So, fun fact about Junji Ito: He was a dentist before he drew manga, and he developed his art style from drawing medical diagrams. This is what he often attributes to why his body horror is so visceral.

@r1tesh

Жыл бұрын

Lord, imagine if he was a ER worker...

@jezebulls

Жыл бұрын

It’s always neat to find authors who do their own art

@zapwitz3931

Жыл бұрын

i knew the mind of a dentist was a very dark place

@MarvelousPhilly

Жыл бұрын

Word. Very true. And it's why Junji is my favorite.

@mercuryredstone2235

11 ай бұрын

@@r1tesh Another fun fact: George Miller, the creator of Mad Max, WAS an ER worker before he became a filmmaker, thus explaining why those movies are so gnarly.

What I really loved about the end of Uzumaki is that Kirie and Shuichi actually die (get frozen in time?) in an embrace looking at each other while everyone else is looking at the giant spiral in the center of the eldritch underground landscape. So while there was no escape from the spiral (and how could there be?), they actually managed to achieve a little bit of defiance in their last moments.

@mrmanju6989

Жыл бұрын

I thought it was a nice throw back to the romeo and juliet segment too. They chose to go on their own terms and with each other. A touch of Amor Fati maybe. To accept and LOVE your Fate.

@vibespidersstudios8895

Жыл бұрын

I say at that moment the two broke the the curse as like a snake ate it’s own tail. A spiral ending itself by eating from the start to the end. As the inward and outward spirals fight each other. Yet the moment the two let each other go. They know the curse will come back start over again. When you think about it. The curse is over but at a cost of people who didn’t deserve it. They’ll live forever down there and underneath the lake. Also if the two of them did left the town like the point where people are smart enough to leave the town like before the events halfway the story. Maybe Kirie and Shuichi gets the happy ending.

yknow how Shuichi is INSTANTLY down to get shit done whenever Kirie asks him or needs him to do something? Imagine if Kirie just said "yes" when Shuichi asked to leave town together at the very beginning, good ending unlocked

@RePhantomz

Жыл бұрын

Well at the start she dont have any reason considering her family lives there. Altho after chap1 she most likely had already affected by the spiral. I mean her house is close to the lake and dont forget that her hair also affected once.

@Mathee

11 ай бұрын

@@RePhantomz My theory is that Kirie was indeed affected by the spiral, but specifically in the sense that she is Shuichi's metaphorical spiral. The reason why all the supernatural events happen around her, but she always manages to survive? It's always either because of Shuichi, or some hand of fate that seems to be guided by the spiral. Basically, because of Shuichi's premonitions, leading to him knowing about the spiral, him escaping Kurozucho would be a direct threat to the spiral's continuous existence; if Shuichi had escaped, he would be able to give people a non-supernatural version of what happened once the events of the final chapter starts unfolding. He would be able to limit the amount of people who travelled to Kurozucho then, and he would be able to advocate for making sure the area never gets settled again. And when you read the story with the fact that Shuichi might be the only one capable of stopping the spiral, it makes a lot of sense. The first victims of the spiral curse are Shuichi's parents. Directly after that, we get the story, The Scar, which seems to be the spiral specifically targetting Shuichi and trying to get rid of him, but in the end it fails, so it changes targets to Kirie. The last chapter of the first volume, Medusa, can be seen as a direct statement from the spiral to Shuichi, telling him that if he leaves town, Kirie will die a painful death. And in the end, Shuichi steps in to rescue Kirie, and from then on, Kirie continues to keep Shuichi in town, even leading him into the spiral town in the last chapters of the manga, leading to his demise.

@umamifan

11 ай бұрын

@@Mathee She survived because she came prepared with plot armor

@icp7201

10 ай бұрын

It makes certain sense. Everyone was mesmerized by the spiral, fixated on it, bit not Shuichi. The only thing he was completely devoted to was Kirie. In this aspect, she was his spiral as well. He loses himself and his life, in her and because of her@@Mathee

An hour and 30 minutes? We're being spoiled today boys!

