Some of the stories in this volume were decent, and the art was pretty good. However, most of it wasn't my taste. I think someone who really enjoys Junji Ito might like the style of this series. It did enjoy that the protagonist was present throughout all of the stories in various ways. The first story was probably my favorite of the bunch.

I don't regret reading this, but I doubt that I will pick up volume two.

This isn't gonna be the most coherent review. This was creepy and odd, kinda like a fever dream, very wtf? There's this chick named Orochi who goes around insinuating herself into people's lives because she's bored, I guess? Not sure. She's got got some sort of powers, magical or telekinetic, and she shows up in people's lives, mesmerizes them into thinking she's supposed to be there, and then she just kinda passively fucks up their lives. These folks already have serious problems - two sisters living under a curse, a woman mourns the loss of her dead husband - but Orochi's meddling manages to make everything extra sparkly worse. We know nothing about Orochi; we're plopped down into the story with no introduction, just as Orochi is arriving at the sisters' home, where she makes them believe she's the new maid. The reader isn't told why Orochi is doing this, but her inner dialog and actions imply (to me, at least) that she's not human, and she wants to study us, try to figure us out. In "Sisters," she's mainly an observer. She senses the girls are hiding something, so she sticks around for over a year to see how things play out. This was a twisty-turny tale worthy of a Bette Davis/Joan Crawford movie, and was my favorite of the two stories. "Bones" has Orochi trying to help a newly-widowed woman by bringing her dead husband back to life, but things go kinda monkey's paw, and... yeah. That did not go as planned. Lots of creepy in this story, but it gets a little murky in places. To be fair, we're seeing all this from Orochi's perspective, and it's obvious she hasn't quite wrapped her head around how we work, so her response to things isn't always what ours would be, so a little confusion is understandable. Overall, a good, spooky read, and I'm looking forward to the next volume!

#OrochiThePerfectEditionVol1 #NetGalley

Thank you NetGalley and VIZ Media for this free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm always stoked to read more horror manga, and seeing that Orochi was by Kazuo Umezz (also known as Kazuo Umezu), the author/artist of The Drifting Classroom made me all the more excited. VIZ previously published only volume 1 of Orochi in 2002, and I'm glad that the company's recent successes have paved the way to bring back great manga like this.

Umezz' inks are dynamic and crisp and his spot blacks make it so that readers' eyes are immediately drawn to the action and reveals. The simple paneling makes it easy for readers to follow the action throughout.

Translation: Jocelyne Allen
English Adaptation: Molly Tanzer
Lettering: Evan Waldinger
Design: Adam Grano
Editor: Joel Enos

Enjoyed this title despite not finishing. This title came to be highly regarded and will be ordering for my library.

Creepy stories and definitely has some influence of Junji thrown in there. Definitely enjoy this one and the last story was amazing.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for this ARC

Full of creepy stories, great for fans of Ito waiting for volume two.

Ended up buying the volume for my shelf

Horror manga is one of my favorite things to read. I’ve noticed that the authors who create these horror masterpieces aren’t afraid to push the envelope and that makes for better bloody reading. So I’m always on the lookout for new reads to open up my gory imagination.

This one was recommended to me by a friend who knows what I love to read and how wicked my mind is. But things can get tricky for me when I try reading something new, I can’t help myself from comparing new reads to books by Junji Ito. It’s a terrible habit that I have to learn how to break.

With that being said, this was a pretty good book. The art was spooky and the stories were just as creepy. They all had that creep factor that really hits you deep down inside. That’s what I love about these books, they know how to suck you into a story and then destroy you from the inside.

Orochi was a decent read and lovers of horror manga will enjoy this one. It has its own creep qualities that will stick out and I’m excited to try more by this author. I just have to always remember to not push my husband off a cliff and cry about wanting him back…..

This volume is full of creepy stories, and I LOVE it! This series is perfect for all horror fans, and I can't wait to read the next volume!

