https://blacknerdproblems.com/uzumaki-review/

Episode one of Uzumaki was supposed to be a crown jewel in the offering for the Anime Fall 2024 season this year. Delayed a few times, the series production labored to finally bring this anime adaptation of one of legendary horror mangaka Junji Ito’s most popular works to life. Airing on Adult Swim, we were given the green light to prepare for a visual feast for old and new fans alike. The first episode aired to good fanfare: introducing teens Shuichi, Kirie, and the madness of the spiral that overtakes their town and the people within it. I loved the high-quality animation, the music, and the creepy, atmospheric look of the series and how I looked forward to watching more.

And then I watched the second episode and as goes the title of one of my favorite albums by The Roots, Things Fall Apart. I was looking forward to watching this episode as I figured that it would be the one to tackle the iconic hair spirals that Kirie falls victim to as more and more spirals start manifesting in the town. That much proved to be true with an unfortunate truth: the drop of quality of the animation dropped tremendously making fans question (and meme endless, online), what happened, here?

Spoilers Big and Small, Up Ahead!

Animation Blues?

Episode two of Uzumaki brought the jokes and memes on social media as the animation was noticeably and laughably bad. A general consensus online that started to circulate that even fan created projects have looked more decent and polished. Toonami co-creator and Uzumaki executive producer Jason DeMarco did address the animation quality and fan backlash online as first spotted and reported by CBR:

“It’s fine, we knew this would happen. I can’t talk about what went down but we were screwed over and the options were A) Not finish and air nothing and call it a loss, B) Just finish and air Ep 1 and leave it incomplete or C) Run all four, warts and all. Out of respect for the hard work, we chose C.”

DeMarco continued, “After waiting so long, it makes sense people would be mad. Unfortunately, I can’t tell them who to blame it on…but someone is definitely at fault here, and we all just had to do our best when things imploded. Maybe others would have made different choices. We did the best we could with what we had.”

“But again, a lot of [people] worked very hard on this show, and I didn’t think the actions of just one or two people should be the reason it never saw the light of day. Maybe that’s the wrong choice, I truly don’t know. But those people have a right to be annoyed and disappointed.”

Game Rant’s reporting of the sudden decline of quality in the series via episode two of Uzuamaki featured some of my favorite tweets documenting the bizarre pieces of animation and very noticeable–stop and stare parts of the episode, seen here. Speculation abound leading to many of us wondering if severe budget constraints, outsourcing some scenes overseas to cut costs and meet deadlines–already a problem as the project was five years in delays–a serious issue that would soon plague the entire series and the end result.

CBR also reported a change in directors and animation studios with Episode 1 being directed by Hiroshi Nagahama (Mushishi, The Flowers of Evil) and animated by studio Fugaku. Whereas Episode 2 was directed by Yuji Moriyama and animated by studio Akatsuki. It makes me wonder between the delays how long the production really took. As Gizmodo reported, “Moreover, eagle-eyed fans registered that much of Uzumaki‘s promotional material centered solely on the show’s premiere episode, with very few showcasing scenes from the limited series’ other three episodes.” It makes me wonder between the delays how long the production team went between doing work on the episodes and when the hand-off was during the COVID-19 pandemic (early) days?

Spiraling Out, I mean Crashing Out

My question with what the second episode of Uzumaki gave us, why would people return for more? Why keep eyeballs on this series when Fall Anime Season fan fave Dandadan had just started to great fanfare and reviews? Why would Uzuamki be a series to keep on the radar of an anime fan’s streaming list when a new offering of Shojo and Josei anime adaptations and titles like Nina the Starry Bride, How I Attended an All-Guy’s Mixer and Yakuza Fiancé would be easier to jump into and enjoy? But I did return to watching this adaptation of my favorite Junji Ito’ manga for the next two episodes without much glee or satisfaction, sadly–if only to satisfy my completionist spirit when it occasionally comes to anime.

