In an anime landscape that sees dozens of new series premiere every season, few shows have had as much hype surrounding their release as Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror. Created by Adult Swim, it's the latest in a long line of shows trying to adapt the work of legendary mangaka, Junji Ito. He's received acclaim for drawing the most unsettling images imaginable, a level of effort that has popularized his public works (and made every attempt to adapt them disappointing). It's frustrating to watch the legend's artistry lose all depth in the transition to the screen, so when the team behind the Uzumaki anime explained that their mission was to preserve as much of Ito's original drawings as possible, reactions were cautiously optimistic. It made it that much more of a triumph when the show premiered and, somehow, the animators carried over the immense amount of fear Ito imbued his drawings with to the screen -- at least, for one episode. Because there was a huge drop in quality in the subsequent three, this series not only created yet another lackluster adaptation but revealed a true terror: the way animation artists are treated.
✕ Remove Ads 'Uzumaki' Is a Twisted Story Like No Other
Long before the anime, millions of fans fell in love with Uzumaki's petrifying story of a town falling into madness. It follows Kirie (Uki Satake), a teenager in a small village who, along with her boyfriend, Shuichi (Shinichiro Miki), can only watch as the people around them fall into a rabid fixation on a spiral shape. Ito takes this rabid fascination to jaw-dropping heights in his story, portraying scenes like a man twisting his own body into the shape he loves and a girl developing a whirling, all-consuming vortex in the middle of her head to stress just how devastating this affliction is on the once-prosperous community. Of course, along with its unnerving plot, the original manga was filled with the exceptional line work and shadings that Ito is known for to create some of the most twisted (pun intended) images that readers have ever seen. It's a level of effort that many thought could never be replicated in animation, yet for one glorious episode, that's exactly what the team at Adult Swim did.
✕ Remove Ads
It took more than four years since its announcement in 2019 for Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror to come out, yet the first episode was well worth the wait. Those first 23 minutes gave fans exactly what they wanted, the artists directly adapting Ito's drawings and using a mix of perfectly fluid animations with ingenious sound design to bring the thrilling experience of reading the book to life. It scared watchers while leaving them desperate for more, a hunger that made it so much worse when the second episode saw one of the biggest drops in quality that television has ever seen. The series traded its fluidity for jerky animations, ones that looked more akin to the purposefully awkward style of early South Park than a series predicated on the smoothness of a spiral. And the few times it did re-capture that striking style was at the expense of the detail it had promised to embody, with yet another show reducing Ito's drawings to bland, soulless copies of the exemplary originals. But the creators were quick to say on social media afterward that watchers shouldn't be blaming the animators -- they should turn their targets on the studios instead.
✕ Remove Ads The Animation Industry Is Scarier Thank You Think
One of the loudest voices to call out Uzumaki's production company is well-known animator Henry Thurlow, an industry professional who used X (formerly known as Twitter) to call out what he suspects happened to the show. "While I don't have any actual bts (behind the scenes) knowledge of the Uzumaki production, it was advertised as a Production I.G. series for years, only to be marketed as IG & _____ (not even an IG subsidiary) at the last moment," Thurlow stated in a series of tweets. "...at the end of the day, it's almost certainly *some* western producer's fault. 'This is taking too long so force some other studio to finish it I don't care what it looks like.'"
✕ Remove Ads
It's a sense of frustration that Executive Producer Jason Demarcoseemed to share on some BlueSky posts that have since been deleted: "I can't talk about what went down but we were screwed over and the options were A) not finish it and air nothing and call it a loss, B) Just finish and air ep 1 and leave it incomplete or C) run all four, warts and all. Out of respect for the hard work we chose C." It's clear from these messages that not only fans, but creators -- both in the industry and on Uzumaki's staff itself -- are deeply frustrated and disappointed. These folks' passion shows just how much potential there was for the entire series to be great, making it even more unfortunate that this long-awaited project had to become a cautionary tale.
Related The 10 Scariest Anime Episodes, Ranked
These episodes will live rent free in your head.
✕ Remove Ads Some Good Can Come From 'Uzumaki's Downfall Close
Even with their faults, there's still much to appreciate about the final three episodes of Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror. There are some legitimately unnerving scenes amidst the clunky animation and the series' commitment to portraying every plot element of the original manga has created a faithful viewing experience for previous readers. Yet even with these silver linings, it's impossible to ignore the glaring issues of these episodes -- which is a good thing. Because, unfortunately, this show's drop in quality has come to represent the looming issues that have gone unacknowledged in the animation industry for so long.
✕ Remove Ads
The production company's alleged refusal to give this team of creators the time they needed and rushing the product by stripping away their control is only one example of how these organizations put profit over not only quality, but the people who make their entire industry possible. Sadly, more awareness of these issues came at the expense of a program that viewers have been waiting so long for, yet instead of a disappointment, Uzumaki should be seen as a driving force. One that finally pushes this genre to address these issues and create a space where artists have what they need to make beautiful (and terrifying) stories.
Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror TV-MAAnimationMysteryHorror Seasons 1 Cast Uki Satake , Shin-ichiro Miki , Mariya Ise , Toshio Furukawa , Mika Doi , Takashi Matsuyama , Katsutoshi Matsuzaki , Tatsumaru Tachibana , Kôichi Tôchika , Ami Fukushima , Wataru Hatano
Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror is available to stream on Max in the U.S.
WATCH ON MAX