Trigger Warning: Graphic Images Depicting Body Horror/Transformation & Spoilers for "Uzumaki"
Reader Discretion Advised.
Greetings, everyone! Welcome back to my big gay blog of wonder. I hope you're all settled in for spooky month. 🎃
To start the month off, I figured I could take some time to break down something rather on brand for the wonderful month of October—exploring one of the queerer stories within Junji Ito's "Uzumaki." For context, Uzumaki is an anthology of stories circulating around a town that seems to be bearing a strange curse—a curse revolving around the mysterious symbol of the spiral.
While initial excitement for the animated adaptation of Uzumaki has skyrocketed since audiences obtained streaming access to the first episode. The first episode of the adaptation as it not only brings Junji Ito's imagery to life but does so in a way that still maintains its presence as an episodic visual and audible experience. The score and atmosphere is crafted by Colin Stetson who is also famous for doing the score for Ari Aster's "Hereditary." Just like his work with his predecessors, Stetson does not miss his mark in creating that tension of cosmic horror as Ito's jaw-dropping visuals both entrance and disturb the viewer. In order to properly depict the episodic tension of this adaptation, they seem to be breaking apart the more prolific chapters of Uzumaki into segments between episodes. Narrated by Kirie, who is voiced by Uki Satake, the first episode presents us with Uzumaki's beginning stages. She tells us the story surrounding Suichi's mother and father; how Suichi's father obsesses with the spiral to the point where he meets his own demise, and how Suichi's mother becomes so traumatized by the event of his father's cremation that it leads to her declining mental state and eventual hospitalization. Accompanied with this, we got a few unexpected surprises as we see a few later chapters of Uzumaki unravel within the first episode. Particularly, "Chapter 3: The Scar", the story about a girl who seems to be so spellbinding to the men around her that she believes she owes her victory to the scar on her forehead, which begins to strangely contort itself into a spiral shape...
Despite the intense impact the first episode had on the Junji Ito fandom, it was disheartening to see the sudden drop in animation quality by the release of the second episode. Apparently the studio had been changed after the first episode which makes the build up of the first episode all the more memorable as it would have been great to see what the second episode of the series would have been like, had there not been any changes behind the scenes. At the very least, this gives people more incentive to read the original manga as its what gravitated most audiences towards the series.
I will say, that first episode was particularly striking because I was also pleasantly surprised to see the beginning stages of my personal favorite chapter of the Uzumaki manga—"Chapter 8: The Snail."
Today I'm here to break down all the strange horror and also subtextual queerness that "The Snail" is not only one of the more memorable chapters of Uzumaki, but I would argue that "The Snail" could also be considered one of the more prolific entries of queer horror in the modern era.
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| Katayama, AKA the ultimate slowpoke as dubbed to him by his antagonistic classmate, Tsumura. His constant slow pacing with simple activities makes him "different." It doesn't help that he has heavy lips and detailed eyelashes to make him stick out from the other students even more... |
In this chapter, we are introduced to the character of Katayama, who is dubbed by his classmate Tsumura as 'the ultimate slowpoke because he seems to always show up at school embarrassingly late in the day. To coincide, he strangely only ever shows at school when it is raining. His excuse to his teacher, Mr. Yokota, is that he got up early, but it took him a while. We can see immediately that the curse of slowness seems to impose itself heavily on Katayama, as it takes him ten times longer to do just about anything. It doesn't help that his odd physical features are an open invitation for teasing. He is overweight and often depicted as wet and/or sweaty. As for his face, he has large lips and his eyelashes are heavily detailed. His expression often reads off as embarrassed or perhaps trying to shy away the obvious insecurity that he's different than the other students—I mean, 'slower' than the other students...