I'm familiar with Kazuo Umezu and I enjoy he's morally characters and unexpectedly dark twists. The main character is sort of fits into the "female fatale" category but her ambitions are clearly with good intent despite the consequences that occur so as a reader I couldn't help but sympathize with her - and honestly that was really refreshing. She also didn't distract from each of the stories, she was a continuous role but her presence never distracted from what happening. It was well a done balance of the main character and all the supporting roles. On top of her "magic" or "powers", it seems like her abilities are endless which is great because that seems to give Umezu all the freedom he needs to write the most shockingly grim stories I've read in a long time.

So to summarize what I enjoyed:
- the main character + her borderless abilities which never felt like a convenient plot device
- the pacing of each story ( I wish it had been longer, it took me 20 minutes to read this and I feel that other readers will have wished that it was longer as well. I'm not sure three to four stories is enough for one short story collection, even Junji Ito' collections have about six.)
- each plot is unique and I "ate it up"

I think readers who enjoy Junji Ito and haven't yet read "The Drifting Classroom" will gravitate toward this story collection and find it quite refreshing.

This was interesting, I didn't hate this but I am definitely far from loving it. I got Twilight Zone vibes from the two stories in this book Sisters, and Bones. Both stories had their strong points but there is something about them that I found very off. There is a lot about Orochi that isn't explained or even clued in on about, so it left me feeling disjointed from the story. How, and why is she doing these things, what is her purpose, what does she get from each out come, what even is she? Both stories led me to believe the moral of the story is to keep out of other peoples business.
Thank you NetGalley and VIZ Media for allowing me to read a digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Despite the disjointed flow of the two stories in this volume, Orochi: The Perfect Edition Volume 1 presents interesting tales of the titular character. The artwork, especially in the second story, is detailed and interesting.

Orochi is a mysterious, clearly supernatural woman who serves as our guide through the two stories in this volume, a little bit like old American horror comics had a stock character to fill the same function. But unlike those books, in this one Orochi is a participant in the horrors, and in one case the instigator of it all, albeit an unwitting one. In <i>Bones</i>, the second, longer story, Orochi's attempt to give a woman with a miserable life the happiness she lost backfires horribly in a case of "be careful what you wish for," while in <i>Sisters</i> Orochi finds herself living with two sisters who fear the impending loss of their beauty when they turn eighteen due to a family curse.

It's hard to say that one story is better than the other, because both are strong in their own ways. There's more of a delicious irony to <i>Sisters</i> that's missing from <i>Bones</i>, which takes a more traditional horror path, and readers should be aware that it involves kidnapping and the death of a child alongside gore and body horror. What both stories do well is get across the sense that Orochi (named for a mythical eight-headed, eight-tailed Japanese dragon) really does mean well - it's just that she's not human, and that makes it difficult for her to understand human nature. Her help is the worst sort of hindrance, and it's made tragic by the fact that her intentions are always, always good.

With art that's easier on the eyes than Junji Ito's and stories that, like his, walk the fine line between terror and horror, this is a solid work. It may not be as visceral as some other horror manga, but it does still make its points, even if they're a little too on-the-nose at times.

This Manga does not disappoint. Spooky, scary , weird and psychologically disturbing. If you like TOMIE and I would highly suggest to read this.

When it comes to horror, it’s very hard to scare somebody, whatever medium is used. Although horror comics have been around since the birth of the medium, there aren’t many in the west that get much recognition as opposed to their Japanese counterpart— horror manga. Although I have polarizing thoughts towards authors like Junji Ito, their brutal artistry can leave an impression, even if the storytelling doesn’t live up to the art. In this case, Kazuo Umezu, who made a splash in the 1970s with The Drifting Classroom, delivers work that is very much is a product of its time, including 1969’s Orochi.

Before the likes of John Constantine, there was Orochi, a woman with a young appearance and supernatural powers who observes people’s lives and the consequences of their hidden actions. Published by Viz Media as one of their Perfect Edition trades, the first volume features two stories, both of which show a supernatural twist to certain domestic troubles.

