i have to agree with some previous comments. the beginning was fantastic - solid premise with a lot of promise. i really enjoyed the little 'adventures' and the spiral observations in nature. the art was superb and clean, and the story-telling was very well-timed, but by the third volume, things got a little too absurd. and i didn't like the ending. it felt like ...a cop-out? it was unsatisfactory. regardless, i enjoyed reading it.

Rating: 9 / 10.0

One of the few drawbacks of this series was that there was very little character developement. But, truth be told, I was so engrossed in the story itself that I actually could have cared less if there WAS any character development at all.

The plot is so simple that it’s scary, literally. I mean, in the beginning I thought "Wow. All this crap is going on and the people in the village aren’t even freaking alarmed! How?" But then I later realized that the spiral had already started to push the villagers towards the brink of insanity from the very beginning, so even they're passive attitudes could be directly linked to the spiral. I guess that's what creeped me out the most.

The snail people were just downright depressing. And the “face-biting” comment that one of the characters made in the third volume was just plain disturbing, but I still loved it.

Admittedly, the third volume was a bit of a disappointment and quite honestly, it seems as thought author just got side tracked or became distracted with other things. The ending was pretty weak, too *sigh*. It put just a bit of a damper on the overall appeal of the series, but not enough to make me dislike it as a whole. It was still awesome.

“Uzumaki” is a very obscure series. In some ways, it’s blatantly scary; psychologically...it's definitely on point. This type of series usually isn't my thing, but I can't deny the fact that this is really good stuff. Junji Ito is an awesome artist and this series is most definitely one of his best. Scared the living hell out of me, too-- which is really hard to do, usually.

Were it not for the two slip-ups in the third volume, this series would receive a 10/10 easily.

... Last updated on August 17th, 2010, 2:19pm

To be honest - I hate it when manga starts good, gets better with each chapter, then ends like shit.
The first two volumes were really great. Mangaka's ideas were really nice, the art was AWESOME and this whole spiral thing - great. But then, the third volume comes and it screwes everything. The last chapters were so stupid, I almost had tears in my eyes.
And, seriosuly - this girl experienced so many strange and horrible events and she didn't even try to run away from this town, but instead just went calmly to school, spend time with family etc? Wth?
But despite all disadvantages, I really liked it, it almost deserves to be my fav horror manga. Well, almost +damn third volume!+. As said before, the art was amazing and you can really feel scared, especially when you're reading it alone at night~

I started reading this at 11pm (what was I thinking eh). Well finished the whole thing in one go, at some point you get the feeling that the story just keep repeating over and over again however you don't stop and I think that's the addictive thing about Itou sensei's works.
Although nothing is resolved at the end, but I really enjoy how sensei portrays his characters, very normal, very real, greedy, delusional, coward, etc. Especially the main heroine when she decides not to get in further danger to satisfy her curiosity (normally in horror movies and manga, the main character foolishly get into trouble that the stupidest person could have figure out that it's not okay to be curious) and the villager who refuse to help others just to safe themselves. Intentional or not, lessons of Karma is spread all over the pages.
I am haunted by the Snail people chapters, people turning into snails, people eating snails, the spirals that grew on their back, their expressions, the first two snail boys mate, their eggs, >,< send chills down my spine.
Art is great, classic manga style, no sailor moon eyes and Tsubasa legs, which i love, plus the haunting detailed scenery deserves praise.
Although things are explained at the end but nothing gets resolved, still a Good read.

One of my favorite manga, not because it was scary but more like it was a bunch of lulz. Yeah, the first 2 chapters were pretty awesome and horror worthy, but after that IT. IS. A BUNCH. OF. LULZ.

I'm seriously laughing my butt off just remembering this manga and the last time I read it was more than a year ago.

Horror or Comedy, either way it was a definite page turner. And Junji Ito's art is gorgeous, really worth it.

... Last updated on May 22nd, 2009, 3:08pm

Seriously, if you can't handle horror type series, you don't deserve to read this manga.
However, this gets a 10 for me because the art as well as the plot is superb.

ITOU Junji's works are garbage. No point, no plot, no purpose. Uzumaki is no exception. All he manages to do is recycle the same theme of mangled bodies over and over again. At first chapter its cute, afterwards its just sick and disgusting.

0/10 - don't waste your time

... Last updated on February 6th, 2009, 4:07pm

This was a really freaky series. I read 4 or 5 chapters the first night I started reading it and I was a little afraid it would give me strange dreams. I did end up being a little wary of something spiral shaped that I saw in a video game.

The chapters were kind of episodic, but it was all building on each other. The last volume was less episodic and seemed to tell one longer story of what was happening. I liked the episodic feel because I could read just one chapter and stop for the moment, but I also liked that it all tied together.

Everything that happened made me feel like whoever was writing it must have been obsessed and psychotic. There was a lot of stuff that was pretty grotesque, but I think the worst of that was in the first volume. I wasn't satisfied with the ending, but I felt that the rest of the story was really good.

At first I thought it was just bizarre but as it progressed parts of the story really did scare me. The events building up to the main plot were really unique and the twist(no pun intended) were great. The many disturbing scenes and the concept of the manga in general really hook you.

The horror aspect really shined. I have to admit, after the whole snail face chewing scene I've never looked at them in the same way...

The ending wasn't what I had hoped nor did it do justice to the rest of the manga but still it seemed some what fitting for the story...

... Last updated on September 9th, 2011, 2:29am

The title sums up my opinion. Started off odd, then slightly more odd, then just plain weird, and then lame and nonsensical. Good if you have 2 hours to kill though.