What Is Uzumaki About? Uzumaki (the word means “spiral” in Japanese) is set in Kurôzu-cho, a small fictional coastal town in Japan. The story is narrated by Kirie Goshima, a high school student who watches as her town slowly falls under a supernatural curse — one centered entirely on the shape of the spiral. It … Read more
What Is Uzumaki? The Horror Manga Spiral Fans Need to Read For anyone new to the medium, manga refers to Japanese comics — typically printed in black and white and read right to left in their original format (English editions are formatted for Western readers). Uzumaki is one of the most well-known horror manga ever … Read more
Kazuo Umezu — The Godfather of Horror Manga Note: Kazuo Umezu passed away on October 28, 2024. His legacy as the founder of horror manga remains undiminished. If horror manga has a founding father, it’s Kazuo Umezu (sometimes romanized as Kazuo Umezz). Born in 1936, Umezu began drawing horror comics in the late 1950s and … Read more
What Is Horror Manga? Horror manga is exactly what it sounds like: Japanese comics designed to scare you, unsettle you, or make your skin crawl. But it’s a much broader category than most people expect. Some horror manga is about ghosts. Some is about monsters. Some is about the terrifying things ordinary people do to … Read more
Junji Ito’s No Longer Human Manga — A 616-Page Adaptation of Osamu Dazai’s Novel If you’ve been searching for the Junji Ito No Longer Human manga, here’s the short version: this is Junji Ito’s manga adaptation of No Longer Human (Ningen Shikkaku), the famous 1948 novel by Osamu Dazai. It was serialized in Big Comic … Read more
The Junji Ito Manga Collection at a Glance The Junji Ito manga collection from Viz Media consists of 11 core English-language hardcovers — three completed long-form series (Uzumaki, Tomie, Gyo) and eight short-story collections or standalone graphic novels (Shiver, Smashed, Fragments of Horror, Venus in the Blind Spot, Deserter, Liminal Zone, Sensor, and Remina). Whether … Read more
Uzumaki Manga Is 3 Volumes — Or 1 If You Get the Deluxe Edition If you’re wondering how many volumes the Uzumaki manga has, here’s the short answer: 3 volumes total. That’s the complete story — beginning, middle, and end. Uzumaki is a finished series and there are no additional volumes coming. For anyone brand … Read more
Uzumaki — Junji Ito The setup: The small town of Kurouzu-cho becomes infected by spirals. Not a metaphorical obsession — a literal one. People begin seeing spirals everywhere. They become fixated on them. They contort their bodies into them. And the madness spreads like a contagion, consuming the entire town one person at a time. … Read more
What Is the Tomie Manga Series? The Basics at a Glance The Tomie manga series is a Japanese horror work by Junji Ito, made up of 20 interconnected short stories about an immortal, regenerating young woman who drives the people around her to murderous obsession. It was Ito’s very first published manga — the one … Read more
The Best Junji Ito Manga to Start With (Quick Answer) If you just want a single recommendation: Uzumaki. It’s a 648-page hardcover that collects the complete story in one volume. It’s self-contained — no sequels, no prequels, no continuity to worry about. And it showcases everything Ito is famous for: escalating dread, disturbing physical transformations, … Read more