Uzumaki (2024) Thoughts- A Flawed Adaptation That I Had Fun Watching.

Happy Halloween everyone- now that I've seen the whole event more than once; I thought I would finally unpack this latest attempt at adapting a manga by Junji Ito into an anime. I have not seen every attempt; but I'm noticing that they're recurring proof of not everything on the page working on the screen. Here are my thoughts on Uzumaki, a flawed adaptation that I had fun watching.

Courtesy: Adult Swim/Production IG/Junji Ito

The anime follows the same premise as the manga- in a small town known as Kurouzu, an ancient curse involving spirals seeks to engulf the whole area. At its center, a young woman named Kirie Goshima and her partner Shuichi Saito are caught in an increasing tour of horrors.

Before I get into my thoughts on each individual episode; I thought I would address the spiraling elephant in the room- the troubled production of this anime. Translating what's arguably Ito's most well-known manga to TV was never going to be easy; especially as a previous live-action film adaptation was not well-received. 

Of course, the clearest factors behind the delays and artistic "quality" moments are the ones most outside the crew's control- the COVID-19 pandemic and Adult Swim's parent company changing hands twice. First was the AT&T partnership, then there was the much more infamous WB Discovery partnership. The latter one was especially not willing to offer any more delays, even threatening to shelve the whole thing for a tax write-off as they had controversially done before to a number of projects. There was of course a considerable time crunch just to get the project done. We'll get into how this impacted the anime itself over the course of this post, but for now; it was initially believed that David was running WB like Judge Doom. Others later realized the same thing I did- He was running the company like Mr. Krabs.

Now, let's get into each individual episode; starting with what's easily the best- the first. The whole show uses a mixture of traditional animation and rotoscoping interspersed with digital effects; even making the show in black and white to recreate the look and feel of the manga. The unnerving dread caused by the spiral curse ("Uzumaki" literally translates to "spiral") is an increasing source of fright throughout the episode, culminating in Shuichi's father contorting himself to fit in a washtub and the smoke from his cremation causes the curse to spread further. It is easily one of the most effective pilots I've seen all year; and the opinion I hold that's most consistent with everyone else.

It's the second episode onward that everything (ahem) spiraled out of control behind the scenes. When both Jason Demarco and Henry Thurlow said as much on their social media feeds; I believe them. Admittedly; the show as a whole is faithful to a fault to the source material, in the sense of cramming an entire volume of A Song of Ice and Fire into two hours is.  The subplot with the "Jack-in-the-Box" was never my favorite; but even I noticed how truncated it was from page to screen. At least Kirie's monstrous hair got a full whack, off-model animation aside.

The third episode centers around Kirie being hospitalized alongside her cousin. Her name is Keiko Nakayama. In addition to her and others expecting children, an outbreak of mosquitos has them all drilling people's blood... no, I am not making that up. After her return, a wave of storms break out in Kurouzu, leading us into the fourth and final episode.

As the storms engulf the town, no one in Kurouzu can get in or out; save for a lone reporter. With Kirie and Shuichi making a failed last-ditch effort to escape; I'm actually glad the anime retained the manga's ending of Kirie wanting to stay by his side till the end. However, right before that; we get Shuichi falling into an abyss, represented by Shuichi.png being dragged across the frame. I didn't really notice it on my first watch because it was after midnight (and waiting for Demon Slayer and One Piece to start); but people online certainly caught it. Kind of reminds me of the infamous scene from that terrible Kong game last year of Gaw.jpg. 

Still shot of Shuichi aside, it does wrap things up conclusively enough for the cycle to start anew; and also makes a solid enough time for me to finish.

Admittedly, this isn't the first time an adaptation from Ito has yielded mixed results from myself or the viewing public. I personally found the Gyo OVA to be decent, but found the Junji Ito Collection to be a much bigger mess than this. Maybe there will be an anime that does Ito's work justice one day, but that day has yet to come.

Despite everything, I actually had fun writing about this anime. While I certainly hope conditions improve going forward across the board, there are more than enough moments that entertained me even with or even because of its flaws. I am among those in the "so-bad-it's-good" cult followings Morbius and Madame Web have gained. Overall, the anime version of Uzumaki is a flawed adaptation I had fun watching. Sitting here typing this, I will certainly keep it in rotation. Happy Halloween once again, and don't forget to vote by this Tuesday. Later.

Zom 100- Bucket List of the Dead Season 1 Thoughts.

“When there’s no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth.”

 George A. Romero, 1940-2017 

Hey everyone- with spooky season upon us, it’s finally time to address an anime I’ve been wanting to a while. The premise is what sold me- for most people, a zombie apocalypse would be a waking nightmare. For overworked salaryman ad executive Akira Tendo, it’s a dream come true. Now that I’ve finally seen the entire first season (and begun reading the manga); here are my thoughts on Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead.

