Kago Shintarō ( 駕籠真太郎) is a Japanese illustrator and manga artist. Kano was born in Tokyo in 1969. He debuted in 1988 on the magazine COMIC BOX. Since then his comics, usually short stories, have been published in several adult manga magazines, gaining him considerable popularity around the world. Kago specialises in ero-guro, a Japanese visual genre that puts its focus on eroticism, sexual corruption, and grotesque body horror. Many of Kago's manga have strongly satirical overtones, and deal with grotesque subjects such as extreme sex, scatology and body modification. His unique style has been called "fashionable paranoia".
Más de la mitad del tomo se trata sobre una historia, en la que un grupo de personas son invitados a participar de un proyecto llamado Anamorfosis. En el que los creadores, recrean, en maquetas, escenas de crimenes reales a la perfección, con la finalidad de llamar a los espíritus relacionado a la escena para que estos atormenten a los participantes, quienes deben pasar 48 horas encerrados en las instalaciones. Muchos han muerto en el concurso, han habido muchos accidentes.
Después de esa historia viene una recopilación de 8 historias cortas, malsanas, perturbadoras, con contenido explícito y violencia
En estos relatos, muy cortos, encontramos una chica detective con metodologías inusuales, otra desdichada porque donde ella va llueve, asesinas, hikikimoris, una en la que hay intercambio de partes del cuerpo muy repugnante y cómica, entre muchas otras historias retorcidas e inquietantes que no pasan desapercibidas.
En general un tomo con todo de un poco, me ha parecido bien bueno, y la primera historia utiliza recursos muy buenos que crean un escenario como en paralelo que va juntando las piezas progresivamente.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
De las pocas veces que le pongo 4 estrellas a Shintaro Kago. Anamorfosis es una antología llena de humor negro y situaciones de eroguro grotesco que amamos de este autor de culto y el horror. Sin embargo a veces los finales los sentí muy abruptos. Aún así disfrute esas escenas gore y las grandes críticas al sexo, los deseos y los instintos humanos que nos muestra este autor en cada una de sus obras.
Trippy. That's how I would describe this book. Trippy. The first story is broken down into 7 chapters. It's about special effects, rubber suits, and pranks. It's pretty ****ed up. The twist at the end is a lot of fun, though I feel the buildup along the way was a little misleading at times to sell the ending. Not Shintaro's usual explosion of violence and sex, but the way he plays with perspective is pretty cool. After that we have a bunch of one shots:
Bishoujo Tantei Tengai Sagiri - A Nancy Drew style girl detective story that is NOT for children. I repeat, this is NOT for children...or some adults. Rainy Girl - Having a rain cloud hovering over your head constantly doesn't seem like it would be very useful, but some perverted scientist has found a way. Small Present - Woah. Hikikomori - This is what happens when everyone in town becomes a shut in. It's hilarious and gross. Behind - Remember that episode of Seinfeld when they dropped a junior mint inside a surgery patient...it's like that but way weirder. Previous Life - This is the funniest interpretation of reincarnation I have ever read. Salesman - Gives new meaning to "pushy salesman". Changes - Don't overthink it, just go with it. I couldn't stop laughing. Weightlessness - Reminded me of the Twilight Zone.
This is the most fucked up manga (or anything I've ever read).
It's like if Junji Ito was depraved and messed up. It has detailed and amazing artwork to illustrate useless and absurd stories. A lot of trigger warnings for nudity, sexual abuse, bestiality, gore and blood. It's very adult!
The first story (the title story) was the longest and it was intrifuing, the rest were so short and made me question my sanity. It's disgusting but you have to admit by the end of it that there was some talent there.
Esta obra tiene muchos adjetivos para poder ser descrita: grotesca, asquerosa, hermosa, imaginativa, fantástica, retorcida, genial, etc. Pero solamente puedo decir que es una la cuál comencé con grandes expectativas y las superó.
El dibujo del autor es tan fluido, las expresiones son claras y cada historia tiene algo, no siempre las entiendes del todo pero ninguna te deja indiferente.
Por eso su calificación, no logra la nota perfecta por algo que ni yo logro explicar. Realmente es un 4.9 pero hay algo que no le da las 5. Quizá algún día lo descubra o en una relectura se aclare, por lo pronto es lo más sincero que puedo dar.
