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Oct 13, 10:55 AM
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Feb 2014
244
Another good episode yes but the pacing seems rushed unlike episode 1, it should’ve been more than 4 episodes. Unless there’s a second season but I doubt it, well next week is the last episode.
Oct 13, 11:05 AM
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Apr 2021
228
Reply to IzanaSolos
I mean, after seeing yesterday's Blue Lock episode, I'm just grateful that, at the very least, this moves. Doesn't excuse whatever the hell is going on production wise in this show by all means though.

For now though, let's try to look past the animation, because it's time for easily the best arc in Uzumaki, the hospital arc. I mean, already off the bat even with the iffy visuals, this shit is still eerie as hell. These pregnant woman are legit just straight up KILLING the other patients... and just jeez.

And then we got poor Shuuichi over here... as if his dad succumbing to the "Uzumaki's" wasn't enough, now his mom is going through it as well, even worse than his dad I'd say. Even creepier than that, we got these NEWBORN babies not only talking, but GET THE UZUMAKI'S COMING OUT OF THEM???? Or as they call them, placentas... really no better, still just yuck.

Then we got Keiko over here trying to not only eat someone, BUT THIS BITCH ASS DOCTOR TRIED TO SACRIFICE KIRIE???? Thank FUCK it was the doctor that was eaten or whatever the hell was happening. Then shit just doesn't get any better back at home, I mean, I don't know what the FUCK was going on, but I can tell that it wasn't anything good, that's for sure.

Got the whole thing with the typhoon afterwards, just no downtime after whatever the hell was happening with Shuuichi and his parents, with the typhoon trying to consume Kirie...??? Or whatever the hell it did to that poor innocent woman that it mistook for Kirie. At this point, I don't even know what to make of the story. Whether this be pacing issues or the story is just formatted this way, but the story just isn't story-ing.

Just no downtime this episode though, because right after they "deal" with the typhoon, they really didn't they just ran away, I guess, they got the whole thing with the dead son and DUDE IN THE WALL THAT'S FUCKING CREEPING ON KIRIE??? This ain't Nozoki Ana my dude. Though, at least in that show it was a baddie on the other side of the wall, this though... just what the fuck man. The CGI on him just made it that much more scarier.

Story is all over the place, but at least the visuals looked better than whatever the hell last episode was.

Speaking of last, last episode next week already, and hopefully with the team from episode one coming back, it can save the blunder that was these two past episodes. But I feel like this show is already beyond saving...
@IzanaSolos That's what happens when you turn 3 volumes (+600 pages) into 4 25-minute episodes.
Oct 13, 11:08 AM
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May 2021
1110
Best episode yet, with the wtf crazy shit that was going on.
Oct 13, 11:09 AM
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Jul 2024
104
This is the most terrifying episode so far imo, and it makes me hate mosquitos even more.
Oct 13, 11:13 AM
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Apr 2021
228
I guess that's what happens when you have a low budget and a crazy director.
Oct 13, 11:35 AM

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Jan 2024
144
That was so weird and so many questions open. Cant believe the last episode is coming soon. But it was entertaining and I look forward to how all this concludes or doesnt conclude lol.
Oct 13, 11:37 AM

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Feb 2010
1015
I like that they're including the boyfriend more than he was in the manga, but I don't know what they were thinking with the final scene of this episode. The return of the jack-in-the-box was so random it didn't make any sense.
Oct 13, 11:51 AM
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Mar 2021
26
The story pacing is not great for sure, it is almost speedrunning through everything which ruins the atmosphere and ends up looking a bit goofy in my oppinion, the animation is fine, it does not distract from the story as much as the pacing does. But I think the whole idea of making an anime in the style of a manga, black and white and true to the original art style is pretty amazing, I hope they end up making more anime adaptation in this style, it is pretty unique and refreshing, it works with the horror genre very well.
Oct 13, 11:56 AM
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Jan 2024
7
I feel like the poor wonky animation adds to nonsensical nature. This episode simultaneously caught the eeriness and the unintentional comedic effect. The last few minutes were rushed in my opinion. If you can overlook the animation direction and the crazy pacing it’s honestly an entertaining watch.
Oct 13, 12:10 PM

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Jul 2022
805
The animation improved a bit compared to the previous episode, but it’s still disappointing and lacks the quality you'd hope for in such an adaptation. I really hope they manage to step it up in the final episode.

