Uzumaki : Spiral into horror by Junto Ito

Without getting into too many spoilers; the manga features a seemingly normal highschool girl (Kirie Goshima) and her boyfriend (Shuichi Saito) in a small town in Japan. A relatively normal setting for todays standards.
Set in the late 20th century the story starts with a normal day to school. As with all stories something odd needs to happen - a "spiral" obsession. It is through this some form of obsession that everything plays out like it does.
The manga has a lot of philosophic standpoints and draws inspiration from common conflicts that may happen during school and other events. The "spiral" punishes people but also does a lot of collateral as well, a metaphor on fairness of life perhaps?
Although the story has these elements, it does nothing more than just to introduce grotesque scenarioes that end in the same way most chapters. With 19 chapters, the amount of chapters you would have to read to fully understand everything is pretty low because once the "horrific" elements have been established then another "horrific" element does not add much to the story, it just becomes a sidethought. The story and said elements where very rarely re-introduced or made relevant again besides the chapter they were introduced in.
The story also want to root itself in realism while also being super unrealistic in terms of characters.
Story - 7/10

As for the art, it is quite amazing. The main reason I picked this manga up is because of the amazing art. The art style is quite unique and it was pleasing to look at. I do think that some panels were quite redundant while other panels could have been fleshed out more. I mean 4 panels of a centipide moving in the same direction? It adds to the suspense I get that, just nitpicking on small details.
Fantastic art 9/10

With two main characters Kirie and Shuichi that both experience horrific and obscene events surely we should have a lot of character progression in the form of them descending into insanity. Nope, Kirie does not flinch in the slightest. Kirie only really cares about those who close to her. This includes immediate family and Shuichi. Maybe it isn't because she doesn't care but she has the mentality of "there is nothing that could be done" or "It cannot be helped". During the story she just says "no" and leaves this happens in more than one chapter, with this mentality she could have left way earlier.
It is as if her personality gets "reset" at the end of every chapter, it doesn't carry any of the feelings just the memories of past events. This is in itself terrifying but it is frustrating to read.
Shuichi on the other hand experiences quite a bit progression in the start of the series, it however stagnates until the end when he becomes part of the plot again. This guy is like the voice of reason, he uses past observations and events to determine what will happen next. The biggest mistake this guy has made was to not just ditch his girlfriend and leave. The logic to Shuichi's decision was probably love, this would have convinced me if the story had any.
The dynamic between the two main characters is so bad at times. They have a relationship coming from at least middle school, so they have been together for unknown time. A lot of their dialogue is pretty bad and usually involves in Shuichi explaining yet again that... Well there is generally not much dialogue between these two characters and their interactions are limited in 19 chapters. I do firmly believe that Shuichi could have played a more significant role in the story.
Every other character is like Kirie - screaming "AIEEE" when something happens and next chapter back to school. Characters also never mentions that event with that person again. I speculated that all of this could have been a product of Kirie's mind. But no, it is just that nobody cares or maybe they do but off screen, 10 min of grief and then back to school.
Characters - 3/10 would like to see something from Kirie so that I know that not anyone from that school could have been the main with the same luck.

I enjoyed it decently. Not the first time I have seen these grotesque scenarios before. Some of them new, others inspired by folklore, movies and so on. I enjoyed the art and the story was nice sometimes, although lacking cohesion and details about scenarios. The last few chapters suffers from what I call a "raw mashed potatoes". I was hoping that Junji Ito would be like trigger and say "Aliens". Alas I was disappointed
Enjoyment - 4/10

The art and the mysterious main plot kept me in but the characters and their interactions were bad
Overall - 6/10, I do recommend it since it is a fairly quick read and you may enjoy the art