Adult Swim has released the first teaser trailer for its upcoming animated adaptation of Junji Ito's seminal horror manga Uzumaki.
The first look at the fully animated Kurouzo-Cho comes in a new teaser released to YouTube. Originally announced in 2020, the Uzumaki anime will be animated completely in black-and-white and will attempt to adapt Junji Ito's iconic style more faithfully than previous anime based on the author's work.
The series is being co-produced by Adult Swim and Production IG USA, with animation production provided by Studio Drive, which previously produced the vampire comedy Vlad Love. Uzumaki is directed by Hiroshi Nagahama, best known for his work on Revolutionary Girl Utena, Fruits Basket and Mushishi, as well as The Reflection, a 2017 anime he co-created with comic book legend Stan Lee. The teaser begins with Nagahama apologizing for the delay in the series' release and explaining the impact that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had on the anime industry.
Uzumaki is set in Kurouzo-Cho, an isolated seaside town that is afflicted with a strange curse that causes spiral patterns to appear everywhere, inspiring paranoia and fear within the town's residents. Following a series of natural disasters, the town descends into madness as the spiral patterns grow more and more prevalent. The story follows high school student Kirie Goshima and her boyfriend, Shuichi Saito, as they attempt to escape the city and its spiral curse.
The original Uzumaki manga was serialized in Big Comic Spirits magazine in 1998. It is one of the most celebrated works of Eisner Award-winning horror author Junji Ito, who is also known for manga such as Tomie, Gyo and The Enigma of Amigara Fault. In 2000, Uzumaki was adapted into a Japanese live-action film which received a limited release in the United States. The Junji Ito Collection, an anthology anime series based on Ito's short stories, was released in 2018 and was co-produced by Studio DEEN and streaming service Crunchyroll.
Source: YouTube
