Uzumaki: Volume 3

The insanity and utter chaos found in the third and final act of the Uzumaki saga makes everything that had came before it seem completely rational and mundane. Everything is thrown out the window and the level of surrealism is set on an all time high. "The House" starts us off an inevitable path of delirium as we find out that the hurricane that hit Kurozu-cho in volume 2 did much more damage than expected. The weird sores -> horns transformation also seemed like a subtle jab from Ito to another one of his successful creations (overseas, at least), Souichi. <br /> <br />"Butterflies" introduces Chie, a reporter from another town -- and it is here we learn that the spirals have held the town prisoner -- and no one's going anywhere anytime soon. <br /> <br />"Chaos" is exactly what it implies -- the spirals have made the townspeople nearly insane, and the return of the snail people (in however minor fashion) doesn't help. <br /> <br />"Erosion" throws more gullible souls into the mix as well as reinjecting another one of the spiral infections from volume 1 -- this time, its victims are the meshed up townspeople. <br /> <br />In "Escape", Kirie, Chie, Shuichi, and Mitsuo tries to well, escape, from the clutches of the spirals by the path on the hillside, and it's here we find out that even reality and time themselves aren't immune from the twisted wrath of the uzumaki; for what seemed like days to Kirie, Chie, and Shuichi were really months and years to everyone else. <br /> <br />"The Labyrinth" slowly opens the truth behind the curse. At this point, Kurozu-cho has completely lost everything that substantiates sanity and and is but a spiral itself. <br /> <br />"Completion" is the final chapter of this masterpiece, and in the end, we're left spiraling with little comprehension of exactly what we have seen, felt, and thought -- and that's exactly how things should be. <br /> <br />"Galaxies" is a lost chapter that seems to have been written for volume 1, and shows that the spirals can reach even as far as another galaxy -- or perhaps vice versa. Upon reading this chapter, I can definitely see why it was excluded from the first volume of the collection. Don't get me wrong, it's certainly worthy of being a part of the Uzumaki saga, but the subject and flow of the story is, unfortunately, out of sync with volume 1. Glad to see that it was included here instead, as it works much better with volume 3's overall level of madness. <br /> <br />Yet another funny "Afterward" moment from Junji Ito. The man seriously needs to try his hands on comedy.

I don't consider myself a horror buff, but I've read my fair share of spine-tinglers...90% of which did not leave a lasting impression on me. Most horror stories--graphic novels or otherwise--tend to be fleeting guilty pleasures. The "Uzumaki" series is not one of those. For those intending to just buy one of the books, my advice is to buy or at least read them all. Standing alone, each book is a collection of chilling tales amplified by horrifically beautiful artwork. Ito does a stellar job rendering the most human inhuman things, bringing the terror closer to home. However, the sheer impact of the engrossing storyline is best enjoyed when the three books are read together, one after the other. The struggle of Kiri and Shuichi against the curse of the Spiral borders on a literary masterpiece. The ending is a beautiful one, and I often find myself reading the last page over and over again; the impact of the conclusion is that great. To those new to the world of "Uzumaki," the series is set in a small seaside town. It's a quaint town, but parts of it seem out of place. Loud sirens blare at regular intervals (much to the dismay of Shuichi, Kiri's boyfriend) and mysterious, dilapitated wooden rowhouses are scattered throughout town. Events start out small as the curse begins, but as the story progresses, the terror hidden in the heart of the town becomes more and more apparent. "Uzumaki 3" begins with the town in ruins, many of the citizens fully aware of the horror that has engulfed them, but helpless to escape. One by one and then by the masses, they become victims of the Spiral. The final part of the trilogy focuses first on a newspaper reporter stranded in town, then reshifts and finally settles again on the main characters Kiri and Shuichi as they make one final push against the Spiral. To those looking for a happy ending...you won't find it here. Evil "wins" as both of them finally surrender to the power of the Spiral. At the same time, however, Ito does a beautiful job portraying the human spirit against even the greatest (even supernatural) odds. "Uzumaki" should sate both gore-lovers and those looking for a psychological twister. Ito not only does an excellent job drawing the most grotesque things, but the real horror is drawn out largely from human character. Vanity, obsession, gluttony, and the sheer need to survive are all twisted and exagerrated to weave chilling stories that are bizarre and yet, at the same time, seemingly plausible. "The Spiral" is merely a chef to cook all these naturally-occurring ingredients together to create a deliciously scary story. There are a few pages that are borderline boring, but the stories, overall, are fast-paced and gut-wrenching. I highly recommend this to anyone that isn't TOO squimish and especially those looking for substance in a horror series.

