Chika Gentou Gekiga: Shoujo Tsubaki

The movie was really great. Some people might be a little disturbed by some scenes and how the story plot goes or might not feel comfortable with the artwork, but it is to know that the director, Hiroshi Harada, drew the entire movie by himself and he wanted to make it look like a sort of japanese paper play. At first I was being dissapointed about the animation, but later it gets better and really breath takes you for some scenes. The story is wonderful , the characters are wee thought. After seing some drawings from the graphic novel it was based on ... , I believe it stayed true to it's spirit. I recommend that people that are really sensitive or can't stand cruelty and violence think twice before watching this because it can really get intense , but people who don't mind that and who want to watch something original with an interesting style and art work should definetly go for it.

Welcome back, my friends, to horror anime month. This week I'll be looking at Midori: Shoujo Tsubaki. Yes, I know that it was supposed to be Blue Gender. My apologies, but I lost Internet service for several days and wasn't able to quite finish it. So it'll have to wait for next week. In the meantime, let's take a look at this film that was banned in Japan when it came out on account of its imagery. The film was crafted by a single man, Harada Hiroshi. Supposedly he found it impossible to gain sponsors for it and spent his life savings on the project. ... Is it a Magnum Opus or were there very good reasons that Harada couldn't find anyone to take up the project? Let's delve into this obscure piece and find out.

The story follows young Midori. She loses both of her parents and has no one to take care of her. She finds her way to a traveling circus where she is physically and sexually abused. I wonder why Harada couldn't find sponsors? To be fair, it's not shown in great detail. You see just enough to know what's going on. Then a magician with dwarfism enters the scene and things start to change. The story is very simple to the point of being one-dimensional. It follows the simplest structure it can. Where it tries to draw you in is with shocking and grotesque imagery. The problem with that s that there's nothing even remotely substantive behind that imagery. This is another anime that lacks horror. It's conceptually disturbing and some of the images do have shock value but the execution lacks impact. You'll get a scene in which things start out normally enough, there's a twist and some shock images and then it'll hurriedly wrap up and shift to the next scene. There's no good build up or payoff. They don't extend things or build on them enough to give it actual horror.

The characters in this are fully one-dimensional. Most of them get one or two scenes where they're allowed to do something. Even, Midori, the major character that you're supposed to gain some measure of investment in, is more of a passive object than any kind of proactive character. They never really delve into the actual impact the events shes going through are having on her. Except in one brief nightmare scene that comes, goes and leaves no impact. I literally just finished watching the film and I couldn't recount what happened in that scene in any kind of detail.

The art is kind of impressive when you consider that the bulk of it was done by one guy. It's still not really decent, though. It's very sloppy and the animation is jerky. But you have to give Harada credit for getting it done and making it passable.

The voice acting is very amateurish and the sound quality isn't very good. I'm sure that Harada did the best he could without studio support or sponsors. It still sounds terrible

The ho-yay factor is a 3/10. There is a very brief scene between a grown man and a younger teenage boy. Why you would want to see that, I have no idea. Dude should find a boyfriend his own age.

This film reminds me of an independent exploitation film. It's lacking in budget, the technical aspects are amateurish, the execution is pants and the story is beyond weak. The major focus is on being shocking but without anything substantial to back it up it ends up being largely forgettable and stupid. While it is pretty impressive that the bulk of the work was done by a single man, that doesn't excuse the terrible story, complete lack of even semi-developed characters or rubbish execution when attempting horror. It's nothing but shock value and spectacle for the sake of shock value and spectacle. Final rating: 2/10. I would only check it out if you're very curious about it as an independent piece or as a previously banned piece. Otherwise I'd leave it in obscurity where it belongs. Next week will actually be Blue Gender.

Story: 4/10

The world is not beautiful, therefore it is; a thought-provoking proverb popularized by Kino's Journey that nonetheless leaves its trail in lots of anime. Midori is in this sense the ultimate combo breaker in its determination to depict a cruel world whilst rejecting the vaguest of indications that beauty may lie around the corner. Its unpleasant worldview manifests itself perfectly in young Midori who is taken in by a group of deformed circus artists after the death of her beloved mother.

