Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror by Junji Ito

62 reviews

finleyfrogreads's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gore, Pregnancy, Child death, Confinement, Medical trauma, Death, and Body horror

Moderate: Animal death, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicide, Car accident, Medical content, and Self harm

Minor: Grief

jaedia's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This was weird. And it successfully made me uncomfortable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Pregnancy, Death, Death of parent, Body horror, Cannibalism, and Medical content

satanita's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

5.0

Horrific, in a perfect way! Uzumaki is one of Junji Ito's best works, and now that I can finally read it on paper his drawings are even more mesmerizing and terrifying. As I kept reading this manga I felt tingles in my back and it made me want to scream in terror, precisely what I was looking for. My fears augmented as the panels seemed to hypnotize me with so many spirals, so so many spirals. I truly felt like my head was going in circles in the motion of a spiral, the story seemed to come alive and pull me in. Favorite part was the beginning, the mystery was so eerie as the spiral slowly began to affect more and more people. The scar and Medusa were the most interesting ones. However I found that Twisted Souls prophesized the ending of the main couple, the story made a full circle, like a spiral! Truly a masterpiece. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Gore, Body horror, Pregnancy, Medical content, Cannibalism, and Grief

thereaderfriend's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Truly a scary, gory book! This book had me all tensed up as I was reading it and had to take breaks bc it was so unsettling. Really liked it but didn't like how some characters seemingly learned plot details that were important from thin air. Also had weird pacing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Cannibalism, Death, Body horror, and Gore

Moderate: Torture, Confinement, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Stalking, Animal death, Car accident, Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Self harm, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, and Animal cruelty

ririissoamazing's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Mental illness, Death, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Child death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Genocide, Suicide, Violence, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Miscarriage, and Medical content

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Cannibalism, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Animal death, and Medical content

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Stalking, and Self harm

Minor: Sexual content

zakcebulski's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

What the fucking hell did I just read? This book was fucking nuts my word. 
This manga collection follows a teenaged girl named Kirie and her boyfriend- Shuichi who live in a small town called Kurouzu-cho. This town is infected- cursed by the spiral. Now, when I first heard about this, I was thinking to myself, "how scary can a spiral be?". And then Junji Ito answered me with some of the most overtly revolting and sickening images of body horror which I have ever seen. 

The story is broken up in to about 20 vignettes which each have a different incarnation of the spiral taking form within the city, with each of them being related in the overarching story. I thought that this was fucking amazing, to be quite frank. The horror within the book stems, for me, from body horror and from normal people being forced by this curse to act in absolutely vile and horrific ways. 
I loved the feeling of Lovecraftian horror that comes from not understanding what is going on. And, what is worse, is knowing that there is no escape. I thought that this was absolutely terrifying. 

The illustrations in this set are absolutely stomach churningly well done. There is nothing left to imagination and there are some particularly disgusting events, specifically in the vignette of "The Umbilical Cord"- good god. 
I am glad that I picked up this set, and I am even more glad that I was able to go into it with little/ no knowledge before hand. It was an absolute treat, and I implore anyone who is interested in reading this set to go into it with as little knowledge as possible. 
This was truly a scary read and one that I think would make itself right at home within any scary reading TBR. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Car accident, Gore, Medical content, Murder, and Pregnancy

dearheart's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cannibalism, Violence, Gore, Death of parent, Death, Bullying, and Medical content

art_books_chemistry's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Child death, Violence, Confinement, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Cannibalism, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Pregnancy

ollie_again's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

The art is immaculate, but the story is kind of eh... Junji Ito is amazing at creating gross terrifying scenarios, but there is not much coherence or satisfying conclusion. After reading Gyo and Uzumaki I feel like even though I'm easily grossed out and body horror is not a type of thing I actively look for, after few shocking moments you can get used to Ito's style and the horror is not as impactful.

So there is the shock by gore, but not shock by the narrative itself because there is not much to grab in terms of storytelling. I think that Junji Ito could reach the full potential with someone else's writing because he's definitely a master in his drawing, and he can match his f-up imagination with an artistic skill, there's just something missing to push the story to the finish line.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Pregnancy, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, and Gore

Moderate: Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Violence

Minor: Fire/Fire injury