As odd as Katayama's predicament seems to be, it goes without saying Tsumura is a bit of a jerk. It seems he has nothing better to do with his presence other than find some way to point out the ever-so-obvious oddness in Katayama. When it comes to bullying in school, these are students who will try to make others feel down about their traits, physical or otherwise— because . Typically, that means finding the flaws in someone else you would rather not see in yourself. Tsumura's constant reactionary discharge of energy and aggression seems to always have no payoff as Katayama is generally pretty nonchalant and unresponsive to his jeering. If Tsumura's bullying has no real reactionary payoff though, why does he bother spending so much of his energy pointing out the flaws in Katayama? It would have to mean that Katayama's sheer presence sets something off in Tsumura that he'd rather not see in himself. The concept of slowness is the key detail that Tsumura seems to have a large issue with, and can't seem to co-exist rationally with.
It's as if Tsumura is aggravated by Katayama's sheer existence. To Tsumura, Katayama's slowness holds him back and makes him "different" from everyone else around him, setting him off to the point where you'd almost think bullying Katayama is the only thing that truly makes Tsumara feel better about himself—or rather, the only thing that truly makes him happy. "Slowness" and "difference" are the two key words we want to memorize for "The Snail" as they both metaphorically mean the same thing. To Tsumura, Slowness manifests being "different", and its this factor which seems to wedge an inescapable splinter in Tsumura's mind. To be slower than everyone else around you means to be different from everyone else around you and this strikes an emotional chord in Tsumura causing the aggressive discharge at Katayama's presence. Perhaps there's something going on with Tsumura internally that would create such an irrational hatred for someone else who is different than he is.
Its during their gym volleyball tournament where Tsumura is particularly set off by Katayama's slowness. When the opposing team spikes the ball, Tsumura is barely in motion as the ball hits the floor next to him. Tsumura is so offended by the sight that he shouts out, "What are you? A statue!?" Katayama's only response is to wear his embarrassment smile back at Tsumura, unable to defend himself. Katayama seems to be aware he is different but doesn't attempt to let that affect his attempt to blend in like a normal student. Despite being so notably incapacitated, Katayama still attempts to go to school and participate in gym class. Within both boys, there is an underlying need to be 'normal' and try hard to fit themselves into a status quo.
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| I think its this panel that depicts just how different both boys are in terms of both appearance and demeanor. Katayama's snail-like features make his brows, lashes and lips more pronounced and somewhat androgynous. His eyes are more spaced and thin and his voice is depicted to be soft-spoken. Tsumura, however, has a singular bushy unibrow, intense eyes and he is always yelling. |
Irate at losing the volleyball game, Tsumura and a few of his friends confront Katayama in the boys locker room. They corner Katayama before Tsumura pushes him up against the wall, angry with him at costing them the game and even says, "If I find out you're messing with me..." Its interesting how Tsumura seems to project his own worth greatly onto Katayama's life. Even if Katayama were faking his slowness, Tsumura's anger isn't necessarily a variable Katayama has much control over. In Tsumura's head however, Katayama is always the one occupying his mind and flipping the switch.
Mustering through his slowneses, Katayama ushers out, "P-please... Tsumura." Tsumura angrily responds by shouting at him, telling him not to talk to him as if they're 'friends.' See, if Katayama hadn't said Tsumura's name with such familiarity, I don't think it would have antagonized Tsumura to the degree it did. Tsumura's emotionally driven response at hearing Katayama say his name is something I think could be read more deeply beneath the surface. Its not as if knowing your classmates name isn't uncommon, especially the one who keeps bullying you. So Katayama just saying his name tells much more about Tsumura and how its his own projections of insecurities causing him to lash out. Even though he isn't snailboy (yet), its Tsumura's anger towards a boy who is different that's really driving the notion of this story.
During the altercation, one of Tsumura's buddies has a big brain suggestion. Since Katayama is even slow at changing his clothes, why don't they go ahead and change them for him? How uncomfortably generous of them... Tsumura immediately hops on board with the proposition and eagerly begins to strip Katayama's shirt off, while another boy goes for his pants—all while Katayama pleads for them to stop. This is definitely one of the more stomach turning sequences in Junji Ito's macabre world because its a crime often committed by bullies in the real world to assault those who appear different than themselves—and something about the boys locker room environment seems to set this particular crime off the most commonly. Its almost like throwing a bunch of prepubescent boys in the same enclosed space to change clothes next to one another creates an environment full of unease and discomfort...