The third volume of the Uzumaki series builds directly upon the premise of the preceding volume's last chapter. The storm at the end of volume 2 has destroyed the Goshima home as well as most other homes in the town of Kurozucho. Kiri and her family are forced to move into a decrepit old row house. Strangely, these ancient row houses are the only houses that have stood the test of time against the storm. But all is not well in these row houses, as the inhabitants become infected with a strange disease that causes their skin to grow spirally warts all over. Unlike Volume 2 where the chapters veered off in all sorts of wild directions, this volume is one continuous story from beginning to end. From the opening chapter, it becomes clear that the town of Kurozucho is no more, and all that's left are survivors of the storm, frantically looking for food, shelter and a way out of town. Except there's no way out of town. The spiral has created a sort of vortex that never ends and anyone that tries to leave town finds themselves just running around in circles. Things have really hit the fan in this volume. The entire volume has the feel of post-apocalyptic horror which was awesome to me being a huge fan of that genre. The devastating effects of the storm are on full display as the town of Kurozucho becomes one vast waste land of rubble. This third volume is filled with despair, depression and loss of hope. Except for Kiri of course, she just keeps chugging along, refusing to accept this madness as her fate and trying to find a way out of town for her and her friends. Creator Junji Ito definitely saved his best for last. This volume ranks right up there with the first one, maybe even better. His theme was an end of the world scenario and he accomplished it brilliantly. The only thing that left me a little disappointed at the end was that things sort of felt unfinished, it was a very depressing ending that left many stones unturned. However if Ito did that purposely to pave the way for a fourth volume than all the better. For one, I long for more explanations as to the origin of the spiral, which is never explained in any of the 3 volumes. Prologue please!! Even if that never happens, I'll always cherish these 3 volumes.

Jungi Ito has taken lessons from some of the best creative minds in the horror business and has meshed them into his own formations, fashioning something that can be dreadfully fantastic when he puts his mind to it. His inks seem to drip imagery, capturing expressions in black-and-white frames that could be valued at well over the thousand word cliche. I say that because he seems to understand how pulp horror works and how images can be placed together to tell a story of woe, letting him take things to the point that I find myself picking up everything he releases. And he simply gets better with time. Flesh-Colored Horror, Tomie, and the newer Gyo series have all showcased his abilities to craft horror themes, manifesting oddities existing within the natural world and the unnatural and also showing how emotions - especially love - sometimes comes with curses of its own. That said, none of these truly does Ito justice like the three Uzumaki books have done.Trying to compress and overview the themes running rampant in these books, Uzumaki is the tale of the town Kurozu-cho as it finds itself under the thumb of a mysterious curse. Here, spirals seem to appear and to bring madness with them, working through the population in a number of odd to just plain disturbing fashions. It began to manifest in the first book as obsession leading to bizarre happenings and then quickly polluted the town with weird manifestations that seemed to come slowly at first. Then, suddenly, it was like the town was under siege by the curse of spiral, leaving tragedy at every turn. Still, it all seemed to leave a question mark in the interactions at first. Until the third book these things all seemed to be connected in only the main characters and to the town, with the events seemingly leading to something but the "what" in that still a mystery. In this installment, however, the answer to that mystery comes to fruition in a tale that is very much like those names that Ito claims as inspiration, reminding me of something that a Lovecraft might mesh words on. And that revelation, the lofty goal outdoing some easy script, is superb. While I would add that there are a couple of tales within the book that didn't do that much for me, the end result of the stories all coming together and leaving no one unscathed was beautiful. Seeing that the town wasn't merely being touched by the hands of something that could be easily comprehended in one frame, that the hands of misfortune and fate were framing the groundwork for something stellar, illustrated why Jungi Ito is a creator that I've stuck with through all the pictures he's framed. I would get into it with more detail, too, but that might give away some portion of the prize. So, I'll instead say that I honestly couldn't wait to get my hands on this and am glad, in the most morbid of fashions, to see what has transpired. Because of this, I'll never trust a person that eats snails, that crafts clay pots, or that collects spirals again

Uzumaki is a great series I have to say. Ive even got the japanese import and it doesnt even work on my dvd player! The third book is probably the most emmotional one, having all the characters (and the readers) thrust into more choas of the spiral (and having kirie lose practically everyone) the story ended on a most pleaing note. I dont want to give it away but the ending just made me say "aw" (thts a good thing) The scary thing is about the uzumaki series is tht i hadnt known about it until it just popped up on my screen out of nowhere. Now I have the whole series and the movie wht more could I ask for. This third book (along with his others) have the usually chapter end with the next story having nothing to do with the one before but , to your surprise the last 2 chapters (aside the lost chapter (yes theres a lost chapter)) actually follows up with the next chapter (shock*) I strongly urge you to read this one plus hey its the last one dont you want to kno wht happens?