Cómo ya dije cada historia tiene lo suyo, desde la que le da nombre a la colección hasta la última juegan con ese estilo tan surreal y tan japonés, el aceptar como algo cotidiano una cosa que claramente no lo es. Lo grotesco cómo algo que es parte del vivir y lo hermoso como lo superficial de lo mismo.
Sin duda alguna me ha dejado con ansias de leer más de este mangaka, espero pronto hacerlo y más porque esta es la última lectura del maratón de horror de este año.
Fue un maratón con altas y bajas pero está es una muy buen forma de cerrar con las lecturas que forman parte del mismo.
The short stories that are included in this present some of the most depraved, fucked up situations to the reader, but are actually played for laughs, in turn creating some the darkest humor I've came across in some time, and I kinda love it. I've read only the first volume of Dementia 21, so that's all of Kago's work I've been exposed to up until now, and these shorts came out of left field for me, and in the best way possible.
They hit even stranger, because 3/4s of this collection is dedicated to the title story, Anamorphosis, which gave me all the vibes I expected to get from Kago. It's twisty and turny and deliciously meta. The story is quite a banger itself and quality wise is every bit as good as those short tales; hell, it may be better than them. But the sheer amount of shocked laughing and excited page turning to see if the weird shit I was seeing could actually get any weirder (SPOILER!!! It can....) that I experienced throughout those 8-page gems is something I won't soon forget!
On the art side of things, while Kago's work doesn't quite hit the level of technical excellence here that he showed in Dementia 21, it's still phenomenal artwork that excels in highlighting all the gore and weird body horror that permeates the collection. If you're easily offended, Anamorphosis is not the manga for you, but if anything I mentioned here or the cover of the book piques your interests, I enthusiastically recommend you spare an hour to check it out.
Vraiment pas mon délire, c’est grotesque et répugnant. Je ne comprends pas l’intérêt de publier des choses pareilles, mais j’imagine que l’argent n’a pas d’odeur… Tant mieux si ça plaît à d’autres.
Trigger Warnings: nudity, sexual content, severe gore, brief rape mentions, beastiliaty
Anamorphosis no Meijuu is an ero-guro horror manga by Shintaro Kago. The first half of this features a sick, twisted horror-detective game that leads the reader guessing many things about the story. The second half is made up of one-shots of different horror genres.
The first story was actually pretty thrilling. Unfortunately, I've gotten quite used to guro manga portraying something as one way when it was completely the over - the manga that taught me this was actually Fraction by Kago himself. I was a little disappointed that, although I didn't know what was going to happen specifically to this story, I knew that he wasn't portraying it as clearly as the reader thinks. It's an interesting concept; people are invited to play a game. Inside, they are taken to a model crime scene, exactly how it was upon when the victims died. The spirit is summoned and the guest must survive forty-eight hours within the set. Those that make it are given a split prize between sixty million Yen. However, of course, there's a catch.
This story was pretty well done. I don't think it was as good as I would have liked it; it focuses more within detective work than the actual horror aspect of it itself, which was a little bit of a letdown for me. This was actually recommended to me as a specific horror manga, so for it to turn out to be most riddles and crime (along with some decent body horror art), I wasn't really entertained. I read this in the mood for horror which is probably why my rating is lower than the majority of guro manga I've rated so far.
The one-shots in this, however, have some potential. Although some are explicitly gross and are pretty much nothing more than drawing sexual scenes (although I do find it hilarious how the author is able to draw explicit scenes, and they can't seem to say vagina nor penis within the writing), some did hold potential. Specifically, Beyond and Weightless held some laughs and some pretty decent body horror. However, I feel like, as stated before, most of them were just an excuse to draw explicit sexual situations just for the sake of it. The stories did have a humour to them, and perhaps you need to be able to find the dark side of comedy to be able to fully enjoy them. If these were all split up in between different manga collections, I think they would have been better off than having content one after the other after the other. It seemed a little disjointed, and some didn't seem to make sense at all. A little infuriating, but the two mentioned definitely made the read worth it.
I'm a little off-put from Kago after this. I'm going to read the remaining works I'm able to, but I feel a little disjointed and uneasy after reading this one through.
