In 2019, Adult Swim teamed up with Production IG USA to create a four-episode adaptation of Uzumaki – one of the most popular horror manga series by master Junji Ito. However, production was delayed multiple times due to what members of the animation team now describe as the “curse” of the spiral.
In Ito's original manga, Uzumaki tells the story of a small town haunted by a series of strange incidents involving spiral patterns appearing in the sky, clouds, rivers, and eventually on the human body. As detailed by Vulture, Uzumaki executive producer and Adult Swim senior vice president of anime and action series Jason DeMarco and his team paced themselves during pre-production to ensure that their project would live up to the manga's legacy. However, the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak abruptly halted work on the project. “The pandemic completely shut down production for almost a year,” DeMarco explained. “Our crew is very small, so even having a few cast members and their families get seriously ill was a huge blow to both our production and our morale.”
Pre-production prayer ceremony of the anime production team Uzumaki “Failed”
Uzumaki centers on college students Kirie Goshima and Shuichi Saito, who gradually witness the town of Kurozu-cho being overrun by spirals that infect people's minds and drive them insane. Even before the story descends into full-blown horror, the spirals have an inherently unsettling quality that the anime's production team doesn't take lightly. According to DeMarco, the production team performed a prayer ritual at a shrine as a precaution to ward off the supernatural entities—but to no avail. “It didn't work!” he exclaims. “Without exaggeration, all of us on the team truly believe that our project was cursed by the spirals. It's a miracle that it was created and that we all survived… I still see the spirals, everyone who worked on the show sees them—millions and millions of spirals.”
Adult Swim's Anime Adaptation of Junji Ito's 'Uzumaki' Will Be “F***ing Gnarly”
Worrying consequences aside, Adult Swim's final version of Uzumaki faithfully emulates Ito's iconic art style using a unique—but costly—black-and-white color palette. Additionally, traditional hand-drawn animation was combined with motion capture to recreate Ito's incredibly detailed drawings. “Our goal was to include something really jarring, something Ito-sensei does in a lot of his work, but we've never felt in previous animated adaptations… the decision to produce the show in black and white ended up being a HUGE production issue, but it obviously looks great,” DeMarco said. Adult Swim recently released Uzumaki's debut trailer, which Vulture described as “f***ing gnarly.”
Uzumaki will premiere in Japanese with English subtitles on September 28 at 12:30 a.m. via Adult Swim's Toonami programming block. The English dub, starring Robbie Daymond (Shuichi) and Abby Trott (Kirie), will premiere the following week on October 3. Episodes from both versions will begin streaming on Max the day after they air on television. Junji Ito's original Uzumaki manga is available in English on VIZ Media.
Uzumaki
“Uzumaki” tells the haunting story of Kirie Goshima and Shuichi Saito in the small town of Kurouzu-cho, where an evil spiral curse takes place. As the curse gradually consumes the town, the people succumb to obsession and paranoia, their bodies distorted into spiral shapes. In a last-ditch effort to escape the lingering curse, Kirie and Shuichi discover a surreal spiral city at its center, only to realize the inescapable and eternal nature of the spiral curse.
Author This is Junji
Artist This is Junji
Release date January 19, 1998
Chap 16
Book 3
Adaptation Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror
Publishing house Shogakukan
Extend
Source: Vulture
