Chika Gentou Gekiga: Shoujo Tsubaki

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

What a terrible idea for a project. Where to begin? Maybe you shouldn't do everything yourself lest the final product be utter trash. Shocking the audience over and over again wears off pretty quickly too. As a thematic exploration, it has little to offer, and that is not only obvious, but violently shoved in your face for no fucking reason. Perhaps such blatancy goes back to the original story, I can't know. What I do know is how poor the production values for this are. The rule of thumb for making things on your own is to hold tight. Biting more than you can chew ... is a no no. That sort of quality control is essential to attain desired results. Sadly, Shoujo Tsubaki resembles a graphic novel considerably more than it should, with glimpses of fluid animation throughout followed by eternal stillness. It's not like the scenery or color usage are particularly fascinating either. If I need to be constantly reminded 'it was made by one dude', I have bad news. After all, it's not like numerous people haven't made wonders by themselves before. This is just bad.

Contrary to the rating I give this movie, I don't hate it. I don't necessarily like it either. I'd read the manga to see if the story is more fleshed out.

Story: 4/10
The story is interesting and, by all means, depressing. It's about a girl who finds out that life is a bitch. That's the condensed version of the story anyway, but it is true. Once you think she finds some form of happiness (albeit twisted), it's ripped from her and beaten into a pulp to leave her more miserable than the previous occurrence. This movie is told almost as a folklore, and that may be ... the real problem: it's just not fleshed out enough. Viewers are often confused by what is being displayed before them and they have a difficult time understanding what exactly is going on. I have found myself saying, "What is going on...?" several times. I love psychological movies, but I wouldn't classify this as such because it isn't really diving deep into the brain of the viewer. I can see it as a film that sees how the viewer would react to what the believe to be wrong, or an extreme tale about how "others have it worse" or "life is a bitch." Overall, I guess I just wanted a little more.

Art: 5/10
Like Yami Shibai the art style of this movie is similar to a kamishibai. It's a fascinating way to tell the story and it is effective. That effectiveness further compliments my statement about how the story was like a grotesque folklore. I also liked some of the character designs: nothing special, but they stood out. However, sometimes there was too much going on in the picture that I couldn't understand what was going on. Overall, the art compliments the story, but it was too cluttered at times.

Sound: 5/10
I thought the voice acting was fine and I didn't think much of the music. It wasn't captivating, but it wasn't annoying. I was just kind of there.

Characters: 4/10
There's not much to say about the characters aside from we feel sorry for Midori and all the other characters are assholes. There's this weird part of the movie (well, the whole movie is weird) where the asshole characters are wishing Midori the best of luck and she evens says that she hopes to see them again. There was no transition. I figured that they stopped bothering her was because of her partner who had power, but for her to say that she hopes to see them again is mind-boggling. Another reason why I want to read the manga is to see if there's a better transition...Wait, what's that you say? There's only 1 volume with 8 chapters? Oh...

Enjoyment: 4/10
Now, this isn't really something you "enjoy," but it is interesting. But this is what I took from it:
- The story was confusing at times.
- the art was okay, but too cluttered.
- There's a random character change in many of them.
- Life's a bitch.

But, I do recommend it just because it's so bizarre.

This anime is objectively bad, even without adding grotesque imagery to the equation.

[Plot: 1 star for 'Apalling']

Let's start with the plot, shall we? Shoujo Tsubaki is a 47-minute movie divided into three acts. The 1st act serves to set up the rest of our MC's (Midori's) sufferings and life journey, but the plot points of this 1st act can be told only within 5 minutes, while the rest serves as mindless torture porn. There's no suspense, (IMO) no thrill, no exploration of the characters (for both the MC and side characters), and I think this act will be the hardest part for anyone to watch.

Surprisingly, ... the 2nd act is slightly better. It introduces us to a new character and sets up a more compelling conflict between all of the cast. Midori's demeanor changes a little bit, too, in this act. And everything left me wondering where the story will go from this point on, whether Midori starts to be more assertive and gets good things, or whether it'll become her new downfall. Yes, there are still disturbing images in this act, but I think it's still tied to the plot.

The 3rd act, meanwhile, is the reason why I rate Shoujo Tsubaki's plot as low as I can, and it's not because of disturbing imagery. In fact, there's almost no disturbing imagery in the 3rd act. The plot in this act is just THAT shitty. This last and 3rd act should've shown a resolution, something to tie down previous acts and to provide an ultimate conclusion for the whole movie, be it positive or negative.

But it gives me nothing.

There's no clue as to how Midori's story ends, nor what her future may look like. There's no message for the viewers, except that they have just wasted 48 minutes of their lives. If I'm trying to do a mental gymnastic, I'd give the creator the benefit of the doubt and think that they're trying to say "Life's full of suffering no matter what we do." But truthfully? I don't think even THAT is the message, especially since it says "illusion". Are they trying to say that life is an illusion? And even if this fits Act 2's imageries and plot, WHAT OF IT, then??? So, what if it's an illusion? What else is there to take away? None. This doesn't feel like an ending.