I was expecting to really like it, because I enjoy gore and I'm a fan of Junji Ito, but I can't go past all of the sex scenes involving minors, most of the time with adult partners and sometimes even without consent (there's even a sex scene with a DOG). I'm not against controversial topics in books, as long as well handled, and this was NOT the case, since these scenes were mostly either gratuitous or fetishized, and neither the SA or the fact that they are minors is ever acknowledged as being problematic. (At most, the SA is viewed as "mildly inconvenient").
So, for me, it's a no for a book containing stories involving {SPOILERS} a high school girl being constantly forced into unprotected sex with her teacher, or a high school girl - again! - being SA'd and feeling thankful because she's at last being "useful", or, surprise! - a high school girl being forced into drinking and then SA'd by a group of boys. And again, none of these situations constitute the horror itself, the girls feel just annoyed.
2.5 stars solely for the main story which was a somewhat interesting altho a bit convoluted ending.
The short stories that follow are all disguting and foul, they're all one and zero stars. Especially the first ones. Ew. I only kinda like Behind, Changes and Weightlessness. Hard pass on everything else. I can't take minors and SA.
Pretty good. The first half was the better part. Its not erotic at all, and its where Kago does what he does best. Confusing the reader's eye by selective framing. And it has the effect of feeling a classic horror "locked room" style of story.
Como el autor nos tiene acostumbrados, se nos presentan elementos grotescos, bizarros y desagradables entremezclados con elementos de humor negro y crítica social.
Una obra compuesta por varias historias independientes que en su mayoría comparten estas características en común.
Una lectura ágil, incómoda e incluso divertida que te hará sacar una carcajada, una mueca de disgusto o te hará plantearte si realmente es legal que esto esté publicado por una editorial.
Anamorphosis revolves around a group of people invited to a contest wherein they have to stay in a supposedly haunted set for 48 hours after an evil murderous spirit is summoned to produce a recreation of the murder scene. Over half of the book features this story and the rest is a collection of bizarre shorts designed to shock you, disgust you and make you laugh at the same time.
The first story started off a bit cliche but it evolved into a creative psychological thriller where a silly game show challenge turns into the scene of a snuff film. All of the one shot stories made me ask (what the fuck?) at least twenty times. They were intentionally shocking and offensive and I got a laugh out of some of them for being so over-the-top. Not a bad collection overall if you have the stomach for this type of material.
Pretty run of the mill Ero-Guro collection that will probably only appeal to fans of this mangaka. The art is just ok throughout, a shame considering a big twist in the first (and longest) story falls flat due to some rather sloppy background art. Meh.
Hot on the heels after reading my first Junji Ito manga, I decided to check out this manga. I knew next to nothing before diving into it. I was surprised to find that it was sort of an anthology manga with separate stories within. I’ll touch on each of them separately. But overall, I enjoyed this manga and look forward to checking out others by the author. I see some other reviewers have criticized the art style. I did not think it was that bad. It is not the greatest I have seen but it is not the worst either. It is a hell of a lot better than I could draw it. There is nudity and depictions of violence throughout. If you are squeamish with depictions of murder or anything like that then steer clear of this manga. I am going to issue a spoiler warning for here on out, even though I do not plan on giving everything away.
Chapter 1 – Anamorphosis: The longest story in the manga is told in alternating parts and focuses on the aftermath of a prank show gone wrong. It has heavy supernatural, mystery, and horror themes. Although I did expect it to be more supernatural than it was. It kept subverting my expectations and had a twist ending that would make Shyamalan jealous. Shintarō Kago shows us that he a maestro of perspective.
Chapter 2 – Bishouju Tantei Tengai Sagiri: This is a short Holmes-esque story with a private detective protagonist. She is tasked with solving a case and utilizing some unique methods to get the bottom of it.
Chapter 3 – Rainy Girl: This short story focuses on a girl that is a magnet for rain. Ok, trigger warning. There is a rape scene. The story touches on the eugenics of “rainy people” and the potential of weaponizing them. The protagonist deals with some self-worth issues due to a literal rain cloud always following her.
Chapter 4 – Small Present: A female student is a relationship with a male teacher. The teacher either has a high sex drive or is an addict. She ends up getting pregnant. They have a neighbor who is a little too friendly and who ends up becoming a source of inspiration for how the couple decides to deal with the pregnancy. So far, the chapters seem to be getting darker and darker.