@darkking9528

Жыл бұрын

Preach that

@kindle1951

Жыл бұрын

Aw lawd! Keep it comin!

@redmustard6354

Жыл бұрын

Let go

What always gets me with Ito's work is how everything feels so creepy and uncanny all the time. Weird shit always happens but the characters don't react like normal people would, and I think it adds to that atmosphere of uneasiness that's always there in his mangas. It feels like everything that happens is way beyond what anyone could ever prepare for even in their dreams. It all feels like an inevitable descent into the spiral.

To me the way the characters behave in this story adds to the horror of it all, as if they were all collectively, slowly going insane without realizing it. It really does seem like a nightmare in how they just kind of accept these bizarre occurrences, like how when you're dreaming everything makes sense but when you wake up it was all obviously very strange and nonsensical.

Something I like about Uzumaki is that it twists the concept of character narration. Usually when a character is telling a story through past tense narration I expect them to live. But instead the implication is that Kirie is thinking about everything that happened as she's being frozen in time with Shuichi.

I really like how you keyed onto Shuichi being essentially an adaptive and sensible person after his parents died from the Kurozu-Cho curse. None of that "Oh, that's just a scary story" or "What would we call people rising from the grave to stalk the living?", just pure and simple "Okay, I've experienced insane and unrealistic phenomena, so now it's time to start accepting that other insane and unrealistic phenomena can have similar merit and require appropriate action". He's just Johnny-on-the-spot for the rest of the show, like "Oh, people are turning into snails? Check roger, I'm already on the way with 40 lbs of salt". More horror stories need a Shuichi Saito.

Love Ito's work. The lack of character work is kinda intentional. It's not about the people, his work gives no answers, and that's what's so terrifying about it.

You should definitely read The Enigma Of Amigara Fault. It's my favorite Junji Ito story, it's super short so I don't think it merits a whole video but it's really worth the read

@stephenmcdonald9859

Жыл бұрын

Agreed.. easily to me the most disturbing thing he’s written. Complete mind F***k

Fun fact: I kinda have a phobia on snails I don't think I'm ever going to forget some Uzumaki panels lol Anyway, great idea for the Halloween special! Junji Itou's works are amazing

@michellete20

Жыл бұрын

Why do you have a phobia of snails? What part of them are you afraid of? Just curious.

I agree with your comments on character and growth. It’s the main reason I think Ito works better with short stories. As a writer, he is clearly more interested in exploring creepy ideas over characters, which I think works better when there is no larger narrative. It allows him to quickly set up a spooky idea, scare you once or twice and move on.

@flyingorange2482

Жыл бұрын

But seriously, I don't see how focusing in the charaters in a horror story would make much sense

@genious7714

Жыл бұрын

@@flyingorange2482 I like connecting with the characters, so I can feel the consecuences. If they're fleshed out I care what happens to them more, and makes the things more scary to me, but hey, thats just my opinion.

@Dryniel

Жыл бұрын

@@flyingorange2482 I think some of Mike Flanagan's works (Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass) are a great example of how to do horror while still focussing on characters. btw I am not saying Uzumaki is bad, I like it a lot. I just wanted to point out that Ito has a certain way of writing that I think is best suited for shorter stories.

An hour and 30 minutes for your first Junji Ito work? This is gonna be good.

One of the best horror mangas of all time. Can't wait for the anime adaptation. The trailer looks sick

@coffeedude

Жыл бұрын

I can't imagine the movie being good. Was it? Edit: Bruh why did you edit your comment to say something completely different? Now mine doesn't make any sense 😭

@Exel3nce

Жыл бұрын

at the beginning, yes, but the moment the tornados came, it all went to silly bs.

@Grudgebearer47

Жыл бұрын

I was excited for it initially but after all the delays and the fact that Adult Swim’s recent horror venture “Housing Complex C” was atrociously bad, I’ve lost a lot of optimism. There’s also concerns as to whether production IG and the staff are able to even pull off animating it in a similar style to the manga.

