Uzumaki (1998) By Junji Ito

"Spirals.... this town is contaminated with spirals."

I would not classify myself as an avid reader of manga, however, the works of Junji Ito fascinate me. He disturbs his audiences with gross, explicit and dark imagery that tell of the horrors that infest a genius of the genre.

"I find the spiral to be very mystical. It fills me with a deep fascination…like nothing else in nature…no other shape…"

This, perhaps Ito's most famous work, was published originally in serial form between 1998 and 1999. The chapters were later compiled into three volumes by Shogakukan, before it became a complete volume later still. It was this complete volume that I found myself reading.

"I thought that the hair and the fingerprints were the only spirals on the human body. But there's more."

The story develops in depth, mystery and horror chapter by chapter, with every oage revealing something that much more surreal and disturbing for the reader to be exposed to. This kind of artwork and storytelling is certainly not aimed for all ages, and requires some stomach at times, particularly the further in you get.

"Yuki dear, come join me in the spiral."

I was enthralled and drawn into the spiralling story, the discomfort more than worth it for the fascination formed through that of Ito himself. My mind, though unsettled, could not resist turning a new page, in order to discover the next twisted image, each one made all the more satisfying by the themes explored through them.

"He's in my ears! He slid into the spirals in my ears!"