[Characters: 2 stars for 'Horrible']

Some of the character designs are interesting, especially the circus people. But that's it. We don't know their motivation, why they're the way they are (physically and personality-wise), why they joined the circus, nor their deeper relationship/interaction with other characters.

I'm not going to lie and say some of them don't have character development, though, because they do. We get to see them change at the end of the story. But the problem is: WE DIDN'T SEE THE PROGRESS AND WE CAN'T EVEN DEDUCE SHIT COZ WE LACK SO MUCH VITAL INFORMATION ABOUT THEM AS CHARACTERS!!! So it's like... "Huh? Where did those come from? How come they're so nice now? Tf?"

The worst of it all? The MC isn't even that interesting! She's just a vessel for tortures, sufferings, and even more torture and sufferings. And when I thought she at least would show a character development on Act 2, NOPE! She went back to her old self TTTTTT

I wanted to say that the MC only serves as a pawn for the plot, but the story doesn't even have THAT concrete of a plot to begin with! lol

[Animation & art: 2 stars for 'Horrible']

This movie was released in 1992, the same year Sailor Moon, Yu Yu Hakusho, Ai no Kusabi, Tokyo Babylon, and Video Girl Ai got released. And I did read from another person's review that Shoujo Tsubaki was a one-man show. Despite that amazing feat, I. Do. Not. Care.

It's SOOOOO pale in comparison to other animes released that year. At times, Shoujo Tsubaki feels almost like a slideshow, and ironically, the only better animation and art were during the grotesque parts, where it might've shown bursts of colors, skewed anatomy, and variant expressions, and for this I don't give this aspect a 1-star rating.

But to me that's still not enough. I'm sorry but the overall animation and art really is that bad.

[Sound: 4 stars for "Bad"]

I don't think the seiyuus are that bad, but I don't think the sound is mixed well. There are times when the sound is just so freaking loud compared to the rest of the audio, as if it's not tuned/balanced yet.

I don't have any complain for the sound effects, OSTs, or opening/ending song, though, but I do acknowledge that there's nothing about them that stands out, hence the almost-middle rating.

[Overall enjoyment: 2 stars for "Horrible"]

People said this movie is one of the worst anime to recommend to other people due to its disturbing imageries. I wanted to check it out to test if they were right, and if I--someone with virtually no fictional ick--am able to handle it.

And true to my hypothesis: I did handle it well. It's just that it's not entertaining enough, with or without the disturbing imageries. I mean. If gory stuff is something that you personally enjoy, perhaps you'll enjoy this. But I don't consume gory stuff for the sake of it, hence this movie did nothing to me.

And I think most people are either non-gory enjoyer, or simply someone who won't enjoy bad stories like this. Hence, I won't recommend Shoujo Tsubaki.

[Total score: 1 + 2 + 2 + 4 + 2 = 11. 11/5 = 2.2 in average, rounded to 2]

While i could go on about how this anime doesnt really tell a very interesting story nor brings anything new to the table in the aspect of horror stories or shocking media, i am not a man of many words so to put it blunty i really dont recomend this anime neither as a piece of horror or gore. It feel closer to the old wave of explotation films, like a mondo film and the fact that this was sort of a "passion" proyect of one man rubs me the wrong way.

As someone who's favorite genera is horror, gore and violent films, in ... my opinion there is much better outhere than this anime that go famous because its "shocking".

Midori: Shoujo Tsubaki is an old animation about a young girl who has an extremely twisted and sick life but tries to make the best of it, which often makes it worse.

From a critical standpoint can see why people like it and why people hate it.

It all depends on how you want to view it and take its symbolism.

Myself, personally liking disturbing and twisted storytelling thought it was quite average even with its numerous attempts of shocking an audience.

It can be truly depressing and deep if you try to see past the grotesque imagery, poor quality sound and mostly still images.

Story: 5; I ... think the creators did do well in writing a twisted circus like story

Art: 3; The art is gross to say the least, mostly still images with voice actors talking and the characters moths not moving, but that may be an art thing tied also with the time of production.

Sound: 3; static in background and volume is inconsistent.

Character: 4.5; I say the characters did seem different and all had different motives.

Enjoyment: 5; Not for everyone and definitely not for people who have short attention spans because nothing really exciting happens.

Overall: 4.5

A lot of people here saying it's amazing. This 100% just depends on what you want to watch. I heard this was incredibly cursed and thought I might as well try it. I think the cursed part was understated. The art was easily the best part of it, surprisingly enjoyable. I can see why people can consider this good just because of all the symbolism, character archetypes, and story but goddamn, I hated it. I consider myself a fan of dark anime yet this was too far. Gut wrenching in the wrong way and made me incredibly uncomfortably. Will never watch this again and I ... only recommend this to people who can appreciate the little things.

When people say this is the most disturbing anime, I don’t agree, it’s gross yes but it’s not THAT disturbing, I’ve definitely seen worse like "pigeon blood“ for example. but it’s not a good movie.


