Uzumaki by Junji Ito Manga Review & Reaction | You'll Never Look At Snails The Same Way Again...

[@krutoth]

Its the author that decides the page layout. The "art of the page turn" is so widely used by mangaka that it has a specific name (tho I can't remember at the top of my head).

[@omnibusman5792]

Thank u! That's interesting. Im fairly new to manga and every little bit of info is highly appreciated. 🙂

[@Bearpaw01]

I couldn't find an actual name for this technique, but it seems the specific panels themselves have names. The last panel on the previous page is called “hiki-goma”. This is the set-up panel, making the reader excited to turn the page. The first panel on the next page, the reveal, is called “mekuri-goma”.

[@xanderwynn4357]

The “there’s a spiral in your ear” part was definitely a highlight for me

[@colinslost7833]

Hearing you talk about horror and the monster within the story really makes me think you would love the manga “monster” by Naoki Urasawa. It isn’t a horror, but it’s a psychological thriller that has similar aspects.

[@cmmosher8035]

Hopefully he will like 20th century boys enough to move on to monster

[@mikesbookreviews]

I own both.

[@colinslost7833]

@@jamesonsupan7865 right! It’s amazing

[@nightmarishcompositions4536]

@@mikesbookreviews I’m dying to hear your thoughts on Naoki Urasawa 🙏🏻

[@kosalk1801]

Anything by Naoki Urasawa is great! You really can't go wrong there.

[@RealHumanBooks]

"What happened to this man to think of this" Junji Ito was a dentist before he became a mangaka, so he was probably used to seeing people in pain!

[@Johanna_reads]

I have this on hold at my library and am very pleased you found it a great page-turner! I am new to both manga and horror though I just experienced Brom for the first time and need to get my hands on a physical copy of The Child Thief with all his amazing horror-fantasy illustrations. Glad you're bringing attention to both horror and manga on your channel!

[@evermoremystic17]

The intro had me laughing out loud! I am in love with his art style and stories. It’s so amazing hearing Stephen King was one of his inspirations! Hoping to buy Uzumaki before the end of this year! 🙂

[@terrynieuwoudt8586]

Love watching your manga journey, thanks for the content Mike!

[@atharvashah1362]

Nice commentary. So glad you read it. As my first Junji Ito manga, it shocked me to the core and left me wanting for more. Cheers and happy reading! Do check out Junji Ito's other works as well.

[@TheNerdyNarrative]

This definitely sounds right up my alley! I’m starting it next week, so I’ll come back for the spoilers after I finish. :D

[@sandeeproy6564]

You gotta see Junji Ito drawing manga panels live.. You will appreciate his work even more!

[@LadyxSky]

And yes Ito definitely uses a lot of Lovecraftian tropes in his work. My favorite honestly is just the unknown of the evil the characters encounter. We're never really given any source or reasoning to why or where these things come from. And that's so much scarier than knowing.

[@DylanDoesBooks]

I’m glad you enjoyed Uzumaki! As a fan of lovecraftian horror I love this story. The images certainly do the talking, I would say as a story Uzumaki is the most fleshed out. I think you would enjoy some of his short stories too Mike! My recommendation is Shiver.

[@roberthubbard4881]

You read my mind. I was literally looking for this book in my local library after you were saying you would review it.

[@Kite562reviews]

I have to say the most memorable chapters from Uzumaki for me was: 1. Jack in the box 2. Medusa 3. The lighthouse These 3 chapters themselves are still very memorable in my mind with their unforgettable visuals. I also recommend junji itos adaptation of Frankenstein short story collection. A long with another short story collection called Lovesickness. Really well written stories in my opinion. ^_^

[@mvinson8706]

The maternity chapter…. *shivers*

[@thetruth2383]

Just finished UZUMAKI, read it because of this review, 1st Manga ever! Thanks Mike! Love your channel!

[@gabrielerajauskaite3822]

Love these videos, I also read Uzumaki as my first work by Junji Ito this month and enjoyed it - will be reading more and will be waiting for more of your videos :)

[@MrAlexSan00]

I highly recommend "Venus in the Blind Spot." My favorite Junji Ito short story, The Enigma of Amigara Fault, is in it and holy crap that's one that has sat with me since the day I read it. His version of Frankenstein is also just... wow...