Her various experiences with these individuals are as far from beneficial as they are from being mutual and the movie is eager to explore ... its grotesque combination of childhood innocence and sexual perversion in the most surreal ways imaginable. The titular character is not only physically, sexually and mentally abused by her colleagues but also finds herself in a frightening relationship with a dwarf magician whose affection mixed with terrifying abuse creates the foundation for a story that thrives on using jealousy as the ultimate plot device towards tragedy.

From the first two paragraphs you may have anticipated a disturbingly thought-provoking tale that borders on nihilistic in its repulsive take on a classic Cinderella story? Unfortunately, Midori is far too preoccupied in featuring as much twisted imagery as possible, whether or not it has any relevance. As the disturbing content escalates into an intense inferno of immensely haunting images of absolute terror, the narration loses its initially morbid flare to incomprehensive, yet interesting slideshows that make it painfully clear that Hiroshi Harada's true passion lines in twisted artwork rather than storytelling.

Animation: 7/10

I'll be seeing more of Midori's imaginative and repulsive imagery in my nightmares. The director who animated the movie single-handedly does not hide the fact that he treasures grotesque visual expression over beauty but by no means does it change the fact that his work is memorable and disturbing.

Movement is limited due to financial reasons and nobody would ever mistake Midori for anything but an independent feature, but the stills are skillfully animated to repulse and chock, questionable tasks that they nonetheless succeed in.

Sound: 3/10

Despite suiting the material relatively well, Midori's soundtrack is surprisingly forgettable. Furthermore, given the controversial content it's no surprise that Harada had to rely on voice actors whose experiences must be close or equivalent to none as the performances throughout the movie are passable at most.

Characters: 5/10

Contrary to Tod Browning's Freaks which portrayed deformed circus artists in a fairly humane and positive light, the characters in Midori are mostly repulsive enough to really warrant the derogatory term "freak". As they disregard any form of mutuality or decency in their sexual activities they work surprisingly fine as the semi-antagonists who abuse the poor and innocent Midori to the borders of madness.

She herself leads a tragic existence. There are some optimistic parts of her life, but they all end up inevitably defiled by those around her and without anything worth enduring seemingly perpetual misery for, she ends up in a pedophilic relationship with a magician whose strange magic sends the story into a surreal and twisted world. The characterization in Midori remains unambitious but can also be described as simplistically sufficient.

Overall: 5/10

The word "pretentious" is constantly misused to describe anything intelligent or artistic regardless of its execution. This is one of the cases where it actually fits as Midori seems to regard itself as a visually distinguished journey determined to expose the cruelty of mankind and the darker territories of love, whilst only managing to deserve the first description. Viewers looking for something disturbing and morbidly fascinating would be wise to give this infamous sleazefest a chance while any other form of audience should avoid it at all cost.

Have you ever experienced a perfect movie? As an avid anime watcher I am always looking for these titles, the one where seemingly everything clicks. Works of such transcendental quality, with impeccable theming and symbolism, that join extremely effective storytelling with gigantic personal and emotional impacts. Shoujo Tsubaki is for me(and for everybody who does not have shit taste) one of those, a piece of fiction without an equal in any media. This review basically is my embarrassing attempt to spread my love for the work, while also trying to prove as flawed, many of the retarded claims made by most of its detractors. Also ... spoiler free review, there are thing in life that need to be experienced in full glory, without spoilers slightly altering(ruining it is just not possible here) the experience.

