Tajemnicza historia Wyspy Panoram

by Suehiro Maruo (Adapter), Edogawa Rampo (Based On), Wojciech Gęszczak (Translator)

Rok 1926, koniec ery Taishō w Japonii. Pisarz o niepohamowanej wyobraźni fantazjuje nad nową fabułą powieści: jakby to było nagle odziedziczyć ogromny majątek i stworzyć na odizolowanej wyspie park rozrywki dla dorosłych z niesamowitymi atrakcjami typu podwodne tunele, nagie modelki, wodospady i łodzie w kształcie łabędzi. Od swojego wydawcy słyszy, że za duży w tym inspiracji Edgarem Allanem Poe i żeby zszedł na ziemię ze swoimi pomysłami. Nikt jeszcze wtedy nie wie, że ów pisarz, Hirosuke Hitomi, uknuje plan, by swoją fantazję zrealizować w prawdziwym życiu.

“Tajemnicza historia Wyspy Panoram” to mangowa adaptacja noweli Edogawy Ranpo, która ukazywała się w Japonii w odcinkach w latach 1926-1927. Historię zilustrował Suehiro Maruo, artysta znany z charakterystycznego połączenia erotyzmu z groteską (jap. ero-guro). Jego ilustracja zdobi okładkę tajfunowego wydania Gąsienicy, więc to najlepsze potwierdzenie, że Maruo i Ranpo świetnie idą w parze!

Genres: Manga, Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Japan, Fiction, Mystery

270 pages, Paperback

First published February 25, 2008

About the author

Suehiro Maruo ( 丸尾 末広) is a Japanese manga author and illustrator.
Maruo graduated from junior high school in March 1972 but dropped out of senior high school. At the age of 15 he moved to Tokyo and began working for a bookbinder. At 17, he made his first manga submission to Weekly Shōnen Jump, but it was considered by the editors to be too graphic for the magazine's format and was subsequently rejected. Maruo temporarily removed himself from manga until November 1980 when he made his official debut as a manga artist in Ribon no Kishi (リボンの騎士) at the age of 24. It was at this stage that the young artist was finally able to pursue his artistic vision without such stringent restrictions over the visual content of his work. Two years later, his first stand-alone anthology, Barairo no Kaibutsu (薔薇色の怪物; Rose Colored Monster) was published.

Maruo was a frequent contributor to the legendary underground manga magazine Garo (ガロ).

Like many manga artists, Maruo sometimes makes cameo appearances in his own stories. When photographed, he seldom appears without his trademark sunglasses.
Though most prominently known for his work as a manga artist, Maruo has also produced illustrations for concert posters, CD Jackets, magazines, novels, and various other media. Some of his characters have been made into figures as well.

Though relatively few of Maruo's manga have been published outside of Japan, his work enjoys a cult following abroad.
His book Shōjo Tsubaki (aka Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show) has been adapted into an animated film (Midori) by Hiroshi Harada with a soundtrack by J.A. Seazer, but it has received very little release.

Reviews

[mark monday · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spoiler Alert! no, wait, I guess not. it's in the title after all. right there, front and center: Panorama Island. specifically the various Panoramas of various World Fairs of a century or so ago. and thus the island's great secret is blown.

no matter. Strange Tale is less about secrets waiting to surprise you and more about luxuriating in morbid obsessions and a decadent pursuit of pleasure and beauty. we follow an eccentric, Poe-worshipping writer who takes direct inspiration from that author's "The Premature Burial" and decides to assume the identity of his recently deceased and fabulously wealthy college chum. it's a grim piece of work, that bit of graveyard business. and once his new identity is secured, realizing his deepest dream becomes possible: he shall construct a pleasure world on a little island, where nature's infinite beauty and all the possible permutations of sexuality are celebrated. a decidedly excessive and very adult wonderland; a utopia by way of King Ludwig II of Bavaria.

a teensy bit of murder mystery thrown in at the end, to add the sort of spice that Poe would admire. specifically, the Poe of "the death of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world". the result is a chillingly beautiful and sick scene that really surprised me.

this book is an adaptation of a novel by Japanese writer Tarō Hirai under his pseudonym Edogawa Rampo - the pseudonym itself being an adaptation of "Edgar Allan Poe". how circular!

but sharing the stage is the brilliant and very perverted artist Suehiro Maruo, who is the entire reason I bought this pricey tome. it was well worth the expense. his line work is a model of cleanly clarity, which is a striking way to illustrate a series of images that shift suddenly from the morbidly grotesque to the dully prosaic (albeit still gorgeous) to the eerily ambiguous, and then back again. and all of that is before we even get to Panorama Island itself, where the artist really outdoes himself with spellbinding vista after vista. a veritable panorama of beauty! and, of course, creepily decadent excess. I wouldn't want to live there, but I sure wouldn't mind a short visit.

