pieces of merchandise to this day, despite hitting the stands decades ago. We must reiterate that we love Uzumaki here at ComicBook.com but all that glitters isn’t gold.

Slow Down Uzumaki

Uzumaki is a lot and that’s not just in reference to the mind-bending horrors that make up the Junji Ito classic. The original manga was fit to bursting with creepy corners of the cursed town and in order for Adult Swim to keep up, the pacing of the animated series has taken things up a notch. Unfortunately, this approach doesn’t leave much time for the atmosphere and tension the ability to truly seep in as it did in the manga. Ultimately, it was always going to be an extremely difficult task to live up to the source material and while the anime adaptation does in many respects, taking a breather would benefit the series in countless ways.

One of the best benefits of Ito’s printed story is the chance for horror to be unleashed at the flip of a page, as the master of horror was a premiere example of how best to lay out a scene for maximum terror. For example, the infamous “spiral-faced girl” has become a trademark of Ito’s art, perhaps one of the most recognizable depictions in his career. While done solidly in Adult Swim’s anime, there’s something that’s lost in the translation here and that is simply more of the fault of manga versus anime in general.

When it comes to the characters of Kurie and Shuichi, there’s not a lot in terms of character progression, which was true of the source material. IN a way, this works in that those experiencing Uzumaki can place themselves into their shoes but also, it might not lead to the strongest of connections between the characters and the audience. This is more of a quibble based on viewer preference but it is one to keep in mind as the two high schoolers have all of these horrific events befall them but we aren’t given as much examination of their characters in the face of them. 

Uzumaki Needed To Be Longer

Ultimately, four half-hour episodes don’t seem like enough to truly capture all the different happenings taking place in Kurouzu-cho. It took quite some time for all the animators involved to get this product out and the art truly shows this fact but adding additional installments might have been for the best in this case. It’s honestly a “good problem” to have, in that, viewers such as ourselves want to see more of the landscape and events brought to life. Again, while the stories work under the same umbrella here, they can often get lost in the shuffle as the need arises to move on to the next spooky thing.

Uzumaki is going to be an anime classic when all is said and done, and to us, it is already perhaps the best representation of horror anime that we’ve seen to date. Unfortunately, that bar to be the best isn’t the highest as horror anime is few and far between. In recent days, Adult Swim and Studio Drive have stated that they most likely won’t be exploring any of Ito’s other works but it would definitely be worthwhile should they take the lessons learned from Uzumaki. 

Want to stay updated on what may go down in history as the scariest anime of all time? Want to see what other Junji Ito works make their way to the anime world? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com for the latest updates on Uzumaki and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.