Will start with the technical aspects because good Lord, those sure are spectacular. I am writing about a work mostly done by a single guy, that took 4 long years to be finished. Yes a single guy, the genius Harada Hiroshi, animated the whole thing, frame by frame while also directing the work and writing the script. The movie is the result of 4 long years of hard arduous work by this guy, pouring his heart and soul into the script and every frame he was drawing. Honestly it just singlehandedly redefined my own definition of an auteur work and of a passion project. It just oozes the dedication, effort and passion that went into every line, moment, onto every scene. Really the aesthetic it reaches for is something completely different than anything me(or you reader)has ever seen before. The complete lack of movement, the static main frames with barely any in-betweens, the really lazy transitions all of which people complained as cost saving techniques also add a lot to the look and feel of the work. You can just simply be shown any moment in the movie, and you will immediately get something truly wrong is happening(yes it is that remarkable), that of course adds a lot to the disturbing nature the craft is trying to subtly show. Same can be said about the drab muted color design, bad composition, lazy usage of angles. Many detractors still find reasons to complain about this artistic unique style of aesthetics and directing with the really retarded logic of comparing it with other works, most notably Hoshi no Koe, another one man project made by the legend, Makoto Shinkai himself. What those idiots apparently can not figure out is how the gigantic difference, the 10 year gap between both works can create in the animation craft. Shinkai when working in Hoshi no Koe had it his disposal the most recent computer animation techniques, which was in fact a technique with little usable skills at the time only being used to fix a little the artwork and actually made the production project slower. Never forgetting how it is that movie experimentation with newer technologies that made for its worst visual aspects, like it's awful usage of depth of field, the weird lightening that randomly turned characters into ghosts. So yeah really unfair and totally off the mark comparison. This method just in general loses completely the idea of how this work of fiction should be appreciated and judged. We cannot compare the quality of this movie production by seeing its nonexistent qualities in comparison with literally anything you ever watched. No, no, no, you need to look at the effort, the dedication shown by spending years and lots of money just to make this project. It is in recognizing that for someone in this conditions he achieved a really impressive result(even when that is not the case). Is this concept of just forgetting anything about the quality of the work at hand and just focusing on the artist, his experience, what crazy lengths he must have gone to manage something of this magnitude truly that hard to grasp. Even when limited the animation is used to really great affect here, it just gets how to pass tension and terror so well. It understands how what is shown is never what is really terrifying, a person with a knife trying to kill us, sure, that can be a little scary. But a creature you cannot see, something you cannot understand, an unknown and highly dangerous threat you cannot understand or define, this is way more disturbing. It gets how not showing can be the most effective tool, by always showing everything, the schlocky gory scenes with its weird animation style, in all its glory, hilariously full of itself.

But since the production cannot amount to much else than pretty colors, I will talk about the concepts, the several thematic threads found in the movie. Out of the bat I have to say this work has a fascinating style of thematic exploration. People who cannot believe how short term duration fiction can represent broad interesting topics in a though provoking manner, should definitely watch Shoujo Tsubaki. It is the exception that proves said though as flawed. An analogy with the way ideas are debated in general, the dialectic can help to explain the brilliance found in here. The movie's thesis is really simple, it represents a truly pessimistic view on world and society. Suffering, moral degradation and nihilism are the core of this world, having hope on happiness, or in the possibility of a better life, can only leave you to dreadful disappointments. The movie presents a fully formed worldview, one that resonates with universal feelings in the hearts of many, the fear the malice, the distrust, everyone has at least one moment in their life's when they think of the world as an awful place. But of course nothing in a debate is simply self provable, its veracity and worth only given by how it interacts and disproves other ideas. Here comes the movie counter thesis, that finds its representation in the mentality of the protagonist, her naivety, her hopeful dreams and love and happiness, the belief of those feelings as an important part of life, and that her situation will improve in the future. The film goes for a really fascinating method to argue for its main thesis, instead of having much of any arguments for the counter thesis, showing its positive aspects, how Midori's view of the world may make sense under a certain perspective, the film goes for nothing of that. It does not want to make you belief in the thesis, by making it ultimately defeat, prove as flawed a strong and well constructed opposing argument, ultimately making you even unwilling come to an understand or even an agreement, with an idea the viewer could otherwise despise. No, the dialectic process at work here is really different, it is one that involves proving your thesis, by having most of your world, characters and events, as just more evidence of what you are trying to say. Having the character sadism and cruelty becoming more and more extreme, happening frequently in most scenes, their acts yelling in every way possible of the unfairness of this world, the more extreme the act the better, as evidences for your thesis. There is no need for a strong contrast, like showing in detail the calm everyday life that serves as base for Midori's way of thinking and actions, which would make both the counter thesis better supported, and the horrible things happen to her more shocking(yeah I know it would probably not work doing this either)by contrast. But just start with rats eating a certain someone and that is all we need to see. Really having something really good happening, allowing for different changes in value betweens scenes other than from bad to awful, would do a lot to improve this work. So if we extend the comparison with debates just a little further, let's make a though experiment, to imagine a certain debate where Shoujo Tsubaki would be one of the guys discussing. The person Shoujo Tsubaki, will act in this debate by barely acknowledging any of the people arguing with him, instead opting to yell what he means all the time, and showing with truly great conviction, the truth of what he is saying, even when he has basically no evidence or reasoning for it. Can you believe someone will end up disagreeing with this guy? It surely was not the case with me.