Tsumura and his peers strip Katayama completely naked and proceed to drag him across the ground, out of the boys locker room, and into the school hallway—where a gathering of female classmates exclaim in horror at the sight. Tsumara laughs gleefully at Katayama's embarrassment, telling everyone to 'get a good look.' Katayama's only response is to awkwardly slump over to the side, but in doing so, winds up exposing a massive spiral symbol imprinted upon his back. Tsumura and the rest of the classmates stare blankly in confusion as Katayama, now looking more embarrassed than ever, wriggles against the ground and retreats back to the locker room—much like a snail.
As Tuesday dawns, it continues to rain. When Katayama arrives at school, everyone immediately takes notice that he seems to have an abnormally swollen growth coming out of his back and poking out of his shirt. Once again, he apologized to Mr. Yokota for his tardiness. Say what you want about Katayama, but he seems to be taking his pressing physical situation eerily well. Mr. Yokota questions Katayama about his back, but Katayama seems to only sheepishly acknowledge his back. "Huh...? Looks like its swollen up..." He says with an awkward smile on his face, before breathily fastening himself at his desk. Tsumura and the rest of the classmates are terrified, but I can only presume they choose to proceed throughout the rest of the day, nervously coping with the apparent difference in their classmate. On Wednesday, the growth becomes significantly bigger...
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| If this ain't just me entering the group call past midnight... Though, a visual note I adore in these panels is just how much happier Katayama seems to look now that he's shifted further along the snail-transformation process! |
Then, on Thursday—the classroom door slides open and crawling on the floor entering the classroom is Katayama—who at this point looks significantly more like a snail than a human, covered in slime and now with a fully grown shell on his back... But still disturbingly retains much of his human appearance. The class screams in horror as they all back away from the sight—but that doesn't stop Katayama from slithering his body across the floor and climbing himself back onto his desk.
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| Me trying to be normal and fit in with a room full of straight people. |
As scary as it may seem, isn't the situation is somewhat hilarious in itself? Here is Katayama who at this point is more snail than he is human, and he's still trying to fit himself into the role of a wholesome and polite student who's trying to compensate for his tardiness. The routine of going to school every day has become so integrated in his character that he seems to consider the cosmic body horror he's undergone as a less than natural aspect of his character he is coerced to try and blend in with. That's some of the more postmodern brilliance of Junji Ito's work, because like the other chapters, its depicting the spiral curse as something both literal and metaphorical. If we all sprouted tails or tendrils, would we feel so compromised that we would let that compromise our everyday routines? Realistically, yes, but Ito is one who prefers to play with the projected concept of realism rather than try and attempt to give us actual realism. Maybe a better example—if a student realizes something about themselves which sets them apart from everyone else, are they just going to stop going to school? Or would they choose to keep the routine at play so they can try to blend in with the rest of society? That seems to be Katayama's biggest predicament rather than the fact he has become a snail. He accepts the snail part of himself for what it is, but surely he can try to live a normal life through this escapade, right?
Wrong. By the time Friday hits, he can't even make it to the classroom. At this point he's now a full fledged giant snail slithering alongside the school's building in the rain. We do of course get to see some more gnarly body horror in this scene, as his eyes turn into eye-stalks, completing the transformation process. Though he retains very slight features to give us some recognition that it is, in fact, Katayama—faint stringy hair on the back of the snail's head and pronounced lips on the front of the snail's face.
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| I would be so bold as to call this Katayama's 'coming out' scene. He can no longer function like the rest of his classmates in his new form, but desperately leaves a trail of slime against the building as he slithers across windows. The slime almost acts as an indirect 'mural' or 'banner' to punctuate on his coming out statement—letting the rest of the world know that he is, in fact, a snail. |
The school decides to try and do something about the situation. The principal suggests contacting Katayama's parents, but Mr. Yokota informs him that they'd already called this morning claiming their son hasn't been home in several days. I find this particular exchange humorous as it implies Mr. Yokota presumed that Katayama had been going home this whole time as a full-fledged snailboy, and his parents saw nothing odd about this. This could be a reach from my end, but maybe this also our first insinuation that there's likely some deeper intrusiveness happening on Mr. Yokota's end about this whole snail situation?
