Uzumaki: Downward Spiral of the Year

[@TheSkaOreo]

Honestly I think they should have done this the old-school OVA way: Release an ep every 6 months to a year to maintain that quality.

[@tonylawson2222]

If someone can explain to them a way in which they will make more money for doing it that way, they'd probably do it.

[@darianstarfrog]

FIVE YEARS.. they had FIVE YEARS!

[@hyschara]

That still means money being spent on animation. Zaslav wouldnt like that

[@iiNaoki]

@darianstarfrog We should consider the fact that 3 of the 5 years (2020-2022) were during a pandemic, and that definitely affected the timeline majorly cuz it affected literally every industry.

[@Rebazar]

"That's not gonna work for me, brother" - David Zaslav

[@treestump17]

It's so nice to have a good one episode OVA of Uzumaki.

[@LittleTallMermaid2015]

There is no war in uzumaki

[@0uttaS1TE]

Just like how there was never a Promised Neverland Season 2

[@Finalslashes]

Yea if only we could get the rest of

[@NOOB-ps8km]

I swear, too many sequels these days end up being so bad we just repress their existence.

[@joaquinvaleri7022]

​@@LittleTallMermaid2015go listen to metal like Linkin Park Korn Deftones Tool Chevelle Marilyn Manson Nine Inch Nails and others Aggressive Bands

[@AnalogStick95]

Fucking Zaslav... his name keeps popping up whenever there is a trainwreck...

[@madkoala2130]

At least now we have the main blame guy for everything wrong in WB for past 5 years.

[@btchiaintkidding7837]

i have no idea why... but as soon as i heard his name and saw his face my eyes widened and jaws clenched like an instinctive reaction. i swear i dont even remember this guy from anywhere. Must have done some incredibly disrespecrful shady sh&t that i subconsciously remembered or something, i am a ch&ll guy i dont get mad over things like this. wtf

[@ma.2089]

@@btchiaintkidding7837 It’s like blocking out a memory (kinda like I did w/ Logan Paul’s Japan visit) and then being reminded of its existence and you don’t remember WHY you hated them but the emotions you suppressed just bursts out. Speaking of which, after the utter failure of Joker 2, they’ve laid off so many ppl again. It infuriates me how they gut actually good content with returns and then throw their money into worthless content that will never make them money back. Now his little debt is worse.

[@joaquinvaleri7022]

Like Woodstock 99

[@joaquinvaleri7022]

​@@ma.2089nobody likes Logan Paul and Joker 2 and Jake Paul music is garbage and i rather listen to good hip hop music rather than Jake Paul

[@Mister-MAD]

Junji Ito Curse 🤝 Adult Swim Original Anime Curse

[@TwoPairSA]

Hey, they made Space Dandy!

[@MrTreespace]

​@@TwoPairSAI'm pretty sure that was Funimation and they just got distribution rights but I could be mistaken. Love space dandy so much. Uzumaki deserved better :(

[@TheHiyy]

Boondocks is my favorite anime of all time

[@ma.2089]

@@MrTreespace you’re right. It was funimation.

[@ma.2089]

@@TwoPairSA don’t give them credit for buying the rights lol

[@JeremyCoatney]

I love that by all accounts Junji Ito is an adorkable, well adjusted, and kind dude who loves his cats

[@alphacat77]

There’s a video of him reacting to peoples cats and it’s so wholesome

[@christinefarrell6438]

He's just so normal! If I passed him on the street, "Horror Mangaka" would be the LAST thing I'd pick for his profession

[@houndrysmagolyteofhope4661]

He is pretty wholesome. He often adds humor to his stories. Heck, Ito Wrote one about "Buying Poop"

[@houndrysmagolyteofhope4661]

​@@christinefarrell6438 to me i would think he might be a candy store owner.

[@asdfgidji879]

even better the dude who heads studio ghibli is like his exact parellel. one makes nice happy movies and is kinda a pessimist. the other makes dark scary stories and loves cats

[@colibri224]

As a little artist-animator, I hate Zaslav with every fiber of my being. I'm usually not the type to waste my energy on anger, yet this guy manage to bring up so much rage in me every time I see or hear his name. I can't stand him and everything he did to the animation industry and my fellow animators.

[@acidwizard6528]

I'm a noob when it comes to anime. What kind of things has this guy done? I've never heard of him before.

[@shinkamui]

@@acidwizard6528 well, this shit, but like on everything he touches. Mainly it's an entire spiral of bad business practices and screwing over his own shows, fucking the brand up, throwing animators and creators under the bus, obscuring shows from the past and destroying their legacy.. it's a whole suite of fucked up

[@RockSoulMe]

@@shinkamui Zaslav is also responsible for throwing away complete films (Batgirl, Coyote vs ACME) and scrubbing away any traces of animated shows removed from HBO Max (Infinity Train, Summer Camp Island, Final Space) all for taxes write-offs. Fuck Zaslav

[@freebrickproductions]

@@acidwizard6528 In addition to screwing-over anime, the dude is screwing over animation in general, even the western animation from WB and other studies Zaslav has control over at Warner Bros. Discovery have been wrecked by him.

[@jojoslameerrand9305]

@@acidwizard6528 he's a manager for shareholders. he cuts corners until its round to squeeze as much money out of WB and most famously did the whole Mass Firing and Deletion so the books looked profitable, at the expense of animators and animated shows in general. Everything he touches burns in the name of short-term profit.

[@TheSequimKid]

Zaslav is also the man who decided to shut down RoosterTeeth because they were mainly an animation studio. I believe he's the common dominator to all the issues we are seeing.

[@bananatiergod]

I swear to god, at this point this man is INTENTIONALLY trying to burn the animation business to the ground for money's sake. It's so infuriating.

