Kazuo Umezu, “the leading figure in horror manga”… “Gwashi! and grabbed the hearts of young people in Harajuku.

On Saturday afternoon, there was a line of young people in Harajuku, Tokyo, “the cultural center of Japan”. They wanted to see Kazuo Umezu (87), the “leading horror manga artist”.

On that day, Canadian DJ “Dead Mouse” Joel Zimmerman, who was in Japan, opened a pop-up store, and Mr. Umezu was invited as a guest.

Deadmouth is one of the most popular electric music producers in the world right now, known for DJing with an eerily wide-mouthed mouse. He headlines world-class festivals and has 7.75 million fans on his official Facebook page” (music magazine editor).

Such a world-famous DJ is also a big Umezu manga fan.

He says, “Suddenly, I got a request to collaborate with him, and we ended up doing a joint performance with Umezu’s work ‘Nekome Koso. He said, ‘A collaboration between a mouse and a cat is interesting, so I really want to make it happen,’ and Mr. Umezu readily agreed” (a person related to Mr. Umezu’s office).

The glass-walled store, unified in green and black, had a somewhat dark atmosphere with the logo of a mouse with its fangs pointed out. In the crowded store, among the young people, Mr. Umezu was seen …… wearing his trademark red and white high-impact border T-shirt.

The store was filled with T-shirts and other collaboration goods, and Mr. Umezu took pictures with purchasers and demonstrated with Deadmau5 with a “Gwashi”-shaped object. You were surrounded by fans asking for autographs outside the store as well.

When a fan made a Gwashi-Pose toward Mr. Umezu, Mr. Umezu responded with the same pose, although he moved slowly” (one of the visitors).

Most of the visitors were young people, who apparently are of the generation that did not see Umezu’s works at the time of serialization. ……

In recent years, Umezu’s works have become very popular as a collaboration partner for brands. As a result of collaborations with sneaker select store “atmos” and apparel brands “X-girl” and “MILKBOY”, fans of Umezu manga have increased among young people, and last year there was even a “Kazuo Umezu Grand Art Exhibition” held at Roppongi Hills” (street fashion magazine editor).

For the development of pop culture, we hope that Mr. Umezu will continue to be active in the future.