There’s almost no story to it it’s just weird things happening for 50 minutes straight, watch it if you want I don’t think it’s as gross as people say it is but it’s a waste of time to spend trying to find where to watch it and then it not even being good.

there is no "beauty“ in it, it’s a horrible movie, there’s r*pe, p*dophelia, murder, animal cruelty, so many disturbing ... things just packed into a 50 minute film, there’s not a lot of gore or r*pe as people say there is but it’s very obvious that the whole purpose of this movie was to be disgusting, the entire movie is just basically a young girl being forced to do things and forced to marry an old man while she whines about wanting to go back home, literally, that’s about it, it’s a terrible movie.

It does what it sets out to do very effectively, which is disturb you. It takes a severely depraved mind to come up this type of content. I understand it's an art form, and I can respect it in that aspect, but that's all the respect I can give. I don't regret watching Shoujo Tsubaki, but I can't recommend it. There is one specific scene that the movie could have gone without, and I think it the main reason why I dislike the movie. Without spoiling it, I'll just say it involves dogs.

Overall, if you want to watch it, go ahead. Would I recommend? Not ... in a million years.

Look, Midori is not going to be for everyone - or barely anyone in the long run of all anime fans out there. It's an ero-guro, chilling shock-horror of a film/manga. Most people are aware of this anime only due to the fact it was banned a while back in Japan. I watched this as, for some reason, it's a MAL Badges unlockable and I decided to give it a shot.

And frankly, this pales a lot in comparison to the cult whispering legends about this film. It's pretty weak; it relies almost entirely on the shock horror aspect of the source material, with abuse and ... such being the forefront of the entire material. Whilst we focus heavily on Midori, we only seem to focus in quick snippets about the way her new life is going - which, usually, is not in a good format.
This could have been a strange cult classic, one of those that's so bad it's hard to watch but does so in such a delicate way it's almost required watching, but instead, it's a boring trope fest of abuse, ableism and more. Understandable, to a degree with the era it's from, but disappointing and deflating. It isn't even enough to - if you can stomach the themes of the film - to make you feel melancholy and unsettled - it's just bloody, assault, abuse and weird psychic powers that make for some stunning visuals for a brief three minutes before it ends.

Overall, extremely disappointing with the whisperings about this film, and nothing special to the ero-guro genre other than it's infamacy from being banned.

This review is SPOILER FREE as it should be. I am taking into consideration when and how it was made, but it was still very disappointing. Many people came hurdling in to watch it because of its nature (gore and heavy themes). The only thing likable about this movie was art, yes i have not read the original manga even tho I hear that much of the story was kept as it should. Still its very boring , not actually as gruesome as everyone makes it out to be ( if youve seen the Serbian film, went on best gore, etc. it doesnt come near ... it). As with every ,,gore,, movie it really lacks anything but the visual stimulus. If you want to have a taste of it I recommend watching like the first 10-15 minutes of it and leave it there, anything more than it is honestly wasting your time. If I could choose to have never watched it I could live with that decision, it was not scary, it didnt teach me anything valuable, didnt tell a good story... Im being generous with a 3.

Im sorry but if i had to be honest this must be one of the weirdest anime movie that i watched so far im ok with gore but abstract art with a confusing ending well were talking about a whole dominant of bad movie here i couldn't even said any happy things that happening only bad stuff with the mc midori like the dead puppy the time that she almost get raped by the mask man and had that elf died and make her having a total nightmare it might not have been the best but if i could say one thing and ... the only thing that is unironacly ok about this movie i guess it was the song the song isn't so bad at all it'll actually pretty good in my opinion

This movie is rather a narrative movie than an interpretative one. It is a recitation of melancholy and a symbolization of human malice. What really makes this movie special is not its evidently disturbing scenes but rather its grotesque art that symbolizes the disturbing events. The characters were very repulsive and the main character, midori, seemed to never escape the cycle of hopeless events. Also, the lack of character development made the story boring and harder to sit down through the disturbing scenes. However, this lack of development could have been intentional, as it's always people who make it are the ones who get their ... story told, while characters like that are found to be marginalized with no chances of being represented. The music also fit the disturbing atmosphere of the events. The story felt like an animated form of human's ugliness but it was not interesting, what was interesting was the art and the delivery by art.

Overall, it could have been better than this but given that it was made by a few people, you have to give them credits for outwardly making this. It was not enjoyable and I would not recommend watching it, it's one of those movies that you wouldn't want to watch again but you are still appreciative of the art.

i just found this movie kind of boring. i am saying this as a person who often enjoyed watching things such as evangelion or perfect blue. I really enjoyed the visuals, but the plot just did not do it for me. The disturbing imagery was a shock factor that just was not enough to make me call this an interesting film. Again, the art style was fascinating. I would not recommend anyone watch it, but I also would not try to stop someone who wanted to. I would love for someone to further explain to me the plot of this movie. I am definitely open ... to hearing more about it. I am willing to change my mind, but I just was not that impressed by it, plot wise.