[@jazzycat8917]

He's also the cause of massive budget cuts to House of the Dragon, he's the reason they lost their last two episodes right before filming season 2 (which they then couldn't fix because of the writers strike)

[@ma.2089]

To be fair, Rooster Teeth was bleeding money. After workplace discrimination and abuse allegations came out, it was inevitably going to end. I’m more angered at the other things he cancelled and destroyed. I can’t even remember everything he’s done, there’s so much.

[@bencegergohocz5988]

Well, you can't exactly blame him for the RT thing as they fucked their cashcow show up so bad, more people were waching the criticism of the episodes than the episodes themselves.

[@smergthedargon8974]

Denominator.

[@BloomingSakura]

Man, Zaslav really is the worst man in entertainment right now, huh. Threw so much good works into the trash, but The Flash ABSOLUTELY cannot go in there in their stead.

[@Lightspeeds]

"It was me Barry. I've been moonlighting as Warner Bros executives to ruin everything they own or license "

[@PhenomsServant4]

Don’t forget he also looked at Hogwarts Legacy outselling CoD and Suicide Squad KtJL lose 200 million and said ‘we’re making more live service scams’

[@qtarokujo3694]

the motherfucker also axed the Spider-Verse-esque Batman Beyond animated film, in favor of that already atrocious Minecraft movie

[@YourProfessional-Gachagamer]

What can I say? Dude gave AEW (All Elite Wrestling) a new contract, and that's my favorite Wrestling company. I have to endure his BS, I'm afraid

[@Lightspeeds]

@@YourProfessional-Gachagamer That is the only good thing he can take credit for, and even then that's probably because Tony Khan had to milk whatever goodwill he has in the entertainment industry to get that deal.

[@66Roses]

There's a version of the trolley problem in which a wealthy CEO tied to the tracks bribes you to pull the lever and hit the other five people instead. If David Zaslav was that CEO, I wouldn't pull the lever even if the other track was empty.

[@josephdavis9234]

Take the money first.

[@houndrysmagolyteofhope4661]

​@@josephdavis9234bribing only becomes such if you do your part of the deal, if you don't it will suck for the other guy, then again that person believes everything can be solved with bribes. Should bribe god to let them out instead.

[@asdfgidji879]

@@josephdavis9234 if he doesnt have cash hes lying, no reason to accept payment first loot the body

[@emanyzal9813]

@@josephdavis9234 "Can you write me a check?" "Obviously not! I'm tied to these tracks!" "What a shame."

[@MagicSwordKing]

If David Zaslav was on fire in the nearest toilet to me, and I really had to pee, like, more than I’ve ever had to pee in my life? I’d use the sink.

[@michaelking7847]

The most personally annoying thing about this whole situation, for me, is the the number of people claiming that Uzamakis failure is some kinda proof that animation is somehow incompatible with horror. And while it's true there's VERY little feature animation prioritizing horror, there's still oceans of short form horror animation out there for those who bother to look. Hell even if you wanted to use Uzamaki as an example of incompatibility, the first episode still exists. It could have worked! It just broke down behind the scenes.

[@errorcode9542]

I love horror anime but i really struggle finding good ones can you recommend some

[@hendrickmorher86]

The KZbin channel I can't sleep is a masterpiece.

[@resarious6225]

@@errorcode9542 perfect blue i think is pretty good

[@kjarakravik4837]

@@errorcode9542 This channel has plenty of horror anime recommendation videos, but outside of anime have you ever given western horror animations a try? Stop motion and 3D animations tend to be more consistently good for me on average

[@wolfy-woo]

The lack of good feature-length or whatever horror animation is not indicitive of its capability. Its that no one has truly bothered. The lack of much big name precedent means perceived risk, which means "we dont wanna lose all that money". Its really unfortunate and really sucks that the metric of "has someone already done it before and gotten popular for it" is apparently the only thing indicating if something is a valid medium to these people

[@andrewgossecomposer]

At the end of the day, at least we still have that incredible Colin Stetson soundtrack...

[@janogabor7697]

Put it on while reading the manga and it's all perfect with none of the downside

[@kidsamsa]

The OST cover Ito-sensei drew is also fantastic

[@RihatsuMerude]

I have both the LPshe did for this and Color Out of Space, perfect for reading something spooky to.

[@HigherQualityUploads]

And the show didn't even use some of the songs on it LOL

[@RANima71498]

My sibling and I fell in love with episode 1, felt deeply betrayed by episode 2, were in despair by episode 3, and fully accepted the reality by the time the ending credits of 4 rolled. It felt like we went through the five stages of grief.

[@sakarver]

A spiral innit of itself. Masterfully done when you think about it.

[@Ash_Wen-li]

Denial - It's not that bad! Anger - I can't believe they made this garbage and ruined it Bargaining - Only this episode was bad maybe the last two will be better! Depression - Man, this sucks. It had so much potential Acceptance - I guess we can never properly adapt Junji Ito

[@Watch-0w1]

No lied, me too. By 4EP I accept to be crap and appreciate the concept. It is best junji Ito animated.

[@btchiaintkidding7837]

me and my sibling fell in love with ep1 i joked "imagine if they blew all their budget on ep1 lmao" and we laughed. We aint laughing anymore

[@RANima71498]

@@Ash_Wen-liyou summed it up way too well.

[@justinbuergi9867]

I don’t know what you mean. This series was fantastic. Sure it’s weird that they only made one episode but I’m sure they had their reasons 😊

[@theletterm1787]

Denial isn't just a river in Egypt

[@Turbo_Waitress]

Maybe someday it’ll get a full adaptation. Just like Tsukihime, which also sadly never had an anime adaptation.