Seth T. wrote a superb review of this book:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[The Artisan Geek]

------------------VIDEO REVIEW------------------



14/8/20
Reviewed this manga on my channel :)

27/7/20
This was really freaking good. I yelped when I got to the last few panels lol.

You can find me on
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[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ero guro is a literary and artistic movement that began somewhere in the thirties in Japan, associated with eroticism and "the grotesque." This adult manga by Suehiro Maruo is faithfully adapted, and within the ero guru tradition, from a strange tale by Rampo Edogawa about a struggling novelist whose nearly identical (but now rich) boyhood friend dies. Said writer decides to exhume his dead friend's body, dispose of it, and essentially convince people he had not really died, but was buried prematurely. He also makes a plan to replace him.

So he does this; he "becomes" his friend. He pulls it off. The graveyard episode, including one scene where he realizes he must extract the false tooth of his friend and his own healthy tooth. . . These are some examples of the grotesque. And a few other things that happen later fit this tone. So I think this is also a manga horror story. The struggling writer most admires the work of Poe, so this fits.

So this writer has also written a novel his editor rejects. . . which we learn later (okay, now this is a spoiler alert) is the very situation he creates in replacing his friend. The novel he wrote and enacts is about a man who creates a fantasy island, Panorama Island, using up the vast fortune of his dead friend to create a magnificent dreamworld. Some of the fantasies enacted on the island include nude "statues" posed by actors, and various sexual acts. That's where the ero guru eroticism comes in. It's adult fare, though the drawing of the scenes is pretty air-brushed and more erotic than pornographic. But also as strange as it is erotic. Like the effect of something from Hitchcock, maybe, or someting darkly surrealistice, but surely Poe.

All the main characters in the tale seem like fantasy characters, unfortunately, but the actors who get to enact this Dionysian fantasy island seem real; they feel they got a lucky gig getting paid to have this wild fun. They're my favorite characters, because they seem the most real.

So it's horror, its this crazy erotic fantasy of some guy, but it's also a crime story, which gets resolved way too quickly, too neatly, I think, until one last surprise. We don't know precisely how it all gets figured out, and that is disappointing, but it's not a story about Sherlockian deduction, it's a tale of horror and eroticism and twists and strange effects.

I didn't know Suehiro Maruo's work, but am going to check out more, for sure. The lines are elegant and spare and lovely for a horror comic. Just beautiful art work, among the most beautiful manga artwork I have yet seen. It is really impressive, a great genre tale. The work of two amazing artists, the original novelist and the manga ka.

[Seth T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never in my life seen an actual panorama. I’d love to, but I haven’t. I’m sure most people living today haven’t had the pleasure—as panoramas were largely popular in the 19th century and were already well on their way out by 1900. I have of course seen panoramic photography and the inheritor of the ill-fated Cinéorama, Disneyland’s Circle-Vision 360°. Still, not the same thing and I regret that I will likely never have the opportunity to engage such staging and artistry in person. Reading about panoramas, while exciting the imagination to some small degree, really can’t do justice to what must have been a tremendous thrill for 19th century viewers.

Panoramas were sometimes built of painted panels alone (often staged at differing depths to confer a sense of dimensionality), but many featured three-dimensional elements as well—sculpted pieces in the foreground designed to trick the mind into seeing depth where none existed. Observers were brought into an arena of specialized lighting and visual manipulation, which could then govern the rational mind into a particular aesthetic experience. The panoramic scene would elicit a mediation between beauty (a concept derived from sexuality) and the sublime (a kind of awe in the face of the horror of the unknown). This balance between the two was known as the picturesque.[1]



Panoramas were means by which people could be theatrically transported into a world outside their own—a world of the picturesque, of beauty and awe conjoined. The panorama’s chief conceit is that the viewer does not just take in a particularly lush painting but is installed within the painting itself. Canvas borders would be obscured by props such that the beginning and end of the panorama could not immediately be discerned. Having been enveloped within the panorama, the observer is made participant in the scene into which he or she has been placed—whether in landscape, cityscape, or the ferocious battles which dominated the later history of the artform.



