Finally, a Junji Ito Adaptation That Could Actually Work!

Junji Ito is, without a doubt, considered the master of horror among Japanese visual artists. But when it comes to adapting Ito’s manga into anime, there’s (somewhat ironically) a bit of a curse. But there’s a high likelihood that’s all about to change with Uzumaki.

So far, the anime approach to Ito’s work have been anthology series of his short stories. But both Junji Ito: Collection (2018) and Junji Ito: Maniac (2023) had lukewarm receptions. The 2011 film adaptation of Gyo has only a 5.33 on My Anime List.

By contrast, when the Uzumaki anime project was announced four years ago, it immediately garnered tons of excitement. That first teaser garnered 3.1 million views on YouTube. Finally, it seems someone had cracked the code to adapting the creepiness of Ito’s manga to the screen. The key, it seems, is to keep the work in black and white.

Uzumaki is both a fitting choice for this experiment and a high-stakes one: the three-volume manga series is widely considered Ito’s best work. There are no monsters in Uzumaki. Just an obsession with spirals. And he’s able to make that terrifying.

What’s so scary about spirals?

Junji Ito’s Uzumaki was published in three volumes between 1998 and 1999. They didn’t get English translations until 2001 and 2002. But even with the slight translation delay, Uzumaki is considered a classic on both sides of the Pacific. You’ll even hear it described as Ito’s “magnum opus.”

Uzumaki has one of those plots which is difficult to describe without revealing too much. Essentially, it’s about people living in the (fictional) small town of Kurouzu. Supernatural occurrences begin to happen—but those occurrences are simply that there are spirals, everywhere. People start becoming obsessed with spirals. Things spiral (heh heh) from there.

Uzumaki‘s horror lays in the disturbing twists of human obsession (a la The Shining) and in the small and seemingly mundane slowly exploding out into something very, very big. It’s a masterpiece of the genre.

The Uzumaki anime will be four episodes long. We’re not currently sure if these episodes will be the standard 25 minutes for anime, or if they’ll be longer. We’re also not sure whether or not those four episodes will cover all three volumes of Uzumaki. But if I had to guess, the fact that the series is so short of a standard 12-episode season means the episodes will both be a “non-traditional” length and will be self-contained.

Who’s involved?

Uzumaki‘s producers mark an interesting collaboration: Production I.G (FLCL, Haikyuu!!, Psycho-Pass, etc.) and Adult Swim. This isn’t the first time the two studios have worked together—for one thing, there’s those FLCL sequels. But we have reason to be optimistic Uzumaki will fare better than those.

For one, there’s the excellent choice of director. Hiroshi Nagahama is perhaps best known for Mushi-Shi, a classic series which is very quiet and very subtle and quite creepy. The composer is also an immaculate choice: Colin Stetson, best known to the world as the composer for Hereditary, but best known to music school geeks as an absolutely ridiculous baritone saxophone player who writes awesome solo music.

Drive will be the studio actually animating Uzumaki. Drive has recently taken over a number of high-profile series. They spearheaded the most recent seasons of To Your Eternity, which feels tonally related to Uzumaki in some ways, and KonoSuba, which couldn’t possibly be tonally further from Uzumaki and I love it.

The main characters of Uzumaki are a young couple, Shuuichi and Kirie. Shuuichi will be played by Shinichiro Miki, who’s best known for playing Roy Mustang in both incarnations of Fullmetal Alchemist. Uki Satake, who you might recognize as Tsubomi-chan for Mob Psycho 100 or QT from Space Dandy, will play Kirie.

When can you watch Uzumaki?

Uzumaki will air just slightly ahead of the fall 2024 anime season. The first episode will premiere on Saturday, September 28, 2024 on Adult Swim. Because broadcast TV, man! It still exists!

However, if you don’t have a cable subscription, don’t worry. Each episode of Uzumaki will drop on Max the next day. Meaning streamers can watch episode one on Sunday, September 29.

Be prepared to never look at a spiral the same way again.