Kazuo Umezu - Prince of Horror

This post is dedicated to Kazuo Umezu and his wonderful work, Fourteen.  You can read his brief biography here at Wikipedia.  Okay, done?

Kazuo Umezu is revered as the "Prince of Horror" in Japan.  He started publishing stuff in the 1970's and has continued to work making horror shows, though he has retired from manga (more on that later).  His is not too well known in the states; his most famous work in the U.S. being "Cat Eyed Boy".  It's a shame, because this guy's horror is really good.  However, before I go on,  I must also say that some of his books are kinda twisted and would never, ever be translated in America.  This is probably the reason why he is not too popular here.

Not for kids...

Yup, it gets worse.  Let's just say this guy doesn't hold back and he goes to places that you wouldn't think.

As the Prince of Horror, Kazuo Umezu has influenced many of this generation's mangaka.  Rumiko Takahashi was his assistant and you can definitely see the influence on her horror manga.  Horror writer Junji Ito is also influence heavily by Kazuo Umezu's work.

Kazuo Umezu has a wonderful way of telling stories from a children's perspective.  Many of his manga have young children as the main characters.  As a kid, you experience a type of fear that you never can as an adult.  Kazuo Umezu captures this kind of fear perfectly.

I mean, look at that boy's eyes.  Or how about this one where the protagonist finds the world turned into a wasteland:

Look at that detail, the ink work.  The man may be twisted, but he's very talented. 

Let's look more closely at one of his more obscure works, Fourteen.  I finally managed to finish Kazuo Umezu's Fourteen recently, and boy, what a ride it was!  This manga has never been released in the states, but you can find it scanlated over at Mangapark.com and check it out for yourself.  Fourteen was notorius for being the last manga Kazuo Umezu ever worked on, because the manga drove him insane.  Or maybe he just happened to be going insane when he was writing it, or perhaps Kazuo Umezu was already insane to begin with.  Either way, Fourteen is very disturbing and eerie.  It's also very long.

It starts off in the near future, Japan.  On the surface, everything seems to be prosperous, but underneath, a terrible doom awaits humanity.  And I mean, really, really, terrible.  The character that kicks this off is Chicken George -

This creeps he hell out of me for some reason

 Chicken George is perhaps the central, pivotal character in Fourteen.  He was born from an artificial chicken breast and is here to take revenge on humanity on behalf of the planet.  He was gifted with incredible intelligence and he uses this to plot against humanity.  As the anti-hero of the story, he is a very well developed character.  You begin to sympathize with his cause, which is ostensibly to destroy the human race.  It is obvious that the Umezu loves to draw Chicken George, because he likes to draw a close up at every opportunity.  One cannot look into those eyes and not feel them looking back:

 

But that's only the beginning.  This manga goes places that you never would imagine.  You'll see things such strange things as dinosaurs, murderous clones, and quite possibly the scariest alien invasion I've ever seen in fiction.

I apologize if I'm being vague, but other than the basic set up, I find it very difficult to summarize this manga because it goes all over the place.  You really get a sense of Kazuo Umezu's state of mind as he descends into insanity  Fourteen isn't just gratuitous violence and bizarre stories elements.  It's more than that.  The overall story does have a theme and the events, as random as they are, all make sense.  It is Kazuo Umezu's skill as an illustrator and story teller that raises Fourteen above the average guro manga.  Recommended for science fiction and horror fans.  Definitely not for kids.