C&C - Uzumaki Talkback Thread (Dub & Sub) [9/28-10/19]

PicardMan

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his was a unique series, but ultimately a mess. The animation was uneven from episode to episode. They pulled a bait and switch with that first episode being animated using different techniques by another studio. Plot was nonsensical and seems designed to just go from one random spiral related horror shot to the next. The ending just happens suddenly. I am interested to check out the manga and old film, but this ultimately feels like another victim of the Toonami original curse.

It did feel like a two hour heavy metal music video with "hardcore" visuals rather than tell an interesting story, but it didn't bore me. I'm not going to call it the first good Toonami original, but it was at least not unwatchable like the others.
 

Markus Nelis

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Episodes didn't really have the consistant animation but the nightmare scenes helped this one so I was still into it. Writing was pretty nice. A solid 6/10 from me. Wouldn't say it's a complete flop. This could have been better though.
 

Nobodyman

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This was pretty good overall, I guess.

Sadly, the series did suffer from some lackluster animation due to production issues, which, even after five years, they weren't able to resolve. Personally though, I think the biggest problem was the pacing and storytelling. I know it's tough trying to adapt an essentially episodic manga into a TV show with 30-45 minute episodes and, I don't know, maybe this really was the best they could have done. Or maybe the Uzumaki story itself just hasn't aged well. But I don't know, I haven't read the manga.

At the very least I'll say this was one of the better Toonami originals.
 

JMTV

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Okay, I did see the last episode of Uzumaki. Eh. It's kinda boring to me. It didn't really go anywhere. I just don't really care.

Looking back on Uzumaki as a whole, it just wasn't good. Not to say it is god-awful, but it's disappointing, in my opinion.

Which sucks because it did have good stuff. The first episode was beautiful and I feel like I'm watching a classic Adult Swim Action show done right. Then the second episode came along, it completely wet the bed. The massive behind the scenes issues really dampened the show's reputation, especially it was in development for 5 years, and this is what we get? Yeah, the pandemic disrupts the smooth progress, but come on?!

With that said, I would say Uzumaki was the least bad Toonami original because at least it was a unique stand out compared to others. Just fell short on what could've been.

So yeah, that's my 2 cents.
 

Space Cadet

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Basically being stuck into a time loop of forever being turned into spirals with memory loss each time is the most horrific way to go. Animation issues aside, I really did enjoy watching this. I'll give this a 7.5 out of 10. I have a feeling this is probably going to be the best adaptation of Uzumaki we'll get for a long time as Ito's works are known for being hard to adapt.
 

Kitschensyngk

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Production issues showed up at times, and episode two tried to cram a lot into thirty minutes. I feel it was one of those anime where a slightly longer episode count (maybe one or two more, in this case) might give the story more breathing room.

That said, I think this show, if not the best Toonami original, was definitely one of the better ones. As a horror anime, it did its job—it was definitely disturbing, the look was true to the original manga, and each scene did leave me wondering what weird thing was going to happen next.

Grade: A-
 

Grenzer

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Mediocre, but not terrible by any means. Better than Housing Complex C which was of the same genre and similar length. I held off commenting after the first episode because it really impressed me, but I was left wondering if the quality could be held up after all of the rumors I heard about Uzumaki's production issues.

As has been mentioned for years now on many anime review websites like ANN and MAL, Junji Ito's work seems to be very hard to adapt from its original format as a manga. Uzumaki does not break that curse. Even if you strip away the inconsistent visuals you have a story that is at its core a pitiful town of humans falling under the influence of a Lovecraftian monster and having their entire community wiped out in increasingly bizarre and disturbing scenarios. I did not find it particularly tense because the fight itself was so one-sided. The humans have no chance of winning here. Hell, most of the victims are so insane they do not realize they are victims.

Kirie and Shuichi take slightly different paths to confront the otherworldly terror confronting them, but are equally ineffectual in saving their loved ones or even themselves. Shuichi descends into existential despair after he loses his parents and is unable to convince even his doting girlfriend to leave the city. By the end he is a lost soul, waiting for the end to come, but at least he wants to stay with his lover to the bitter end. Kirie (possibly under the influence of the Spiral) cannot accept that there is no fair, rational way of resolving this situation and dithers until it is too late to do anything, and even then she passively accepts her fate because doing something drastic would be 'too extreme'. Played in a slightly less serious tone, she would be considered a parody of victims in horror films. Combine this with a lack of any sort of real introspection of what makes these characters tick before the Spiral destroys their lives and it is not a very compelling narrative to me. All of the other characters have personalities and backstories that could be written out on a Post-it note and still leave plenty of room to spare, so their deaths move me even less.