@coffeedude

Жыл бұрын

@@Grudgebearer47 The studio and director responsible for Housing Complex C don't have anything to do with the people making Uzumaki...

@Grudgebearer47

Жыл бұрын

@@coffeedude wasn’t it by the same studio though? I read somewhere that IG also worked on it.

The mushroom pregnancy part is easily the most traumatizing thing ive read

@nicolezhang8116

Жыл бұрын

I thought it was actually quite funny. The mushroom pregnancy, jack in the box, and hair battle episodes were a little ridiculous i it’s premise, but I don’t fault Ito for his creativity. The snail episode was the most traumatizing for me and to this day I still refuse to eat snails. Went on a family trip to France and that escargot was escar-gone

@LunarShimmer

Жыл бұрын

which one is mushroom pregnancy??? what did i miss

@LunarShimmer

Жыл бұрын

okay yeah i totally forgot about that part. mosquito moms are one of the weakest chapters for me ngl

@captainflappyarms8277

7 ай бұрын

Wait Speedwagon didn't you die like 123 years ago?

@AFoxInFlames

6 ай бұрын

Horrible!

Junji Ito’s Uzumaki is an interesting tale for me. After completing it, I was like, Meh - whatever. But then, as a day or two went by, I had this major compulsion to read more.. I wanted more.. now I own every damn thing he’s done and converted to English. Sheesh. It was weird

@marocat4749

Жыл бұрын

Good read, read, read, .... Ok it just had that fitting style XD

@Grunk369

Жыл бұрын

The spiral demanded your attention

@deadbrat8574

Жыл бұрын

Sounds like you've been infected by the spiral.

@Alastherra

Жыл бұрын

I had the same problem. I don't even remember which of his stories I read first, but decided "hey, how about I go buy his longer works?" ... ... ... DAMN as of today, I am proud owner of all his published works in English (except for the Black Paradox which hasn't arrived yet). lolol

@hortator0767

Жыл бұрын

same thing happened to me, literally bought all of his manga and it got me into reading manga

Honestly, this is probably the scariest manga I've ready of Ito. I love Hellstar Remina and Gyo, and many of his shorter works, but none of unsettled me more than the spiral. And it's such an interesting idea too. A spiral is such a mundane patter, yet he managed to make it this frightening. supernatural entity.

@ANunes06

Жыл бұрын

I actually prefer the one with the window for raw terror. IYKYK. And while it's not scary like these, I will forever be haunted by the phrase "THIS HOLE WAS MADE FOR ME!"

@AshXXMayftw

Жыл бұрын

@@ANunes06 Yeah, that one gave me a scare at the very end, but it didn't really unsettle me until I saw the two main characters enter their holes. I'd say the one two that actually came close were Army of One and Balloon Heads.

@trustmeImadoc91

Жыл бұрын

Idk man the enigma of Amigara Fault messed me up for a long time. As I read Uzumaki I was always intrigued or unsettled, but wasn't often scared. Amigara fault though..

@AshXXMayftw

Жыл бұрын

@@trustmeImadoc91 Amigara Fault had me unsettled, but only really frightened me during the last panel. And that was more so a jump scare sort of deal. A well-done jump scare, but it's something that just came and went. I think what made me more unsettled with Uzumaki and the Spiral was that you didn't really know how it would act. It affected everyone differently and spared no one. It's the fear of the unknown and what it could potentially do that scared me with Uzumaki.

@UnreasonableOpinions

Жыл бұрын

The abstraction of the connection of the story is what makes it work so well as a work of cosmic horror - the more disconnected the events are while you know that it is a single story, the bigger the series of events is while still not being vast enough to actually show the force behind the curtain, the more unthinkable the hand behind it all is. It's one of the few cosmic horror works that really does create the sense of dread inevitability it needs to work.

