Uzumaki is a horror manga series made by the widely popular horror mangaka Junji Ito. Toonami and Production I.G. have been working on a 4-episode anime adaptation of Uzumaki for the past three years, however it has been delayed several times. The series was initially scheduled to release in 2020, then moved to 2021, then moved again to October of 2022. Now an announcement from the official Uzumaki Twitter has given us the news that the anime will be delayed for the fourth time.
An important update for our Uzumaki Anime. pic.twitter.com/J3auulSvTI
— UzumakiAnime (@UzumakiAnime1) June 27, 2022
The announcement tells us that Director Nagahama and his production team have asked for more time to work on the anime adaptation of Uzumaki since they want to replicate the high-quality work of Junji Ito. “As much as we’d like to deliver this show to the public as soon as possible, we don’t want to compromise its quality by delivering a mediocre final product,” they wrote in the statement. They do not have a confirmed release date for the anime as of writing.
Here on POP!, we’ve talked about how director Hiroshi Nagahama (who has directed other horror anime like Flowers of Evil and Mushishi) and his team have been using unique animation techniques to truly capture the feel of Junji Ito’s original Uzumaki manga.
A teaser released last year showed us that the anime would be in black and white like the manga, with line-heavy artwork and uncanny rotoscoped animation. There’s background music composed by Colin Stetson (Hereditary) which loops around like a spiral, which is what the Uzumaki story is about – a town experiencing strange happenings caused by spirals.
The delay makes Junji Ito fans sad, but they have something else to look forward to. Some of Ito’s other works are being adapted into a horror anthology series titled Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre, which will release sometime in 2023, though there is no final release date announced yet for this adaptation.
Other POP! stories you might like:
Japanese girl imitates Junji Ito’s characters well enough to scare you
Junji Ito to release new manga collection ‘The Liminal Zone’
