Kazuo Umezu, the famous Japanese manga artist often known as “the god of horror,” has died at the age of 88.
His work on classics like The Drifting Classroom, My Name is Shingo, Cat Eyed Boy, and God’s Left Hand, Devil’s Right Hand is widely beloved by manga readers, while also being regarded as hugely influential on a wide range of other artists, including the likes of Junji Ito, Minetarō Mochizuki, and Urusei Yatsura creator Rumiko Takahashi, who worked as his assistant for a short time.
Umezu was born on September 3, 1936 in Wakayama Prefecture, but grew up in the neighboring Nara Prefecture. He drew comics from an early age, partially inspired by Osamu Tezuka’s landmark New Treasure Island and made his professional debut as a manga artist in 1955 while still in his late teens.
Mori no Kyōdai, published by Tomo Book, was based on the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, but Umezu soon shifted towards more adult themes in his work, aligning himself with the gekiga movement, which prioritized a more realistic tone and art style.
Umezu moved to Tokyo in 1963 and really began to hone his style – a distinctive combination of shōjo aesthetics and horror imagery – with stories usually about children facing overwhelming supernatural forces. Nekome no Shōjo and Reptilia, the latter about a monstrous snake woman, were both published in manga magazine Shōjo Friend and proved hugely popular with readers.
As the ’60s came to an end, Umezu began to publish in shonen magazines. His epic story The Drifting Classroom – about a classroom of school children transported into a terrifying post-apocalyptic future – ran between 1972 and 1974 in Weekly Shōnen Sunday and left an eerie mark on the imagination of a generation of manga readers thanks to its terrifying nuclear themes. It was adapted twice as a movie (including one by famed Hausu director Nobuhiko Obayashi) and, in 2002, as a TV drama titled The Long Love Letter.
While horror is the genre that Umezu is best known for, he was a very versatile artist, also drawing comedy and science fiction manga, such as the goofy Makoto-chan and My Name is Shingo for Big Comic Spirits from 1982 to 1986, which proved to be another hit and one that was later honored at the prestigious Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2016.
Umezu’s final manga work was Fourteen, a five-year-long sci-fi horror that acted as a sort of spiritual sequel to The Drifting Classroom. He officially retired from drawing manga in 1995 and spent his later years working on other projects, including several film appearances and directing his own movie, the autobiographical Mother in 2015, while also continuing to paint.
Outside of his work, Umezu cut a distinctive figure, publicly dressing in red and white-striped shirts, and even painting his house in Kichijoji in a similar scheme. An incredible creator whose output remains hugely influential to this day, he will be greatly missed.