[@alphakowaclips]

You got me on the first half 😂

[@gerardwolf8507]

​@@theletterm1787 yeah yeah, don't let people have their own opinion

[@kaylemathewcomendador6964]

@@gerardwolf8507 I think it’s more of a silly joke than a opinion. People pretending that the old Tsukihime anime doesn’t exists due to how bad it is has been a thing for years.

[@Piromysl359]

1st episode - *Uzumaki* Naruto 2nd episode - *Uzumaki* Boruto

[@hithedragon7842]

Lmao, I'm surprised I haven't seen this analogy yet. It definitely fits.

[@jamesjoe1690]

So that explains the spirals on Narutos cheeks

[@HonkaiHistory]

I dont think this fits, because Boruto's animation was more consistent than Naruto's.

[@Arkayruz]

@@HonkaiHistory Whoosh.

[@artophile7777]

​@@Arkayruz Whoosh

[@be6386]

Who did the screwing ?!? Isn’t it obvious? It’s the curse of the spiral !!! 🌀

[@defaulted9485]

To be fair, I hadn't found other adaptation that captures despair as faithful to the source material as this one. -Except Promised Neverland Season 2 but that never existed.-

[@Finalslashes]

Yea like tsukihime

[@tylersun1366]

There is no Tsukihime anime​@@Finalslashes

[@bearerofbadnews1375]

@@Finalslashes there’s no Tsukihime anime. The only thing we got from it was Carnival Phantasm which is a crossover.

[@garryame4008]

The most unfortunate thing is that episode one proves that Ito's work IS adaptable - It is possible! I only hope the mismanagement of this adaptation doesn't hinder future attempts

[@JuFated]

Zaslav feels like the animation corporate version of Reagan. I read Uzumaki as an assignment for a comic's club. I didnt know anything about it and couldnt even finish the first volume and had nightmares for days xDD. THe visuals are jsut that good and Im sad the adaptations can never seem to pull the same terror off.

[@Overlord69]

At least Zaslav isn't firing all the air traffic controllers and closing down all the asylums...which is still a very low bar to climb btw

[@PhenomsServant4]

Lets be honest if he had the power too do so, he would.

[@RAFMnBgaming]

well either way I don't want to eat his Zaslav Cheese.

[@svino1218]

The stalker kid going WEEEEH was way more of a jump comedy

[@spectrumchaser4343]

Ok, go with me on this: Imagine if Laika studios got their hands on this. They already proven they can do animated horror fairly well. Also, give them the space and budget to make 4-8 hour long episodes. I may be reaching, but stop motion Junji Ito sounds pretty interesting.

[@Sparks29252]

Laika's unique funding situation would also allow them to avoid the troubles that beset this production. Now we just need to make the folk over at Laika fans of Junji Ito. They seem to work best with passion projects.

[@SagittariusAyy]

I never even thought about that, that’s perfect

[@Noo584]

Look, I know there’s no such thing as curses BUT I think the curse would end up bankrupting Laika. It’s not worth the risk.

[@dxcSOUL]

Why would Laika ever do this. This is so outside their wheelhouse.

[@beingmegucaissuffering.5326]

I wonder what Laika is currently working on

[@aguyontheinternet1532]

Looks like this Uzumaki never became Hokage

[@Ziggyvu]

Ba dum tss

[@0uttaS1TE]

I just couldn't believe it

[@sahuanitasahu7696]

Dattebayo

[@omechron]

I do wonder if any young Naruto fans might throw this on without knowing what it is...

[@joaquinvaleri7022]

​@@omechronwell nobody likes Boruto

[@MurderousEagle]

*falls to my knees and lets the lament be yelled to the heavens" ZASLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAV

[@notme8232]

GRIFFIIIIIIIIIITH!

[@jofbaut1203]

He can’t keep getting away with this!

[@Xick]

WEH!

[@Chronosmaster002]

he could write a fictional story of a mangaka whose animated adaptations are cursed with being bad... wait that would be a biopic. Junji's work is best read.

[@somethingsoff6127]

Berserk and Junji Ito’s works are suffering from that curse where the art of the manga is so good that replicating it in animation is near difficult.

[@refillpan]

suffering from success

[@mimszanadunstedt441]

The problem is BUDGET

[@al3220]

I feel Uzumaki could have been a really good 13-episode or maybe even 26-episode saga if they just gave the audience some time to breath and get scared. Part of the fear is the existential dread of the impending inescapable doom, but this felt like a speedrun and everything was over before I could digest anything.

[@resarious6225]

episode 3 was the worse with that like everything happened all at once ppf

[@GapingGorble]

I was so shocked when they stuck the lighthouse chapter onto the end of episode 2. So many of these chapters deserved whole episodes unto themselves.

[@teneleven5132]

26??? the manga is only 20 chapters

[@emonychan]

I've seen so many oldtaku whinge about "well this wouldn't have happened in the OLD DAYS when they HAND ANIMATED EVERYTHING", conveniently forgetting how many 80s and 90s OVAs started off with a banger first and/or second episode, only to look like the offcuts from the worst days of Hanna Barbara by episode 4. It's a shame that this is so difficult, but it kind of just speaks to the idea that some forms of media are best kept in their original form, because not only does that media lend opportunities unavailable in another form, but it's also where the idea is properly possible in the first place.

[@kjarakravik4837]

Honestly, the only thing I miss about the old days is the fact that we were getting those OVA's in the first place, compared to now where the OVA landscape feels like a desert

[@emonychan]

@@kjarakravik4837 Yeah, but we're also in a TV climate that favours 12-episode series, so it's not that different.

