Queering the Spiral: Ecological Disruptions and Fluid Identities in Junji Ito’s Uzumaki

Abstract

Queer ecology challenges heteronormative and anthropocentric constructions of the natural world by questioning fixed binaries and rethinking the idea of the “natural.” This paper applies queer ecological theory to Uzumaki, the horror manga by Junji Ito, set in Kurouzu-cho, where a spiral curse consumes residents through grotesque bodily transformations and environmental decay. The spiral functions as a disruptive force that collapses distinctions between human and non-human, male and female, natural and unnatural. Episodes such as the snail transformations, mushroom-linked infants, and entwined lovers illustrate the fluidity of identity within ecological systems. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s analysis of sexuality and power, Catriona Sandilands’ articulation of queer ecology, and Rachel Stein’s environmental justice perspective, this study argues that the spiral operates as a queer ecological agent, destabilizing compulsory heteronormativity and anthropocentric dominance while reimagining nature as a space of fluid coexistence.