Episode 3 of Uzumaki had an edge over the previous with a slight improvement animation wise over episode 2, but the pacing of the episode dragged on. I really found it hard to be excited to watch and keep focused on the happenings in the episode but did my best to carry on, regardless of the padding out of the original source material–the manga. Episode 4 of Uzumaki, while not as great as the first episode, showed glimpses that the animators and team that handled the first episodes had hands in the last. Showing some stiff and awkward scenes here (please tell me the tornadoes made you giggle too?!) and there, the very last episode helped attempt to bring back the standard of the first episode and wrap up the story. There were some really cool visual effects included in this last episode that helped push the narrative into its final scenes along with more strange and terrifying happenings.

Over-Hyped and Over-Hated?

What do we, as the audience, take away from this dismal showing of this long-awaited adaptation?

What did this adaptation of Uzumaki do right or well enough?

First and foremost, it gave a solid first episode that introduced the lore and creepiness of the source material well. Secondly, the attention to detail regarding body horror (yes, even the episodes that made it ridiculous to watch) worked in its favor. Lastly, the soundtrack and the sound design was masterful, and this was the one consistent part of the creative process that stayed true, in my opinion.

Having Colin Stetson’s talent on this haunting and steadfastly creepy musical score is the perhaps, the most positive part of watching what this series literally descended to and visually illustrated the horror of the story. If you adored the soundtrack like I did, you can find it online via YouTube and Spotify and even pressed to vinyl (with some really neat packaging) as well.

Uzumaki may have started off, in my own words, as an unsettling and darkly picturesque adaptation, but it quickly dissolved into a disappointing mess of animation and awkwardness. At only four episodes, it should have been an easier task versus a momentum regular season or cour of an anime in the likes of twelve episodes or more. I don’t know how to feel that as anime became even more popular globally during COVID-19 crisis, the production of the adaptation of this long-awaited series spiraled into a forgettable, near mediocre mess.

There were a host of anime series, films that were impacted by the health crisis (Here’s a list back in 2020 from Crunchyroll for example) but Uzumaki’s failure to have a consistently solid showing makes me just feel incredibly sad. The thing is I’m not even mad anymore, just disappointed and wondering what could have been and what we could have had. It makes me wonder what is the state of animation outside the United States and what this means for partnerships and collabs between such adored giants like Adult Swim and Toonami and Japanese animation studios to come, like Lazarus?

I really, really wanted this to be the one to break the “Junji Ito Adaptation Curse” especially as Ito-Sensei is only growing older. Plus, we’re all much more aware of how fragile the health and lives of creatives are, especially living through the pandemic years. When it comes to creatives and artists of the Asian Diaspora — particularly Japanese creatives who make manga, the world has lost several greats. In recent years we’ve lost  Kazuki Takahashi (Yu-Gi-Oh!), Mia Ikumi (Tokyo Mew Mew), Motoo Abiko (of Fujiko Fujio fame, one of the creatives behind Doraemon), Kentaro Miura (Berserk),  Leiji Matsumoto ( Galaxy Express 999), Hinako Ashihara (Sand Chronicles) and even Akira Toriyama (Dragonball).

I really want a win for him in the realms of an anime adaptation. Sadly, this won’t be it. My hot take is that this anime adaptation of Uzumaki was over hyped and thus over-hated. Yet, I cannot even blame fans (and haters) for feeling let down for this was supposed to be the chosen one–the adaptation to break “the curse.”

I’ll forget Uzumaki, in time (It won’t be hard!), and I’ll return to Junji Ito’s manga as there’s still years of his work for me to devour. I’ll get back to dreaming that one day, the curse will be broken, and fans can rejoice of a faithful, stunning, consistent adaptation that will make us all proud and emotionally invested–the right way for such an incredible source material. Until then, we wait. I truly feel like I was baited and hooked for a series adaptation that did not live up to what we all hoped it would be or what was promised. Shame, but I’m not spiraling out over it anymore or longer than I have to.

WHEW. This was hard to write. Have thoughts? Feel Bamboozled? Join us in the comments section for a group therapy session.

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The post ‘Uzumaki’ Series Results in Being Fumbled and Forgettable appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.