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being a huge fan of the dark genius of mangaka suehiro maruo, i decided to check out the anime version of his masterpiece of guro/psychosis shoujo tsubaki. the story takes place in the ramshackle underbelly of early showa period japan. it's the story of a young girl named midori who loses her family and is tricked into traveling with a truly gruesome freakshow circus a la tod browning's 1932 movie freaks (armless man, mummy, sword swallower, strongman, human worm, etc.) and her journey through misery to love and back to misery again. it's definitely not a story for people who don't revel in the dark ... side of human nature. this anime version captures maruo's original work somewhat well, with an aura of silent film era horror, japanese woodcut paintings of yokai and oni, and a certain dark beauty. the only downside of the film was in it's soundtrack, which was comprised of mostly low-budget synthesizer sounds, although they did use some traditional japanese instruments at the beginning (which would have definitely added to the film if used throughout). if you like psychotic guro stuff (and if you can actually track this down), i would rocommend it to you...

basically an extended journey through one man's mind and his contemplation of life, death, war, etc...also it's a meditation upon love and love lost for the girl jenny set to some really beautiful music throughout - the songs echo the thought of our protagonist in a really amazing way with atmospheric, moody, psychedelic music...the art/animation is really amazing and very minimalist, just white lines on black background with words of poetry coming in and out...if you like really artsy, impressionistic, and poetic stuff, you will like this, if not, stay away, as this film definitely is not a straightforward story in the conventional sense, more ... of an extended tone poem on lost love...genius!

even though i've only watched two episodes of this amazing anime, i felt i had to write a review, as no one else has, also because anyone who really loves great anime should check this out...based on one of my favorite manga by osamu tezuka, this anime takes place in the sengoku period in japan - a boy name hyakkimaru's father offers up forty-eight of his body parts to demons in exchange for unlimited power and the boy is left for dead - this is the story of his quest and travels with an orphan named dororo to reclaim his body from the demons by ... killing all forty-eight - this anime has all the atmosphere of a great japanese ghost story - amazing and eerie, it draws you in to the dark story with amazing direction that reminds me of kurosawa's great samurai epics - the sound is also genius: great seiyuu, amazing orchestral ghostly incidental music, and an amazing and gorgeous theme song - if you love great ghost stories, samurai tales, or anything by tezuka-sama, i highly recommend checking this out if you get a chance!!!

truly a classic of horror - umezu really hit a home run with this piece of twisted dreamery - reading this is like being stuck in one of those really bad fever (or dope-sick) half-dreams which are nightmares, but you never wake up - the story of a young boy and his sister and the discovery of rusty scissors which leads to a serial killer with one of those really freaky no-face masks who is actually an old lady who gave birth to an alien and she has to provide fodder for her kid who is actually a really twisted looking alien beast and they ... are stuck beneath a cemetery that gets washed away in a river and leads to other stuff i won't talk about yet, so just read it - it will really mess yr. head up (if you like that sort of thing) - art reminds me of those really awesome golden age 1950's EC horror comics about zombies, aliens, and living dead girls with axes - just amazing!!!!!

this is truly one of the most moving manga i've ever had the pleasure to experience and also one of the saddest - amazing the way it captures the absolute preciousness of keeping one's dream alive and what happens if we let it go.........also the difficulty of living in this world of "adults" as an eternal wide-eyed believer of magic and dreams, something i've dealt with all of my adult years as a dreamer and a freak - people say people like me, people like the magician are: "crazy", "losers", "lost", etc, but all the few of us eternal children left in the world want ... is to be able to keep on dreaming...i'd recommend everyone to check this out - truly genius!

though i have to say i'm not a fan of reviewing art or reviews in general, as art is an entirely subjective form, i have to say a few words about this - this is the story of how two very lost people are saved by each other and fall in love for a very short time - sad to say, but our greatest loves are sometimes far too short - a suicidal girl agrees against her will to start visiting a murderer on death row and over a very short time each teaches the other what it means to really live each day to ... it's fullest and also that redemption from our mistakes is available to all of us, if only we can forgive those who've hurt us - it's also a very moving protest against the evil of the death penalty because we are all human; even the worst amongst us was once a baby and pure - why is it a sin to murder outside of a prison wall but not to murder those inside? this story is a true tragedy, but also a true dream of what love is and the evanescence of our sometimes short time with those we love - i would recommend this to anyone whose heart is not made of stone..............

this was one of very few manga i've ever read i just could not stop reading - it was like watching a traffic accident: you have to look - an amazing exposure of the cancer and pain that is the rotten center of modern celebrity culture - it is the saga of ririko, a rather plain girl who achieves super-model status through the complete subjection of her former self beneath layers of make-up, plastic surgery, pain, and drugs and her ever advancing dissolution from stone-cold beauty to stone-cold crazy and falling apart - the art is beautifully water-color sketchy and perfectly captures the mind state ... of our "heroine" - story is perfectly paced and draws you in like a runaway train - ririiko reminds me of similar sad stories of hollywood goddesses such as marilyn monroe, francis farmer, or veronica lake: beautiful doomed idols who will always capture the imagination of similarly lost people - a must read!!!!!!