Visibly perturbed, the principal responds to Mr. Yokota with, "How could he go home looking like that? He was probably hiding in the hills." Now, Katayama hiding in the hills makes way more sense with prior context. As soon as he felt the signs that there was something terribly different about his body he likely ran away and preserved himself in the most acclimate environment for a snail—the mossy and wet outdoors. His desperation to fit in with the rest of his classmates could have been him trying to maintain some sort of extracurricular hold on the situation. Not to mention, if he's a young boy living homeless out in the hills, he's going to become lonely and would want company or at least familiar faces surrounding him. If he's afraid to face his family, surely he'd have no issues with the prospects of facing his classmates, even if they're not directly his friends. I'd say its the same neurodivergent mindset as when you would rather be in a social group due to the familiarity aspects rather than because you actually are a part of that social group.
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| Upon learning that their child is different—I mean, a snail—this sends waves of terror into Katayama's parents and causes them to express utter denial of the situation. They refuse to accept the reality that their son is a snail and promptly leave, unaware that they are 'disowning' their own son in the process. |
The parents arrive with their umbrellas clad requesting to see their son. The principal guides them to the side of the building and unsteadily points up at the snail, stating "H-he's up there..." This ushers complete horror out of Katayama's parents. They are so put off by the horrific premise, they immediately issue denial that Katayama has become a snail. They question aloud that this may be some kind of sick joke before departing the story altogether, never to be seen again. So obviously there's a lot of metaphorical context to read into here, but whether they accept the reality of this situation or not, one thing is apparent—they've essentially just disowned their son for being a snail.
The queer subtext of your parents being in outright denial of who or even what you are I don't think needs to be broken down metaphorically. Its almost a silly reaction in itself because of how quickly they deny the situation? "Our child is a snail?? You're crazy, I'm out of here..." There's no extra reach as to why the principal would even suggest such a fanatical thing or even some sort of third-degree initiative on the parents end, as they actively know the child they're familiar with is supposed missing. Its extremely reminiscent to Kafka's "The Metamorphosis", another story in which a promising member of a family turns into a cockroach and gradually becomes disowned by his parents, another complicated situation in which breaking away from the norm of your typical routine will be perceived as otherworldly and disgusting, and its greatly comparable to Katayama's predicament. Seeing their child turn into something unnatural creates such a repulsion in a parent that they would see it better if this repulsion were not in their lives and that often leads to familial abandonment. These situations occur when your typical conservative parent figures out that their child is queer or trans—or in this instance, a snail.
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| "Asylums with doors open wide, where people had paid to see inside... For entertainment they watch his body twist, behind his eyes he says, "I still exist.." —lyrics to "Atrocity Exhibition" by Joy Division. |
So what does the school even do about this situation since the parents are of no help from this point? Well naturally, they set up an outdoor shack for him on school grounds so he can be taken care of. As jarring as it is to go from your typical student to being the school's pet, its oddly wholesome how they set up a little home for Katayama. They give him plenty of leaves to munch on so he doesn't go hungry, and the outdoor environment is good for him as that gives him exposure to more of the natural rain climate. This does however give incentive for the students to gather around his cage and stare at him as if he were some form of carnival freak show. Though most particular of the morbidly curious students is Tsumura—even after Katayama's full fledged transformation into a snail he still can't help himself from teasing the poor thing.
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| "It's okay to pick on him now more than ever—because he's NOT human anymore!" Tsumara suffers with the same sort of mindset a self-hating bigot would have. |
Tsumura sees Katayama's snail form as incentive to pick on him even further, because as Tsumura says, Katayama's lack of humanity sets him completely apart from the rest of his students. Even though Katayama has changed, he is not happy. In fact, I'd argue that Katayama is now simultaneously embracing the fact he is different yet feels a strong sense of melancholy that he cannot blend in with the crowd like he used to. Though I'd say its not necessarily the crowd he wanted to begin with—Katayama at the end of the day is lonely because of the fact he's queer—I mean, a snail.
