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A spiral appears in a woman's face in Uzumaki

Uzumaki Release Date, Plot, Streaming Platform, and More

It’s been a long five years since the anime adaptation of Junji Ito’s manga Uzumaki was announced, but we’re slowly getting closer to its release! Here’s everything you need to know about the highly anticipated horror anime.

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What Is The Plot of Uzumaki?

Uzumaki is a horror manga written by Junji Ito. Among his lengthy career, many consider Uzumaki to be his magnum opus. The story of Uzumaki follows two high schoolers, Kirie and Shuichi, in the small Japanese town of Kurouzu-cho. They’re a couple who begin to experience supernatural events centering around spirals, whether it be strange weather phenomena or ancient structures appearing in the titular shape, that slowly begin to drive the rest of the town mad. They have no idea what’s causing these spirals to appear, and they frankly don’t know if they can do anything about it, but they’ll certainly try to do their part to stop the madness.

When Does Uzumaki Release?

After years of delays and speculation, it was confirmed during a panel at San Diego Comic Con that Uzumaki will premiere on September 28th, 2024, at 12:30 AM ET/PT. The series will first release episodes in Japanese with English subtitles weekly on Adult Swim’s Toonami block. While the show will air live on September 28th, 2024, the episodes will then be available to stream the next day. As for the English dub, the dub will begin to air weekly on Thursday, October 3rd, 2024.

How Many Episodes Will Uzumaki Have?

In its initial announcement, Uzumaki was confirmed to have four episodes. That is seemingly still the case thanks to the aforementioned Japan Times interview, where Ito again restated that the series will have only four episodes. That being said, the length of each episode has not been established yet, so it’s possible that each episode may go beyond the standard 23 minutes. While this may cause some fear in fans about the series receiving a complete and faithful adaptation, Ito has stated in interviews that this series will “re-arrange” elements of the manga and that he is personally satisfied with how it turned out, which is somewhat reassuring given the middling quality of previous adaptations of his work.

Who Is Making Uzumaki?

A man is distorted into a spiral shape in Uzumaki

Uzumaki is being created by an animation studio called Drive. They’re a relatively new studio, with Uzumaki arguably being their most complicated anime so far, but they’ve helmed a few major anime in recent years. Last year they took over animation duties for To Your Eternity‘s second season, and they also animated KonoSuba‘s recent third season, as well as last year’s spin-off centering on Megumin. As for the director, the series is being helmed by Hiroshi Nagahama, who anime fans will know from his past shows Flowers of Evil and Mushishi. Both shows are highly introspective and have wonderful environmental design, so it seems likely that Nagahama will be able to capture Ito’s macabre vibes well.

Where Is Uzumaki Streaming?

Uzumaki will stream exclusively on Max. Uzumaki was commissioned by Adult Swim, much in the same way the FLCL sequels were commissioned, meaning that they have exclusive control over where the series will be streamed. That’s not to say it won’t come to other platforms — Warner Bros. animated Suicide Squad Isekai which is streaming on both Max and Hulu simultaneously — but at least for the initial release, if you want to watch Uzumaki, it’s going to be on Max.

And that’s everything you need to know about Junji Ito’s upcoming Uzumaki anime!

The above article was updated on July 27, 2024, by Jesse Lab to confirm Uzumaki’s release date and where to watch.


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Author
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Jesse Lab
Jesse Lab is a freelance writer for The Escapist and has been a part of the site since 2019. He currently writes the Frame Jump column, where he looks at and analyzes major anime releases. He also writes for the film website Flixist.com. Jesse has been a gamer since he first played Pokémon Snap on the N64 and will talk to you at any time about RPGs, platformers, horror, and action games. He can also never stop talking about the latest movies and anime, so never be afraid to ask him about recommendations on what's in theaters and what new anime is airing each season.