[@Owesomasaurus]

I think this is why despite everything I still love animation. There's something about the medium that opens limitless possibilities... only for limits to be imposed by budget and corporate politics.

[@sarafontanini7051]

or hell in some cases have a promising start but then left COMPLETELY unfinished so we can never see where the fuck the story was gonna go, such as Ninja Ressurection

[@elichi5259]

to be honest i don't think a junji ito anime adaptation will ever work with the current climate of the anime industry. simply the act of attempting to sufficiently adapt a junji ito manga into an anime is ambitious. the manga is so effective because it uses techniques unique to the medium, like page turns and still but heavily detailed imagery, for its horror. the anime would have to alter the entire method of how it achieves this to suit the medium, which would be very difficult and, with the small budget, small production time, and lack of creative freedom an anime is given, would be impossible (as proved by what has happened with the uzumaki adaptation) that first episode was our glimpse into what it could have been if we had the budget, the time, and the passion for an adaptation. and hopefully the positive fan reaction to the first episode and the negative fan reaction from the rest of the episodes help to make a change in order for the "episode 1s" to be created, and not the "episode 2-4s".

[@tabathacarruthers5122]

If only a good studio like Bones or whoever did Jujutsu Kaisen made this anime.

[@ajinurfajri1952]

Id like to see Hiroshi Nagahama doing more horror related stuffs. Ik even he said somewhere that horror isnt made to fit in anime or something like that but he's damn crushing it with Uzumaki anime first episode

[@JinxeBlaq]

@@tabathacarruthers5122Mappa

[@pigeontoes5421]

@@tabathacarruthers5122mappa already has horrific workplace abuse with non-detailed anime, I cant imagine what those poor animators would have to go through if they did a junji ito work

[@resarious6225]

@@tabathacarruthers5122 oh god not mappa no

[@Just_Some_Guy_with_a_Mustache]

I really relate to Shuichi. The moment things went downhill, I should've left. But I stayed until the very end. For some reason.

[@BrotherAlpha]

8:30 ... Warner Bros. I can confidently say it was Zaslav or one of his cronies.

[@hllow3199]

Bingo

[@brycebitetti1402]

The best part about Zaslav and his shit ass decisions is that even as they constantly cut production budgets and shelve finished works for tax breaks, they are still consistently losing money with Max and betting on the wrong horses with the films they do release (The Flash, Shazam 2, Blue Beetle, and Joker 2 all being huge, in some cases, historic bombs).

[@RedXlV]

@@brycebitetti1402 Seriously, it's hilarious that Zaslav told us the Batgirl movie was so bad as to be unreleasable, yet The Flash somehow wasn't.

[@JeffDvrx]

Same. I haven't watched Uzumaki yet (probably will at some point) and I knew nothing at all about the situation, but as soon as Warner was mentioned I went "oh so _that's_ where this is going" lol. Sad one can predict such a thing with certainty and be right

[@ma.2089]

@@RedXlV well that’s cuz one of the guys working on it said that the movie was sooooo good that ppl would forget the main actor was a criminal who kidnapped children and assaulted women! Lol

[@magsthesimp]

Fun fact! Apparently the reason why Blue Lock Season 2 looked like that is because they had 1 guy animating 3-5 episodes by himself.

[@refillpan]

that’s so cruel wtf😭

[@mr.protagonist5639]

Thats incredibly bad. Honestly hope it's just low budget or something.

[@Kossa-Odessa]

@@mr.protagonist5639I believe the working conditions were so bad that a large part of the team left, leaving it to the few, or maybe even only persons left to work on it. But this is just what I had heard.

[@Aash4100]

Source: "trust me bro" Please stop realising misinformation for clicks

[@mimszanadunstedt441]

Welcome to japanimation, hell, even mangaka have a hard time. Creator of Berserk dying for example.

[@AxelLeJeff]

The real indifferent cruel horror cycle was that of media critique in the face of vulture capital all along.

[@MrFinalMax]

Oddly, the Warner Bros Discovery merger is a consistent loss meme for Zaslav. Turns out that WB cooked the books for years to get better sale prices. Absolutely ridiculous stuff there. I would actually think that going from a smaller team to multiple production teams would cost more. But the pandemic might’ve produced a bit of a buffer in production delays that kept the project from getting axed earlier.

[@CyricZ]

Looks like a certain Mr. Zaslav was disturbed by the fact that he himself looks too much like your average Junji Ito character in the early stages of body horror.

[@ericdewell1905]

Toonami has never been able to recover since they lost a lot of the broadcast rights to hit anime. Their originals are mostly misses.

[@demonman905]

Their viewership dropping because of all the cable cutting isn't helping either. I really wish I could tune in to a livestream of Toonami as it aired with my MAX subscription to support the network and channel block, but it sucks that I can't.

[@vbucci6894]

Which sucks. You'd think for a studio who was well known for airing anime they would understand how to do it by now. Maybe they need to create something decent instead of going for something big. Like a slow climb

[@TwoPairSA]

@@vbucci6894 Yeah but you can't prioritize "decent" because the show still has to get views/fans/buzz. It's not like they can just sponsor the anime version of indie filmmaking, Adult Swim (and by extension of course, Toonami) is still a TV channel which means stuff still needs to get ratings. And yeah cable is dying, but it still needs to be popular enough to get clicks on Max. So they have to be "big" and hope the "decent" comes with it. I think the big main problem is that they keep doing anime-original shows... with the obvious exceptions of Uzumaki and that Shenmue show (and to an extent the FLCL sequels), but anime-originals are inherently riskier. I don't know the behind the scenes stuff there, if WB just gives Production I.G. a big bag of money and says "make us a hit, boys" or what, but clearly whatever approach they're using ain't working.