The biggest problem with Uzumaki is that it is not very scary. The manga has far more detailed art and an element of tension of what grotesque image that Ito is going to spring on you with the next turn of the page, a 'silent jump scare' as someone on YouTube cleverly described it, but this element is completely removed from the anime. Many of the twists are delivered in a self-important, corny fashion that fall flat and then are quickly ignored to move on to the next twist. I almost laughed in the last episode where the 'Butterfly Gang' starts proclaiming they are now the 'Dragonfly Gang' and not to be messed with. You guys realize that dragonflies are harmless to humans, right? Who cares if you are the smaller red ones or the big, black ones? This was supposed to be scary? The cannibalism of the snail people was disgusting, but again everyone participating in it seems to have been previously driven insane by forces out of their control. It takes agency out of the characters' hands, and from my perspective that is boring storytelling. Maybe I am too right-brained to get what Uzumaki is selling.

The voice acting was solid. It is surreal hearing so many legendary Japanese voice actors on a Toonami television premier, but at the end of the day hearing Shinichiro Miki, Toshio Furukawa, Kappei Yamaguchi, Sumi Shimamoto, or Mariya Ise on American TV is mere trivia at this point. It would have made a bigger impact even a decade ago, but is irrelevant now in this area of declining Cable TV viewership.

A 5.5/10 for me. Compared to the utter abomination that is Rick and Morty: The Anime, this is solid and is certainly no worse than most other AS original anime entries. But Uzumaki took five years to produce, and the extra time was not well spent. Here is hoping Lazarus can break this curse.
 
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Space Cadet

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On Twitter/X, I've been seeing tweets comparing Uzumaki with season 2 of Blue Lock on which show has the worst animation. I don't watch the latter show but I've seen the clips and wow, it seems like the quality control isn't there either:



 

Kitschensyngk

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I thought of something.
Given the drop in animation quality after the first episode...and all the behind-the-scenes issues...
THIS SHOW ITSELF IS A SPIRAL!

Okay, may as well send the dub out.

Where's Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton when you need them?

I can feel it swirling in the air tonight.

"Take that, Mrs. Kumashiro! That's for making me stay after school that one time in the third grade!"

Snail - it's what's for dinner.

Is that a spiral in your pocket, or are you--wait, that doesn't really work, does it?

"Crazy...it's all gone crazy."
Shuichi must really like that Gnarls Barkley song.

Arr, it's a nor'easter!

Given the amount of talking in this episode, I am definitely convinced this should have had two more episodes.

Nobody gets in to see the spiral, not nobody not no how!

I know you're twisted an all, and I understand, but you could have been a little nicer about it.

You know what this bit needs? Surf music.

THE AUDIENCE IS LISTENING

It's like walking through the Flintstones' living room.

It also makes a neat little hidey hole.

I think the tree from Pocahontas used to date that stump.

Did your little brother just grow telescopic vision, or...

And the worst part? Every fifth row house is a vape shop. They really are everywhere.

Believe in the heart of the spiral.

Pottery, huh? I've been into spin art myself.

Like Halley's Comet, or that clown that pops up every 27 years.

BRAAAAINS--I mean SPIIRALLLLLLS.

If you see a little girl, a robot and a bunny down there, tell them we said hi.

What is it exactly? An alien? Some kind of machine?

PIERCE THROUGH THE HEAVENS WITH YOUR DRILL!

Word of advice to you guys--don't eat the escargot.

 
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animePWNS

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With all the dismal reviews, is it safe to say the Uzumaki staff went into this project half-cochlea'd?

Some very familiar voices in this one. Kirk Thorton is the Butterfly Gang leader. He was Jin in Samurai Champloo, Don Patch in Bobobo, Kuze in GitS 2nd Gig, and the narrator in Bleach. He was also Asimov Solensan in the first episode of Cowboy Bebop.

