Uzumaki Review

Links to books I talked about in this video
(These are affiliate links. If you buy through these links, I get a small percentage of the sale):

0:00-Intro

1:07-Spoiler Free

9:37-Spoiler Discussion

25:43-Final Thoughts

27:46-Outro

WHERE TO FIND ME:

[joshuasorey]

...and then you look at Sanji's eyebrows and realize..."my God...they're spreading."

[shyguypro]

Excellent choice! Junji Ito is very much the face of horror manga. He’s a master of “the page turn” jump scare.

[MultiLetz]

It's funny seeing how, ideed, the stories seem disjointed most of the manga, but towards that point they all start to swirl together and flow into one point... almost like the narrative is a spyral itself

[Matrim]

One thing that doesn’t get mentioned often is how specifically Kirie doesn’t admit things are as wrong as they are because she’s surrounded by it all the time, while Suichi notices almost at once because he goes to school out of town. It speaks to how people often can’t see what’s in front of them simply because it’s familiar.

[brunoxd]

9:00 Merphy, if you didn't know, this panel with the girl with a spiral in her head became REALLY iconic

[suprisedabraham]

I remember Uzumaki scaring the shit out of me as a kid. It wasn't even jumpscare scary, it gave me nightmares long after the fact.

[Fastollis]

I’m not into horror so I don’t read Ito’s work, but one time I read a short story of his, “The Enigma of Amigara Fault, ” and I’ll forever believe it’s one of the greatest one-chapter mangas of all time.

[chantararix]

JUNJI ITOOOO!!! AAAHH. You picked my favorite Junji Ito manga.

[boshvasara]

Junji ito is a master Horror genre Mangaka. Tommie is another of his works which you should definitely pick up.
Much more tamed compared to his work but Is a master of thriller is Naoki Urasawa, you have to read 20th century boy and MONSTER. Completely mind blowing story telling.

[hvassios]

I watched one of Junji Ito's interviews and he said: "I want the reader to have an uncanny feeling more than fright. That sense of wonder which also comes up in sci-fi". The part where you mention his "unsettling beauty", which lures you in and entices you before horrifying you, reminded me of that.

[skizzit]

Merphy reviewing Junji Ito is not something I ever thought I would see.

[chibiartstudios]

“Beautiful, terrifying, and occasionally incredibly silly” is basically Junji Ito in a nutshell.

[tygerchase]

gotta say didn't expect this, a happy surprise to be sure can't go wrong with Junji Ito.

[pronobsarker]

This is insane. As a huge fan of One Piece, and someone who's read all of Junji Ito's work, this is a treat!!! Thanks Merphy

[justicemann]

I also read Uzumaki last week! While I was reading it, I noticed that the story begins with a lot of very loosely connected stories that feel more like one-off stories in the first third of the story, then the 2nd third has more two or three chapter stoiries, and the last third is basically one major story that brings everything together, sort of like how a spiral begins with a wider spacing, and as you get to the center of the spiral the space becomes smaller and smaller. It really feels like Ito used a spiral as a constructive base for the story which is super cool

[colibri]

"The mosquito" is my favorite chapter.
I love the setting with the hospital, the characters with the seemingly innocent pregnant mothers. It was horrifying yet still link with the spiral shape in a twisted way (no pun intended)

[martinkanchev]

Merph: Doesn't like chapter with hair spirals.
Also Merph: Has hair spirals.
Sus

[Ibukization]

Just finished it, loved the metaphor of the story for destruction by obsession but also destruction by the stagnation caused by obsessive/stubborn/vain mindsets, and all of that leading into a cycle we fall into because of our own human flaws- yet even in the end we still have each other

[colibri]

I was too quite frustrated by Kirie denial attitude, to me she's not really written as "a main character" but more like "a witness" to the events. The spiral is the real star of the show.

[yashsolanki]

"Feeding those mushrooms to people is really disturbing."

Clearly, Merph hasn't read or watched Dorohedoro.