Uzumaki Review: The Junji Ito Adaptation Sticks the Landing, Even With a Shaky Lead-Up (2025)

Warning: Spoilers Ahead for the Entire Uzumaki Mini-SeriesWhile Uzumaki undeniably had a shaky lead-up, the Junji Ito adaptation has officially managed to stick the landing. Adult Swim's long-awaited adaptation of Uzumaki has officially come to a close after four short episodes. Since its announcement in 2019, the anime was hyped up by fans of the horror mangaka with every new trailer being more promising than the last. While the overall series did end up being incredibly mixed with some shaky buildup, it's a relief to say that it finished strong.

For those that have yet to see the most talked-about anime of the spooky season, Uzumaki is a mini-series based on the masterful graphic novel by Junji Ito which follows Kirie and Shuichi in the town of Kurouzu-cho. For the most part, their lives have been fairly normal until they begin to notice an odd recurrence of spiral shapes popping up all over town. Soon, they realize that their hometown is actually cursed by the bizarre shape, leading the town's inhabitants to plummet into madness as the mystery behind the curse grows. It's an odd story that has become one of Junji Ito's most acclaimed works, and for the most part, the anime manages to recapture what made it such an enticing read.

Uzumaki Nails the Tone of Junji Ito's Horror Masterpiece

The Story Benefits from Being Told Entirely in Black and White

One of the biggest criticisms of prior Junji Ito adaptations was the bizarre choice to colorize his stories in their respective anime. Junji Ito Collection and Junji Ito Maniac both moved away from the black-and-white style when adapting various short stories. While both shows, with Maniac in particular, ended up being mixed-bags, watching them through the lens of a Junji Ito fan makes it clear that his stories aren't meant to be told in color. The odd happenings in Uzumaki need the limitations of black and white to highlight the constrictive feeling of the curse in Kurouzu-cho.

Thankfully, the Uzumaki anime ended up being told in black and white, and the difference in quality between it and previous Ito adaptations is night and day. The atmosphere is incredibly eerie throughout, with the lack of color adding to the dread of the story. Some of the anime's most notable scenes, in fact, play to the limited scope by highlighting the terror lurking within the shadows. The swirling spiral in the middle of Azami's head, for example, looks absolutely haunting in black and white. Plus, when Typhoon 1 hits Kurouzu-cho, voiced by Junji Ito himself in a fitting cameo, the use of blacks and whites makes the storm itself feel otherworldly as it unleashes destruction on the town.

Uzumaki Takes Risks to Expand Junji Ito's Story

Certain Choices Allow the Iconic Manga to Grow in the Anime Medium

Another major stand-out in Uzumaki is how many chances the animators and animation directors take to not only be faithful to Ito's story, but also expand upon it when adapting it. One of the most genius choices made in the miniseries' middle episodes was the decision to give off the impression of the film degrading whenever the curse became more apparent. For example, in the adaptation of Twisted Souls, the shots are noticeably more grainy with spots and lines popping up as Kazunori and Yoriko twist together to prevent being torn apart by their families. It's an incredibly cool animation choice that highlights the horror of Ito's story that the mangaka could never recreate on the page.

The biggest change made to the story though, by far, is an original post-credits scene that shows the aftermath of the story with two new characters, Satoshi and Eri, taking the place of Shuichi and Kirie in a newly rebuilt Kurouzu-cho. This one brief scene completely redefined Junji Ito's story because of how much it expands upon the manga's pre-established lore of Kurouzu-cho's fate. It implies that not only will the town undergo the curse every 100 years, but it will be repeated ad nauseam without any shifts in how the story plays out, cementing that the town is doomed to never learn from the past to escape it.

Declining Animation Quality and Pacing Issues Keep Uzumaki from Being a Perfect Adaptation

The Series Needed More Time to Finish

The wait for Uzumaki gave fans a lot of hope for the show's overall quality due to the amount of time it took for it to finally premiere. However, as the miniseries continued, it was clear that the anime needed more time to get things right. The most controversial aspect came in the form of the series' animation. While the first episode lived up to the hype, the second episode infamously featured a downgrade in quality that highlighted the issues that plagued the anime's production. Even Uzumaki's executive producer sympathized with fans, saying that he understood why fans would be mad about the noticeable animation decline.

The other biggest problem with the series was its pacing issues. Uzumaki is constrained to only four half-hour episodes to adapt a massive graphic novel. While some of the story's most notable segments were beautifully reconstructed, the anime overall constantly felt like it was speeding through chapters to make sure everything was included. This was felt most with the adaptation of the short story Jack-in-the-Box, which was drastically cut down and had its climax completely gutted, only to be briefly brought back for a ten-second resolution at the end of episode 3.

Uzumaki's Finale Ends the Series on a High Note

Despite a Bumpy Road, the Ending Was Just Right

The final episode of Uzumaki combines the last volume of the manga, which is the most connected portion of the original story. Because of this, it feels the most tightly paced and smoothest compared to its three predecessors. Plus, it had the longest runtime of the three, clocking in at well over 30 minutes. This gave the series a chance to properly explore the final chaotic scenes of the manga as the spiral envelops Kurouzu-cho. It's certainly not as well-animated as the first episode, but its writing is far stronger because it's forced to follow Junji Ito's storyline, rather than stitch together different chapters at random points. Plus, the final shot featuring Kirie and Shuichi trapped in the City of Spirals below the town is beautifully crafted.

Even with its flaws, Uzumaki is still easily the best adaptation of Junji Ito's work to date. It hits the tone of the mangaka's work perfectly, and even with shaky animation and pacing, it's still a faithful and enjoyable take on the horror masterpiece. Hopefully, future adaptations of Ito's work will turn to this anime to learn from mistakes of the past and properly adapt his work. However, until then, Uzumaki will reign supreme as the shining example of how to adapt Junji Ito's work.

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Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror

Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror is an adaptation of Junji Ito's acclaimed manga, directed by Hiroshi Nagahama. The series unfolds in the town of Kurôzu-cho where inexplicable events related to spirals plague the inhabitants, leading to terror and madness. Highlighting the psychological and supernatural, the show follows high school student Kirie Goshima and her boyfriend, Shuichi Saito, as they confront the spiraling horrors that engulf their town.