I've written about Ito a couple of times in the past, namely how, despite mastering the art of creating horror manga, adaptations of his work always seemed to fall flat, especially the animated ones. Half-baked animation aside, adding color to his stories gets in the way of the stark, nervous atmosphere and ruins the shockingly grotesque detail of the more horrific moments. But now it seems one anime studio have gotten the right idea.

Hiroshi Nagahama (Reflection) is directing an adaptation ofUzumaki, one of Ito's longest and most well-known works, at Production I.G for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim and it looks verrrrrrrrrry promising from the teaser trailer. One of the best things about this is that it looks to be so close to the manga that it's more of a motion comic than a true anime, which I've always thought would be perfect for one of Ito's stories. Also of particular note is the music, which is far from your standard anime fare, as in this case it's being handled by Colin Stetson, who also scored Hereditary and Red Dead Redemption 2. It really does sound unnerving and atmospheric enough to compliment the haunting black & white artwork and the story, which is about eerie spiral-related occurences in a quaint coastal town. 

Uzumaki will be a four episode miniseries that'll no doubt cover more of the source material than the 2000 live-action movie did. Here's hoping it'll be a complete adaptation with all the snail transformations and murderous pregnant women you could ask for. As a huge Ito fanboy I'm really looking forward to this and I hope it paves the way for more of his works to be adapted in the same way, especially some of his lesser-known series like Black Paradox or Hellstar Remina. 

Uzumaki will be coming to Adult Swim's Toonami block some time in 2020. Are you as hyped as I am? Do you think it'll do the manga justice? What's your favorite Ito work? Let us know below!