What redeems the show is the story itself. The theme of the pregnant women and the placenta, along with how others want to consume it and become addicted... it disturbed me deeply. I genuinely felt uncomfortable and disgusted. I don't want to overthink the logic behind why they haven’t left the village despite everything that’s happened, but maybe it's due to the curse of the spiral. Many people are right in pointing out that the pacing in this episode was too fast, which made the unsettling scenes less impactful than they could have been.
Oct 13, 12:11 PM

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Jan 2021
210
This is my attempt at an in-depth analysis of Uzumaki episode 3. Let's get into the new episode director, Shigeki Awai: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=51745

His works are mostly on animating, especially key animation, so he's an experienced animator, something that somehow comes to show in this episode, but he lacks experience in directing, making some parts inconsistent, although better than episode 2. Take for instance the beginning of the episode, the character acting, expression lines, and lip-syncing are better than in the previous episode:



But still, some scenes feel weird, probably due to lack of time to polish them, like in this one, his head popping out of the water just like you drag two image files on top of each other. Also, his movements are weird, like someone stuck some image files on top of a 3d model and forgot to properly polish the transition whenever an angle changes (that's pretty much how hard it is to anime by rotoscoping and Nagahama nailed it in the first episode):



They also managed to deliver some disturbing scenes using detailed lines and hatches, like this one:



While having a better fall-down animation (0:11s), some camera angles were weird, as in the scene at 00:20, the man's reaction was a little bit delayed IMO, and he also lacked some hatches along the shading in his face, these additions would have made the scene better (or less bad, in fact, I think this scene had the potential to be superb but it ended up being weird and ok-ish)



Something similar happens in this scene, Kirie's facial expressions and lip-syncing are a bit off as if they were delayed by some milliseconds, creating an uncanny valley due to the poor execution and the douga here is rough, you can see her abruptly facing slightly up:



The animation above is mostly (if not entirely) made in 2s, it's the ideal framerate for 2d animation and is quite ambitious if you ask me, if only they had more time to polish off this episode, some scenes could have turned out great, like the aforementioned one. The centipede scene was greatly done with awesome drawing and hatches, although I'm not a fan of the lens distortion applied but it's just my taste:



This one is worth showing too:



This next scene really caught my attention for its poor transition:



Within 1 frame, we go from this:



To this:



I know it's supposed to look abrupt, but still, this one lacked a better douga to properly show it.

The next scene has again the same qualities and flaws: ambitious animation, and lack of time or personnel to properly do it. It's an extremely detailed scene in lines, hatches, and the tongue itself but her hair looks stiff and so does their facial expression in the end:



I think this is more than enough to cover my point and analysis: this episode's director tried to do better and was more ambitious, but the chaos in this production affected the outcome. Overall, a better episode compared to the 2nd but still needed more polishing here and there. I'd make some angle changes, especially during the blood harvest scenes at the hospital, though.









Oct 13, 12:19 PM

Offline
Nov 2010
199
Pacing is still terrible, but it probably can't be helped since the adaptation only has 4 episodes. Animation looked slightly better here than episode 2, but still not as polished as episode 1. It has also been surprising to hear some veteran seiyuu like Kobayashi Yū, Ueda Yūji and Kujira (in this episode for example) in such minor roles.
Oct 13, 12:48 PM

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Jun 2020
784
This adaptation is a perfect example of how most people and their tastes are a joke. Over 1500 people gave this anime a rating of 10, freaking wild, aint no way this anime deserves as high of an average score of 7 as it does.