The first story “Sisters” is about Orochi, undercover as a maid working for Rumi and Emi, two sisters who seem to be worried about a curse that will turn anyone in their family ugly by the age of eighteen. Less than a hundred pages long, it gets the message across about the fears of losing your beauty and whilst I don’t find the supernatural element that scary— largely because the art doesn’t convey that terror— the story is best when showing the psychology of its two sisters, which becomes twisted and abusive.

If “Sisters” feels like a teaser for Umezu to show his true potential, “Bones” delivers on that promise. Covering the rest of the volume, the second narrative focuses on Chie, who went through an abusive upbringing from her dysfunctional family. Finding true happiness when she got married to Saburo, tragedy strikes as the husband falls to his death, leaving the wife alone and crying her eyes out all the time. However, when Orochi approaches Chie with the hope of bringing Saburo back to life, this leads to disastrous results.

Though you can see his style as a precursor to Junji Ito’s work, Kazuo Umezu’s art does look outdated and wouldn’t scare us by today’s standards. That said, Umezu does not hesitate in showing the nastiness of a resurrected corpse trying to hold onto life while his bones can be seen. Although I can praise Umezu for showcasing the dark side of humanity, some of his story decisions are quite baffling, most notably when it comes to Orochi herself as we never know how her powers work, nor do we understand what motivates her, leading to actions where everyone around her gets punished. For someone who has the magic touch, Orochi should know better.

The art is strong, though it indicates the manga being a product of time, but what hurts Orochi Vol. 1 are its questionable story decisions that cement the lack of scares.

While I can tell this manga might have been groundbreaking for its time, there just wasn't enough there to hold my attention as there are FAR better stories with much better artwork out now. I know for sure that my students wouldn't be interested in this one at all.

Orochi is a horror and supernatural thriller manga that was originally published in Japan between 1969 and 1970.

Orochi Perfect Edition Volume One
Written by: Kazuo Umezz
Publisher: Shogakukan
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: March 15, 2022

The series features a mysterious young woman named Orochi. She possesses supernatural powers and observes people’s lives and the consequences of their hidden actions. This first volume of Perfect Edition of Orochi is 320 pages long, but it only contains two stories.

The first story is titled, “Sisters,” and it’s the shorter of the two stories, coming in at 92 pages in length. In this story, Orochi takes on the job of serving as a maid for two sisters. One is 16 years old, while the other is 17 years old. It turns out their family has a curse: the females are born beautiful, but as soon as they turn 18, they start to become ugly. The older sister is obsessing over this, because her 18th birthday isn’t terribly far away. During the story, it’s revealed that the girls’ mother is locked in an upstairs room. Right before the mother passes away, she tells a secret to the 16-year-old that shocks her. When the older sister hears what the secret is, she is driven to madness. Orochi witnesses a lot of what happens, but she is made to leave before the final twist is revealed for the story. But it turns out Orochi has a way to see what ultimately happens even though she’s no longer in the house.

As I read this volume, I hadn’t realized how old this series truly was. As I read through this story, I was very much reminded of the type of storytelling that Junji Ito uses for his horror stories. Now knowing that Umezz’s work precedes Ito’s, I was left wondering if Umezz had been an inspiration for Ito and his works. Also, now knowing how old this manga is, I can tell a lot easier from the art that this isn’t a modern manga. When I read this volume, something felt a little different about the art, but I hadn’t picked up on the fact that the art style looked like it came out of the late 1960’s and the early 1970’s.

When it comes to the story itself, though, I have to admit that I didn’t realize the twist at the end until it was revealed to the reader. But the build up to the end is very strong, and I was riveted the entire time I was reading it. 92 pages sounds like a lot to read, but for me, it actually went by a lot faster than I thought it would.

