Uzumaki

Uzumaki is a horror manga series written and illustrated by Junji Ito. It was serialized in Shogakukan's magazine Big Comic Spirits from 1998 to 1999 and collected into three volumes. An English edition was published by Dark Horse Comics.

Set in the coastal town of Kurōzu-cho, the story centers on Kirie Goshima and her boyfriend Shuichi Saito as the town becomes beset by a bizarre, escalating spiral curse. Spirals appear in objects, architecture, flora, and even people, triggering madness, mutation, and violence. The narrative progresses as a sequence of interconnected episodes that gradually reveal the town's history and the scale of the phenomenon, culminating in a confrontation with the spiral cult and the forces behind it.

Ito's storytelling emphasizes atmosphere, body horror, and surreal imagery, with a distinctive, meticulous art style that intensifies dread. The spiral motif recurs as a symbol of fate, obsession, and inexorable repetition, and the work is noted for its slow build, unsettling visuals, and stark, graphic sequences.

Adaptations and influence: Uzumaki inspired a 2000 live-action film directed by Higuchinsky. It has influenced contemporary horror manga and anime aesthetics, and is widely regarded as a landmark work within Junji Ito's catalog and the genre as a whole.