This is the part where I have to admit, Shoujo Tsubaki does not contain the best cast of characters in the world(it is high up there though). But this far from a problem is also one of the work`s greatest qualities. Because really the objective quality behind these characters really do not matter. Their function in the history is not to have depth, likeable traits, motivations or backgrounds, but to represent perfectly the ero guro genre stereotypes. Following rules and genre clichés do not represent shortcuts, when the author shows the laziness of writing unique personal developments for his history. These constructions and clichés are in fact the end all of fiction, the author should be looking and trying to replicate exactly those. Between developing characters, situations and themes which would propel his craft, the piece of fiction he is trying to make, or trying to simply follow genre rules and expectations, it is pretty obvious what should be the creator priority. So complaining about the lack of character depth makes completely no sense already, but let's look a little deeper into the characters. With the exception of the protagonist they are group of completely deranged malicious people, most them shows signs of cruelty, sadism, greed, mistrust, luxury, lack of empathy, they also usually lie a lot, really they make for a fine representation of the ugly aspects of mankind this movie is attempting to portray. There is another argument for the lacking personality in most characters consisting of a flaw, which is that the focus in showing the unpleasant side of humanity, with no insight or introspection to the people making those acts can only amount to that feeling, unpleasantness. It can never be shocking(people saying the violence in here is for shock factor are idiots, there is no way to be shocked with what is being presented), sad, disgusting, terrifying. They do not emerge here because the characters have no personality to react to the cruelty, we cannot see aspects of our personality in them, which would makes us at least feel empathy for the people suffering and making others suffer, see aspects of our ourselves and our life's, identifying them as human beings kind of not so different from us. This would really make us care in a lot of ways for the fucked up shit they do. It is not this is some really difficult stuff to pull out, just give the characters unique perspective and worldview, a personality that can react in a unique way or think differently about the violence. As it is in the best of cases you get a slight feeling of distaste for the events at play, or at the worst you can laugh maniacally at all the ultra gory scenes. I truly applaud those that managed the latter.

When you are dealing with this level of artistry in the making of a show, you can expect it be noticeable in all of its aspects. Of course the world building is no exception, instead of going for lazy exposition and adding countless of useless details to a setting, that would otherwise not affect characters plots or themes, shoujo Tsubaki goes for a more minimalistic route. Sure we may not know much about this world and city at the end of the day, but every bit and ounce of information adds something in a symbolical or character level, making for really effective storytelling. The whole thing manages to portray the state of Japan after world war 2 way better than overrated classics like Godzilla, Akira, or others critically beloved but otherwise garbage titles like Billy Bat. Really if you are looking for a complete understanding of this period, the complicated sociopolitical situation, the harsh living conditions of the population, this, right here, is the work you should be looking for. Just the way they tie the analogy of western domination and the affects of the bomb with my favorite character, Wonder Masamitsu(mito), is superbly done. His ability, an incredible magic from the west is obviously a reference to the atomic bomb, the complete dominance it establishes over other characters also showing the state of Japan at the period. In one of the show more fantastic surreal sequences, it even plays imaginary pretty similar to people being burned to death, an iconic image of effects of the atomic bomb. This kind of symbolical representation can be seen in several aspects of the setting, where the simply generic representation of hellish places, filled with poverty, crime and really hard to live by, is not a lazy generic portrayal of any place having a disaster, or just difficult social times. No, it actually has lot of symbolical value, which of course I know of, but will not say here, for simplicity sake.