The second story, “Bones,” runs for 213 pages. However, the story actually needed that many pages to be told. It focuses on Chie, a woman who was born into terrible circumstances and had an unhappy childhood. She grew into a beautiful young woman, and her family received a marriage proposal and was paid a hefty sum for the man to take Chie. Even though the man was average in many ways, he was gentle and kind to Chie. Her life improved, until he was a victim of a hit and run accident. He survived but was hurt enough that it was expected for him to take three years to fully recover. Orochi becomes involved with this story because she is the nurse working on his case. Chie takes her husband home to care for him, but Orochi uses her power to keep up with them. When Chie’s husband seems to recover, he goes out for a walk and falls from a cliff to his death. Chie is devastated, and Orochi tries to use her power to resurrect Chie’s husband in the hopes to making Chie happy. Orochi uses a technique she knows to animate a doll. Her experiment seems to fail because the doll doesn’t come to life… but it turns out she’s resurrected the actual man… but because his body has already started decomposing, there are issues with his resurrection. When Orochi realizes what happened, she goes to see Chie, only to discover that she’s moved and gotten remarried. The story sees Chie’s resurrected husband kidnapping Chie’s son, and the story builds up to a twist involving Chie and ending in tragedy.

“Bones” was a very intense read, and it was actually a faster read than I thought it would be for a 213-page story. The art for both this story, as well as “Sisters,” helps to emphasize the horror atmosphere that helps to make these stories succeed in making the reader think and to experience the stories in the way that Umezz intended.

One thing that really fascinated me about this volume is that while Orochi is the thread that joins the stories together, these ultimately aren’t her stories. As a reader, I was so invested in the characters that were actually experiencing the events that took place that I would almost forget that Orochi existed until she showed up again. This was especially true in “Bones.” It’s mentioned in the stories that Orochi doesn’t stay in one place long and moves on (although she can keep an eye on the people she encounters from a distance), and the way Umezz depicts Orochi when she appears in the stories almost makes her disappear to the reader as well.

With these two stories, I can tell that Umezz likely helped to pave the path for horror manga and horror manga storytelling that is now being utilized by authors such as Junji Ito. Even though the stories in this volume were written over 50 years ago, the characters and their stories are still relatable to audiences today.

If you’re a fan of Junji Ito and his brand of horror, then I believe you’ll also enjoy Orochi Perfect Edition Volume One.

I know that one should not compare two work of art, but I just can't help but see a lot of similitudes in this manga to the art of Junji Ito.

I think the stories were very horrific, without being too graphic. I think they were very much interesting and complete. I preferred Sisters, but the second one was also full of surprises. The endings were both satisfying.

If I was to actively compare it to Junji Ito's style, pretty much everything I have to say would be more positive. It didn't go too far with the horror, the story made sense from beginning to end, the women were a lot more better portrayed, the endings made sense ... All critics I've had before over the work of Junji Ito. So I really recommend it to all horror make lovers ! I would definitely read more by the author.

This is my first experience with this author and won’t be my last l. The storylines and artwork in these two stories were engaging and I would definitely recommend to horror manga readers. Thank you to the publisher for providing me a drc of this soon to be released work.

The tale of Orochi, created by the bizarre yet brilliant mind of one of the best manga horror writers to ever grace the earth: Kazuo Umezz is odd yet brilliant!
For those that missed the original run, though it must be noted that most of us were not even in existence as yet, we can thank Viz Media for breathing life back into this absolutely terrifying book. So it has to be said that this is being re-published by Viz Media, they probably assumed that most horror/ psychological thriller lovers have had enough sleep over the last couple of decades. And thus they should be praised. A new generation will experience the brilliance of Orochi. The series that came out in the late '60s to early '70s was a true masterpiece and absolutely frightening. Umezz art is something truly astonishing to behold and brings this horrifying world to life.

Orochi: The Perfect Edition, Vol. 1 contains two stories by Japanese horror master Kazuo Umezz. The first introduces its titular protagonist, Orochi, who uses her supernatural powers to observe and become entangled in people's lives. The first story focuses on two sisters who are seemingly cursed to lose their beauty once they turn eighteen. The second follows a young woman who has faced misfortune her entire life until she met her husband. Yet, when he is hit by a car things go awry for the young couple.

My favourite thing about this collection has to be the art. Umezz's work is quintessentially late 60s/early 70s with a distinct use of screen tones and characters with bewitchingly beautiful big eyes. The horror in each story builds with stomach-churning endings that are sure to stick with you.