Uzumaki, Vol. 2

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Summary: Further down the spiral, or, a day in Kurozu-cho
Review: 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!

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Summary: Lovecraft's Japanese heir
Review: 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.

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Summary: Wonderful and sickening
Review: 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.