Abstract
In the Japanese horror manga Uzumaki (Spiral, 1998–99), Itō Junji envisions a world devoured by its own pattern of excess—a coastal town whose spiraling obsessions mirror the self-consuming logic of late capitalism, where desire, consumption, and decay collapse into one endless vortex. With the 3-in-1 Deluxe Edition of Uzumaki Itō’s spiral nightmare reached global proportions prompting translations into over a dozen European and Asian languages. Subsequent adaptations included two video games, a live action film, and most recently (2024) an anime TV miniseries available on major digital streaming platforms, such as Netflix and Hulu. While critical assessments have viewed Itō’s work from the perspective of dark fantasy to psychological horror, ecological terror, Lovecraftian weird fiction, nuclear apocalypse, even Buddhist teachings of samsara, such analyses rely primarily on the explication of narrative structure and theme. Visual composition has been seldom considered. Itō’s drawing techniques, line art, character design, and strategic use of positive and negative space are often overlooked in the search for the meaning of the spiral. This paper provides an analysis of Uzumaki that considers Ito’s art as a prime factor in the production of meaning. Drawing on Mark Fisher’s The Weird and the Eerie, I demonstrate how Itō’s technical precision produces a “double whammy” of fear and fascination at the same time as it delivers an ideological critique: in a world spiraling out of control under capitalism’s relentless repetition and accumulation, even the art of depiction becomes a mechanism of collapse.
Presenters
Janice BrownProfessor, Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
The Arts in Social, Political, and Community Life
KEYWORDS
MANGA ART, HORROR, VISUAL COMPOSITION, CRITIQUE OF CAPITALISM
