‘Uzumaki’ review: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Did you get caught in the spiral this week or did you survive  Uzumaki episode 3? The penultimate episode of the Adult Swim series dropped and while it was better than episode two, it still wasn’t great. It’s about time that we can officially admit that a great Junji Ito adaptation from start to finish might not happen — and that’s okay. Uzumaki isn’t perfect, but it’s the closest we might get to a decent adaptation. 

The good

Let’s start with the things episode three did right. In an anime with diverging stories, the focus being on Kirie throughout the whole episode was the right choice. Other than one or two scenes, the spotlight was solely on her. Having this singular focus gives the episode a reason to keep moving forward instead of having to jump from story to story without proper focus. With so many obvious problems, this was a smart move on the studio’s part. Are there still issues? Sure, but it was a nice change to what we got last week. 

The stylization is also a bit better this time around. While the style still verges on the bargain bin version of Junji Ito, the aesthetic was there. Whether or not the animators realized that episode two could barely be recognized as Uzumaki, episode three seems to lean into the vibe of the source material with the shading and background design. The backgrounds in the hospital scenes in particular look much better than I originally thought it would; even if the animation for the people in the scenes is still a bit janky. Additionally, Kirie’s animation looks a bit smoother as well as more like the first episode even if the animators did her dirty with that pixie cut.   

Now that we talked about the good, we have to talk about the bad. 

The bad

A major thing that takes me out of the episode is the way the Jack-in-the-Box story falls flat. Was this a slight against me in particular; because that’s one of my favorite stories from the manga? You decide! The Jack-in-the-Box story set up in episode two is pretty faithful to the manga, with Mitsuru trying to scare Kirie in an attempt to make her like him. They even got the car scene correct with how morbid and body horror-esque the whole thing is. 

My issue lies with how the rest of the story isn’t in the adaptation. Kirie being haunted by her grief and guilt over Mitsuru’s death is a major part of the Jack-in-the-Box story. This disturbing incarnation of grief leads her to exhume his body and, in turn, to the scene we get in episode three of him quite literally springing around Kurouzu-cho. The lack of continuation and clarity with this particular story makes it a cheap jumpscare instead of the frightening story it is. 

While the pacing in the first two episodes is a bit rushed, it is even quicker in episode three. This is weird simply because episode three is longer than the first two, clocking in at a solid 30 minutes. The whole episode went by so quickly that I was left wondering what, if anything, happened. Episode three comes off as if the animators are trying to jam as many stories as possible while continuing the stories from the first two episodes into the time slot without any breathing room for the audience. Because of this, the stories don’t have a chance to sit with the watcher as they should. 

The ugly

The animation drop-off remains jarring. Episode two was a hot mess—something I confess to ignoring. I was still riding high from how good episode one is—and while episode three is slightly better, it is still not great. The stilted movement when characters turn their heads, the weird movement and changing of Kirie’s pixie cut, and even the general walking animations are simply bad. These things took me out of the episode multiple times and made it hard to enjoy what I was watching. 

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By now, most Uzumaki fans know what Jason Demarco said and then deleted about the dip in quality on Bluesky. His decision to not point blame and to “run all four, warts and all” is a bit of a non-apology for what fans have watched over the last two weeks. The 179-word three-skeet-long thread wasn’t good enough. 

In my opinion, ending it with “I’m glad you are digging it” is even worse because it comes off as condescending to all of the fans who have waited five years for the show to come out. I’m sure Demarco is under an NDA—his opening of “I can’t talk about what went down” makes that pretty clear. Still, there should have been some sort of explanation that wasn’t him trying to brush off the blame onto someone else. Own up to the mistakes and do better, Jason Demarco and Adult Swim. Don’t forget that even if you delete your skeets, screenshots of them exist. 

Impending doom

Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror started on such a high note that it’s only natural to be disappointed in this. While there are things that made the episode work, the janky animation is present yet again. The pacing is so fast that I had to go back and watch it a second time because I felt I missed things the first time around. It’s unfortunate that the series presented itself as one thing only to disappoint fans for not living up to the expectations that the show set for itself. With one episode left, I hope that things manage to turn around enough to finish off on a high note. 

Uzumaki airs Saturdays on Adult Swim, streaming the next day on Max.

Featured image Adult Swim/MAX