Going back to Tsumura, I think his being unphased at Katayama's snail transformation and still maintaining his need to pick on him tells us a lot more about his character. He is trying to make the most of it and confirm his now obvious suspicions that Katayama was different than everyone else, and is feeling absolutely delighted about this as he's poking Katayama with a stick. Tsumura thinks things can still be the same for himself and he can continue to maintain that semblance of false superiority, not realizing his bigotry and cruelness is also setting him apart from the other students and is bringing him closer to that level of difference Katayama was on—just on a much more aggressive scale. Tsumura lives in outright denial that he's anything like Katayama while still seeing him as an easy target for bullying.
I have to say, a lot of Tsumura and Katayama's perspective at this point of the story reminds me of the Joy Division song, "Atrocity Exhibition", a song which highlights societal abuse of the mentally ill by putting them on display for onlookers to poke fun and laugh at. In this case, Katayama would be the Atrocity put on Exhibition and Tsumura would be the one watching his body twist for entertainment.
When the weather changes and it stops raining, Katayama retreats into his snail altogether for shelter. Naturally after a rainy period, it becomes quite sunny outside as a result. We see Tsumura at the school's reservoir outdoors, drinking directly from the faucet. His peers pass by and catch sight of this, commenting that he'll drown if he continues drinking at the rate he's going. He leans over his shoulder, questioning why his friends aren't as thirsty as he is, and they respond by stating "It's not that hot out..." Tsumura is starting to notice that he himself is exhibiting "differences" from his friends and is scared by this. This is our first tell-tale sign of Tsumura's impending fate—as Katayama was very reliant on rainwater at the beginning of his transformation in order to keep himself attending school.
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| A side by side comparison of both boys at the beginning stages of their snail transformations. Both are preferably drenched in water/sweat in order to keep themselves active and moving at a preferred pace. |
Tsumura's fears become accelerated when he realizes that he cannot keep up with his other friends on their way to school. He hurries after them at the start of his day, urging them to wait up and wondering what ther rush is for. Its quite humorous how Tsumura's first instinct is, "I'm not slower than everyone else—everyone else is weird for being faster than me!" The other boys turn back at him confused by his request to match his pace, wondering why he's so slow. "What's wrong with you!?" They exclaim. Tsumura desperately huffs his way down the sidewalk, concernedly stating he doesn't know. However something in me tells me he does know and is just too afraid to come out and say it... He's turning into a snail like Tsumura did.
Tsumura is a fascinating antagonist as he's not necessarily someone who was wicked or even had wickedness embedded in him from the beginning—his own actions were a result of his cope with the internal battles he was dealing with as a coming of age teen trying to fit in amongst his classmates. Nothing and no one coerced him he needed to pick on Katayama, but because of feigning insecurity, he went and did so as he might have thought it made him look less "different" amongst his peers, but now he is finding that he is developing traits similar to Katayama—and they're becoming harder to hide. It's no coincidence that after this instance, Tsumura doesn't show up at school for some time...
In my opinion the weakest part of this story is the brief area in which Katayama remains in captivity by himself and Tsumura doesn't show up for a while. The majority of what happens is when the series protagonist, Kirie and her classmate Shiho visit Katayama, concerned about his regressed condition due to the weather. They spray him with a hose and he emerges from his shell, scaring them. Essentially more of the "Atrocity Exhibition" metaphor I'd talked about earlier but this time from the protagonists viewpoint.
Time passes, and on a rainy day, Mr. Yokota is notifying the class that Tsumura has now gone missing. The class begins to mumble to one another, Tsumura's peers fearing the worst. As the class grows in concern, behind Kirie's shoulder we see a giant snail once again scaling its way up the side of the school building—ushering panic into the classroom once again. Mr. Yokota at first believes its Katayama whose just escaped from his cage. However, one of Tsumura's peers confirms that this new scale is in fact Tsumura himself, who has now become a snail. The dead giveaway is the snail having Tsumura's mop-styled hair and unibrow—accompanied with the disturbing features of his front row of human teeth sticking out from his snail mouth. His human features he retained almost resembles a screaming
corpse, horrified by his ironic fate! His reluctant acceptance of his
own insecurities probably paved way for a less-than-graceful snail
metamorphosis when compared to Katayama's...
