Orochi: The Perfect Edition, Vol. 2 (2) Hardcover – July 19, 2022

Volume 2 of Orochi, surprised me. With how tense and brutal the stories were. I'll start with the first story, Prodigy. I won't spoil anything for this story or the others. So I will try to keep it brief. I'm going to say it's heartbreaking, to see Yu( the protagonist) abused by his parents, his classmates, etc.But that's not what makes this story heartbreaking. There is a horrible truth that his parents won't tell him and the reader. Yu finds out a part of it and the panel that shows his reaction afterward was pure hate and sadness that you could not believe a small child can produce. Kazuo's art has always been able to show facial expressions masterfully and this is a great example.The rest of the story felt like a powder keg waiting to explode. The truth has to come out one way or another. One of Kazuo's best works.Next up is Home. Here's a summary. A man wants to go home to his childhood village and he tries desperately to go back, but the village has something evil lurking in it. That's all I'm going to say. When you start reading, something feels off, like you're reading a horrible dream, and when you get to the village the feeling becomes much more apparent. Home is immersive and times shocking. When it starts to pick up, Home grabs on and doesn't let go. To me, that's a sign of a great story. Another hitter from Kazuo.Finally the last story, Key. I'll keep this short. It's fine. Coming off from Home, Key fell flat. If this was the middle story of this collection, I would give it a break. But putting away my bias. Key was fine, not memorable as the first two, but it can still hold its own. To finish this. I'd recommend this to any horror or manga fan. Great stories, and great art. Solid book from the great Kazuo Umezu.

All right I actually did not get my copy of Orochi from amazon mine came from the store and much earlier than the 19th release but since I finished this book thought I might do a small review. This manga is a must-read classic and a must-have in anybody's collection. This book, in my opinion, was better than the first volume and this one contains instead of 2 chapters like book 1 it has 3 chapters to dig into, and each one with a decent length to them. The first chapter in this book is Prodigy and Orochi decides to follow a boy named Yu who got an injury to his neck and being forced to study by his mother however things are not what they seem on the surface regarding that or Yu.Orochi herself in this volume also seems to grow a small bit from the last book well we get to see a different side to her at the very least as she expresses a bit more emotion in this one even at one point crying a bit which is a first. Oh and speaking of more from Orochi that girl can fight!! Yeah, chick can throw down if you were thinking she was this helpless little thing from the first volume you are badly mistaken all I gotta say is watch out for her deadly finger she can beat you down with just a finger no really she beats down 5 guys with a finger.Anyway, the 2nd chapter contained in this book is called ''Home'' and follows the story of a farm boy named Shoichi who starts from some humble beginnings in a village called Nakase but later wants to find better for himself as he and his family are living poor so he moves to the city..Annnnd things proceed to fall apart for him there and he soon finds himself wrapped up in the wrong crowd and roaming the streets and getting into fights and turf wars but that soon ends badly for him as the dude is hit by a car and thrown straight into a glass window.His chapter was a shocking ride all the way right down to the end and this one had me at the edge of my seat mid-way through every page was a page-turner trying to see what happens next and the feeling of thrill just all of this combined with the amazing artwork makes for a great atmosphere. The ending of this chapter will leave you likely shocked, confused, and asking many questions as it did me I had to put down the book for a moment to process everything that happened and then wonder what everything meant. a very bittersweet end to that chapter though.And then finally we have ''Key'' Orochi decides to follow a boy named Hiroyuki aka Liar as he is known around his area to lie, lie, lie and lie however when he witnesses and sees something he probably shouldn't have as it lands him in quite a terrifying situation that something that is actually real and not a lie he is hard pressed to find anybody who would believe him and even Orochi herself whom you would not think is the type to give up on anybody to actually nearly give up on him and she is actually absent from a good majority of this chapter.overall this one is a great read and a notch better than the first volume this is worth getting and I cannot wait for volume 3 it sucks these volumes release so slowly. This volume is definitely more thrilling than the last volume which had you feeling different things, especially the ''Bones'' chapter. I hope this little review was good enough and I did not mean for this to be as long as it was but I ended up going over each of the 3 chapters briefly.

If you liked Volume 1, this book is absolutely worth it. Volume 2’s first story “Prodigy” might be my favorite of Orochi, the plot had me audibly gasp twice in the second half. The last two stories are also pretty good, but they are like a small dessert after the main course.

Fans of the 1949 movie "The Window" starring Bobby Driscoll will immediately recognize it as the inspiration for "Key". Familiar plot elements are reused, including the scene where Tommy Woodry tries to write "Help" on the cab window. His counterpart Hiroyuki Watanabe writes "Tasukete" using a mixture of hiragana and katakana as a small child might do. The boys' pleas for help appear to be written backwards to a passing pedestrian. The differences are fewer and easier to enumerate: (1) Hiroyuki's parents are office workers who are absent only during the day (2) the Watanabe's neighbors murder their crippled daughter Emi (3) the murderers are both arrested and the husband is not himself killed. If you find any other mention of the similarities anywhere, it was probably written by me.

Still have to finish book 1, but I'm looking forward to reading books 2 and 3. Umezz is a major influence on Junji Ito, and I'm a huge Ito fan. That fact got me into Umezz.