Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror

One of Kirie’s classmates dies after an attention-seeking stunt gone wrong. Kirie talks to her friend Sekino about the incident. Sekino understands the need for attention, as she also loves the spotlight. When Kirie tells Shuichi about the incident, he once again attributes it to the curse. An exasperated Kirie doesn’t understand how the two relate. Shuichi explains that the connection lies with mesmerism: Just as spirals draw people toward their center, those cursed also seek to draw in others through attention seeking.

The next day, Kirie notices everybody staring at her in school. She realizes that the ends of her hair have wound up into tight curls. No matter what Kirie does to control her hair, the curls refuse to vanish. At the hair salon, her hair attacks the stylist; every time Kirie herself tries to cut off her hair, it winds around her neck and strangles her. Her hair becomes its own dangerous organism, wild for attention. It winds into different shapes and movements to mesmerize everybody in sight. Kirie grows exhausted trying to manage the hair, and she soon becomes a passive vessel for its mission for attention.

One day, Sekino arrives at school with her own wild curls competing for attention. Kirie and Sekino’s hair become envious of each other and begin fighting. Shuichi tries to cut Kirie’s hair, but it wraps around his body. Kirie collapses, exhausted, and Sekino is thrilled to be the new center of attention. Shuichi cuts off a chunk of Kirie’s hair, and the two embrace, realizing that the hair was stealing her energy.

Meanwhile, Sekino attracts a large crowd in the center of town. As she walks through the streets, her hair grows to more elaborate heights, and her body withers away. Sekino grows so weak that she falls to her knees. As her hair winds up a telephone pole, Sekino dies. Her skeletal body hangs limply as the hair continues to grow, branching out into spirals.

A boy named Mitsuru Yamaguchi becomes obsessed with Kirie. He follows her around and jumps out of hiding to surprise her, earning him the nickname “jack-in-the-box.”

Kirie and a friend walk through the local cemetery to school, discussing how the town decided to bury people in response to the crematorium smoke spirals. Suddenly, Mitsuru leaps out from behind a grave and scares them both. The girls reprimand Mitsuru, but he continues to follow Kirie for weeks.

One day, Kirie receives a package from Mitsuru. She returns it to him unopened, telling him that his obsession must stop. Mitsuru thinks he hasn’t done enough to make Kirie understand his feelings. As the ultimate act of devotion, he runs out into the street and leaps in front of a car, believing his love for Kirie will stop the vehicle. Mitsuru is run over, dying with his body wrapped around one of the tires.

Kirie can’t stop thinking about Mitsuru’s gruesome death. One night, she finally opens his gift—revealing a jack-in-the-box. She calls Shuichi for comfort. As he assures Kirie that Mitsuru’s death is not her fault, she hears the jack-in-the-box whisper that it is, and that Mitsuru will come back for her.

Frightened, Kirie makes Shuichi go to the cemetery with her to dig up Mitsuru’s body to ensure he is dead. As they dig Mitsuru’s grave, the casket door whips open on its own. Mitsuru’s decaying, reanimated body emerges, held together by stitches. As he leaps out of his grave, Kirie and Shuichi run in terror.

As Mitsuru leaps after the couple, his stitches loosen and his rotting body begins to fall apart. Just when Kirie and Shuichi think the chase is over, Mitsuru launches himself one last time. Kirie dodges his embrace and he crumples, completely falling apart. Kirie and Shuichi study Mitsuru’s remains and realize he had an automobile suspension spring trapped in his body from the accident.

Kurouzu-cho is going through a period of heavy rain. While Kirie is in class, a fellow student named Katayama arrives late and is sopping wet. He is bullied by other students for being slow. During gym class, the boys strip him in the locker room to humiliate him—only to discover a spiral shape on his back.

Later in the week, Katayama comes to school with a large swelling on his back in the shape of a spiral. As the week progresses, the swelling grows—until one day, Katayama slithers into class on his belly. The swelling has become a snail shell. The next day, Katayama completes his transformation and becomes a human-sized snail. As the class watches Katayama make his way around the school, Kirie remarks that he must have been cursed by the spiral. Katayama’s parents disown their son, and the school takes the boy-turned-snail into custody. Students flock to Katayama’s school pen, watching him with fascination. One boy named Tsumura pokes Katayama with a stick, justifying his bullying by claiming the latter is no longer human, only a thoughtless snail.

When Kurouzu-cho’s weather dries up, students notice Tsumura drinking an excessive amount of water and walking slowly; he stops going to class. Weeks later, when it begins raining again, Kirie’s class sees a human-snail—Tsumura—climbing up their window. Tsumura is placed in Katayama’s pen, and the students watch in horror as the two begin mating. The teacher, Mr. Yokota, explains that this is possible because snails are hermaphrodites.

Several weeks later, Katayama and Tsumura escape their pen. Mr. Yokota leads the class on a search in the woods. They find a nest of snail eggs, and to Kirie’s dismay, Mr. Yokota destroys them. A few days later, Mr. Yokota arrives as a snail.