Week Three: Uzumaki Vol. 1 and 2 (6 pts)

     Uzumaki by Junji Ito remains one of the best works exploring what it means to be completely at the whims of something far more powerful than the individual. Throughout each volume, Ito's unnerving illustrations and increasingly horrifying scenarios work to create this ever present sense of dread. 

    This dread never feels as though it's overstayed its welcome, however. It feels earned. There are several moments within each volume where there's a slim chance that Kirie and Shuicihi might be able to escape or survive the spiral, but that hope for a happy ending is crushed each time. It's too late to get Shuichi's father the help he needs, his mother succumbs to the spiral, Kirie refuses to run away, and the rescue teams sent in are either killed or forever trapped with everyone else in Kurozu-cho. I find it interesting that within both volumes people have the opportunity to stick together and help each other overcome the spiral, but actively choose to ignore the plight of others until it's too late. 

    Readers are detached, outside observers watching Shuichi's mother refuse help. The audience has to witness the town tearing itself apart despite Kirie's family efforts to provide food and shelter for people. Ito makes an example of each individual selfishness. Kyoko's desire for attention, Azami's obsession with Shuichi, and Tsumura's insistence on bullying Katayama are all met with a sort of apt punishment for their individual obsession. In western culture, their actions are hardly as acceptable but the punishment far exceeds the crime. Individualism and self gratification are cultural cornerstones. The idea of the American dream is self serving and idolizes an individual's obsession with success and progress despite the near impossibility of it. Here, however, it's something that quite literally damns the entire town of Kurozu-cho. When people have the opportunity to band together and try to negate the effects of the spiral, they choose to buy wholly into it instead. Even Kirie, our heroine, is selfish and chooses to stay within the town instead of potentially escaping with Shuichi. 

    Uzumaki is both cosmic horror and a cautionary tale. The spiral is given power through the town's selfish motives and desires. This thing is powerful because it's able to suck people in with basic human temptation. It takes normal, everyday occurrences like crushes, bullying, etc. and warps it to the extreme. The people of Kurozu-cho feed into that extreme and allow themselves to become something that's both undeniably human and irreparably alien. I enjoyed witnessing that descent for a second time and noticing the underlying theme Ito's going for. A first read is hampered by the delightfully unnerving illustrations.