I think another thing I would have liked to see is how the story would address Tsumura's parents or home life, as I feel that would have given us a lot more insight to why his character was so pent-up with self-hatred. Sure, all the tell-tale signs are there that he likely didn't enjoy his home life and his parents may have even had a similar reaction to his snail metamorphosis as Katayama's parents—but we don't get that unfortunately, as the school promptly decides to cage the newly transformed Tsumura with Katayama. Its also completely possible that the school assumed that contacting the parents wouldn't be useful after the first time they'd tried, and saw it best to take responsibility into their own hands—but this is all pure speculation on my own end.
Now here comes my favorite part of the story—the beginning of a oddly bittersweet ending for our two queer snail boys.
As such, Tsumura is put in the cage beside Katayama and the school surrounds them with their umbrellas clad to observe the two in captivity. Tsumura hovers close to the screen walls for some time, looking back at his former classmates and seems overall perplexed at his current situation. Katayama, however, seems taken with Tsumura's presence and studies him shyly from a few feet away. You could potentially imagine that there may still be some sentient thoughts brewing within those newly formed snail brains from before. Do the two recognize one another and remember all the social tension at the start of this whole mess? Or are they both beyond memory by this point, and are nos just two similarly wild and strange creatures who happened to have been thrown into the same cage? Oh dear, is that not just a strong metaphor for how students meet one another—"the cage" being a metaphor for the structured educational system throwing kids together and the onlooking students being those who don't understand what it is that makes boys such as Katayama or Tsumura so "different" than everyone else?
As students Kirie and Shiho observe the two snails in their habitat, they comment on the irony of Tsumura's predicament—how he was such a bully to Katayama, but now in their cage, they seem to be getting along just fine. We're then given a panel of both snail creatures getting particularly close with their faces as their eye-stalks intertwine in a rather tender way. It almost resembles a part-way Eskimo kiss to some degree with a strong dose of, 'lets explore each others bodies and figure out what they're for!' Another couple of students take note of the snails newfound companionship with one another and vocalize at how its 'kinda odd looking.' Then, Mr. Yokota leans in against the cage with a look of shock and sweat running down his forehead at what happens next.
Katayama and Tsumura begin mating with each other in their new snail forms. A shocked speech bubble points out the absurdity of the scenario—"No way! They're both males!" Another speech bubble chimes in and corrects them, "Snails are hermaphrodites! They're mating!"
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| Did anyone say gay snail rights!? There's so much to dissect about this situation! It also feels like their consummation is making a statement to their onlookers a little. "Go ahead and watch—we're BOTH snails and we're proud, dammit!" |
My goodness, where to begin? First of all, I got to love how the first thing that the onlookers comment on is the fact that both Tsumara and Katayama were males. Now the shock factor isn't even honed in from the fact that they are former students, are now snails who have been put into a makeshift zoo, and they are fraternizing now—but rather, because when Tsumara and Katayama were both human, they were both referred to as male. It shocks the audience because that is how both boys are remembered prior to their transformation towards becoming a snail.
Second, going back on both boys and their intense desire for normalcy by the environment around them brings a whole new context knowing now that they wind up not only as snails—but as lovers. Tsumura was both fascinated and wildly insecure about Katayama's differences from himself, not being mature enough to have the self-realization that he was acting out of fear for his own underlying differences. Tsumura perceived the prospect of being a slowpoke or a snail as a negative because it set Katayama apart from the rest of the world. Perhaps in his snail form he's realized just how Katayama is not only similar to him in a lot of ways, but since they have relinquished their humanity, now he is the only one who can truly understand how he feels. I can almost imagine Tsumura reacting out of fear and terror at his own existence as a snail the entire time—up until Katayama approaches him in the cage and finds a way to make him feel comfortable about himself. Tsumura likely broke down and realized here that Katayama's differences weren't a display of weakness, but rather its something that makes him unique. At the end of the day Tsumura needed someone like Katayama in his life to help show him the truth about himself.