[@Blad3sofWaR]

Crunchyroll and Now Discovery Warner mergers are two HUGE hits to C.N/A.S/Toonami and Cable in general.

[@GapingGorble]

@@Blad3sofWaR so many [as] shows got pointlessly sacrificed in the merger smh

[@COCO-tm3gp]

Between this and Suicide Squad Isekai being a flop, Warner Bros genuinely curses any animation they touch

[@kneau]

Warner Bros can no longer be referred to simply as Warner Bros. They no longer call the shots and it shows.

[@pablocasas5906]

Which is weird since Warner Bros. Japan has been involved in the production of plenty of anime in Japan, like the entire Jojo's Bizarre Adventure anime adaptations made by David Production. The thing is that I think most of WB./Toonami/[adult swim] original production, the ones that are meant primarily for an U.S. audience are the ones than then to be failure, like the FLCL sequels, the Rick & Morty anime, Housing Complex C, the majority of Crunchyroll's Originals (back when CR was owned by Time Warner). I think Space☆Dandy is the only Toonami Original Anime that was well received, and I mean critically because Dandy wasn't a commercial hit, it was a very niche series (And some people don't consider it a Toonami Original, though I think it premiered first in the U.S. before its Japanese airing) Let's hope that Shinichiro Watanabe and MAPPA's Lazarus will be a hit, in some aspects it seems like an attempt to recapture the success of Cowboy Bebop, but Watanabe says it's going to be a masterpiece Side note: I find it funny that both Uzumaki and Suicide Squad ISEKAI were dubbed into Neutral Spanish in Argentina, because lately WB. has sent their least important projects to be dubbed there because it's cheaper than dubbing them in Mexico 🤔

[@psyc840]

@@pablocasas5906Jojo huh? So we’re never getting steel ball run.

[@sarafontanini7051]

@@psyc840 don't you dare place that evil onto us

[@greenapple9477]

At least, Junji himself is pretty wholesome. Go look at a vid where he reacts to memes about his manga.

[@darkmyro]

I find some of the best horror writers are either the averagest of Joe's or on drugs. Sometimes both.

[@Bowblaxian_Tricknology]

Or just enjoy his art and don't be a parasocial cretin

[@pixelbomb97]

Because they didn't finish it, the Uzumaki spiral curse is doomed to infect Warner Bros. We're watching the whole company get sucked down the spiral.

[@emch2vy]

I love your more positive recommendation videos (the volume of Kagarubachi sitting on my desk rn speaks to that) but man do I REALLY love a dissection of why something sucks.

[@williamsullivan4640]

His dissection of Darling in the Francxx was great! It’s a decent 15 episode anime.(No it’s not 24 episodes I don’t know what people are talking about.)

[@dumdumm3299]

i agree! for me a big part of it is that it’s easy for me to find the words for why i love something- i find it much more difficult to pick apart WHY something sucks. it’s helpful to see someone point out structural criticisms like “the ending of the anime introducing lore to answer the questions posed by the original manga subtracts from the lasting impact the original ending has”. i wouldn’t have thought of that, or i wouldn’t have been able to find the words!

[@procrastinatingdestiny]

Tbh when I read Uzumaki I thought that it was like, the town was in a constant time loop, when the town was rebuilt that was just the original version of the town, it was always like that, it will always be like that. The row houses were always new, they were always old. The row houses were always to be built and I just loved the idea that the town was always exactly in the same time period.

[@shoxy-the-pinecone6113]

This is the biggest downward spiral I’ve seen in anime since that time in college me and my buddy Jake accidentally watched one of the final Gurren Lagann episodes in reverse cause we were too stoned to notice

[@hithedragon7842]

Now that's honestly impressive

[@davidmcguire8041]

Zaslav is now the IRL anime villain of the decade

[@codemanthe2nd343]

I know everyone loves real 2d animation, but this seems like the perfect style to use stylized 3d animation. It was a bit of a fools errand to animate such detailed illustrations in 2d in any reasonable amount of time without an absurdly large budget.

[@blackosprey2219]

That was the same logic behind Berserk 2016...

[@codemanthe2nd343]

@@blackosprey2219 Haven't seen it but your comment seems to indicate it wasn't great, lol. I will say that since 2016 we've had Spiderverse, Arcane, Mitchell's vs Machines, Puss and Boots, and others. Technology is improving. I think a fantastic 3d anime could be possible now and will definitely be possible in a few years.

[@abyssreyes]

That was the same concern I had for Dorohedoro when they announced the anime, the artwork is just too detailed, but the 3D style translated it very well, maybe they just needed a little more time in terms of having the right technology for it

[@blackosprey2219]

@@codemanthe2nd343 One thing about all of those examples is that they are distinct in style. They are not trying to wholesale imitate 2D anime in appearance, art style, or framerate because they are trying to be something else entirely. I've seen "good" cgi anime like Dorohedoro and Beastars. They're ok, but they look juuuust enough like 2D to be distracting, and they just make me wish it was 2D or something else entirely. I don't want cgi to be the cheaper imitation chosen purely for budget, I want it to be a deliberate and viable artistic choice. We can absolutely have an amazing cgi adaptation of a manga one day, but it's not gonna look like 2D. Nor should it.

[@Galactic-Ghost77]

At the Zaslav part before you said the name at 13:20 A political ad played and I spat out my water from laughter

[@AdaraFukuchi]

FINALLY!!! an actuallY GOOD video on the uzumaki anime that SAYS something!!! I agree that the pacing is rlly bad but I think that was a budget issue, too. at one point, I read that it was supposed to be 6 episodes, an hour each.