"Don't let your memes be dreams."- Ancient Japanese proverb, probably
Oct 13, 12:51 PM

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Jan 2021
210
Reply to Technopunk
This adaptation is a perfect example of how most people and their tastes are a joke. Over 1500 people gave this anime a rating of 10, freaking wild, aint no way this anime deserves as high of an average score of 7 as it does.
@Technopunk Probably they rated it 10 in the 1st episode and either forgot to change it or are waiting for episode 4. I rated it 9 in episode 1 and am keeping it this way until the final episode airs next Sunday, then I'll change the score and write my review.
Oct 13, 12:57 PM

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Jun 2020
784
Reply to ManoCustaff
@Technopunk Probably they rated it 10 in the 1st episode and either forgot to change it or are waiting for episode 4. I rated it 9 in episode 1 and am keeping it this way until the final episode airs next Sunday, then I'll change the score and write my review.
@ManoCustaff Politely disagree with the idea that Ep1 deserves a 9, no way. But guess people overrate Junji Ito no matter the quality displayed on screen.

"Don't let your memes be dreams."- Ancient Japanese proverb, probably
Oct 13, 1:07 PM

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Jan 2021
210
Reply to Technopunk
@ManoCustaff Politely disagree with the idea that Ep1 deserves a 9, no way. But guess people overrate Junji Ito no matter the quality displayed on screen.
@Technopunk Thing is, I didn't read Uzumaki, although I'm a horror fan. Episode 1 IMO is nearly flawless in animation and direction, but since I didn't read the manga to compare, I rated it a 9 due to those factors. A whole lot of people reported that this adaptation is rushing the chapters to fit in 4 episodes. I don't think people overrate Junji Ito a all, otherwise, the Deen adaptation wouldn't be rated in the 6 and the score for Uzumaki wouldn't be dropping day after day.
Oct 13, 1:09 PM
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Oct 2022
670
This episode was crazy! They really adapted exactly like the manga. Anyway, Junji Ito’s creation is amazing, he is a master.

I’ve already read the manga and I expect for the anime to be as best as it. Newborn babies wanting to go again into their mother’s placenta is crazy, that city is wicked.
Oct 13, 1:19 PM
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Mar 2023
6
I still think first episode was the best episode in terms of feels, animation, music and everything it was far superior than the later two. Although good it seems like kinda off and non directional. Not that I am saying its wrong but it just feels off. I have not yet read the manga so it just give me extra motivation to give it a go.
Oct 13, 1:30 PM

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Jun 2020
125
I'll admit, at least the animation improved a bit from the last one (because I'm not really one to judge an entire show because of one simple thing)
Oct 13, 1:55 PM

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Mar 2012
216
Reply to Technopunk
@ManoCustaff Politely disagree with the idea that Ep1 deserves a 9, no way. But guess people overrate Junji Ito no matter the quality displayed on screen.
@Technopunk Very similar to what @ManoCustaff was saying, tbh

Now, I am a manga reader, but I also follow some people who are watching it blindly. (Also I don't give premature scores to influence the page.)

As a manga reader, some parts definitely feel off to me, both in how fast we're moving and some admittedly more important stuff we're missing. For Episode 1 I commented that I would have liked to see the scene where Shuichi's mom throws out his dad's spiral collection and he loses it, but since then:

  • Jack-in-a-box kid only pops out of his grave in a jumpscare in Episode 2's end scene, and we only see him again at the end of this episode, which is a damn shame. Jack-in-a-box isn't the most important chapter or anything, but they put more attention onto the Medusa story :/ I feel like some priorities were misplaced.
  • Do anime-onlies get that the souls are in the pottery because the ashes are in Dragonfly Pond, and that's where the other dad got the clay (the scene where he was taking out buckets full)? I feel like it was stated a lot less explicitly than in the manga, so I think a lot of the actual plot could be lost on people there.
  • Shuichi's mom's vertigo from all that damage to her ears was also a lot less explicitly stated, though I feel like more people can get the picture in that case.


But the pacing issues aside, I really don't have an eye for stilted animation or errors like that. Hell, I'm 13 seasons into Yami Shibai (Iykyk). Stuff like that just makes it more eerie and helps it IMO, so most of the time I really don't care about stuff like that.

