 Maruo Suehiro is a Japanese ero-guro mangaka and illustrator. He was born in 1956 in Nagasaki Japan and dropped out of high school to move to Tokyo in 1972 where he worked as a book binder at age 17. He was the youngest of 7 siblings and born into a poor family He actually wanted to be a children’s author at first and submitted his first work to Shonen Jump, but it was rejected because it was considered too graphic. Suehiro to almost spite this rejection decided to go in the complete opposite direction and do ero-guro comics. He made his debut in 1980 at the age of 24 in the magazine Ribon no Kishi. His first stand-alone work Barairo no Kaibutsu (Rose-Colored Monster) came two years after his debut and he would continue to contribute to underground/alternative magazines like Garo for many years to come. Suehiro is a very enigmatic and mysterious figure, rarely ever making public appearances except for a select few interviews and is rarely seen without his signature sunglasses. Very little of Maruo Suehiro’s work has been published outside of Japan, but he does enjoy a very strong cult following, especially in Europe and France specifically and he was surprised to learn that most of his fan base is female. Suehiro was influenced by a great deal of individuals, from illustrators to fellow mangaka and authors. One of his early works Planet of the Jap was directed influenced by Phillip K. Dick’s sci-fi classic The Man in High Castle which recently received a T.V adaptation. He is fascinated by “human oddities”, deformity and defects and commonly makes use of them in his work, most notably in Mr. Arashi’s Freak Show. Maruo unlike many other artists is self-taught. He has a retro style that hearkens back to the Shouwa period where so many of his works are set. There are also some political, religious, supernatural and historical, themes in his works, in addition to the usual sexual debauchery and focus on death, decay, disability and deformity as well as use of surrealism. Suehiro personal interest in ero-guro stems from his ability to express himself freely, as well as the idea of using nonsense and absurdity as well as the lack of justice and morality. Suehiro’s work is often considered to have a focus ero-guro or erotique grotesque style. This style originated in the 1930’s in the Shouwa era, thus the focus on this era in a lot of ero-guro works. These works tend to depict deviance in a way that is both celebratory and alarmist. The highly militaristic, ultra-nationalism and tradtional conservative values of the Shouwa period starkly contrast with Suehiro's liberal use of sexuality and gore. He’s considered one of the greatest retro artists of our time, with having a very realistic and elegant style and is not simply limited to ero-guro manga. He is currently working a series for mainstream magazine Young Champion. He also often has cameos within his own work. Suehiro’s most well known work is Mr. Arashi’s Freak Show, likely better known as Midori, which is the name of the main character and what was used when the film was marketed in France and Europe by Cinemalta. Midori is the only one of Suehiro’s works to receive an anime adaptation. The movie was independently produced by the Director Hiroshi Harada and took a total of 5 years to complete. Harada decided to self-censor himself in Japan to avoid seeing his artistic vision altered and avoided a commercial release in Japan. No one wanted to finance the film so Harada had to find the funds for himself. Harada did nearly all of the production of the film by himself, which includes over 5000 sheets of separate hand drawn animation. Harada decided to focus on the issues of bullying and hazing more in the film adaptation, because he wanted to raise awareness of the issue and because he had experienced it himself in his youth. He cites Isao Takahata as one of his main sources of inspiration and influence, as well as American cartoonist and animator Winsor McCay. Harada felt very moved and was sympathetic towards the handicapped people within the film due to his own handicap. Due to the short length of the film Harada himself feels like it was somewhat rushed or fast-paced in comparison to the manga. He also convinced J.A Ceazer to provide the OST for Midori. Ceazer has also done the OST for Kunihiko Ikuhara’s Revolutionary Girl Utena as well as the films of Terayama Shuji, who is also an influence to Harada. Along with the themes of bullying and discrimination there was also this sense of a counter-culture, going against the mainstream and official version of Japan which is often presented by film makers like Miyazaki. Another big theme during the making of this film is the censorship forced onto it. Although this type of art tends to be controversial, I think it's very important to allow artists to be able to express themselves freely. Even though this type of thing might not be what you're into, if you allow others to be be censored and have their visions altered, then when what you enjoy receives the same treatment, you have only yourself to blame. A live action adaptation of Midori is scheduled to be released in Japan in May 2016. Just a side note I will be helping to host a panel about Maruo Suehiro for the Canadian anime convention Anime North; where I'll go through much of the same information in this article. Please drop by if you can :) |
 "The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." -Friedrich Nietzsche |
| Yeah he's a super interesting guy. Something I left out of the article was how difficult it was to actually get permission to adapt the film. Several studios wanted to do an adaption before Harada, but they were all turned down. I feel like it was Harada's conviction to see the project to completion while maintaining his original vision that managed to convince him, due to the his self-taught nature. Also the first picture in the fourth row seems to be a reference to a famous Yukio Mishima photo. |
"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." -Friedrich Nietzsche |
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