Let's get a bit controversial here and talk about specific scene. Also really important spoiler warning, if you do not want to be spoiled just jump to the next paragraph. The infamous rape scene between Tokkuriji Muchisute(you will be missed) and Midori will be my topic. A lot of people question the necessity of its inclusion since it does nothing to progress plot(having Midori suffer even more horrible things adds what exactly?), character(having this character do even more awful things to Midori adds what exactly?), it gives no further context or new view on their relationship, has overall no greater structure or thematic effect, just one nonsensical reason after another. But there is an important question to make, why was this scene necessary, why was this disturbing really sensitive topic chosen to be displayed here. In regards to choosing topic of grand social significance, specially controversial ones, there needs to be a care in the what and how you are portraying said aspects. Sure there is a gigantic difference between portrayal and endorsement, showing a rape scene does not equate in any shape or form to any sort of argument or defense of this practice(it is usually the other way around). In fact as a general stance I am all in favor of free speech, put all the things and topics you want in your work of fiction, but the question of why is important. Why does your story needs sexual abuse, the most tired and cliché imaginable way to establishing characters as likeable/unlikeable(Sugou sends his hello), good/bad, why does it need to have this act which constantly shows and spreads toxic gender roles, that is mostly used as a cheap shortcut to create sympathy for characters. What kind of purpose or vision do you have for putting any of it in your story, especially when it deals with topics really sensitive for millions of people everywhere(there is even a term rape culture going around goddawmnit) being really uncomfortable for a lot of people out there. There is no way to just simply see the scenes totally disconnected from the act`s social significance in society, so maybe for the author as a member of society to pay a little attention to that, and put some fucking though in what he is putting in his story would be not so much to ask. And as a matter of response to this criticism, I do have a general stance of not even bothering with social justice faggotry, and I sure will follow it here.

So concluding if you were looking for an awfully looking movie, with terrible characters, dialogue, theming, plot, directing, than please look somewhere else. On this review I simply cleared some surface elements, just skin deep details that represent a tiny fraction of what this movies has to offer. There are so many great details I can write about in length here, like the way the effective usage of the soundtrack, like playing a melancholic love music during sexual abuse, the occurrence in several instances of symbolism connected to xintoism based religions, which of course adds another entire layer to the whole movie. The style of narrative that utilizes techniques of Japanese traditional storytelling to achieve new heights by using really interesting, creative ways to tell this narrative. So would I recommend this? Yes, yes, yes, just do yourself a favor and spend your next hour checking this masterpiece out, I guarantee it will not be like anything you have seen before.

Score: Wanting to die/10

Overview:

The first thing you probably noticed was the 2 rating I gave this OVA. So that means I think this is objectively a piece of dog shit right? Well...no I don't. I tend to dislike ratings in general because as critics our best attempts at being objective often fall short. If I watch a movie alongside my GF or a best friend and I'm having a really good time that night, my rating will likely be inflated. Likewise, if I watch a comedy in a bad mood and didn't laugh, my rating will probably be too low. Let's say I watch a movie at a ... younger age and it leaves a larger impression because I had never experienced similar themes or techniques before. I could watch the same movie at a later point in life and my rating wouldn't be quite as high.

Midori is an anime that completely defies traditional ratings. It's not a particularly well told story. It doesn't have the most amazing visuals or animation. I could play the pretentious critic and say how the perpetual suffering and horror we see is a visual representation of Schopenhauer's philosophy. However, the director/writer/producer clearly stated he made this as an "ero-guro" or gore porn.

So why wouldn't I say it's bad? Despite my personal distaste for this anime, I actually respect it. The author presented his ideas to every animation studio in Japan and was turned down over and over. He spent nearly his entire life savings to produce this movie and then took 5 years to animate every single cel by himself! That's a level of dedication I've only heard of from a few creators. Even Yuri Norstein might have to bow down to this dude in terms of sheer determination. This guy was going to make his guro squick come Hell or high water and he was NOT going to take no for an answer.

Due to the plentiful underage rape and underage pornographic content, this film was banned in quite a few countries. The film was considered lost for a while, but a bootleg copy was found and uploaded on to the internet. The director, whose name is Hiroshi Hirada btw, is rather unpleased by this. He doesn't like people to view the film unless he's personally present to explain the story behind his desire to make the film and what he was thinking. Otherwise, people might think he's a little odd. Very similar in that regard to Crispin Glover and his short films.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH6b_lSQst0 This is a real thing.


I don't really want to cover the entire plot or spoil anything. Just know it's about a little orphan girl whose parents died of illness and now she has to sell flowers on the street. She joins a traveling freak show to avoid starving to death and must bite the heads off chickens. She also gets raped, tortured, and constantly abused by the other freaks. Her only savior is a bizarre, Chinese dwarf who is a master of illusion magic. He treats her kindly, but is extremely possessive and ruthless to those that displease him.


