was a stockprotagonist of kamishibai during its revival in early Shōwa periodJapan attributed to a creator known as Seiun, though the plagiarism and retelling in sundry variants that was the norm for popular-proving tales make its origin uncertain. Generally speaking, the character is a stereotypical adolescent or preadolescentingénue, a daughter of a penniless family who goes from selling camellias on the streets to being sold, forced to perform in a revue show. The character is known to western, and indeed contemporary Japanese, audiences predominantly by way of Suehiro Maruo's ero guro reinterpretation in comics including a graphic novel of the same name published in English translation as Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show and Hiroshi Harada's film based on Maruo's version, screened at film festivals and released on DVD-Video with English subtitles as Midori. The graphic novel is considered a classic of Maruo's 1920s-inspired brand of ero guro and its out-of-print English edition has become much sought-after; the film is also infamous in itself and for the elaborate expanded cinema presentations it was originally only shown in, though it has been allowed to screen in conventional movie theaters and even released on home video outside Japan. A live action film adaptation of the manga was released in Japan in May 2016.
Comics
The comics and film's version of the story follows the misadventures of a girl called Midori who, after losing her mother, joins a funfairfreak show. She is harassed, abused and humiliated by everyone else in the show, until the appearance of a dwarf magician-hypnotist.
Anime film
Midori is a 1992 Japanese independentero guro adult horror film by Hiroshi Harada, based on Suehiro Maruo's comic version of the kamishibai standard. The film, which Harada scripted and directed under the pseudonym of Hisaaki Etsu and whom he presents as a lost filmmaker he worked on it under, consists primarily of paintings and cels of drawings by Harada held, panned or zoomed over with music, sound effects and voice acting and occasional touches of traditional animation. In 1994, a censored version of the film was produced for future screenings at the request of Eirin, the Japanese filmcensor 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 of the new master of the film 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 all of his life savings to make the film over a five-year period. Over 5,000 separate sheets of animation were hand-drawn by Harada.
Screenings
The film was for many years very rare to see at all as Harada will only screen Midori in Japan if the venue is presented as a carnival freak show. From 1994 to 2006, outside of standard definition videotape transfers of the original master, the film was only available in the form of prints with visual and audio censorship in place. In 2006, however, a region 2-locked, PAL-style DVD-Video of the film with subtitles in French, English, Spanish, Italian and German was released in France by Ciné Malta, containing the original uncensored version of the film.
A live actionfilm adaptation of the manga directed by TORICO and starring was released in Japan in May 2016. Other cast members include Shunsuke Kazama,, Takeru and.