Highschool in Japan is incredibly competitive, getting into a good highschool is part of getting into a good college. This leads to families sending their kids to the best highschools they can even if they're farther away so they'll often send them to live in their own. This is helped by Japan's reputation for having a low crime rate.

Can we talk about this genuinely horrifying voice acting goblin boy pulled off at 16:40??? This is the first manga I ever read so it holds a special place in my heart and the mother's time in the hospital scared me the most and your voice acting of the father-centipede-spiral-horror thing was upsettingly actually scary. Phenomenal

24:58 When Daniel said no one would see that spiral in the girls face and say "Let me explore that little crevice there!" all I could think of of was the enigma of Amigara fault and how it's all about people exploring crevices they shouldn't.

funfact: traditional japanese pottery is all about spirals. Instead of rotating the clay to make the jar, they make a long string and spiral it to give its shape.

I really appreciate how the mosquito story is strangely accurate to mosquito biology! for those of you who don't know (and lets be real, that's all of you because nobody cares about poor mosquitoes) mosquitoes don't drink blood for sustenance, they actually eat sugary substances like tree sap and nectar. (they are pollinators like bees) The reason mosquitoes suck blood at all is because it's a necessary component of their reproductive cycle. And well, since only female mosquitos need that blood, only female mosquitoes actually bite.

I love you Daniel for doing this. Just a couple of years ago, I was completely taken away and enraptured by the works of Junji Ito and Uzumaki was my introduction to this mangaka artist. Oh boy, did I love it and it still resonates with me today. Always down for a spooky season read along. Thank you and bless you!

When I read Uzumaki, I thought it was a short read to pass the time since it was just one volume, the author was basically an unknown to me.

49:22, actually in the book “The Shining,” the haunted room is room 217. It was changed in the film to be room 237.

I spent my Halloween reading Uzumaki. I got about halfway through it and am really enjoying it. Some of the imagery is so haunting it’s still stuck with me hours later. It’s great.

Congrats on winning the counterclaim, that will teach me to wait to watch your videos in the future.

I don't think I've ever watched a KZread video this long without skipping any part of it until now. Props to Mr Goblin Man for making such an amazing spoopy Halloween video!

Congrats on winning the counter claim my dude!!

I first read Uzumaki years ago, and while maybe not the scariest things ever, there are panels that just keep popping up in my mind. I see snails and other spirals differently to this day. The story is by no means perfect, but it's weird and disturbing in such a unique way that it sticks with you, "spiraling" into your your brain 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

I am SO GLAD you won the counter claim! I didn't get to see this video when it actually came out and I'm glad I'm not missing out :)

I just love Uzumaki!!! Honestly, while I was reading I didn't felt scared... and I read it in very few days because I couldn't put it down... BUT then I realize that I got nervious when I saw a spiral and then I had a nightmare about spirals... and I was like "oh! It seems it did get to me, huh?... NICE!"

Justice has been returned.

I don't usually like horror in movies or games or even books because they are usually cheap jump scares or in the cases on books my imagination isn't good enough to visualise the horrific things being described. Manga horrors are genuinely scary in that I can control the reading with the page flip, but also the good ones don't rely on jump scares but are actually just creepy. Most manga horrors are bad or meh, but Junji Ito's shorts are horror masterpieces and terrifying.

This video is so good, so so so good. I'm so thankful you managed to get it back up. It's truly amazing!

Thank you so much for reading this hearing you’re voice throughout the story made it more comforting✨✨✨

I’m an Audiologist, and spent so much time studying the cochlea (the spiral in the ear) so when I saw it in Uzumaki, I was so psyched!

Congrats on getting the video back! Time to rewatch it again!

Love you checking this out. Really refreshing from the normal schedule

That was a great one-shot review. The long form nature of the read along was perfect for this book. Thanks for another video.

Ah yes, Uzumaki. My favourite Naruto.

Daniel this was an incredible video! Would love to see you do more things like this, even if just on certain holidays or such! Thanks for putting this together, super fun story time!