Chapter 5 – Hikikomori: After the last story, I am almost afraid to continue. At the very least I know to throw out whatever expectations I had for the rest of this manga. This story starts out with the female protagonists first day at a new school. The teachers in this school need some counseling or need to transfer to a different school or something. I thought the teachers was going to be the craziest thing about this story. I was wrong. I fear without giving too much away I cannot explain how wrong I was.
Chapter 6 – Behind: This starts out with a standard medical procedure. Of course, the author has depicted the surgery in all of its gory details. It must have been performed at the hospital that is nearest to where I live because they ended up leaving something behind when they stitched the patient shut. I am pretty sure the doctor in this story is going to lose his license. Like the other stories so far, some things end up going terribly wrong. This one seems like it has more morals that can be gleamed from the ending than some of the others.
Chapter 7 – Previous Life: Ok, cool. This is the story where the creepy girl that is eating a rat comes from. I have seen it on quite a few horror manga lists. The main character cracked me up. She just nonchalantly goes, “Lately, there seems to be something wrong with my little sister.” Yeah, I would say so. Thankfully…I guess…she finds a renowned spiritualist that helps. They develop an interesting business plan.
Chapter 8 – Salesman: I’m going to add a suicide trigger warning. We have a protagonist that unfortunately has too many friends that have committed suicide. Where the hell did that guy come from? An interesting business plan develops in this story too.
Chapter 9 – Changes: Cool, cool, cool. We are starting out with a girl who gets one of nipples somehow replaced by a mouth. This feels like a Giallo version of the TV show Fringe. You wouldn’t believe where the story goes for this one if I described the events verbatim. Needless to say my expectations were subverted in this one too.
Chapter 10 – Weightlessness: There is interesting twist at the end. I feel like some of the people could have elaborated a bit more to prevent some confusion. I think this might be the shortest story in the collection so I won’t say anymore.
That was a roller coaster ride. I plan on reading some of the author’s other work so I at least I have a better idea of what I am getting into.
Anni fa mi introdussero a Kago come "il maestro dell'ero-guro", ossia l'arte erotica-splatter giapponese, per intenderci.
Leggendo Anamorphosis mi sono trovato fra le mani una storia horror ingegnosa e d'impatto che mi ha lasciato un po' a bocca asciutta. Non solo per l'assenza di questo "ero-guro" tanto decantato, ma anche per la presenza di una storia che non aveva nulla di straordinario se non per la caratterizzazione maniacale delle pose e delle espressioni dei personaggi e del loro ambiente che ho gradito moltissimo.
Questo, fino a pagina 132.
Da quel punto in poi si susseguono una serie di racconti brevi e sorprendenti che sfiorano vette di orrore e deviazione vertiginose. Farò fatica a levarmi dalla testa la storia della donna-pioggia... Malsano.
Per concludere, la storia principale è buona, direi tre su cinque forse tre e mezzo; i racconti che seguono invece mi hanno scaturito convulsioni immaginifiche portandomi a visualizzare storie che non pensavo fosse possibile creare. Solo i giapponesi, cazzo.
Consigliato a chi ha voglia di leggere manga mindfuck.
Kakakaka fiquei interessado no "livro" única e exclusivamente pela capa BELÍSSIMA dele, na hora me chamou a atenção, mas não comprei na hora, ATÉ a semana passada, comprei numa livraria em um shopping e me saiu 20 REAIS MAIS CARO que na Internet, mas fazer oq né? Fui pegar pra ler e eu jurava que era um livro, mas na verdade é um mangá, na hora já fiquei meio pá pelo pouco número de páginas, até que curti a história principal mas sinceramente não achei nada demais, até ver as outras histórias e ficar embasbacado com as coisas que tem aqui, enquanto eu ainda lia a primeira história até comentei com um amigo "a capa é foda desse jeito e no mangá msm n tem quase nada, pra mim falta violência" e sinceramente eu RETIRO oq eu disse pq o twist que esse mangá deu pra mim foi demais, realmente não esperava NADA daquilo, bem diferente, histórias com conceitos legais e com suas críticas e reflexões... Meu medo é alguém folhear ele um dia e ver as bizarrices que tem, não é um mangá ruim mas também não é nada demais.
Não me lembro de ter lido, até então, qualquer obra que se enquadrasse no gênero ero guro, sendo Anamorfose, portanto, a primeira. Sabendo que a base desse gênero é a mistura do erótico, do bizarro e do grotesco, comecei a leitura mais preparado para o que encontraria nessas páginas.
