Customer Reviews

Uzumaki, Volume 2 (v. 2)

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In my opinion, Uzumaki has to be one of the most disturbing visual remedies I've used to quench the utter state of boredom I sometimes find myself immersed within. Its ocular metaphors, coupling the ingenuity of Junji Ito's mind with believably sculpted pictorials depicting horror after sometimes nameless horror, are something unique in the field of terror.

The concept (taken from the back of the book because of its wonderful description):
Kurozu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. But the spirit which haunts it does not have a name or a body, only a shape: uzumaki, the spiral, the hypnotic shape of the world. It possessed the father of teenage Kirie's withdrawn boyfriend, causing him to remake himself in its image before he died. It grows in ferns, in seashells, in curls of hair, in the crooked folds of the human brain.... As more people are caught in the pattern, over the town of Kurozu-cho hangs the spiral of cremated corpses; because even in death, there is no escape.

In this installment:
In Chapter 7 through 12, more issues are fleshed out, leading us away from the strange occurances at Dragonfly Pond and our two mainstay characters, using them somewhat but still dancing in other venues of thought. Briefly, these are:
In Chapter 7, Jack-in-the-box, Kirie catches the eye of a seventh-grader named Mitsuru Yamaguchi, a boy they simply call Jack-in-the-box because of his habit of surprising people by springing out at them from anywhere he can conceal himself. He decides that he must have her because it will surprise people to see him with such an intoxicating vision, constantly dogging her every step as he tries to obtain her. This, of course, leads to an ill-fated accident that Kirie blames herself for, one that invites the horror of the spiral into a cryptically grave-unveiling manner. It also shows us the impact the recent events have been having on the town, with the introduction of burial once again taking place, something that people have deemed necessary after the black-spiral clouds that come from cremating a resident of the town anywhere, not just in the town itself.

In Chapter 8, The Snail, (one of my favorites in the series thusfar) it begins to rain, a signal that the slowest boy in class, Katayama, will be coming to school. In fact, it is the only time he comes to school, and he even does this in the most tardy of fashions. Because of the speed he operates at, he is constantly taunted by one of his peers, Tsumura, who actually strips him down after gym class one day and drags him out in the hall. That's when they notice it, the spiracle impression looming upon his back, one that grows and grows as the days progress. Soon its apparent that there is a change transpiring in Katayama, one that causes him to slink across the ground and elevates the impression upon his back. In this, he isn't alone, either.

In Chapter Nine, The Black Lighthouse, an abandoned old lighthouse begins emitting a strangely spiraled ray from within, one that begins to effect people within the town in many a strange fashion. This alarms many of the town's residents, and they demand a party be sent to check it out. There requests are heard and people are sent, and their fate remains a secret until Kirie's younger brother decides that he and his friends should explore this decrepit monument.

In Chapter Ten, Mosquitoes, the mosquitoes begin to fly drowsy circles that put people to sleep, feeding on blood irregularly, large amounts of it in fact, to the mystery of the doctors within the town. While this is going on, herds of pregnant women are being attacked and admitted into the hospital, plus the killing are elevating at even the hospital itself. Victims with holes bored into them are found within their beds, leading to a question of "what the" thast is answered in a most gruesome manner.
In Chapter Eleven, the umbilical Cord, the pregnant women deliver the most adorable, most behaved, babies ever seen. This, of course, can't be good, nor can't it be dwelt on by me for fear of giving something away.

And, lastly, in Chapter Twelve, The Storm, A hurricane comes aground, stopping over the town and simply hovering. It seems to want something, too, because in the night it can be heard calling out a name, one very familiar to the readers.

All in all, I would say that this is wonderful installment, wetting the appetite for the final portion of the storyline. It does a lot to build on the first Uzumaki book, keeping the proverbial ball rolling without making it a boring spectacle. It isn't for the weak of heart of mind, however, and would only be recommended as bedtime reading to your children after you initially dose them with heaping helpings of horror movies and storylines to harden their soft pallets. O, and its in black and white, for those that think color is the only venue producing meritable works.

First of all, if you haven't read Uzumaki Vol. 1, then run out and pick it up first before reading about Vol. 2.

In Vol. 2, Spiral Into Horror, we see the further infestation of the little seaside town of Kurozu-cho. Stranger and stranger things begin to happen, proving to Kirie Goshima that her boyfriend Shuichi Saito is right about the town; it is infected with spirals.

