Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror by Junji Ito

23 reviews

mirrorbug's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I always like finding books with weird premises and this is definitely one of them. It's a horror classic for a reason. The body horror in this manga is absolutely fantastic, that is one of its strong points.

The snail people is probably my favorite part of this story due to how absolutely odd and disturbing it is. The mating scene cemented it in my head as one of my favorite sections.

The ending left me with questions that I wonder if there's a real answer for.
The bonus chapters were definitely the weakest. Even if it's not technically a part of the main story, there are things I would've preferred to explore in the bonus chapter. It's not the horror in them was bad or anything, it was great, but it wasn't anything particularly special to me.
Shuichi was my guy. Kirie has serious "this is fine" syndrome when it is, very clearly, not fine.

how kirie can stay in that town after her boyfriend talked about how evil the town feels in the first chapter is incredible to me. Maybe that's a symptom of the spiral, but shuichi should've just gotten the fuck out of there.

I do wish we saw more of kirie and shuichi being a couple. It didn't always feel like they were to me, mostly good friends.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Cannibalism, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Stalking, Pregnancy, Cursing, Confinement, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Bullying

Death is essential in this story, first chapter has a scene where a character finds their deceased parent, this is not a happy story

natcrash's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

I really liked it, but wouldn't reread due to its length. The main topic of the book is the spiral, but the main focus shifts from chapter to chapter, eventually coming together around the middle of the book. 

I couldn't really connect with the characters a lot. I like how Shuichi's character changed due to the events of the first and second chapter. Kirie, the main character, I felt like she wasn't really there for the first half of the book, as the events start to really affect her later and we then see how the events affect her.

I don't know what I was expecting for the ending,

but I really wished that Kirie and Shuichi would have escaped Kurouzu-Cho. I think that was the point, though, to show how the entire town was consumed by the spiral and no one could escape it, in the end. I just like happy endings, to be honest.

Despite all of this, I still really liked the book. I found it entertaining and captivating. The art style is beautiful and the expressions are on point. I loved how everything was connected, and even though things don't make a lot of sense, it was a fun read. 

I can read manga and graphic novels in a short period of time, but i was still surprised that i was able to read this almost in one sitting/less than 24 hours (took a break to sleep and continued the next day).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Blood, Car accident, Child death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Medical content

Moderate: Bullying and Stalking

Minor: Grief and Toxic friendship

There is a lot of gory/graphic imagery, including: - blood - body horror - child death - injuries - (attempted?) murder - medical content. Bullying occurs once, but since the bullying is so brutal I placed it at moderate.

belladonnashrike's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.75

loved this - not quite as much as the tomie series, but still. I think I would’ve enjoyed it more if shuichi was the protagonist - I just didn’t care about kirie quite as much as him. I loved his characterization much more and I think this story from his perspective would be very compelling.

I wasn’t scared of uzumaki but that’s more telling about me than it is about ito. the story was certainly creepy as hell but I just never get scared of supernatural or unrealistic horror. anything realistic (or more realistic sci-fi or fantasy even… like the invisible man film really scared me even though the science doesn’t exist) will get me. so I definitely wasn’t disappointed by my lack of fear, it’s very normal to me. the story was definitely creepy though. I would love to pick ito’s brain — what on earth is going on in there?

artistically, ito really excels in body horror & conveying emotion/story through the eyes. the panels containing one or both of those elements are my favorite and have definitely stuck with me.  I also think people ignore his comedy when praising him, like of course he is clearly a master of horror but he’s also quite funny if you pay attention!

a little thing that I really enjoyed throughout reading was the little tiny spirals in the background of panels. they’re unnoticeable if you’re not looking, but from the beginning there are spirals in the blades of grass and wood grain - it’s really some fantastic subtle storytelling on ito’s part. as an artist I really loved that attention to detail.

finally, I loved how the story itself was also a spiral… you don’t realize it at first, but when it hits you… damn. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Blood, Gore, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Violence, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Grief, Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, and Death of parent

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

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

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

reina_shouko's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Gore, Body horror, Death, Grief, Cannibalism, and Blood

kakeyame's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Murder, Blood, Bullying, Cannibalism, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, and Torture

Minor: Emotional abuse, Car accident, Infertility, Terminal illness, and Addiction

meaghanelizabook's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Car accident, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, and Violence

effys's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

I read this book in pretty much one sitting and it was absolutely wild. I looked into body horror books after loving a few other body horrors and this book kept coming up and it was incredible. This book is disturbing and gruesome and definitely not for the faint of heart but I loved ever second of it and didn’t want to put it down. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Violence, Torture, Pregnancy, and Murder