I was under impression that Mauro had no initial idea for this one, as far as outcome is concerned. It fluctuates between his tendency to shock the reader, and his attempts to convey a more profound story.
You will often notice themes such as moral perversion, hardship of an unorthodox situation, dysfunctional relationship, deprivation of human needs, and many other under scrutiny. Problem is that they are often, not really abruptly, but still interrupted by superfluous visuals of sexual nature. Due to it, reader could end up repelled and miss the excellent story hidden beneath Mauro's psycho-sexual outburst.
On the other hand, the detailed art
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 Alternative TitlesSynonyms: Imo-mushi, Ranpo no Imomushi, The Caterpillar Japanese: 芋虫 InformationType: Manga
Volumes: 1
Chapters: 4
Status: Finished
Published: 2009
Demographic:
Seinen
Serialization:
Comic Beam Statistics Ranked: #111902 2 based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #7773
Members: 2,603
Favorites: 22 | Reviews
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May 21, 2020
"imomushi"/"caterpillar" is the ultimate confluence of maruo's lifelong obsessions with edogawa ranpo (whose short story serves as the source material here) and with undermining japanese nationalism, imperialism, martialism, masculinity, and whatever other institutions you can smear shit on in a comic panel. prior to this the "new national kid" collection was maruo's most sustained assault on 20th-century japan, but as you might expect from work produced a decade later "imomushi," like maruo's recent "binzume no jigoku" collection, displays a newfound stylistic discipline. but this discipline should not be taken to imply respectability.
in fact "imomushi" is one of the few works to fulfill what i've ... 
Sep 15, 2013
I'm sad to say I was really disappointed by this manga.
I had already read Edogawa Rampo's short story "The Caterpillar", which is not only good but one of the best Japanese horror stories of all times. More than that... It is probably one of the masterpieces of horror literature in the world (hand in hand with Maupassant and Edgar Alan Poe, who the Japanese writer admired, his admiration being the reason for his pen name which is a japanization of Poe's name). The manga doesn´t get even close to the short story. If I had to review this manga in a few words, I ... |
