If you like horror, read this.
If you like manga, read this.
If you like comics, read this.
If you are female, read this.
If you are male, read this.
If you are a deep thinker, read this.
If you like to read, read this.
If you read only one manga series in your entire life, read this.
Hell, if you are alive, read this!

I am an avid manga reader and collector. I prefer manga to anime at any given time and I will read anything, and I have read - a lot - of manga. A lot. Despite this, Uzumaki is by far the BEST manga I have ever read.

Uzumaki is an amazing piece of fiction, firmly set in the world of the bizarre and the unexplainable. It has shades of Lovecraft and has the ability to give you an amazing case of the creeping horrors. It is one of the most amazing -books- I have ever read, period.

The premise of Uzumaki seems a little silly, at first, I mean, c'mon, a town haunted by spirals? When I first read the description of it I couldn't help but picture little stick figures with spiral heads passing through walls and spooking people, it just doesn't sound scary at all! Of course, it also grasped my curiosity as how the writer could pull off taking something so harmless as a spiral and turning it into an object of horror.

Well...
He did it in many ways. From the curve of a scar to the spring in a jack-in-the-box, the spiral forces itself into the lives of the people of the cursed town of Kurozu-cho. Each volume is a collection of segments of how the curse of the spiral coils itself around the people of Kurozu-cho. The entire body of work is narrated from the perspective of a high school student, Kirie Goshima, who time after time again encounters the horror of the spirals. I would love to tell you more about it, but it is so much more fun to watch the stories unfold in front of your own eyes. Each one is beautiful, moving, often humorous, always haunting. There are images in this manga that will stick with you forever.

While the premise itself is enough of a reason to pick up the series and check it out (and at three volumes it isn't to hard on the pocket book) the storytelling inside each volume is amazing. The relationships of the people, a well-balanced dose of horror and humor, the different manifestations of the spirals, the detailed, grisly and beautiful artwork pulls the story into a strikingly moving tale of horror. Junji Ito is surely a master of his craft, his images surreal and frightening and his characters pitiable and real. Its difficult to scream enough praises for just how beautifully this work is put together. From the very first page it will draw you in and the curse of the spiral won't release you until the surprising, disturbing end plays across the paper.

Junji Ito has proven himself as masterful a storyteller as Stephen King, HP Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe with his gruesome, spine tingling tales. Uzuamki is in short, an absolute masterpiece of the comic form. It's a shining example of how comics are not just for entertainment and children. The stories in Uzumaki, the characters, the -ideas- will haunt you for many days to come and many sleepless nights.

The story focuses many a time on the spell binding qualities of the spiral, and the books reflect that quality as well. You will find yourself thinking about them at random times or reading the books over again and again. It is a masterful, amazing series that I can't recommend enough. Not just for horror fans, but for anyone who appreciates well-crafted stories. You will not be disappointed.

10/10