Tanizaki is voiced by Patrick Seitz. He’s Dio from Jojo, Franky in One Piece, Charles Beams in Eureka Seven, Simon the Russian sushi guy in Durarara!!, and Kunzite in Sailor Moon.

His friend Takemoto (who gets hungry for snail meat later) is Brent Mukai, who can also be heard in Demon Slayer as Gyokko, the mouth/eye demon.

Kirie’s brother Mitsuo is Laura Stahl, who played Ray in The Promised Neverland and Alear’s female voice in Fire Emblem Engage.

Can’t find the voices for Eri and Satoshi, though.

Saturday's the marathon, so treat yourselves to a bowl of chocolate fudge swirl eye scream in Azami's honor. As for me, the only snail I want to see for a while is this guy:
glosnail.jpg
 
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PicardMan

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I'm still really curious to see Anime News Network's verdict on the final episode as the review has been very late. Could it join Shenmue in the "Toonami originals ANN doesn't hate" club?
 

J'onn J'onzz

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I just watched the movie version, and the Toonami version comes across better in comparison. Translating the images to live action was often just comical, especially where the guy is rolling his eyes and it’s supposed to be a creepy spiral. The movie is only covering maybe half the material the Toonami show covered. Apparently the movie was written when the manga was ongoing, so the material from the last couple episodes wasn’t possible to include. Some of the later stuff like people riding tornadoes would’ve looked absurd in live action anyway. Even if the anime turned into a glorified motion comic in the later episodes, that still allowed them to keep to Junji Ito’s basic style.
 

PicardMan

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ANN isn't one person.

I know that, but the fact that no matter which ANN reviewer is assigned to review a Toonami original, the results always turn out negative (except for Shenmue), says a lot. The entire staff has been unkind to these series. Dang, that review still isn't out yet.
 

Space Cadet

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I just watched the movie version, and the Toonami version comes across better in comparison. Translating the images to live action was often just comical, especially where the guy is rolling his eyes and it’s supposed to be a creepy spiral. The movie is only covering maybe half the material the Toonami show covered. Apparently the movie was written when the manga was ongoing, so the material from the last couple episodes wasn’t possible to include. Some of the later stuff like people riding tornadoes would’ve looked absurd in live action anyway. Even if the anime turned into a glorified motion comic in the later episodes, that still allowed them to keep to Junji Ito’s basic style.

There was some tweet that went viral where someone said that because of the animation problems, the live-action version of Uzumaki was now the definitive version of the series and many people chimed in to say no, that version sucked too and was incomplete, lol.
 

Kitschensyngk

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I think they missed an opportunity when Shuichi was eating dinner at Kirie's house. They could have put spirals in the spaghetti.
 

wonderfly

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The News Team's LinusFan303 has a new review up on the front page of AnimeSuperhero.com:

"Review: “Uzumaki”: A Spiral of Disappointment"​


Uzumaki-review-1.webp


"It’s been a 5 year wait since the announcement of an anime adaptation of the Junji Ito manga, Uzumaki. Now the 4-episode anime adaptation has come to Adult Swim and the streaming service, Max.

What is Uzumaki? For short, It’s a horror manga from 1998 to 1999 by Junji Ito that takes place in a town that seems to be under a curse that Is related to spirals. The main character, in a sense, is a high school girl named Kirie and her boyfriend Shuichi, but many citizens in the town are featured. The story is mostly connected to the theme of the spiral and the happenings of the curse to the people of the town.

The first thing I’ll mention is the look. The anime adaptation goes for a full and black and white manga look instead of adding color. I like this look, it’s different and makes it distinct. It fits the sense of other worldliness and the strangeness of the things happening in the story. This was a fun direction for it to go in and a brave one for a television audience who usually expects color from their television viewing. That gets a high mark from me. The style of translation from the manga is also well done. Thanks to the time between the manga and this anime being a long distance, the anime adaptation is sharper and more polished to fit how TV looks."

Read the full review here.
 

PicardMan

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Well, ANN's review of episode 4 is still MIA, but IGN has released their review, and they are generally the most lenient review site in existence. Uzumaki gets a 3/10, Uzumaki Full Series Review - IGN. It does seem like anime critics like Toonami originals about as much as movie critics like Adam Sandler movies.
 

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