Not sure how this came onto my radar but I'm really glad I watched it. This captures a very specific era of J-horror in a quintessential way, and though I don't know if the stories come from manga, it definitely feels like a perfect horror manga adaptation.
The late 80's beget my favorite anime film of all time, Wicked City, which is absolutely twisted and sometimes referred to as horror, and a bunch of game-changing horror films like Evil Dead Trap, Sweet Home, and even Tetsuo: Iron Man. This brief offering of 2 short stories which was clearly made specifically for a VHS release, and to this day, has still never seen a release on anything beyond it, feels like it takes the sum of all those iconic vibes then makes them shorter and sweeter without losing any of its merit. This was made in what I perceive as the golden age of anime, considering films like Akira and Ninja Scroll also popped up around the 1990 cusp, so it captures something special and unmatched just as those other films do.
The Curse of Kazuo Umezu is far creepier than the majority of cartoons I've ever seen. It's a quick, electric ride that manages to become something unforgettable within 10 minutes of starting it. It effortlessly and immediately plunges you into some grade-A horror concepts, pulled off gracefully with astonishing visual displays and an incredible music score, to boot. It only has one flaw. Though the second story has it's share of imagery and concepts that have the power make an eternal imprint in your mind, it fails to live up to the level of perfection from all angles that the first story achieves, and that's the ONLY reason I give it a 9 out of 10 instead of a perfect 10. But, all fans of late 80's/early 90's anime, Japanese horror, horror manga, and horror in general should make it your mission to watch this.
