Junji Ito’s seminal work Uzumaki (which is essentially a tale of a town being cursed by supernatural spirals that drive them to do very strange and often morbid things) is one of the most respected and influential works ever published in the world of horror manga. The absurd and twisted ideas that come from within that man’s head are unlike anything you’ll ever read, and his artwork is the stuff of nightmares. Surprisingly, there haven’t been a huge number of attempts at adapting his stories to either the live-action or animation realms. There was the Tomie series of films in Japan, the animated Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack in 2012, and a prior adaptation of Uzumaki in 2000 (among others). Nearly all of them have polarized fans and critics alike, but once a high budget animated adaptation of this was announced in 2019, many people were elated (me included). There were tons of noteworthy names attached to it, including composer Colin Stetson, award-winning director Hiroshi Nagahama, and even noted animation heads Adult Swim (of whom would be directly involved with helping bring it to life). The hype was real…….and then the pandemic happened. Due to an assortment of reasons, Uzumaki wouldn’t see completion and final release until this October. While it was nice to see it finally come to fruition, I almost wish that it hadn’t. Simply put, this is one of the most colossally disappointing pieces of animation that I have EVER seen. For starters, this is only four episodes long. While I don’t have a problem with them condensing some of the story, that discovery had me raising an eyebrow. Then I looked up and saw that Nagahama was only attached as director for the first episode, with another person taking over for episodes 2 & 3 (it should be noted that there is no director listed for episode 4. Is there an “Alan Smithee” for Japan?).
It should be noted though that the first episode of Uzumaki
is EXCELLENT. It looks beautiful (sticking with the original black and
white style from the manga was a great idea), the voice acting is solid, and
the whole thing flows so incredibly well. Best of all, it’s legitimately creepy
and has an ending that packs a wallop. If you were to air that as a “proof of
concept” show and shop it around, I know that someone would’ve picked it up
immediately. Unfortunately, the good times end rather quickly, because the drop
in animation quality in the rest of the miniseries is SHOCKINGLY bad. It feels
static, lifeless, and worst of all lazy. If I can use a “Western” comparison,
it feels akin to what happened after the first six issues of The Walking
Dead comic book switched artists or when Frank Darabont left after the
live-action adaptation’s first season had been completed. You don’t need to be
familiar with the medium to know that something is terribly off. Worst of all,
it just kind of falls apart by trying to do too much too soon. It felt disjointed
and I kept checking the remote control to see how much time was left in the
final episode. Saddened (and a little mad), I decided to do some digging around
to see what the hell exactly happened. In layman’s terms, it sounds like not
only did Covid do a number on the production team’s aspirations and schedule,
but that production costs were so high after the first episode that the new management
in charge (which may or may not include noted asshole and animation hater David
Zaslav) didn’t have any interest in giving them the necessary budget to make anything
beyond its first episode look remotely decent. Thus, we’re stuck with this.
Creative director Jason Demarco even took to bluesky (aka the twitter
alternative not owned by a giant manbaby nazi sympathizer who makes ugly vehicles
that catch fire) to express his frustrations with everything that happened (screenshot
below courtesy of one Ms. Rain Howard). And I honestly can’t say that I blame him.
This is such a complicated mess. As I mentioned before, the
first episode of Uzumaki is a real piece of art and a masterclass on how
to do Junji Ito correctly. Everything else that comes afterwards, however, is
heartbreakingly bad. I’m hoping that those who put in so much hard work when this
first got off the ground aren’t completely discouraged by this series’ mixed-to-negative
reception and can wrestle themselves away from the likes of Warner Bros. &
Zaslav and head to another studio that appreciates the artform and can give
them more creative freedom and trust.
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