Appreciate the hard work! Been enjoying all of your read alongs. Keep going😁👍🏻

These read alongs are a really great way for me to revisit the classics I've over the past 10 years.

Thank you for this video! I absolutely loved it.

These long form videos of horror manga are great. Saving the rest for later tonight. It's a feeling of intimate terror for people who like that kind of thing, and since it's over an hour long it has rewarchability like many of RedLetterMedias videos. I hope you make more and pray to the algorithm gods to smile upon your video 😁

This is going to make my work day, thank you Daniel

Weeee’re back!

Uzumaki seems to be giving off a "Twilight Zone" vibe, but with a theme. And I love it.

I love the effort put into these reads. Little sad I had to reduce my patreon level because it's may way of saying thanks for your time and effort into informing and entertaining us.

I can't believe I missed this video until now it was amazing we need you to do more videos like this

Hello from Sweden! just wanted to say how much I enjoy these read alongs! And the way they are edited are also really emersive well done with these videos Daniel and keep up the great work!

I know I might be a little late, but I just wanna say I appreciate these read throughs so much! Your energy and enthusiasm in ever material brings justice to the author's deserved recognition. Thank you!

This was a great read along!! Good Job!

One of your best videos in my opinion! Great read along with on point comedy. Great work!

This was such a fun read along Thanks for the hard work Goblin host

its back omg!!

Damn... even the read along is giving me chills. Great choice for a Halloween read along, Daniel. 😰

I enjoy this format so much! You are an entertaining narrator 🎉

This is so awesome! Thank you!

I already just commented and was sort of hype trolling but genuinely excited to see if you can tell the story well. Keep it up. Chapter three and I'm hooked! Good job!

I'm not going to lie, the Manga videos have become my actual favorite and I've been around since before you had 50,000 subscribers. Keep up the great work!

Great to see you win the fight for this video 👌🏻 Great job, man!

I love this, long videos are the best. Thanks Daniel, hope you had a good Halloween

Lmaooo this is Daniel at his absolute funniest. Amazing video !! 😂❤

Really enjoyed this video, I have a hard time reading on my own so things like this are very enjoyable. A wonderful bedtime story

I loved this video Daniel. Really well done!

Let's freaking gooooo This'll make my day. Hearing about how you were planning to go through Uzumaki, I went ahead and read it myself. Excited to hear your thoughts on it

I I found this great manga all thanks to you! You're awesome and the videos are awesome, too 😁

Fantastic video. Would love to see you cover more junji ito in the future

Perfect, thank you for this video!

Incredible. Best review I've ever seen. Out did yourself here

Ugh, I love your backdrop so much! Classic, not so creepy Halloween decorated library/bookstore. I'm getting a little nostalgic... Very wholesome looking ❤️

Never thought I'd watch a hour and half long video about a manga, but I love it!😅

Great video!!! Just love that you are reviewing a huge variety of genres, mediums and it's always fun and as objective as possible (IMO) PS. Great production value with the spooky fog Goblin Lord

That spiral part of the inner ear, the Cochlea, is pronounced "Cock-Lee-Ahh" fwiw. Super excited to see you reviewing this, I love Ito and Uzumaki is one of his best. If you enjoyed it you should check out some of the sparse trailer footage we've gotten for the being made by Adult Swim. It seems to currently be trapped in development hell, but what they're showing off looks amazing.

@waffl3heart

Жыл бұрын

Wait isn't it Coke-lee-ahh?

Yes!!! I'm so excited to see you getting into Junji Ito Daniel! Please make more content from Ito's work, you will definitely get a like from me :)

Adding a comment for all your hard work!

This feels very much like some of the Lovecraft I've read. Looks like a very interesting read, that I'm going to have to be in the right mood for, or I'll just bounce off of it, and find something else to read. Thank you for sharing!

