“The ocean looks nothing like this from Midoriyama-shi, where I go to school. And that black lighthouse…it’s evil. The looming mountains behind us…the winding streets…it all gets on my nerves. Yes, winding…I’m getting wound up…spirals…this town is contaminated with spirals…”

In Uzumaki’s first pages, Shuichi Saito foreshadows some of the book’s important settings. Chapter 9 is devoted to the mesmerizing effect of the black lighthouse; in Chapter 17, Kirie Goshima and Shuichi get lost in Kurouzu-cho’s mountains when they try to escape. Shuichi also has the foresight to identify the spiral curse. He descends into depression and near madness over the course of Uzumaki because he is the only one who truly understands the scope of the curse. His obsession with unraveling the curse is reflected in his dialogue, which is often fractured with ellipses, as if he is lost in his own thoughts.

“Mr. Goshima, I find the spiral to be very mystical. It fills me with a deep fascination…like nothing else in nature…no other shape…Mr. Goshima, I find the spiral to be very mystical. I’m sure you will understand how wonderful the spiral is!! It is perfect, the most sublime art!!”

Mr. Saito, Shuichi’s father, is the first victim of the spiral curse. In Chapter 1, he becomes so obsessed with the spiral shape that he commissions Kirie’s father, Mr. Goshima, to create a ceramic piece in its form. As he talks to the potter, he expounds on his passion for spirals. Mr. Saito’s monologue is one of the most explicit explanations of the spiral obsession, as his mind is already lost to the curse.