[@ma.2089]

Fr. Saw some online animator claiming the problem HAD to be them spending their entire budget on the first episode and it had to be their fault. And how “I don’t spend much money on MY art, so clearly it’s their fault!”, when the dude makes overtly ugly adult parody animation. Yeah…I can tell you don’t spend much money on it. It aggravates me to no end when ppl just go “well obviously the artists are lying about what happened, it couldn’t possibly be the fault of some higher up in a major corporation infamous for culling animation in the past!”

[@JinxeBlaq]

@@ma.2089Ahhh, I have a feeling Meat Canyon is that online animator. I LOVE him as a comedian, but he ALWAYS lacks in nuance. He kinda just speaks his mind with zero real understanding of half the stuff he covers. That’s why when he covers serious topics I just ignore him.

[@notme8232]

It was almost definitely because Zaslav rushed them to finish the season, and they knew something this expensive would NOT get a season 2. Heck, I'd be willing to bet that a lot of the "money shots" were animated first, and all the outsourcing studios were tasked with speedrunning between all those really expensive scenes as cheaply and quickly as possible.

[@Johury]

I have a general preference to manga over anime adaptations but Junji Ito makes horror in a way that only can be made in manga/comics. The horrific art can be adapted and so can the suspenseful build up, but when you separates the build up and reveal by a page turn you force the reader to be the one to turn that page at the height of suspense that’s when his stories are the best in my opinion.

[@ADAMNATOR]

Advice for anyone still needing more relief after the video from the overwhelming emotional disappointment- Get your feelings out through creating art For me it was contributing to this video, for you it may be writing, drawing, or even poetry, here let me demonstrate Uzumaki You may not be The best you could be But at least for me I can not pee Uzumaki See? Beautiful. I even made the verses arc, like a spiral And overall quality befitting of the work from which it originates

[@johngalt200]

I'm going to be honest, the Jack-In-The-Box stalker was always my least favorite part of the manga. It's just so silly and pointless, I always assumed it would be the first thing cut in any adaptation of Uzumaki.

[@imaicosmo7539]

Have you noticed? The thing that all the anime that adapted Junji Ito's works have in common, is bad production quality.

[@danielferrieri7434]

Junji Ito’s art could work for a horror game if done properly.

[@andrewgossecomposer]

"World of horror" Junji Ito Version would go crazy

[@rollinallonce]

No.. just no.

[@positronicbeats7496]

Anything can work as anything if done properly

[@jaimelering604]

Thats the thing, do it properly

[@fearjunkie]

We almost got that game. And then Konami cancelled Silent Hills.

[@erie3936]

Looks like it spiraled out of control.

[@hithedragon7842]

This made me laugh more than I'd like to admit with a pun.

[@balbo-m1y]

its insane to me how much they tried to squeeze into just 4 episodes plot wise rather than just focus on the plots that had most connnection to the ending/themes.

[@darkhelmet87]

Zaslav: listen meatball- I DON’T WORK WITH TOONS!! }:[ Employee: what’s his problem? ,:/ Secretary: a toon killed his brother…..dropped a piano on his head X(

[@damdamfino]

The finished product ended up not being scary - it ended up being camp. Like laugh out loud, watch party with shots, camp. The series needed more episodes to not feel so rushed and ridiculous, and to build atmospheric tension. And if they let the original director cook, I’m convinced the show would have won awards. You can compare the manga with the first episode and see the directors choices on what to keep, what to linger on, and what to omit - his vision was really, really good. I wish they had let him cook. I suspect they actually had to completely redraw the first episode after the director left the product - they kept his framing and pacing, but redrew it in a “copy my homework but don’t make it obvious” way. I think they did the same thing for the last episode, too. The middle episodes they had to make from scratch and that’s why they suck sooooo bad.

[@SagittariusAyy]

This especially hurts because this anime could have finally broken the Junji Ito anime adaptation curse…But of course David Zaslav had to fuck it up.

[@sophiegeen3009]

Honestly, the fact that it all went faster and faster (except for the hospital thing) all made it feel to me like the spiral curse was actually spiralling out of control faster and faster. i never read the original work so i didn't know it all took longer in the manga, so to me that felt like a conscious decision.

[@blackosprey2219]

The original is honestly pretty long. Most of the story is more anthology-like and gives the feeling of a slow corruption of everything. Things don't fly completely off the rails until the storms come and people start riding tornadoes in the last quarter.

[@Brizizaz]

You never seize to amaze me. You put so much work into these videos man, thank you. You rock.

[@morganqorishchi8181]

The real horror is my mom cooing over Geoff's outfit. "He looks like a supportive best friend! He's so cute!" was a wild-ass thing to hear as Uzumaki was being discussed.

[@iiNaoki]

I definitely agree that too much was stuffed into the second and third episodes... and the second episode was very clearly unfinished, let alone unpolished. Uzumaki is a massive work and they tried to include as much as possible... but with the restraints they had, they definitely should've focused much more on the overarching plot and emphasized the mystery of the spiral. Even so, with all its flaws, Uzumaki is still leagues above all other existing Ito adaptations. I'm glad we got it in a finished state. It was still entertaining to watch overall.

[@aylinitzel.]

I am still grateful for episode one, and incredibly angry that the team was screwed over on the rest.

[@Harmonia96]

You'd have to go on a journey, unknowingly procreate with your long-lost mother, proceed to destroy your optical organs from the shock of that realization, and MAYBE THEN you'd get to enjoy Junji Ito anime adaptations.