This also ties into the themes of earlier Uzumaki chapters, such as "Chapter 5: Twisted Souls", in which two young lovers with rivaling families had to give into the spiral in order for them to be together in peace from all the commotion. I would say "The Snail" is something of the same story, but the true obstacle in both boys lives was much grander than just a familial spat—because both are male as Mr. Yokata so promptly puts it during their mating session, their relationship is perceived as unnatural by societal standards. This could be why the involvement of both boys families was more of a metaphorical anecdote before the rest of the story could unfold, as the theme wasn't necessarily the family system being deconstructed by the spiral—but rather, the fragility of youthful masculine standards and the social peer pressure that coincides with wanting to be a normal student who goes to school while also dealing with the underlying insecurities of being "different"—whether its you being overweight, neurodivergent, queer, transgender, etc.
I think its how reactive the audience is that they're still projecting the humanity they had beforehand onto the boys, not taking into consideration that Katayama and Tsumura being evolved in the way they are—are now hermaphrodites/intersex, and as a result are now unreachable to the humane standards of gender normalcy? You can argue which one would be the male/female in their relationship but there are a lot of strange technicalities to the world of snails mating, to the point where I'm not even going to pretend as if I'm an expert on all that. Instead, I'll go ahead and link this article on Snailpedia which can give you a lot of more helpful information on just why a human would become so confused at the sight of snails mating, whether the snails in question are Lovecraftian horrors or just normal snails. You can even argue that there's a bit of a transgender allegory to both Tsumara and Katayama's snail transformations.
As a matter of fact now that I think about it, do you know what all this imagery with umbrella clad-people in the rain crudely observing and commenting on two members of the same-sex eloping behind a cage in the rain reminds me of? I kid you not, it feels like a sonic recreation of T.A.T.U's "All the Things She Said" music video.
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| I couldn't resist putting together a side-by-side comparison for the two sources. I'm surprised I didn't catch onto this much sooner! Now I just need to see these two snails stealing a car so they can recreate the music video for "Not Gonna Get Us!" |
As we near the end to our somewhat disturbing but overall fascinating story, its sad to say that this is the last we'll see of our two queer snails—as the next page begins by establishing that several weeks later they escaped by digging through the dirt under the cage. Mr. Yokata and students Kirie and Shiho find the scene. Shiho questions whether snails are able to dig like that and Mr. Yokata responds with more sweat running down his forehead, "Yes, I'd say they can..." It sounds observant at first, as if he's just learned that fact and is trying to move forward with that knowledge, but the sweat beading down his forehead like from before tells a different story. Maybe I'm overreading into the character of Mr. Yokata but I'd say its as if he knew that information prior and is trying to act like this is something he didn't know before.
Recalling his initial shock at the two snail 'males' mating from before we can likely read into that as well. Its like he didn't understand much about snails and their behavioral patterns until these boys starting exhibiting those traits. Its interesting considering this is coming from the position of an educational advisor too. Not saying that he's required to know much about snails but its becoming more obvious this ordeal has left a fairly significant footprint in Mr. Yokata's mind. Its like he's still dawdling some internalized thoughts on the matter himself and hasn't decided to let those facets of his mind show. In fact I imagine he'd feel better if his students just stayed the hell away from his thoughts on the matter, as they're going to become quite apparent in a few pages here.
The only thing Katayama and Tsumura left behind are two prolonged and shiny trails of slime which lead outside the school grounds, through the woods and into the hills. They ran away from captivity to escape the social indifference and be together so they can go into the wild and live their best snail lives—very similar to the young couple's ending in Chapter 5. Mr. Yokota, Shiho and Kirie all follow the trails into the hills and find some sort of mound of dirt where something is buried. What could it be? To Mr. Yokota's horror he finds a mound of snail eggs.