[@turtleanton6539]

I recommend GYO it also has amigara fault

[@Litera_Trotter]

Amigara fault 😱😱😱

[@cake94309]

I recommend both manga. Venus in the blind spot is laid out very much like Uzumaki with colour panels thrown in here and there (as well as colour posters in the front of the manga) and The Enigma of Amigara fault has some colour pages where as gyo is completely black and white. If you're a collector of junji ito work having two versions of the same story is worth it

[@daultonhardee4387]

Dude! Been looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this! So pumped!👍🏼 Keep up the awesome work!

[@mvinson8706]

I literally just finished this yesterday. I absolutely loved it! It completely creeped me out. Great review!

[@TiroDvD]

Snowball rolling down a hill. Uh-oh. (Think about it for a while.)

[@alisham7340]

Really glad you liked this! I was looking forward to this review! Great stuff Also that intro 😂

[@SkuIIKn1ght]

What a pleasant surprise! Thank you for reviewing this

[@anthonycrayne2835]

Uzumaki is so good. Another one of his works I recommend is Remina. Its cosmic horror.

[@Tirlex]

You know what! I'll definitely give this one a try. Sounds just up my alley. Thanks for the review

[@turtleanton6539]

This book is just great. GYO next ,,,?

[@sgriffin9960]

So glad I could join you in reading Uzumaki! I thought it was fabulous. Junji Ito is a genius. Previously I read Gyo and loved it as well. Things in that book go from bad to worse to horrific. Highly recommend it!

[@jujunan1554]

I don't know if this manga has already been recommended to you but if it hasn't I highly recommend Punpun by Inio Asano. It's a great psychological coming of age manga with some great artwork.

[@Wagyuleif]

Chi No Wadachi (blood on the tracks) and Aku no Hana from the same creator are among the few manga that I’ve read that truly made me feel real dread and anxiety. Those two literally made me physically react due to its content and plot. Those are def two manga I recommend.

[@chrismarlow4490]

Uzumaki was my first manga too! Very cool

[@Litera_Trotter]

Saw you talking about reading Uzumaki. I just decided to read it and oh boy i enjoyed it.

[@thomaskittock2866]

Great review Mike! Seeing a Polly Pockets ad before I finish the video was a bit jarring, but great content as usual.

[@mathildeadda5311]

Hello Mike ! I can confirm that it is the author ( the mangaka) who decides on the layout. In Japan, manga are released in periodical magazines (20 to 50 pages a week / every two weeks / a month depending on the magazine). So chapter after chapter, very special care is given to layouts, double spreads and overall "story flow"... Of course the editor can give feedbacks on the draft version and there can be iterations. This is one the things I find very impressive about manga "production" : it is done in very high pressure / constant deadline environments and yet some series are so high quality in terms of art, storyline, consistency, foreshadowing...

[@sapnasarfare2920]

Thanks for this... Always look forward to something different in terms of reading when i come here

[@April_Davis]

Your jump at the snail on the wall 😂 I think I wanna read this now just because of that.

[@kirbyrox2]

Blood On The Tracks is a very different kind of horror story, but one of the most terrifying I've ever read. Shuzo Oshimi is a master at visual storytelling so if you want something that shows instead of tells like you said, I think you'll enjoy it.

[@bigevilshark1958]

Probably should wait until it's finished though. Awesome horror manga though

[@LadyxSky]

I highly reccomend looking into the Korean Manwa [that's their version/word for manga] titled Sweet Home. Netflix adapted it and it's...ehhhh. But the comic is FANTASTIC. Incredible art.

[@sabojezles]

Tanabe Gou's adaptation of Lovecraft published by Darkhorse is another great material for you to grab. Highly Recommended.

[@turtleanton6539]

Right !

[@Dylan13Collins]

I'm so glad you loved it!!! I would also recommend Gyo. It's also super good! I haven't read his short story collections yet.

