The World’s Most Disturbing Anime - Midori
Many have heard rumors of this anime being banned in multiple countries.
Though these claims are hard to verify, it’s believable: Midori, also known as Shoujo Tsubaki, is one of the most disgusting animes ever created.
Midori is a hand-drawn anime movie by Hiroshi Harada. Released in 1992, people worldwide were quick to hate it, stating that it was an inhumane film that deserved no popularity. But Harada had a reason for the amount of violence and gore.
Hiroshi Harada singlehandedly worked on almost everything in this film, drawing every panel, but he based himself on Suehiro Maruo’s manga titled “Mr. Arashi’s Amazing Freak Show”. It is said that Harada used all of his savings because nobody wanted to sponsor such a gruesome project.
The story follows Midori, a 12-year-old orphan integrated into a freak show after her mother’s death. From the beginning to the end, the audience is not spared from horrific bodily mutilation, harassment, and abuse. Unimaginably graphic, Midori’s life is exponentially worsened by the adults who take advantage of her innocence and defenselessness.
Is it beautiful? It’s a hard question to answer. The visuals are stunning, and the way the sequences click into each other is trippy; the gore reminisces Junji Ito’s twisted body horror, but it seems like the basis of the story represents the very ugliness that inhabits our society. Beyond the abuse that Midori suffers at the hands of her peers, her being alienated from society by the death of her mother, as well as the state in which every circus member is found, is a picture of a big problem that still haunts us today.
Hiroshi Harada was bullied during his childhood, and the things that he went through are depicted in full - this was his attempt to shatter taboos of speaking about psychological and physical degradation. Albeit Japan banned it between 2004 and 2013, there are many laws globally that forbid violence towards children and small animals, making it impossible to screen.
About the Author:
Mizuki Khoury
Born in Montreal, based in Tokyo. Sabukaru’s senior writer and works as an artist under Exit Number Five.