It is in multiple levels of panoramic engagement that Suehiro Maruo’s adaptation of Edogawa Rampo’s The Strange Tale of Panorama Island is concerned. The story’s central figure Hitomi, a man of stolen identity, uses the wealth he acquires surreptitiously to fund the construction of some version of an earthly paradise.[2] His goal is to submerge the book’s characters in the titular island’s vision. Through painstaking planning, skilled construction, a talented ensemble of actors, and wanton expenditures of seemingly endless wealth, Hitomi creates a lavish illusion—a living panorama into which guests (and himself especially) can experience an unreal world in a visceral way. Hitomi is centrally concerned that his fantasy island feel like a real experience—though one that is immediately picturesque, drawing together eroticism and natural awe almost seamlessly. Hitomi’s strange and taled Panorama Island is an ode to hedonistic excess, a devotion to pleasure divorced from any context save for the immediate experience of that pleasure.



Interestingly, many of the critiques contemporary to the era of panoramic painting popularity are underscored and heightened through Hitomi’s island. On top of the criticism that the easy illusionment of panorama experiences rendered them merely base propaganda, opposition at the time cited the operation of the locality paradox upon viewers. The locality paradox refers to observers’ inability to discern their true place, whether they were in the locale presented in the panorama or in the viewing rotunda. Because Hitomi’s goal is his guests’ complete participation, he would not remotely see the locality paradox as problematic, but rather something desirable. Further criticism objected to the physicalization of the sublime. The Romantics feared that in rendering what ought to be awestriking from material compositions, the Wonderful would be reforged as Ordinary. While Hitomi would be likely to object to this, following his story through to its conclusion does offer evidence to support the Romantics.[3]

Additionally, more than Hitomi’s goals even, The Strange Tale of Panorama Island does itself seemingly somewhat hope to draw even the reader into the panorama of the story.[4] Most literature attempts this to some degree, but Maruo revels so much in the visual spectacle afforded by the story’s demands that one can’t help but feel the forcefulness by which the artist presents both eroticism/beauty and horror/awe. Once Hitomi visits the near-complete island in the company of the woman with whom he pretends at marriage, the book shifts into a full-fledged attempt at propagandizing the wonders of the island. The artistic rendering of the island’s decorations and landscapes is truly magnificent and sells prodigiously its paradisical lures. Maruo is an astonishingly talented illustrator when tackling the physical presence of the island, and some pages and panels may momentarily theft the artistically inclined reader of breath.[5]








In the end, as Citizen Kane-style utopian stories have taught us to expect, Hitomi’s strange island becomes more Panopticon than Panorama. The reader sits centrally, observing all with unobstructed vision. Coinciding with the Romantic criticism, we find awe and beauty have been made cheap and so lose a bit of their magic. This is especially the case for Hitomi, who has lived longest and most abundantly the life within the panorama—he more than anyone is aware of the fabricated nature of the entire endeavor. By the strange tale’s explosive conclusion, Hitomi seems rather spent, wearied, and bored by the whole thing. Perhaps this was Rampo and Maruo’s intent, to propose a horror story in which the most unnerving thing is how easy it is to lose the verdancy of formerly wonderful things that arrive too easily. Perhaps they intend this as a statement on the value of struggle and rarity. Perhaps, in their way, they are Romantics themselves. Perhaps not, of course, but as within the panorama, what is seen is governed by one’s context—so who’s to say?
_______

[Review courtesy of Good Ok Bad.]
_______

Footnotes
1) Straight from Wikipedia: Thomas Gray wrote in 1765 of the Scottish Highlands, “The mountains are ecstatic. None but God know how to join so much beauty with so much horror.” [sic]

2) Kind of like how I imagine Charles Foster Kane might have aimed in his own stately pleasure dome had there not been a Hays Code to hamper him.

3) In an entirely facile way, this makes sense. Here’s a f’rinstance:

I grew up on the beach in Southern California. Almost literally. From age three through thirty-one, I lived within a short walk from the sand in Laguna Beach. Summers (and even falls and springs and a bit of winters) were spent on the sand and in the Pacific herself. Bare, tanned skin was everywhere. Bathing suits weren’t particularly conservative and so seeing women with all but breasts and the nethers exposed was entirely normal. Common. Mundane. Even when I reached my teen years and was entrenched in a hormonally driven quest to surreptitiously take in the beauty of every girl I’d see, I never once considered bare shoulders, belly, or thighs to be any more magical than noses, knuckles, or elbows. When I discovered those from other American and international cultures considered otherwise, I was baffled. (An early, confusing lesson in multiculturalism—one that I wouldn’t understand for a decade or more later.)