[@felipeaguena5289]

Crap...I've read the entirety of Uzumaki, and it is a bit long. I haven't watch this adaptation yet but I did think it was weird to only have 4 episodes, I thought surely it must be "Part 1 of 2" or "Part 1 of 4" even. But, If their goal was to cram the whole thing into just 4 eps this was destined to disappoint before it even started. Even if somehow they got TOP Disney/Ghibli animators and infinite budget, it would not have worked. Why is it so god damn impossible to adapt Junji Ito? It's really feels like rolling the dice and getting 1's every single time, but for friggin decades

[@writerintheory751]

I felt so bad for disliking Episode 1 but the pacing is so off. Things like Shuichi detecting Azumi’s spiral *before* his dad dies feels so wrong. Yes, he can sense the spirals from the start, but he doesn’t become super sensitive and paranoid until both his parents die to the spiral. Its supposed to be believable that other people would think Shuichi is just insane from grief, rather than him just being a weirdo who suddenly goes “aaah you have a spiral!” because he just knows. Having said that, I still respect the hell out of the animators who had a vision for this anime. There’s a video where some of the creators talk about how much they love Uzumaki and wanted to bring it to life, so even if it came out badly I still admire their efforts to create a love letter to Uzumaki and Ito’s work.

[@Yuuichi707]

At first, the anime was somewhat good in terms of production, especially in the first episode. Despite the decline in the quality of production in the rest of the episodes, the production overall was not bad at all, but as an anime of only 4 episodes, and it was worked on for 5 years, the production should have been much better than this. But my main problem with the anime is not the production. My problem is with how the manga was adapted. The adaptation was not successful. The anime adapted all the 20 chapters (except for the last chapter) in only 4 episodes, lasting from 22 to 30 minutes only. But the anime compressed the events greatly and showed them quickly and superficially without going into depth or explaining most of them well, and shortened several dialogues and scenes from the manga. The last problem is how the events are narrated, the idea of ​​telling the stories of the chapters together in a mixed manner at the same time, instead of telling the story of each chapter separately like the manga, in my opinion it is not a bad idea, but the way it was implemented is what was bad, because it presented the story and events randomly and not smoothly. In the end, I consider Uzumaki manga to be the greatest horror manga ever written in the world of manga. My personal rating for Uzumaki as a manga is definitely 10/10. As an anime, I don't think I can give it more than 6.5/10. It wasn't bad. But I was really expecting, after a 5-year wait, something better than this.

[@whade62000]

1:19 missed a chance to say "Ito's ethos"

[@ikanilegui5982]

You covered this topic amazingly and responsably.

[@KKarkatVantas]

writting also gets fucked when they have to rush to deliver on time, not just animation, so yeah they were screwed

[@serenetiv]

that anime adaptation screams "just play world of horror instead" to me... idk...

[@fordesponja]

You don't get it Geoff, you can't be an award winning horror author with a happy attitude and also have great film adaptations. We would implode at so much positivity.

[@ilikestuff9250]

The curse of Del Toro...

[@carsongiles7024]

I swear zazlav is just that one game publisher ceo from smiling friends in disguise

[@houndrysmagolyteofhope4661]

Nice for you on waiting Mother Basement, most reaction happened right away.

[@RATZGobbler]

The adaptation of a story about an all-consuming horror ruining everybody's lives just because that is its nature ruined by the very same thing. I would consider that poetic if it weren't so fucking real and persistent.

[@damonlam9145]

Junji Ito’s works are one of a kind, they are so detailed when it comes to tone and style, that it’s so difficult to adapt in animation. It will be a miracle if we actually get a genuinely good well made adaptation of one of his works.

[@thetaarakian]

I'm glad you brought up the pacing. I actually let the janky animation go. The presentation was still lightyears ahead of any of the other attempts at adaptation. But you nailed it. That page turning dread of Junji Ito's work just didn't translate to a show this short.

[@MovieMan1710]

It's just KZbin law that when you deconstruct bad horror, you play the bad Resident Evil save room music isn't it?

[@SomeoneNooneTomatoes]

Screwed over? What’s a screw, A spiral. The real horror is yet to come.

[@Rikuo86]

World of Horror continues to be the best Junji Ito adaptation... by not even trying to adapt those stories, but the vibes and style.

[@Polka_Ch]

It was Zaslav. Nothing can convince me otherwise.

[@adrichibi]

The pain They might as well make an audiobook with the voice cast and Stetson's OST

[@psyc840]

Maybe with a partly animated manga as well. You could animate the best panels with little effort

[@beautifulmind0711]

So what I get from all this is that no animation studio has the patience that it would take to allow the animators to include all the buildup and background that Ito writes into his stories to do it properly. All the stories end up coming across like weird non-frightening oddities instead of creepy body horror with a "what did we learn today"-ish conclusion.

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

You always make My day jeff! You always show us the highlights of anime! Much appreciated 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@bankaihampter2802]

The Junji Ito UZUMAKI anime situation IS crazy!

[@robbyroba]

Better than that 2000 live action film I just got finished watching.

[@VCV95]

This is saddening. My childhood was gutted this summer, Max has been a wreck, and now Uzumaki only got one good episode. I hope we can save all of the missing cartoon network shows somehow. I can't even show my kids some shows I loved, some they had started watching on their own, too.

[@AKImeru]

I keep seeing this complain but... I like it. I like how everything blends together. It feels like I am in a nightmare and that wherever I run, there's a weird cryptic and strange thing happening. Its a different vibe than the manga but I didn't hate it. I like the fact I couldn't dwell and breath between the creepness. It felt like the entire city was descending into absurdity.

