Uzumaki

Uzumaki is a series which I had very high expectations of to be the best horror anime of the famous manga artist Junji Ito. I was excited when the anime's first episode was released; even after the atrocious pacing, I loved the animation, sound design, and voice acting. I was hoping they kept the slow pacing just like manga or at least a close enough pacing... But who am I kidding? If you want to complete a whole manga in 4 episodes with just 20 to 30-minute episodes, the pacing will be worse. Let's go to the 2 nd episode... Bro, everything changed except pacing. Well, the pacing went even worse, and the animation was worse than any studio could have made. The animation felt like animators were given mere days to complete the episode. Well, also, guess what? The studio was changed after the first episode, and they gave it to the worst animators out there... How could you!?!?! You made the fans wait for years, and you gave us this; it's pathetic; I am so disappointed not only in the anime but also in myself for expecting the masterpiece manga to get a well-justified anime adaptation... Now I have no hope...the rest of the 2 episodes will be worse, and it won't even be worth looking at...

I'm a fan of this kind of horror setup-the slow, creeping dread and the bizarre, nightmarish world and that's probably what kept me hooked for as long as it did. But the lackluster execution in later episodes really started to take away from the experience.

In terms of the art style, the first episode showed so much promise. The use of rotoscoping, while unusual for anime, fit the eerie, unsettling nature of Junji Ito's story. It added a layer of surrealism that felt appropriate for the twisted world of Uzumaki. But after that, the art became more of a distraction than an enhancement. The movements felt stiff and unnatural, and the once eerie tone of the show quickly faded into frustration. It's disappointing because the story deserves better, and the art should have elevated the horror instead of dragging it down.

In the end, this adaptation leaves much to be desired. If you're truly interested in experiencing the twisted world of Uzumaki, you're better off sticking with the manga. At least there, the horror comes through as intended.

So let me start off by saying, I am unfamiliar with the manga. I don't know a single clue about the storyline so I went in blind.

Let me start off with the positives. The animation is top tier. It seems like it would be easy to pull you in and the atmosphere is really great. The storyline itself seems really interesting, and it was enough to make me continue watching.

As for the rest, I'd have to agree with others when I say it's moving too fast. Halfway through the episode it lost momentum. You don't get to know the characters or anything before the story starts moving forward. From what I've seen, they crammed a few chapters into one 20 minute episode, and you can really tell. I'm going to continue because I'm intrigued, but if they slowed down the pacing, it would make for a more atmospheric and more enjoyable experience.

Well I really want to give this a 7 because this isn't horrible, but I can't. This is a okayish series, but the worst thing is that it's just super disappointing.

It started well with the first episode. It was in my opinion pretty great. Then the drop in quality in episode 2 was very disappointing. Then the quality never got better for the rest of the series.

Animation quality dropped the most, but the pacing also got worse. I have to say though that episode 3 did have okay pacing, but still the animation quality was poor. Episode 2 and 4 felt pretty rushed in my opinion and had pretty bad pacing.

So is this series worth watching? Maybe. It's a short series and if you want to watch a okayish horror anime it might be worth checking out otherwise don't bother.

If episode 2-4 were the same quality of the first episode I'd be willing to rate this an 8 or 9 but the quality fell off a cliff after the first episode. And the pacing ruins any tension the show is trying to build. So it just goes from wacky thing to wacky thing.

This should have been a non-traditional run length with stories that needed to be longer would be longer episodes and stories that were more side stories wouldn't feel the need to maintain a full episode length. But at least then the story would be contained.

Instead this anime adaptation feels like it happens in a matter of days instead of a longer period. It's just a shame because this manga of all of Junji Ito's works deserved a faithful adaptation.