On June 24, 2022, the Uzumaki Anime Production Team sent a Tweet on their official account stating that the anime adaptation of Uzumaki is being delayed again. The reason stated is they want to take more time to adapt as good as possible before releasing it to the public.
In other words, they want to make Uzumaki properly. Not only to make it a faithful adaptation of Junji Ito’s manga, but a good one!
Unfortunately, we don’t have a new release date or a guess of how long the wait will be. But if the final product is as good as the trailer they’ve released, I’ll wait as long as it takes!
What do we know about the Uzumaki adaptations?
The anime was set to premiere in October 2022, with four episodes on Adult Swim’s Toonami block in America before Japan. We don’t know if this will still be the case, but we don’t have to wait for more Junji Ito content for long.
In 2000, a live-action film adaptation of Uzumaki was produced by Omega Micott. It was released in San Francisco, and many see it as the perfect or decent adaptation.
Why? Opinions aside, Uzumaki has 19 chapters and one bonus chapter if you get the omnibus edition.
I recommend getting it because chapter 20 is a “lost episode” that works on the manga’s ending, but I haven’t read Uzumaki yet, so I can’t give any opinions on it. However, I can recommend Junji Ito’s work to any horror fan.
Take the second animation, Junji Ito’s collection, which you can watch on Crunchyroll. In the description, it’s described as each episode starting a different character, but some characters appear in multiple episodes.
Tomei appears twice, but most episodes come from Ito’s short stories. Also, each episode is broken down into two segments, so you get two stories per episode.
The run time for each segment reflects the length of the manga it’s adapting. So, for example, one of the segments is only a few minutes, whereas the other had over 12 minutes.
I won’t say which one because I feel Jinji Ito’s collection is worth watching at least once. As for the live-action film, the film has an original ending because Uzumaki the manga was still ongoing.
It has a 90-minute run-time and cuts out specific segments from the manga. But the trailer gave me chills due to the music; the CG effects made the scenes recognizable.
Junji Ito is a master of his craft, and I can’t wait to dive into more of his work.
What else is coming from Junji Ito?
Junji Ito has two books you can pre-order, and more are coming! The Liminal Zone will release on July 26, 2022, and I can’t wait to read it!
The Liminal Zone has two stories, the first features a “weeping woman” or professional mourner, and the second has the Aokigahara or the Suicide Forest. Which is a real place in Japan, and the name is well-earned.
Black Paradox is coming out on October 25, 2022, and is a single story about four people who, for various reasons, want to commit suicide. I haven’t read all of Ito’s work, but I’ve rarely encountered a “happy” ending.
Ito’s horror closely resembles H. P. Lovecraft when explaining the monsters, curses, and life in his stories, which the Junji Ito portrays throughout the series. The first anime adaptation of Ito’s work, Gyo, also shows this.
The land is no longer safe, and you’re up against zombie fish that can make you into a zombie with odd metal things moving you around like a puppet/host? And if you like live-action films, you can find almost 20 to choose from!