Cool Find: Resident Evil/Biohazard 2 Dual Shock Vers. Japanese Guide

In my explorations I found a cool strategy guide published by Famitsu back in the 90s when Resident Evil 2 was released in Japan. For every new area, there is an introduction page each featuring a popular character or celebrity from American horror-pop culture. Thought I’d post them up since I’ve never seen them before. You can quickly recognize Drew Barrymore from Scream, Michael Jackson from the Thriller music video and Leonardo DiCaprio from a movie I’m unfamiliar with. Check ’em out!

And here are some bonus splash pages featuring a few classic American horror movies!

“The Exorcist” (1974) by Kazuo Umezu

Recently I discovered a special comic that filled my horror-loving heart with joy. Not only is it something that I would call a rare find and become a mini-translation project for myself, but it blends some of my favorite interests together. If you’re a fellow fan of these, I hope that it brings you the same kind of joy after finishing this post.

I’ve loosely written about one of my favorite films before, The Exorcist, as well as my favorite Japanese horror comic writer, Kazuo Umezu. Little did I know that these two things have come together at some point in the past. After digging through many malls and shops across Tokyo with overwhelmingly large quantities of devil-knows-how-old magazines and books, I found a 1974 issue of Shonen Sunday. If you’re bizarrely skilled at quickly piecing things together you have probably realized that The Exorcist was just released the previous year, in 1973. In Japan, however, the film wasn’t released until 1974 which isn’t at all unordinary (especially since the U.S. saw the film’s release on December 26th)

To commemorate The Exorcist‘s release in Japan, then-to-be legend Kazuo Umezu was asked to create a full color spread in the July 7th issue of Shonen Sunday. At the time, Umezu was 38 years old and had a few of his most famous works of his career already behind him. These included 猫目小僧 (Nekome Kouzo, Cat Eyed Boy), おろち (Orochi, Orochi: Blood) and 漂流教室 (Hyouryuu Kyoushitsu, The Drifting Classroom) It was a natural choice to choose the already established horror master to take on this piece in honor of the film that was taking the world by pea soup slinging storm.

What is even more fascinating is the impact The Exorcist had made in cinema when it was released. It’s quite telling that after just a few months, other countries were thinking of ways to promote and commemorate its release.

While I found little information about The Exorcist by Kazuo Umezu on the internet, I didn’t find any translation of it. I was happy to take on this task and translate it all even if you could probably assume what was going on panel by panel as they depict the most famous scenes from the film.

This brilliantly done close-up of possessed Regan doubled as both the first page of the spread as well as an alternate cover for the magazine. On the top left in green font, the cover reads as follows:

“In a beautiful girl’s body, a demon took over! The horror film that’s a hot topic in the world right now, The Exorcist, impacting with a full color spread!”

At the bottom, the panels read from right to left:

“This twelve year old girl named Regan spent everyday happily together with her mother.”

“Regan’s mother saw her playing on the occult (Ouija) board.”

“Suddenly, the board (planchette) moved on it’s own! However, this went unnoticed.”

“One night…Regan’s mother heard an unsettling breathing sound coming from upstairs. But, there was no one around.”

“Regan was sleeping soundly.”

“However, an incredibly strong and cold wind poured in through an open window which left Regan’s mother with an ominous feeling.”

“A few days later, a loud scream was heard coming from Regan’s room!”

“Regan’s bed rocked tremendously and she was being shaken back and forth.”

“The force of the bed was so strong Regan’s mother could do nothing to stop it.”

“Regan was being hurt by an unseen force and her appearance changed miserably.”

“Stop it!”

“Regan was seen by a doctor, but he could not find any abnormalities.” 

“Inexplicably, Regan’s face and voice had changed — she sounded like a man and she shouted vulgar obscenities.”

“She no longer seemed like a young girl and because of her viscous actions there was no choice but to tie her to the bed.”

Geeetssch! 

“The Devil was inside Regan!”

“She became a demon. From her mouth, Regan spat foul liquids onto others in the room.”

“The furniture came to life and began attacking everyone.”

“Her head twisted around revealing a mocking expression!”

“However, letters appeared on Regan’s stomach that spelled out ‘Help me!'”

“From within her body which was now taken over by the devil, Regan was asking for help!”

“The decision was made , an exorcism was necessary in order to drive out the devil!”

“The devil jolted out and groaned in pain. It was then when Regan’s body began to float up in the air. Even for the devil, this was the last of its power.”

“The devil finally lost. Due to the exorcist’s prayer, it revealed its identity — and this false Regan once again returned to the cute, ordinary girl that she was before.”

“But the exorcist had died. The exorcist’s assistant as well had suffered a mysterious death.”

“In the end, was the devil really destroyed? Perhaps, but you may also have a demon beside you…”

Well, that’s all he wrote! Hope you enjoyed the artwork. I consider this a treasure for a fan like me. If you’re a collector, it might be available online somewhere. I would suggest Yahoo! Auctions or other Japanese re-seller websites.