Overall, I didn't personally gain much from this film. I didn't find it scary or erotic. I didn't gain any life lessons or inpiration. I don't really have the desire to watch it again. However, I was both amused and emotionally moved by the story behind the film. Midori is a perfect example of how art transcends neat little boxes and numerical scores. Creating Midori was Hirada's dream and life's ambition. I can't really put a number on another man's dream. I can say that this anime is worth watching...even if you hate it. It's a work of art so grotesque and so bizarre it demands to be seen.

being a huge fan of the dark genius of mangaka suehiro maruo, i decided to check out the anime version of his masterpiece of guro/psychosis shoujo tsubaki. the story takes place in the ramshackle underbelly of early showa period japan. it's the story of a young girl named midori who loses her family and is tricked into traveling with a truly gruesome freakshow circus a la tod browning's 1932 movie freaks (armless man, mummy, sword swallower, strongman, human worm, etc.) and her journey through misery to love and back to misery again. it's definitely not a story for people who don't revel in the dark ... side of human nature. this anime version captures maruo's original work somewhat well, with an aura of silent film era horror, japanese woodcut paintings of yokai and oni, and a certain dark beauty. the only downside of the film was in it's soundtrack, which was comprised of mostly low-budget synthesizer sounds, although they did use some traditional japanese instruments at the beginning (which would have definitely added to the film if used throughout). if you like psychotic guro stuff (and if you can actually track this down), i would rocommend it to you...

This is a somewhat typical story of a girl who unintentionally ends up in a freak show against her will. But of course, what goes on behind closed doors is vastly different from what the audience probably imagines.

While thematically and sometimes visually disturbing, the plot falls short and, in my opinion, isn't very interesting or entertaining. I more watched it for the shock fact than anything. Even that mostly fell short, save for a couple scenes.

Overall, it may be worth a watch if you're into the freak show/macabre scene. But don't expect a profound or particularly interesting plot.

I saw this shit on a TikTok 2 days ago and decided to watch it and honestly after completing it I'm not surprised its banned in every country.
(Spoilers ahead because duh)

Where the hell to start first off its disturbing as hell like way more then it has to be. Weird threesome scenes or rats coming out of a women's vagina or Midori's body contorting in weird ways. There is some horror anime out there with fucked up scenes like the one this has but this makes it way more disturbing due to the whole story and the old animation.

It starts off with Midori who's ... living with her sick mom and she's selling flowers to help her mom and she meets this random dude who owns a circus or something and after rats eat her mom she joins up only to be raped and abused the whole time she's there. Yeah this anime is just 40 minutes of fucked up shit. Eventually the ultra pimp daddy pedo himself Wonder Masamitsu shows up and they fall in love even though she's a kid and he's like 40 but its consensual which in this anime is a good thing.

The pimp daddy himself kills the Griffith ripoff with no arms who raped Midori with magic or some shit. He abra kadabra'd that boy into the sand then drowned him with mud. Eventually the owner of this circus steals the money and runs off to Narnia so the circus breaks up and go there separate ways and she and her now husband go to find a new life which I actually enjoyed that they did that. I liked the aspect of how when she met him she felt happiness again even if it was creepy but it doesn't last long because homie gets stabbed and dies and it just kinda ends there. There are some theories as to what happens and the most common one I've seen is she realizes that even her husband was fucked up and hangs herself.

Midori is a disturbing ass anime with brutal and disturbing scenes and no wonder it's banned in every country. It's sort of like the Funkytown of anime because of how fucked up it is but obviously Funkytown is a million times worse due to the fact its a real guy and this is a story. I wouldn't recommend watching this due to the fact the story isn't even that good and all the characters are terrible people except Midori but by the end of the anime if she didn't hang herself she probably won't be able to experience a normal life with all the traumatic experiences she's been through.

Shojo Tsubaki is easily the worst anime i've ever seen. Sure, the art is really beautiful, however anime is not supposed to be a powerpoint presentation, i can hardly say it was actually animated. But that's to be expected considering there was only one person working on it. Why was there only a single man working on this anime? Because no one else wanted to. If you want to start a new project and everyone you ask for help on it declines, maybe reconsider starting it at all. Now, the plot. There was hardly any plot. The storyline only seemed as an excuse to exhibit ... gore and obscurities. Those things are not inherently a bad thing in art, however there has to be a clear reason, a message or a statement, at least just a bit thought behind it in order for it to be tasteful. Shojo Tsubaki had neither. It was just gore for gore's sake. The disturbing scenes in this anime weren't the front for something else, it was just that - disturbing scenes. I even watched an interview of Hiroshi Harada to maybe see if there was something I was missing or if I just straight up misunderstood the whole thing, but no. The dude's just a tryhard edgelord. Props to him for being so dedicated to making something that was trash from the very beginning.