[@MrMedia-ce4qt]

I just started reading this and it’s awesome

[@TheSleyar]

SO EXCITED FOR THE ANIMATED VERSION

[@coffeedude]

I hope it ends up being awesome

[@KalleVilenius]

I've never been a big horror fan but Ito has always made it palatable to me. My favorite part is probably the guy who dives inside the snail shell to eat it face first and just kind of disappears inside it. Also really liked the partt when the creepy neighbor is spying on them. You keep right on reading his stuff! Still going to shill Gou Tanabe's At the Mountains of Madness at you, too. The part about Miura focusing on every single pixel is more true than you know, his editor complained about him doing literally that once he transferred to drawing digitally.

[@alynam82]

You sold me on this... Job well done 👏 ✔ 👍. For real, tho, I just purchased digital copy on Kindle. $9.99 for the Vol 1-3, which is what I'm hoping the same as you have. I had to swipe opposite direction with this, too. Just like the physical copy. Threw me off for a second

[@kosalk1801]

This manga turned me into the person who yells in the theater telling the characters to run. Every time something happened I was say, " Shuichi's done turned himself into a spiral! Run bish!" or, " That dude turned into a snail! What are you doing?! Run bishes! Run!!!". The single most baffling thing is how no one just left that place.

[@josefineli4604]

This made me laugh. You’re not wrong though, you’d think people would nope the hell out of there REAL quick!

[@Swamprot]

Part of the story is that no matter what the characters try and do they cannot escape the town

[@kosalk1801]

@@Swamprot nah man at the beginning they could have left but the girl didn't want leave the fam behind. Later yeah it was too late.

[@MySerpentine]

It's a spiral, it pulls you into the center.

[@TiroDvD]

To summarize Junji Ito: reality breaks. Now you understand all those blood sacrifices of early cultures and civilizations where we didn't know that Reality had a set of rules.

[@QuirkyQuillify]

Wow, I read this back in the early 2000 when I was in highschool and it really f-ed with my head. I am easily grossed out and this entire book is pure body horror. It's been almost 20 years and I vividly remember all those pandels.

[@farhad_s]

Just got it recently, reading it asap. Sounds good.

[@shinraset]

Me personally I started reading it and was horrified put it down and tried to go to sleep. I woke up from it nightmare about spirals. I tried it back out into the room where I left the book my friends who were over at the house at the time wondered what was going on and I told them. "I am going to put this into place!" Or something to that effect at least. Something along the lines of I will be the master of the spiral it will not be Master Of Me! So I then power read through the rest of the book and at the end I contemplated my thoughts and realized a few things that helped me sleep quite well. There are two spirals one that pushes and one that pulls. As long as these spirals are balanced you need not fear them. You are the master of your own spiral.

[@Onsight01]

its so scary that i read the whole book in one sitting without brakes. I could probably read all of his books and get a good nights sleep easily.

[@evelynbouchard9036]

Love junji ito's manga

[@jasonsouth1652]

A good horror manga I’d recommend is chi no wadachi ( a trail of blood) by shuzo oshimi

[@nightmarishcompositions4536]

Junji Ito is great, but I think Shintaro Kago is much more extreme lol.

[@chrisholmstrom8652]

This Manga series is getting a show on adult swim next October

[@MLRF10]

blood in the trails. i literally screamed when he said that

[@sarahmcdonald9624]

There are some panels in here where he shows some people who have died and I’m convinced they come straight from a police file. It’s wild. I thought the end was kind of sweet in a horrible way. Definitely recommend.

[@Sactown15]

I read this last October, I want to read I want to read Tomie this year

[@comalco666]

Tomie subtlety freaked me out. Junjo Ito is a master of creating mounting dread.

[@lesleyspear7933]

It must have been two months since I read this and I still can’t stop thinking about those snail people 🤢🤢🤢

[@cinxschannel9937]

I finished it recently together with my wife. It was so mega disturbing, but we wanted it more and more...

[@Lewcifer0]

I feel like the reason why characters seem to forget the crazy shit that just happened is due to each chapter almost being able to function as it’s own short story. Even though there is obviously continuity throughout the book, I feel like you could kind of just read random chapters and get a nice short “wtf” story each time.

[@edsheeran1243]

In general, graphic novels take far less time to get through than regular books do

[@Yungshamgod]

You don’t say?