Much as how previous works in this subgenre of horror have put a darkly humorous spin on society’s flaws against.this backdrop; this is no exception. Even before the dead walk the earth, the story acts as a savage takedown of corporate culture and overwork in particular. Viral pandemic aside, it’s all too common that people find themselves in a workplace that takes advantage of their ambitions; functionally locking them into a vicious cycle of exploitation that isn’t found out until literal years of their life go by. Suffice to say, the scene where Akira tells off his (now-zombified) boss before tackling him out the window is indeed satisfying. Also, said boss had a female coworker as his (also now-zombified) mistress, because of course he did.

Even the three-part finale manages to find a way to justify a human antagonist in the form of Higurashi and his followers. I’m typically not a huge fan of human villains in these stories, considering what role the zombies play; but this anime makes it work, and their fates incredibly gruesome and karmic. I won’t be spoiling them here, which should give you an idea of how graphic yet satisfying their ends are. That, and it differs between the anime and manga.

The UK has Shaun of the Dead, the US has the Zombieland, and now Japan has their own darkly humorous zombie work to call their own. It has also managed to fill the void left by High School of the Dead, since any chance of that getting a proper ending died with Daisuke Sato. This will not be the only anime I will be celebrating Halloween with; and my crates of Mountain Dew Voodoo (flavor this year is a citrus cotton candy blend, in case you were wondering) will be at my right hand watching. That will be all for now, and enjoy yourself any way you can.

About the Pokémon "Tera Leak.'

This wasn’t my intended plan, but I might as well have a go while this is still fresh. Since there are all manner of leaks making the rounds (presumably with more to come); I thought I would give a few moments to address them. Here are my thoughts on the recent “tera leak” impacting the Pokémon Company and Game Freak, as well as what it might mean for the near future of the franchise.

First, a disclaimer as a 25-plus-year veteran fan- I will not be showing the leaked information; but I can describe it for you all. Also, please be aware this information is subject to change; and I will bring you any official details as they become available. Finally, I will not be addressing details about past works that are coming out; I will be mainly focusing on the potential near future. Some of the details here also corroborate information that’s been circulating a while; and when it falls under that; I will mention it.

Case in point- the highly anticipated Pokémon Legends Z-A. Not only is Lumiose City the main hub of the game; but both it and Generation X (the latter of which is known under the codename “Gaia”) are being developed for both the existing Switch and its eventual successor (codename “Ounces”). Legends Z-A was also going to be out this year; but was pushed to 2025 in light of the Generation IX launch and its fixes.

There is also a new multiplayer title codeveloped with ILCA, codenamed “Synapse.” The gameplay will reportedly be similar to the “Splatoon” games, which I really enjoy. Though not much is known about the game, it will be interesting to see what comes out of this; if anything.

Now, onto the anime and other adaptations. I cannot be certain if all the details about the remainder of Pokémon Horizons are true, but I’m not entirely surprised they’re planning to wrap it up before the next generation. Though it remains to be seen what will happen to the main anime; this, along with other projects (more on that in a bit) seems to corroborate the plans of going back to basics.

Apart from that, Studio Colorido is developing a 12-episode OVA for TV, with all the episodes being the standard 22 minutes. As someone who has an appreciation for their work, I am intrigued.

Even with the current management at WB Discovery (talk persists of a potential breakup), I am glad to mention a sequel to the 2019 hit Pokémon Detective Pikachu is still being developed as The Great Detective Pikachu; with Jordan Vogt-Roberts (“Kong: Skull Island”) set to direct. I never thought it was shelved, just waylaid by strikes and the pandemic.

The live-action Netflix event is also still being developed (codenamed Discovery). The first season is the standard eight episodes, and there is said to be a pickup for about five at least. Whether or not they make it a period piece (they could for the ‘90s what Stranger Things did for the ‘80s in tone and presentation) or bring the story into the present day; I’m open to the idea. The only detail I know for sure is that they’re going to be adapting the original games, which brings me to the final topic I will mention today.

Lastly, there is an in-development reboot of the anime movies, codenamed Project Bauer. Tentatively focusing on the original 151 monsters (with Mew being a major focus), this very much fits the mold of the back to basics approach I was hearing about after HZ ends. Not certain about a whole new protagonist- if this is one of the proposed adaptations of the original games, I would just use Red (or at least, a new variant of him for this continuity). Kobun Shizuno is currently attached to direct, and he does have plenty of experience. Honestly, I'm open to the idea; especially as the movies have been on hiatus since M23 and previous ones largely escaped the video game adaptation curse. If it works, then similar films about the other regions could follow. At worst, I honestly can't imagine it being a disaster. That’s all for now, take care.