Shoujo Tsubaki is wonderful! it is quite a surreal film with its visuals, but it may be quite disturbing for some as it contains lots of distressing topics. even if some don't like the film itself, they may still find themself appreciating the story behind it. which is equally, if not more interesting than the film itself.
I recommend this film to those who are artsy and interested in the strange and unsavory. And also, to those who can appreciate someone's hard, HARD work.
side note: this film does not glorify abuse or excuse it, like many have been saying. having bad things in a piece ... of art does NOT mean endorsement of it.

I'm gonna expose my feelings about this anime. Not gonna overreact like other people are doing after watching this.

Honestly, this anime was not like what people are saying. You'll hear that this is sh*t, terrifying, worst, etc. I know, there were some disturbing scenes & maybe soft-hearted people won't gonna like this. But to me, it was just another normal sad story.

In this story, Midori is the main character. I guess she is about 11/12 years old. In the beginning, her mom died. Then she joined a circus for money. But the people of the circus were not that good. They abused her, r*ped her, ... etc. Then at one time, she fall in love with a much older man who was a magician & married him just because he was kind to her. This is how the story continues.

You'll definitely see some disturbing scenes in this anime like r*pe, killing people/animals, weird shapes of people. The artwork can be disturbing too. But trust me, it wasn't like what some people are reacting to on youtube & TikTok. It was just another normal sad story to me that is happening a lot to normal people around us.

I don't get why people on TikTok made such a fuss about it. It's not that bad. Yes, it's gory & gross & cruel. But ultimately I liked the art style & I have a great deal of respect for the artist seeing as they did the frames' drawings by himself [ correct me if I'm wrong].
The plot itself was a bit confusing for me after the dwarf guy came into the picture. & the end was a bit confusing to me as well. I didn't like some scenes, but that's expected as this is a very... dark film.
But uhhh... yeah. It's not ... that terrible.

the only things I give a pass on in this vile abomination is the artwork and animation because it was done by one man but the story and content has no excuse it's hard to excuse Animal Abuse, Torture, Rape and Pedophilia

Harada made this project by himself because he couldn't get the support from a studio FOR GOOD REASON. Harada might be considered a genius for being able to create the project entirely by himself but if this is what comes from the man's mind than he is also a sick individual. The line between Genius and Insanity is a thin one and I guess ... I can see that here

This is by far the worst thing I have ever seen. I never write reviews this is I believe my first one, but this was so bad I had to say something. This movie is needlessly disgusting. The story is awful the characters are awful the audio quality is garbage. I did not enjoy this and I don't know why someone would. This movie made me feel physically sick. Nothing about this movie was appealing. I can not recognize anything of value within this movie. Do not watch this movie, and if you do be prepared for a needless amount of gore, sexual assault, and ... substance-less scenes there for shock value and shock value only.

I'm kind of disappointed by it; I expected more. Maybe the manga is better; I will check it out.
The characters, even though a little shallow, were okay.
The setting and plot are pretty average.
The problem is the animation, especially in the beginning, is straight up a slideshow.
The pacing, execution, and presentation of the plot are pretty bad. It feels too disjointed. It gets better halfway through, though, and the animation also gets way better.
Even the characters show a little more depth, but the first half is a slog, and the payoff is just not worth it. If you came for the ... gore, you will like it, but if you want anything else, even the basics of storytelling, you will be disappointed.

It's great metaphorically speaking, but a lot of viewers will likely find the content of this film very disturbing. There is lots of gore and sexual content. Just warning you ahead of time. I'm not sure if I'm glad I was able to see it (there are scenes that I am just outright abhorred with), but I can't say I've seen much like it and I found the execution of the story and the symbolism of the images selected very effective. It's an artistic / experimental film.

HOWEVER I would not recommend this to a lot of people. Definitely not for the weak of stomach ... or the weak of mind.

Such a crazy work there is it to be here. Disturbing, haunting, chaotic, terrifying - There's not much word that can fathom the disturbing level that this work could produced. Nothing much to say really, but this is just, too disturbing. I would not want to watch this for the 2nd nor the thrice, because that would driven yourself to the edge of a breakdown.