[@Advent3546]

We'll always have that first glorious episode

[@douglasauclair3086]

Great analysis / homage. I liked that you took the time to set the table then serve the whole meal, even with dessert. It was a sad downfall of a beautiful work, but you still took the time to appreciate what it was, ... or what it attempted to be, and pose that even if all the stars aligned, could it have been great? (yes), ... but would it have been? (...maybe?) Your presentation was both thoughtful and thoughtprovoking, appreciative and appreciating, sad, angry, but still respectful. Also, your definition of 'cosmic horror' is the best I've ever heard. Usually 'Cosmic Horror' is defined as "... [some esoteric rhetoric] ...' Your definition makes sense. Cosmic Horror is. It's not malignant; it's simply a matter of scale. My body doesn't care about the plight of the thousands of bacteria that invade my body every ... second? It simply disposes of them, and it is 'horror' for them, if they were self-aware (now that's an horrifying thought!), simply because they were there. They were in my body's way. Same for, if, in 3.5 Billion years, sentient life had evolved in the upper clouds of Venus - I'd don't even want to think about that kind of physiology - The Sun isn't going to malevolently destroy them and their entire planet. The Sun is simply expanding as it becomes a Red Dwarf, and the Venusians, and their planet are simply there, at the wrong time in the stellar evolution, and at the wrong place. The 'horror' is all for that sentient species, but the Sun just is. Your explanation of 'Cosmic Horror' made it make sense to me.

[@kuragedaisuki244]

This hurts me far worse than Promised Neverland S2

[@DoodleThis]

Omg I almost forgot about that….. they rushed the hell out of that

[@fka_sophrosyne]

15:38 THANK YOU! Look I think episode 1 looks great, but I was so disappointed that they decided to plug multiple chapters together for individual episodes. The episodic crawl of the separate chapters really made me feel the spiral at work as it slowly ate away at peoples sanity and ability to recognize the problems with the town before it was too late.

[@andresfelipemanjarres7061]

i think Junji Ito have a similar problem than Stephen King, or more exactly the people trying to adapt their work have this problem: i dont think Ito or King write about scarry stuff, i thing they tap through theri writing and art into our personal fears about those themes. Dom from the channel Lost in adaptation make a great argument when reviewing IT that if you read the book, a lot of the scarry things that happen are actually pretty dumb if you see them out of contex, but what make the book very scarry was the fact that king´s prose invite you to associate thos scenes with primal fears, so when they adapt the first part they actually have to relly a lot more in jumpscares and creepy imagery, because with out the original narration and inner thoughs of the author the original would be hilarious instead of horrifiying. the same with ito´s work, his art style and sense of pacing in his story make every page terrifying, but when you adapt those without thinking in how the animation or even worst how the anticipation from the scare worts you get this terrible adaptation.

[@sokumotanaka9271]

My god I'm so glad you made this- I felt exactly the same about the whiplash of the scares; I sat there watching the whole thing and felt before I could absorb one thing another would pop up and I was confused as to how they connected and why and I just watched half lidded eyes kinda meh to any scares. This is my first Junji product too so I was starting to wonder if people were just wearing rose tinted goggles to his work. But seeing those manga panels , those look great and they look genuinely chilling to the point I'm gonna look those up. But this just felt...rushed and stale. The most notable was that girl trying to steal her best friend's boyfriend and I was like "didn't you literally meet him two mins ago? Why are you suddenly into him?"

[@shinnomeen8236]

It seems like, that the horror masterpieces of Junji Ito will never get the good anime adaptation they deserve.

[@BonnibelLecter]

I absolutely do agree the impulse to mythologize screwed over works needs to be curbed, but I think it would be interesting to see at which point in the process this got screwed over. Zazlav also screwed over live action things, and I've seen the kind of trainwreck that can happen when a season that was meant to have 10 episodes and a follow-up season gets shortened to 8 and then denied another season, but there is some degree of flexibility with live-action stuff. Writing can be improvised in the shooting and a lot of extra footage is filmed which can be helpful to trying to smooth things over in the edit, so wholesale cutting things is more doable than if your storyboards were finished already and now different studios are already working on the parts as boarded with no easy changes, and no extra, nothing that can work as connective tissue to smooth over taking things out.

[@fairylesbyaintdve6536]

that it was mushishi’s director makes it hurt all the more because u rly do kmow how good it could’ve been, how strong his vision for atmosphere and visuals wldve been…………..how strong they WERE………sorry Nagahama 💔💔💔💔💔

[@fairylesbyaintdve6536]

Ur right in the end tho…..but FAWK zaslav forever

[@mesousagaby740]

Really makes me worried that the Lord Of The Rings anime movie might flop, too...ya'll better support that, too, at least.

[@mothersbasement]

That one looks really good and I will be crushed if it also gets Zaslaved

[@ilikestuff9250]

As a LOTR superfan my main worry for that is it's going to divide the fandom no matter what it does. I highly doubt it'll be even close to the backlash or ROP or Gollum though. Really hoping it's good though

[@mesousagaby740]

@@ilikestuff9250 It'll have the animation fans' side, though.

[@CappyMorgan]

*Shaking fist towards sky* ZASLAAAAAVVV!!!!!

[@jjoshal]

3:15 man flashback was so good you're still adding the op into the video!

[@bojackbojackbojack]

I just wanted to see creepy drawings move. Did it deliver that? Yes. But the amount of time it took, and the level of hype I had for this 4-episode series or YEARS, left me a bit unamazed.

[@Sekiath]

I guess I'm the odd one out but I thought the series was great. Episode 2 was clearly unfinished though.

[@rjvzz]

Thanks for the research on the context of this mess, pretty informative. Lots of friends have been asking me wth happened and I hadn't had the time to go and find out. As always, great video, Geoff!

[@jaceylong8646]

Junji ito anime adaptations just never seem to hit! At this point they just need to make one of those motion comics like they did for watchman