O FREE VIZ Substack, How I Love Thee!~ 🥹
KAZUO UMEZZ, WE LOVE YOU TOO
Welcome back to this week’s VIZ Media Substack, featuring yours truly, *insert my name here*! The first month of 2024 is almost over, can you believe it?! Time sure flies! But hey, on the flipside…that also means we get to experience this year’s fabulous anime and manga releases that much sooner! On that note, here’s some fun VIZ social insights from my chronically-online perspective~~
January feels uniquely spooktacular thanks to the 🐐 Kazuo Umezz! The legendary horror mangaka blessed our feed in an adorable video featuring a copy of his manga, Orochi: The Perfect Edition! Per usual, your comments on this one totally made my day.
Umezz sensei deserves only S-tier protection and affection, forevermore! It’s endearing to me when a creator is known for their horrifying manga but is such a sweet and vibrant person irl (such a cool dichotomy fr fr). I bet the universe naturally forges balance by merging a fun energetic personality with an artistic penchant for macabre grotesqueries. Definitely brings to mind another legendary horror mangaka who we all love…
Kazuo Umezz has blessed the world with chilling tales of manga terror for decades now, and it’s so great to see him revered by younger generations today. Quality art stands the test of time, and there’s nothing like seeing a mangaka’s face glowing with joy at his much-deserved praise!
A 🐐 from a different medium of art showed up with Umezz sensei to give us the meet-up we didn’t deserve, but needed: deadmau5! The iconic DJ/electronic music producer teamed up with the horror king to bring us a spine-chillingly stylish line of collaborative merch! From a mousepad (mau5pad), to hoodies, shirts and more, this chilling collection is a musical gift to my fan-loving ears (and surely to the ears of deadmau5 and Kazuo Umezz fans in general). As you can probably tell, Umezz sensei is a wickedly fun fashion man himself, so you just know this is some legit apparel. Check out the video below to see these two masters of their respective art forms, just living in the moment and straight vibin.’ 🔥
Eiichiro Oda fans had plenty to celebrate with last week’s Netflix announcement! The anime adaptation of Oda sensei’s 90s manga one-shot ‘Monsters’ just premiered on streaming worldwide. Sung Hoo Park of Jujutsu Kaisen season 1 fame directed the sword-slashing anime, which adds even more fuel to an already 🔥 release. I love experiencing early works by creators (Oda sensei was only 19 when he made the one-shot), since they usually contain a charming, youthful vibrancy. Monsters is no exception!
If you want to see what young Oda sensei created, then make sire not to miss out on Monsters. Double down on your experience by reading the special-one shot here on Shonen Jump!
Don’t forget to submit your cosplay submissions (or that of your pets) to the following email: heysocial@viz.com
And that’s it for this week’s Substack! What’s your favorite work by Kazuo Umezz? What are your thoughts on the one-shot ‘Monsters’ by Eiichiro Oda, and do you usually enjoy a mangaka’s early creations? Let me know in the comments, and anything else you wanna chime in about! Until later (P.S. vote in the poll below plz)~~