Uzumaki trailer released for Toonami’s adaptation of Junji Ito horror manga

Back in 2019, it was announced that Adult Swim‘s Toonami was teaming up with Production I.G. for a four part animated mini-series adaptation of Junji Ito’s horror manga Uzumaki – an animated mini-series that would be presented in black and white, just like the manga source material. A couple years later, a teaser trailer arrived online… and then it was said that the premiere of the show had been delayed so director Hiroshi Nagahama and the production team could have more time to “replicate the quality of the intricate designs and detailed line work of Mr. Ito’s classic manga”. Uzumaki still doesn’t have a premiere date, but a trailer for the mini-series has been released, and you can check it out in the embed above.

Scripted by Aki Itami, the mini-series will tell the following story: Kurozu-cho, a small fog-bound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but by a pattern: uzumaki, the spiral, the hypnotic secret shape of the world. It manifests itself in everything from seashells and whirlpools in water to the spiral marks on people’s bodies, the insane obsessions of Shuichi’s father and the voice from the cochlea in our inner ear. As the madness spreads, the inhabitants of Kurozu-cho are pulled ever deeper into a whirlpool from which there is no return!

Creative director Jason DeMarco has said the Uzumaki anime could premiere by the end of 2023. He previously provided the following statement: “As a huge fan of Junji Ito, I’m thrilled to be able to tackle one of his signature works, with a team of amazing creators who are all equally devoted to doing justice to this monumental work of horror manga.“

In addition to this mini-series, the Uzumaki manga has inspired a live-action film that was released in 2000 and a couple video games. Ito also created the Tomie manga, which has spawned a nine film franchise. Crawl director Alexandre Aja was working on a series adaptation of Tomie for the streaming service Quibi, but it’s not clear if we’ll ever see Aja’s take on Tomie now that Quibi is long gone.

Are you interested in the Uzumaki animated mini-series? What did you think of the trailer? Let us know by leaving a comment below.