A weakness of anthology-style horror is that in some collections it gets too long to be effective - only so many repetitions of the same standard pacing arc work before it stops being a break. At the same time, single-story horror runs into the difficulty of keeping one threat consistent and effective without getting bogged down, especially in a visual medium - a film is fine, but a TV series has to focus on human events to avoid wearing out the threat. The strength of Uzumaki, especially compared to the other long-form stories or collections from Junji Ito, is that it manages to square that circle. Ironically, having such a loose theme as ‘what if Spirals’ works to its great advantage - every story can do something quite different, and because it ends up leaning to the cosmic, the fact that the connecting strain between each series of events is so abstract only makes the escalating scale of the horror more troubling. The greater arc is allowed to slowly emerge from nothing more than that you know this is a single story sold mostly in a single volume, as you see the same rise again, the greater arc forming slowly out of an abstract concept that becomes as strong and inevitable as gravity. It works very well as cosmic horror because as the stakes and the scale escalates to keep the greater arc moving, there is STILL no clear, coherent explanation to what links these events beyond ‘spirals’. The bigger things get without letting you see some kind of common cause behind it all, the bigger it must ultimately be, until what is happening is obviously so far beyond what you know you will never understand it - and you STILL haven’t seen it yet. That sells the sense of dread inevitability behind the story and the actions of the leads - by the time it is obvious that this is all part of the same series of events, they’re already in it. By the time it’s obvious that this will keep escalating, it’s too late to leave, and attempts to do so go terribly wrong. The characters come to understand that it’s too late to fight whatever this is after the audience does, so when things reach their inevitable head and the only choice left is whether you try to leave and survive or you Come and See, we understand that it isn’t a choice at all. It has that rarest sense of the truly cosmic, that this entire story is us watching the drifting of the stage curtains behind our world, wondering at what could be moving behind it, seeing for just a moment a glimpse of the gap in the curtains, and that glimpse of the truth behind the stage is enough to destroy anyone who chose to look. Just this once, the abstraction doesn’t just obscure the greater plot, it IS the greater plot.

Just got done with my work meetings and was about to start admin work. Thanks for the 1 hour and 30 minutes of content Daniel, will make it easier to sit through.

Really enjoyed this Daniel!

Trying to watch this over breakfast was a mistake. 😂 awesome vid Daniel as always!

Thank you for this video. I have been thinking about read this manga for a long time but didn't dare to cuz ... well...I am scared. This is very entertaining 💕

This is literally a delicious blessed treat, thank you for your work Oh Disheveled Goblin. One of my favorite bits of Horror Media ever.

amazing lighting in this vid

Probably my favorite intro of yours Daniel 😂

Especially in the Baby Episode i realized how peefect Garfield Horror fits with junji itos Style.

The way I came running after seeing the notification... This is a dream read-along!

Beautiful light setup!!!!

you know, I'm not super into horror, but I'm seriously enjoying watching this read-through commentary. your comments lighten up the horror enough for me to be able to enjoy this, and it's super entertaining. So thank you

I've been thinking of reading this manga for a while now. I think you've convinced me to give it a shot

Amazing video!

Thanks so much!

On the point of high schoolers living alone I've seen people say that a four year old given a set of pretty specific circumstances could end up living alone. This was brought up because of a series called kotaro lives alone

@jr4it06

Жыл бұрын

A great series, great mesages

Great video mate!

Holly shit, how did KZread not blow-up your entire channel for this? Lol loved this 🤣

If you haven't been recommended this yet please check out Cat Diary: Yon & Mu for your personal reading. It's a short slice of life comic written/drawn by Junji Ito. Seeing his art applied to the wackiness of cats is a treat. Thanks for taking the dive into his stuff! Great video

definitely a good read that sticks in your mind

I thank you for sharing your reading of one of my favorite books. I am a long-time horror fan but this is my favorite horror story. It was inspired by The Dunwitch Horror but it's quite its own thing. It truly captures horror like little else bc in the end, terror is arbitrary. It happens to good and bad ppl whether they deserve it or not.