And then, you look at it from the perspective of an anime only, who may or may not feel the same as you or I do about the animation: they are on a speedrun, sure, but with Ito's masterwork's imagery it's taking them on one hell of a ride. I know the story itself is hit-or-miss with people, especially by the end, because his creations tend to be very open-ended, lacking explicit explanations, more abstract pieces which, in Uzumaki's case, delve into a kind of cosmic horror. That's not for everyone, so I fully expect the score to go down after episode 4 because that certainly won't land for some people.

But until then... idk, we all know its weaknesses right now are the pacing and animation. But if you look past the pacing, let the animation work for you... idk, I can see a lot of casuals having a lot better time with it than hardcore Ito stans who are hoping for the "adaptation curse" to be broken. That's been my experiences looking at newcomers reacting, at least.
MoonSpiderOct 13, 2:02 PM

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Oct 13, 2:25 PM

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Jun 2021
252
i would've left that town from the ep 1 itself
deep fried lettuce


^i snitched this from a dude's forum signature^

Oct 13, 2:45 PM
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Jan 2020
2
animation is better, story is worse
Oct 13, 3:06 PM
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Nov 2019
1054
That’s gotta be the most incompetently staffed hospital of all time. A bunch of people get killed and not only is everything fine the next day but the one person who claims to have seen it is dismissed as a loon. Also a woman who keeps harming herself is left unattended with sharp objects in the room.

Oct 13, 3:37 PM

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Dec 2013
307
this episode was pure chaos ;d ahh i wish this had more episodes to slow down with the pace
Oct 13, 3:45 PM

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Jul 2022
116
oh man those babies were creepy as hell...they were talking to each other...and the ending...what the hell was that spring guy...im so hype for ep 4..
Oct 13, 4:24 PM
Pirate King
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Feb 2021
600
Well it was definitely better than last episode, but yikes 😬
Oct 13, 4:59 PM
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Feb 2024
15
i now hate mosquitoes even more than i already did
MALoween Candies 2024:
Oct 13, 5:41 PM
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Aug 2024
120
How does Kirie keep surviving all of this. This is really giving me kimochi warui feelings, very unsettling.
Oct 13, 5:54 PM
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Jun 2021
156
never seen a greater fall off like this since ninja kamui lmao
Oct 13, 7:17 PM
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Feb 2024
83
Much better than the previous episode but the pacing is still off. I think they should have cut some of the plot lines to keep the narrative tighter, Jack in the Box for instance.
Oct 13, 7:23 PM
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Apr 2022
3
Few gross out moments, but also a few moments where I thought "wait, what just happened?"
Oct 13, 8:03 PM
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Nov 2020
10
The butchering and censoring of Junji Ito should bring shame to those involved.
Oct 13, 9:46 PM

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Sep 2018
105
imo that was better than e2. that's my comment on the episode. remaining is my comment on the project.

i think the true criminal out of all of this is whomever decided to limit this to 4 episodes. Jason DeMarco talks a lot of shit but he's the one with Executive Producer next to his name. maybe he went to the mat fighting for more, maybe we'll never know. i don't think anyone who takes stock of Hiroshi Nagahama's body of work would expect him to be happy with being tasked to make a good adaptation of Uzumaki in only 4 episodes. the idea is utterly farcical to anyone familiar with the work, so much so that i have to wonder what the real motivation for that limitation was. Nagahama could have made a stunning adaptation given a full cour and the shitton of money neccessary. if that's not what you wanted to produce, why even embark on the project that you know is gonna be not even half-assed.
Oct 13, 10:21 PM

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Dec 2019
987
This anime is great, it's simply marvelous how fucked up it gets, but there are a few issues that are bothering me a lot:

1. The animation is too smooth but also lacking enough frames and detail, so it often ends up feeling awkward and robotic.

2. The pacing is really fast and so it becomes increasingly harder to understand what is going on. Whatever happened after the two got swallowed by the typhoon? I don't get it.