With the chapters being a little more separated in this second volume, we have some very distinct adventures to wade through. First is a boy named Mitsuru who likes to "pop up" unexpectedly, earning him the nickname of Jack-In-The-Box. He develops a crush on Kirie, and goes out of his way to prove his love for her...and directly into the way of an oncoming car. He must really care for her, for even death cannot stop him from popping up to surprise Kirie.

In "The Snail" (my favorite story) a terminally slow boy comes to school only when it rains, and proves that if you are too slow, the spiral will catch up to you.

"The Black Lighthouse" tells of the sudden re-occurrence of light issuing forth from the previously abandoned lighthouse, but this is no ordinary light. Brighter and burning hot, it blazes out from the lighthouse in a twisted spiral of intense illumination.

"The Mosquitoes" and "The Umbilical Cord" do pretty much flow together. When Kirie is hospitalized after her incident at the lighthouse, she discovers the hypnotic effects of the lazily swirling mosquitoes that are infesting the town, and the odd behavior of the pregnant women who emulate them, including her cousin Keiko. When the babies are born, odd mushrooms and a strange doctor come into play, along with some of Junji Ito's more graphic illustrations.

The last piece, "The Storm", tells of a hurricane that sweeps over Kurozu-cho...and then sticks around for awhile. This chapter was particularly creepy in illustrating the extent to which this storm stretches itself in its search for none other than Kirie herself. Very weird.

Also mentionable is a funny "Afterward" depicting Ito's search for the secret of the spiral.

A great, and definitely more graphic, sequel to Vol. 1, Spiral Into Horror is a fast and absorbing read for even those who do not normally delve into Japanese Animation or graphic novels. Enjoy!

I saw Uzumaki Vol. 1 and 2 in a comic shop here in Perth, Australia, and grabbed them right away. I had read Junji Ito's Tomie Vol. 1 and 2 just weeks before, and I knew I could expect to feel the same spine-tingling thrill from reading this new collection of disturbingly weird and eerie images from Ito's twisted imagination.

Uzumaki is a collection of tales about a small coastal town haunted not by a ghost or a demon but by a shape - one of the most common and natural of shapes, the spiral. The mere idea of a shape exerting its deadly influence on the innocent folks of a small town is positively Lovecraftian in scope, and Ito does not disappoint.

Vol. 1 opens with the tale of a man who collects anything spiral-shaped and then spends hours staring at them, becoming increasingly unhinged as the tale unfolds. Next, in the most disturbing story in Vol. 1, a woman with an acute phobia of anything spiral-shaped shaves her head and snips off her finger-tips in an effort to get rid of all traces of spirals on her body. The panic on her son's face when he realises that an anatomy chart in her doctor's office displays the spiral-shaped inner ear sucked me right into Ito's tale of fear, dread, paranoia and mounting hysteria. The other stories in Vol. 1 are interesting enough to read, i.e. competent but do not quite reach the heights of the first two stories.

Vol. 2 ups the ante by presenting even more disturbing tales. The first story, appropriately entitled "Jack in the Box", has some of the most gruesome images I've ever seen in any medium, involving the disintegrating corpse of a dead boy intent on seeking vengeance from a girl who rejected him while he was still alive. And even if you are tired of vampire stories, "Mosquitoes" and "The Umbilical Cord" will still manage to give you a couple of sleepless nights, make you look at pregnant women and babies differently, and possibly give you a life-long phobia of maternity wards. Ito manages to give the old vampire angle a very frightening twist by linking pregnant women to mosquitoes - biologists would know what I'm talking about.

For any horror fans, I cannot recommend Uzumaki Vol. 2 enough. I hope Vol. 3 comes out soon, I cannot wait to find out what happens to Kirie, the pretty young heroine of the series, and her boyfriend, when the mother of all spirals - a hurricane - strikes their small town.

The second book in the Uzumaki collection amps up the surrealism and shock from the last volume by a couple million notches. And while Kirie has pretty much remained unchanged, it's here that we see Shuichi's paranoia has slowly driven him to insanity (marked by Ito's infamous "blackened eyes").

"Jack-In-The-Box" is a morbidly grotesque way to start things off, with a logical yet not-so-obvious conclusion.

"The Snail" is disgustingly awesome as the spirals do their thing in full force.