This work isn't just about gore and mutilation, as there is something else need to be told by the director. It's telling about the reality, used to happened life issues in the past. This anime, no , this piece of ... hellish nightmare are engrossing and deep, furthermore dwelling are in unimaginable twisting road. Lest alone, you would not feel a hint of happiness by watching this, unless you are a psychopath yourself. It's a 50 minutes ride to a path that you would not possibly deemed ever existed before. When the image within this anime spark within my mind, it would not do me any good but to quickly forsaken of it instantly and I'm sure as hell would not be touching this thing again. I kept it though, because very rarely you could see the imaginary of a small part of hell itself.

In the extra section contained an interview against the creator, and he aforementioned that he would want to showed this to the largest amount of audience as possible. I'm sorry but, I do not condone of your will. This thing would never be able to showcased itself in any cinema in the future now, but I do know that you shouldn't showed this thing to anyone that couldn't bear watching material such as this as they would go insane. I'd admired the creator's work, as he took a lot of effort to do this but, it is just not for the mass public. When one looked upon the ending at any rate, it's sure will tarnished tonnes of humanity.

This work received a twisting 10/10 from me. I do not found it to be enjoyable, and rather thinking that it is to become way over disturbing that I would not dare to forgotten of many part of it that easily and it managed to make me felt so ill.

Congratulation, Hiroshi Harada-san. You just scored another frightened audience.

How do you deal with social alienation? Born into circumstances where the rest of society deems you as abnormal, and forced to join a circus to "fit in" and make a living by performing odd and dangerous magic tricks and stunts. It's not an ideal life, but when someone's limbs are severed, or body mutilated, or the mind just isn't functioning right, it may be the only way to have a sense of identity.

The Circus in Midori is made of a motley band of misfits, and Midori herself is tricked into joining them. Midori is seemingly normal, and juxtaposing her against the circus crew feels ... wrong. She used to be a normal elementary kid, but now she is forced to mingle among those who would never be able to read or write themselves. Seeing her innocence tainted by desperate lonely hearts is frankly horrific, but you can never truly blame anyone. Her life is never in severe danger, and she is even offered a chance at a life as an actress by an outside businessman. The rest of society is ready to sweep Midori up in their arms whenever they have an opportunity, and the circus crew is always reluctant to give her up. There is a clear conflict between society and the misfits, and it is intriguing to see Midori caught in between.

As interesting as the story is, the presentation is not always of quality. Some scenes can be overly violent, and do not feel necessary to be so brutal. I understand the animation was trying to portray a visceral reality of desperate instincts some people are forced to contend with, but I feel it could have gone about it in a more subtle manner.

The characters were the most interesting to me. Besides Midori, the other two best characters were the dwarf, and the bandaged man with the missing arms. There was surprising depth given to these two characters, and their inner emotions were expressed quite vividly as they grapple with their alienation against society. Midori seemed to be their only sense of belonging and relief from despair.

I would have preferred a less gory, longer, and more psychological rather than horrific version of this anime, but what we have is still worth viewing in its own right. Just beware of disturbing images.

I had heard the movie from a podcast and then it started showing me on tiktoks and everyone was saying it's the scariest and creepiest anime that has haunted a lot of people and ruined their childhood

I wanted to see it too because curiosity was killing me

Was this anime movie really worth it??

The answer is neutral It started very interesting with scenes of violence and gore and pedophilia, but it developed into something very dramatic and unexpected, making it interesting, the dubs were fantastic,But I didn't like the animation and the repeated scenes

To sum it up I liked enough about ... it and gave it a 7/10 review and would easily recommend it!!

I think it's impressive that this was the work of one man. With that being said I don't enjoy violence for the sake of violence. Midori suffers just because. I did not find the violence extremely shocking- I think for violence to be shocking there has to be peace before violence, but the whole movie is just violence and there is no shock. For example the dogs. I did not expect the dogs to live, I expected them to be murdered because the movie wants to impress on the viewer what violence is like, therefore I was not shocked when about 15 seconds after the ... dogs were introduced they were murdered. I did not care at all.
I did appreciate the metaphor of the circus people who raped Midori being like rats(if you watch the scene with Midori's mother you will understand what I mean) but I was underwhelmed with the movie otherwise.