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| Almost makes you wonder who the "mother" was—Tsumura or Katayama? My money's on Tsumura! |
With an intense focus on Mr. Yokota's eyes, he explains how clear it is to him that these boys are no longer remotely "human" and that they're "mollusk-people." His verbal usage of the improvised "mollusk-people" insult made it sound as if he was trying to come up with some sort of slur for them. Our biggest takeaway from this statement is it reveals something about Mr. Yokota to us—he is repulsed by unnaturalism. Perhaps Mr. Yokota had been so conditioned to the normalized structure of the school environment that he'd always had this repulsion lingering within him. As a matter of fact he's comparable to Tsumura in a lot of ways, but Mr. Yokota is as if Tsumura never had a snail compatriot to help him see the truth about himself and grew within the structure of normalcy to get to where he is now. Now that these students have completely embraced their unnaturalism before the entire school, he is disgusted and disturbed, which gives him the green light to let his true nature to show.
Without warning Mr. Yokata begins stomping on the snail eggs, shocking both the girls. "Mr. Yokota, what are you doing!?" Kirie exclaims.
In a frenzy as he violently crushes the eggs, Mr. Yokota shouts aloud, "What do you think? I'm crushing them! Its disgusting, unnatural! These creatures mustn't breed!" That line from Mr. Yokota I think is very powerful as its one of those instances where the queer themes are directly presented to the readers. You can take it out of context and present it to someone who is at least faintly familiar with queer literacy and they can immediately assume what the premise of the story is about—which they would be wholeheartedly correct about. Mr. Yokata is also boldly comparing the concept of queer/intersex pregnancies to that of a creature trying to create more of itself to infect the population. The thought of more "mollusk-people" running around the city probably triggers him and he now wants to do everything in his power to stop more instances of this happening.
Shiho and Kirie both stand there concerned and confused as Mr. Yokota finishes his tantrum, trying to catch his breath and becomes drenched in sweat. He tells the girls that the snails are still out there and they may have laid other eggs and they should make it a mission to find them. Honestly, I feel for these poor girls. Who knows how long Mr. Yokota had them searching around the hills for these gay snails and any more of their babies, but to no one's surprise the search comes up scarce.
Its here we arrive to the final entry of our story. A few days pass and one rainy afternoon, Mr. Yokota comes to class—dragging himself across the floor while having mostly transformed into a "mollusk-person" himself! Much like when Tsumura transformed into a snail, Mr. Yokota has become something he was most afraid of and now has to face the consequences of being different.
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| What a send-off! The spiral curse manifests itself in a number of strange and surreal ways, though this story remains my personal favorite for its themes and portrayals of bullying, insecurity and societal standards. |
Now that we've arrived to the finish line there's a lot to take in. For a story involving slimy things such as snails and eggs, it almost feels like its saying something about the cruelty portrayed by the characters of Tsumura and Katayama. Its clear most of this story tackles themes of homophobia—with Tsumura and his unnatural hatred towards Katayama, Katayama coping with his differences from everyone else around him, Katayama's parents refusal to accept their newly transformed son, Tsumura and Katayama's strange but surreal enemies-to-lovers arc, and Mr. Yokota's take on the entire situation—only for him to be revealed as one of the very things he deemed as "unnatural."
I think the world needs more stories such as The Snail because it's something that has aged remarkably well in today's era because now that so much hatred is being brought to light by the rise of information, we're finding that we have a lot of "snails" amongst humanity. The snail itself is definitely a metaphor for just how diluted and different a person is on the inside compared to how they try to portray themselves around everyone else in their environment. When people see the completely exposed form of who you are, it is capable of generating a breeding ground for people such as Tsumura to poke you with a stick because of your "snailness." Tsumura and Mr. Yokota transforming into snails is a huge statement acknowledging that a lot of the hatred generated for a person's "snailness" stems from a fear of their own "unnatural" part of themselves.
Normally these sorts of stories by Junji Ito and on a very open-ended note so you can likely use your imagination to close off the mystery of what happens next, since we never see the key characters from "The Snail" again throughout the remainder of Uzumaki's run. Perhaps Mr. Yokota will need to retreat into the hills himself? Maybe he'll find Tsumura and Katayama already starting their next colony of snail children and they'll be two kings sitting on the throne of a snail empire, deeming whether Mr. Yokota is worthy of forgiveness or not. Which let's be honest, they'll absolutely take him in and gain a strong factor for their snail army... Of course, that's just my own headcanon! What do YOU think happened next???
