Shōjo Tsubaki

The character is known to western and contemporary Japanese audiences predominantly by way of

The graphic novel is considered a classic of Maruo's 1920s-inspired brand of ero guro and its

Manga

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Midori is a young girl who lives a normal life with her bedridden mother, she struggles to make ends meet by selling camellia flowers. Midori's father had left their family leaving them all alone struggling. Soon after, Midori meets a stranger named Mr. Arashi who seems to be kind towards her and offers her a job in his circus assuring that he will be there for her when she needs him. As Midori returns home, she is horrified to see her mother dead and almost eaten by rats. A distraught Midori follows the address that Arashi gave her leading her to a circus where she meets some strange and unusual performers.

Things take a horrific turn as Midori discovers the dark side of the circus, she is constantly tortured sexually, physically and mentally by the circus performers including Arashi, ever since the first day and forced to participate in their acts. Soon after, the circus starts performing bad, and to boost their income, Arashi hires a middle aged magician named Masamitsu. Masamitsu is a pedophile who takes an instant liking to Midori. He becomes her "guardian" and protects her from the wrath of the evil performers and eventually marries her. However, he too holds a psychopathic side. Especially once, when he brutally murdered a performer after he tried to harass Midori.

Later, Arashi runs away with the troupe's money forcing the performers to separate. Midori and Masamitsu leaves the circus. On the way, Masamitsu is stabbed by a thief while he was bringing food. Midori, unaware of this thinks that Masamitsu too like the others never cared about her and was tricking her all along. In the ending scene, Midori is seen running away but always reaching the same dead end. She starts hallucinating the circus troupe including Mr Arashi and Masamitsu mocking her. Traumatized and agitated, Midori suffers a violent panic attack (a mental breakdown) and tries to hit them but they all disappear. In the end, the hallucinations disappear leaving Midori completely broken and all alone.

By the credits scene, it is believed that Midori committed suicide, unable to bear the struggle, trauma and the sufferings she went through.

Characters

In 1994, a censored version of the film was produced for future screenings at the request of Eirin, the Japanese film censor board. This version optically censored nudity, sexual assault, and violence towards animals, while removing discriminatory language from the audio track in the form of audio muting. The 2006 Ciné Malta DVD release of the film contains the original 1992 version, albeit with two short sections intended for audiences at live screenings omitted.

For many years, a videotape transfer of the film was all that was known to exist of the film, aside from censored post-1994 film prints screened at various international film festivals. In 2013, the original 16 mm negative of the film was rediscovered in an IMAGICA warehouse. A new print and digital master were made from this negative and began to be screened in digital format in Japan numerous times. Harada's production company plans to release a restored Blu-ray Disc of the new film master in 2020.

Production

The film was single-handedly created by Hiroshi Harada. Given the subject matter, Harada had found it impossible to gain sponsors. He then used his life savings to make the film over a five-year period. Harada hand-drew over 5000 separate sheets of animation.

Screenings