A primeira metade da obra é ocupada pela história homônima, que apresenta um enredo bastante instigante e misterioso. Essa história, que praticamente não contém elementos eróticos, é a melhor parte do mangá.
Já a segunda metade traz vários contos curtos, nos quais os elementos que definem o gênero aparecem. O erótico, o grotesco, o bizarro e o absurdo predominam. Embora seja possível identificar algumas críticas sociais do autor nessas histórias mais curtas, a grande maioria deixa muito a desejar, e nenhuma se destaca como realmente boa.
Dar una valoración de Anamorfosis es bastante complicado, ya que aproximadamente la mitad del volumen está dedicado a la historia de intriga, suspense y terror psicológico que da nombre al tomo y la otra mitad son una compilación de nueve relatos cortos de humor absurdo, grotesco y con algún elemento sexual (casi siempre machista a mi parecer ಠ╭╮ಠ ), por lo que el tono cambia completamente entre una parte y la otra. Si tengo que puntuar, le daría un 4,5/5 a la historia de Anamorfosis pues me ha parecido que estaba muy bien contada además de ser extremadamente original. En cuanto a los relatos, quizás un 2,5/5 ya que la mayoría son bastante insulsos, aunque alguno me ha hecho gracia de tan estúpido que era y tengo que reconocer que con el del intercambio de miembros me he reído bastante.
I say I read this book but I actually mean I read the first half (the anamorphis story). The second half were explicit short stories that uh... Simply weren't for me 😳✋, but if you are a fan of this mangaka, they probably will be for you as I think he is renowned for his guro.
Anyway, this was a super cool plot with lots of existential horror that had me thinking even after I read the book. I loved the parallel storylines and the detective element.
I really loved the art style and the page layouts, though sometimes the background art work(?) Made it hard to follow(?). Might be a weird thing to say, but the gore was especially well illustrated 👀.
El relat llarg que dóna títol al llibre té kaijus, esperits venjatius, dissecciona els films antics de monstres japonesos fets de forma artesanal (tokusatsu), una trama d'assassinats misteriosos en un entorn tancat i una venjança destinada a descobrir els causants veritables d'una mort fortuïta. Tot i aquests elements, no m'ha acabat d'enganxar. Per contra, les narracions hipercurtes i autoconclusives de la part final del volum són una delícia gamberra, esbojarrada i amb un sentit de l'horror més gore i divertit i, lluny de ser material prescindible, compensen la valoració final de la lectura i la inversió feta en la compra.
Not for me. I think the main story is a very weak, boring tale with some heavy-handed twists and turns, specially at the end. But the short stories is what make me feel conflicted. I feel like I'm not the right person for this manga, and what is going to sell it for the reader is the humor. The depravity and all the fucked up stuff is quite something, but it's so outrageous it can't be taken seriously, and I never found it funny. So even tho I'm giving this 1 star, I can see people liking this a lot.
I don't even know what to rate this manga. On the one hand, it's extremely obscene and offensive; it's also hilarious and very original. I didn't care much for the first story, but the one-shots on the second half are all very entertaining. Not for the faint of heart, but it doesn't take iteself seriously and there's an obvious satirical undertone which makes it a lot easier to take. Some of the darkest, most bizarre humour I've ever read.
sigh I went into the first part with high expectations and I felt disappointed by the end, but then I started the one-shots and oh my god, these were something, huh?! I feel dirty, weird, and traumatized which is what I mostly want from anything horror, but this guy may have overdone it a little bit-? this is definitely not for the light-hearted.
kago's brand of weird-ass horror is just so entertaining to me. think junji ito on a massive amount of drugs. the story with the detective cracked me up, really wasn't expecting that
(also, for the sane people who are seeing this review, don't read kago if you don't know what you're getting into. or read kago but don't blame me :D)
Estranho e bizarro, com uma narrativa bem estruturada e cheia de reviravoltas a trama gira em torno de um realyti show e um plano de vingança. vamos aos poucos conhecedo os personagens e os detalhes de uma trama muito intricada e onde o autor exibe ideias e conceitos bem incomodos , uma leitura diferente para mim pois não sou um grande leitor de mangá mas esse me chamou a atenção