As a bonus, this was the actual cover for the magazine which was immediately before the close-up shot of Regan above.

The Work of Kazuo Umezu

As of late, the name of a famous manga-ka (manga author/illustrator) has been floating around on the internet even more than before. Ever since it was revealed that the haunting work of Junji Ito was supposed to be part of Silent Hills in some way, a resurgence of his name has been popping up on YouTube channels, subreddits and Tumblr posts. Social media was abuzz at the sudden possibilities that were extinguished just as quickly as they were revealed. We’ll never know the full extent of his involvement but it sure was an exciting reveal. His work was always well known among horror fans before but it is still being introduced to many who have been hearing his name for the first time. Uzumaki  and Gyo seem to be the priority reads when his name is suggested and many are calling him the “Master of Horror” of Japan. This might be a tad ignorant and misinformed, however.

While Junji Ito is still relatively popular, the most familiar name among Japanese natives who do not even particularly enjoy horror very much is Kazuo Umezu. Not only has he preceded Junji Ito by many years (Umezu started creating manga before Ito was born) but his work is arguably more iconic and been more impactful in their native land of Japan.

The Drifting Classroom would be his most familiar work outside of Japan and even that never caught on too well with readers in America and Europe. His stories often revolve around children and his characters are put in rather unique and grotesque situations. Umezu’s work is filled with a vast cast of ghastly looking character designs and incredible amounts of gore. He gets very creative with his use of gore which makes it entertaining at the very least if you have trouble tolerating too much of the bloody stuff in your horror. One of his most iconic panels come from 神の左手悪魔の右手 (God’s Left Hand & The Devil’s Right Hand) where a young girl named Izumi has scissors pushed out from inside her skull through her eye sockets while she is screaming in pain and confusion. 

Kazuo Umezu would also be credited for Ultraman, which was a short manga published by him in 1966-1967. The character design and core of main character lived on and is still a very popular action show on television. There are countless amounts of figurines and collectible merchandise that were created for the series that can be found littered throughout used hobby shops in Japan. The show still has a large following and showcases the variety of Umezu’s work – while a master of horror he has also reinvented himself a few times and penetrated different kinds of markets and genres. This also includes a children’s comedy/gag manga Makoto-chan which was still recognizably in Umezu’s style, not only in its art but its gross humor.

For American audiences and quite possibly anywhere else outside of Japan a lot of Kazuo Umezu’s work might be considered taboo. As previously mentioned, many of his characters are children who are put through absolutely hellish situations. He has no mercy for his characters whether the remaining effect on them is an injury that permanently disables them or kills them. Even if they survive unscathed, they surely will have the shadow of post traumatic stress disorder lingering on afterwards. Maybe even without the relentless pain the children suffer in his comics, his disgusting and gruesome scenes might still only reach a niche market of horror fans.

In a recent magazine published by SAN-EI SHOBO dedicated to the work of Kazuo Umezu, we were treated to an inside look on the life of the author. In addition to character rankings and beautiful full color panels we get to see the inside of his eccentric home. There are large splashes of bright, blood red all over the house which is naturally Umezu’s favorite color. It’s a very childish, nostalgic shade of red – it could remind one of a bright red children’s candy or a barber shop’s spiral pole, especially because it is usually coupled with white. His staircase is carpeted with this shade of red with pristine white railings and some Japanese figurines sitting upon an entry way in the middle where the stairs part ways. This same color combination is found in almost every room of the house;  walls, curtains and his bed frame all keep up the theme. Some other rooms stand out for their bright green and yellow walls with the former resembling the shade of the brightest matcha powder you could find and the latter mustard-like yet luminescent at the same time. He gleefully shows off his tacky-yet-somehow-still-works lampshade that sits upon human legs ordained with fishnet stockings and poses with his figurines on a colorful table in the middle of an all white room – the only walls that seems to lack color.

Now 80 years old, Kazuo Umezu relaxes while still keeping up with his colorful lifestyle. Subtlety has never been the man’s style and every room in his house is proof of that. In fact, he greets the photographers from the magazine in a bright red and white striped get up complete with dome fitting hat, the drama of Lady Gaga and the style of Where’s Waldo? swirled into one man’s display of character. He does not work on manga much at all anymore and chooses to sit comfortably upon his legacy and royalties. He does help choose designs for his merchandise which ranges from t shirts, wallets, mugs and even skateboards and are sold at Umezz World Store.

Kazuo Umezu’s work has been around for so long that most of it can be found online pretty easily. You can also purchase English translations of only a fraction of his work online, but I’d recommend the large amount of it that has never been published. If you can read Japanese you can get most of his manga for dirt cheap on the Japanese Amazon website and other used book stores. Don’t be afraid of taking a peek of his work if you’re a horror fan even if the sound of it is a bit intense. You might be pleasantly surprised with his creativity and delivery and it’s worth every squirmish, nauseating page turn