Oct 11, 2019
Too horrific that Steven couldn’t even finish reading it! We talk about Maruo’s work that would eventually become adapted into a controversial anime.
026: Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freakshow | Shoujo Tsubaki (1984)
By Suehiro Maruo
Translation by Yoko Umezawa and Laura Lindgren
(Blast Books 1992)
Some context:
Maruo is known for his ‘Ero-Guro’ (erotic grotesque nonsense). The genre is nothing new, it’s heavily inspired by shungo prints, a prime example being Hokusai’s ‘Dream of the fisherman’s wife’. In turn the UK artist Aubrey Beardsley who illustrated Oscar wilde’s Salome during the Victorian era is an early example of the genre.
H.R. Giger is a massive influence on ‘ero-guro’, his iconic Alien being an interplay between sex and violence as a film series.
Topics:
· James’ interpretation of events and ending:
1. Magician loves Midori by creating respite from the horror through his illusions. He gives her the opportunity to leave to Tokyo by faking his death. But because Midori makes the choice not to leave without him, this causes the magician to punish her in hopes of scaring her off. She isn’t physically able to kill them so she finds herself alone in the world. To escape one horror, she has to endure the horror of another, the horror of loneliness.
2. Magician, like the rest of the freaks despises Midori for her beauty and innocence and chooses to torment her.
3. Magician is but a figment of Midori’s imagination. Midori is actually a contortionist whose act is to fit inside a glass jar. When an insect crawls inside her ear it begins to munch on her brain causing her to hallucinate and make her fantasies more real to her. Where ever Masamitsu is real or not is besides the point.
· Is the author, Suehiro Maruo, being obscene and deplorable by creating this manga? And are people who enjoy this story contemptable?
· Steven’s objection at Maruo’s take on child abuse and the threat of paedophilia in stories.
· “Comfort Women”; Maruo’s imagery is evocative of the great depression and post - world war japan and the very real horrors of that era. The main character, Midori, could be viewed as a “comfort woman”, the name given to victims of World War II sex trafficking. For more on the subject just follow the link [Here].
· Film adaptation by Hiroshi Harada was released in 1992
· A 2016 live-action film adaptation was notably tame compared to the source material but otherwise contained beautiful production design. To tie-in with the release of the 2016 film, café ‘Holy’ in Shibuya made a menu in order to promote it.
Culture Reference:
Oculolinctus, also known as Gankyū namé purei “eyeball licking play” an ero-guro trope that Suehiro made popular. A widespread myth came about when reports of Japanese students were adopting this as a craze.