3. There's a lot of suspension of disbelief involved here, in regard to how the characters react to what's going on; really? Fucked up shit is happening all over town, like, extremely fucked up shit, and nobody goes "something's really wrong here" or "why don't I just leave?". This is not like these are rare occurrences, they're happening constantly, I mean, just when a fucking person turned into a snail is when everyone should have gotten the fuck out of that place.
Pretend there's something flashy and cool here.
Oct 13, 11:07 PM
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Jun 2021
3
The animation was trash
Oct 13, 11:09 PM
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Jun 2021
3
But the story was good
Oct 13, 11:31 PM
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Apr 2022
9
At this point, only the source material is carrying the series.
Oct 13, 11:55 PM

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May 2015
2070
The show bounced back a bit on the animation quality. I'm glad to see it.

I thought this episodes plot line could not get any weirder when the pregnant women turned into vampire mosquitos. But all of those spiral antics afterwards left me speechless.

However this show wraps up next episode, it's clear the phenomena behind the spirals is going to be toying with Kirie for as long as possible. It's too fixated on her!
Oct 14, 12:08 AM
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Apr 2021
1734
Yeah this episode had to have been the creepiest one out of all the episodes like the pregnant women killing the patients to suck their blood was so eerily creepy especially when Keiko was shown in the doctors room looking creep asf like brooooooo😰

Yeah the animation wasn’t like episode one but hey at least it wasn’t like episode 2 and another bonus is that at least this didn’t look like season 2 episode 2 of blue lock and I love blue lock😅😓😅

WHY WON’T THIS PHENOMENON LEAVE KIRIE ALONE????!😭😩😭 The amount of times she faced a battle in this episode was unreal man I forgot she goes thru this shit from the manga and poor Shiuchi, bros looking worse episode after episode and since his mom just died and currently has no parents he’s looking his worst yet, I just feel so bad for him bc he’s still tryna keep Kirie alive🥺
Treyv0nOct 14, 12:11 AM
Oct 14, 1:02 AM

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Oct 2010
11761
The animation was at least functional (big improvement from episode 2), and the pacing was uneven but at points decent (again...). This puts it way above episode 2 but still not enough to be good and quite far from the first episode.

In addition, I haven't read the manga, but it feels like it keeps trying to copy its visual storytelling and panelling. This is a mistake. The typical "jumpscare" full frontal view of the monster/abomination may work in the manga format, but the anime needs to make use of some buildup to make these moments effective. These scenes feel static, like a brief reaction and then the horror, and every time it does not work and it looks corny. Creepy, yes, but barely unsettling and not horrifying at all. The atmosphere and the feeling of anticipation are consistently ignored and it seems like the series doesn't want to acknowledge the sense of time, space and movement that is offered by the animated format in contrast with the manga.
Oct 14, 1:10 AM
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Jul 2024
88
if we compare to the episode 2 yes it's better but dawm the gore went hard on this one
Oct 14, 1:37 AM

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Jan 2008
952
Ironically, the lackluster visuals are still the least of the problems with this horrendous adaptation.
Use your brain before using your keyboard!
Oct 14, 1:43 AM

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Oct 2022
599
It frustrates me that after seeing everything that has happened they still get shock or deny monsters and the supernatural. Plus they still havent tried leaving the city.
Oct 14, 2:33 AM

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May 2018
22
Why don't people leave town are they stupid?
Oct 14, 4:35 AM
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Aug 2024
33
Reply to hikikodokumori
How does Kirie keep surviving all of this. This is really giving me kimochi warui feelings, very unsettling.
@hikikodokumori she got that main character plot armor thingy
Oct 14, 4:43 AM

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Feb 2014
7811
Not as good as episode 1, but not terrible like episode 2 either, maybe this show will manage to end up being somewhat decent despite all?
Oct 14, 5:04 AM
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Apr 2022
1189
y is it so hard to make a good horror show :(
Oct 14, 5:11 AM

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Apr 2024
373
The animation improved from last episode, but still is a little lacking. Still I'd accept it any day. The hospital scene was actually horrifying to see and we're on pace towards the grand finale.
Oct 14, 6:23 AM
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Feb 2015
455
this is a compact episode, some scene kind of look like cg but they done well adapting these to one episode

I'm happy they make the hospital scene as disturbing as possible.
Oct 14, 6:40 AM
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Feb 2021
1073
This was definitely better than episode 2, so stop whining bitches. Still not as good as episode 1, pacing was too fast this time
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