Uzumaki is the latest addition to the Manga Curation UT T-shirt line.

The mainstream image of “anime-style” aesthetics may be vibrant and vivacious, but Uniqlo has been exploring the darker side of things with its Manga Curation UT project. A subdivision of the casual clothing giant’s UT graphic T-shirt collection, Manga Curation UT’s first reveal was a collaboration with Kentaro Miura’s Berserk, and things didn’t get all that much softer and cuddlier with the next addition to the line, Hitoshi Iwaaki’s Parasyte.

Uniqlo has now unveiled the third, and final, member of the Manga Curation UT club, leaning even harder into the dark and twisted by teaming up with none other than the master of manga horror, Junji Ito.

For Manga Curation UT, the spotlight is being placed on Uzumaki, Ito’s three-volume manga originally published in 1998 which was recently adapted into a four-episode anime.

The first of the two Uzumaki shirts features Kirie Goshima along with the chapter title block for the manga’s sixth chapter, “Makigami,” meaning “curled hair.” In English-language editions of the manga, though, Chapter 6 is titled “Medusa,” which, along with the artwork on the shirt’s back, is a hint that Kirie’s hair issues are more than just a few stubborn kinks or curls.

The second shirt plays things more subtly on the front, bearing only the Uzumaki title, but in a stylized font that’s unnerving nonetheless to those familiar with spirals’ significance within the source material.

Things are bolder on the back, with a full-color rendering of Kirie and a number of other characters, along with all 19 of the series’ chapter titles written across the bottom.

▼ Both shirts also have the Uzumaki logo on the inside of the collar.

Along with the rest of the Manga Curation UT lineup, the Uzumaki shirts are scheduled to go on sale in mid-February, priced at 1,990 yen (US$13),

Source: Uniqlo
Top image: Uniqlo
Insert images: Uniqlo (1, 2, 3)
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