"The Black Lighthouse" explores the ominous building that had been previosly brought up in volume 1 but untouched upon.

"Mosquitoes" is horrifying with a nice twist -- God, I hate mosquitoes.

"The Umbilical Cord" made "The Snail" seem tame in comparison. It's revolting, gross, and man, do I love Junji Ito for it. The talking babies were a little cheesy, though.

"The Storm" is OK compared to the previous two chapters, and I definitely felt the tension between the "eye" and our main characters. The only thing I didn't like about this chapter is the fact that, well, the eye of the hurricane felt in love with Kirie, a human being. That was kinda dumb.

The "Afterward" was, again, hilarious. "Spiral Research Laboratory"... XD

Junji Ito delivers more sick brilliance in this second volume of the Uzumaki series. This second volume it must be said does have a very different tone than its predecessor. Ito has often said that one of his biggest influences was H.P. Lovecraft and in the first volume Lovecraft's influence could definitely be felt, with creatures rising from the sea, bodies twisting into horrible shapes and people losing their minds as the horrors around them unfold. Strangely, the second volume seems to veer in a completely different direction, giving us tales that are not really connected to each other the only constant being the omnipresence of characters Kiri and Shuichi.

The first two chapters I felt a little disappointed by. They just didn't seem to fit in. Things really pick up though in the third chapter entitled "The black lighthouse" one of the best of the series. This chapter is creepy as all get out and feels like classic gothic horror, almost like a hammer horror film.

Chapters 4 and 5 are directly connected to each other and take place in Kurozo hospital, where pregnant women with hand-drills try to suck the blood out of their fellow patients (including Kiri). It's a gory and horrifying zombie tale. In chapter 5, the babies of these pregnant women spring to life and needless to say they are not like any babies we have ever seen. These two excellent chapters reminded me of the body horror of David Cronenberg and had me gasping in disbelief at the sheer gruesomeness of the images.

I loved this volume although it is clearly the lesser of the three. Out of the 6 chapters, 3 are somewhat lacklustre although the 3 good ones more than make up for that. My main issue here was the loss of continuity. The first volume gave the feeling that with each chapter the town was slowly disintegrating into depravity. The chapters in this volume feel very separated and don't flow quite as nicely. Also, the concept of the spiral was somewhat abandoned here, it was like a background to the whole thing. Kiri I felt kind of lost some of her cuteness and charm, some of it has to do with her cutting off her hair but also in the way she acts, she's like an adult now. But that's all right because although volume 2 is not as atmospheric and stylish as the first, it is much more gory and gruesome and that definitely counts for something.

If you even remotely enjoyed the first book in this series, then it is imperative that you continue right along with this second book. More of the same strange story and great artwork and a must own for horror fans.

No pun intended. This book is twisted. Given to me as a belated birthday gift, I went in not knowing what to expect. A week later, I'd ordered vloume 1 and, as of this writing, await its arrival. Horror fans could do worse than read this book.

If you are into creepy, horror stories, this is the one for you. Some may argue that manga/graphic novels isnt that good for the horror genre, but Uzumaki Volume 2 proves that wrong. The art, the story, and the overall pace is just superb. Its also thicker than Volume 1.

Personally, I dont finish mangas/graphic novels in one sitting so I can have something to read on a later date, but I just cant find myself to put this book down. I wont spoil anything, other than the fact that every chapter here is creepy in its own right, and personally, I enjoy this book than Volume 1. So if youre looking for a good creepy story, you cant go wrong here.

My title says it all. I worship these books. Ito is a genius. Out of the 3 books in the series, this is probably my least favorite, but not by much. I've scored earlier editions, with colorful covers and larger pages but those are nearly impossible to find now. Stop reading this and order.
P.S. he has written many other manga but none live up to this. Gyo is too graphic for my tastes but Tomie/the Haunted Mansion and some other of his short stories are decent.)

Even creepier and more gross-out horror as we see more character development in Kyrie. Ito does a very good job of writing how a young teenager would handle this in love. Can't wait for the third installment!

Probably the biggest departure in this volume from the first is that while there's a little more of knowing the character's emotional landscape, it's less about terror like it was in the beginning and middle of the first volume, and keeps carrying on with the bizarre humor and then just turns utterly gross with the mosquito story beat. Still, just love it.