[@kristinahergott5136]

I started reading this book because I thought it was a Naruto spin off… lol boy was I wrong

[@MrK.A]

I loved this book. It's a masterpiece for me. My only complaint is that i didn't buy the relationship between the two main characters. That part wasn't done well but the horror is so damn good that i looked past it. You should check out his short stories too. 'The Enigma of the Amigara fault', 'The Hanging Balloons', 'Earthbound', 'fashion model', 'smashed' and 'Roar of ages' made big impressions on me too. And i wasn't a huge fan of Gyo and Tomie. I actually dnf'd Tomie. I'd recommend Shiver and Smashed.

[@thelovetongueswinnipegmb3095]

Is that the collectors editioin Book Of The New Sun on the shelf above Mike's(Left) shoulder??

[@Eroxi3]

Just found this yesterday at our public library aimed at kids. So there I was with my daughter while she read her book and I'm sitting there seeing a man contorted I to a bathtub and a woman carving her ears out. Needless to say I finished it within 24hrs

[@reirenhard6461]

Junji ito, man...i bet there's something wrong inside that guy's head

[@YourMindWillMelt]

For like at least a year I completely ignored uzumaki in the bookshop cos I saw the title and assumed it was something naruto related

[@gouravpareek3635]

You should read chainsaw man. It's a manga. I can only say one word for it's writing and that is madness. It's really good.

[@hordolur]

I just read this based on you reading it.. it is very differnet!!

[@mathieuleader8601]

an animated adaptation of this is coming soon

[@turtleanton6539]

GYO TOMIE SHIVER SMASHED

[@Welther47]

It's nice to have some Lovecraftian horror without the so-called tentacles; which where aren't actually much of. And isn't even tentacles most often, but grabbers or arms. I think the Lovecraft horror is not about tentacles or the unknown. But a fear of being insignificant; a fear of gods, really. As a god is a cosmic, indefinable and uncaring being to humans... Anyways; I just came here to see if this weird book was something for me :D

[@megunmoored]

I wish I could be excited for this. I read it last year and it was just Okay for me. The over-the-top body horror plus no plot it just fell flat. At the beginning the body horror shockers worked, but by the end I was just grossed out at best. I get the Lovecraft vibe and it felt more like that toward the end. I enjoyed Lovecraft's (who FYI took his ques from Algernon Blackwood you should pick him up) lack of monster explanation, he still had a plot and that is the big difference for me. Rubber-meets-the-road, it felt more like gore for gore sake for me.

[@mikesbookreviews]

I've read Algeron. Even reviewed him on the channel.

[@megunmoored]

@@mikesbookreviews Well I will have to go hunting for it! I grew up on Lovecraft and found Blackwood in my teens. I thoroughly enjoyed both.

[@TiroDvD]

Cinnamon Rolls.

[@MrMedia-ce4qt]

I’m reading uzumaki but which of itos work should I read next

[@mikesbookreviews]

Wish I could say, but it's still the only thing I've read by him.

[@MySerpentine]

Hell of a comic where the closest thing to a happy ending is becoming a sea serpent.

[@kosalk1801]

If you want a "palate cleanser" look up a manga called Way of the House Husband and laugh the horror away.

[@HeXen1900]

SNAIL!

[@christianfurnari7052]

Anyone know how to get a cheap copy of this that's not Kindle?

[@simonlee6367]

What actually happened to Death Note review part 2 lol

[@RedLineTheMov]

👍😁

[@Litera_Trotter]

Giving the female side characters didn't help me much from confusing the characters.

[@jeans4108]

🐌

[@Elricsedric]

I personally don't don't like his books at all. Don't get the hype, it's suppose to be horror but the stories feel so goofy.

[@rajyavardhansingh4491]

Berserk

[@colinslost7833]

Have patience

[@atharvashah1362]

Hehe boi

[@sokkawiseoaf4839]

the stans and childish ones don't understand patience. tsk tsk tsk

[@rajyavardhansingh4491]

@@colinslost7833 you say that to a berserk fan?

[@colinslost7833]

@@rajyavardhansingh4491 I’m a berserk fan as well