The point here is that what might have been considered mystical or awe-inspiring was robbed of that potential by its brute commonality. In other words, for a person raised in track housing, the idea of indoor plumbing isn’t even something that merits thought. It’s boring and a given and holds none of the magic that it would for someone from 1850.

4) Interestingly even the book’s framework moves from horror (even if not necessarily sublimity) toward beauty, marrying the two concepts in a bifurcated sort of picturesque.

5) The artist is perhaps less equipped for the depiction of human persons—as faces (and especially the eyes) are often grotesque distortions beyond probability. I will admit that this may be an intentional stylistic bit and perhaps Maruo is making some artistic statement by giving everyone weird, lazy eyes. Like so:

[Sandra Uv · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5

Me ha encantado, que tétrico e inquietante todo. El dibujo me ha parecido muy bueno.

[Mizuki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to read it so badly but the bookstore told me this English translation of The Strange Tale of Panorama Island (original story by Edogawa Rompo) isn't out yet! Freaking Hell!

If kicking and screaming would bring me this book, I'd have already done that!*pouts*

Update@28/11/2013: I ordered the book! Hope it'll get through this time!!!

Update@06/02/2013: 4.5 stars, review to come

Review for Strange Tale of Panorama Island (novella), by Edogawa Rampo: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Now, let's give you a look of what's in store.


The story takes place in the 1920s Japan and the manga-ka, Suehiro Maruo clearly did soak himself entirely into the 1920s aura of the Japanese society and scenery, everything in the manga is stylistically and vividly drawn with great details. It's brilliant.

Thanks to Suehiro Maruo, I was being introduced to this excellent painting series by Arnold Böcklin: Isle of the Dead.


(LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_...)

However, I must confess I'm not very happy with how Maruo handled the relationship between the Main Character and the dead man's beautiful widow. In the later part of the story, the relationship between those two should have taken the central stage, but Maruo skipped too many things about this relationship to a point that a lot of tension and suspense is lost. What a pity.

[Aline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Le dessin est d'une grande délicatesse, l'histoire assez basique (une usurpation d'identité et la réalisation d'un rêve fou) mais plaisante et le dénouement un peu rapide.

[Angelique · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este es mi libro favorito de Maruo.

La historia, escrita por Edogawa Rampo, se basa en un cuento de Edgar Allan Poe, su mayor influencia. El cuento es "la isla del hada". Maruo, al interpretar gráficamente la novela de Rampo que se basa en el cuento de Poe (y solo es el comienzo del juego de cajas dentro de cajas) utiliza millares de ilustraciones clásicas, de manuales de botánica, de taxonomías antiguas de animales, en un collage exorbitante y fascinante. Recordemos que en los paises orientales, la copia esta vista de manera radicalmente opuesta a la forma occidental. No es un robo. Es un homenaje. Un juego de espejos. Una adivinanza. Faulkner hubiera amado ser japones (su frase "si es necesario, hay que robarle hasta a la madre" siempre quedo impresa en mi mente, ay, esta selección arbitraria que es mi memoria)

Creando un paisaje con una superposición de elementos de todo tipo, tomados de los lados más heteroclitos, Maruo crea lo irrepresentable, lo imposible. Se diría que esta creando la posibilidad de otro tipo de orden diferente al ordenamiento actual, mostrando sus fisuras, como escribe Foucault acerca de la enciclopedia de animales de Borges, donde diferentes especies conviven con sus caracteres subversivos, inasibles.

Como antes dije, son las 3 a.m. Es momento de dormir. El objetivo principal del protagonista se asemeja al del príncipe jorobado de Bomarzo (es más, una de las bocas del coloso más conocida de su jardín de estatuas de piedra corona una página entera de la historieta) escenificar el sueño en su creación, con todo su terror y su gloria. Su jardín, como en el cuento de Poe, como en la novela de Rampo, es un camino que se surca, donde cada vez se punza más el deseo y la estupefacción.

Por último, el juego de dobles es un aspecto esencial, tanto metaficcional como llevado a la realidad. EDOGAWA Rampo, que es, fonéticamente, Edgar Allan Poe en Japones, el descubrimiento por parte de un único personaje de que el protagonista es un impostor, el desdoblaje de este protagonista y su transformación dentro del jardín, el desdoblamiento del sueño ideado años y años en la realidad, el doble de ofelia empujado en las aguas frias de la isla, el carácter fatal, de presagio, que posee todo lo que es rozado por el monstruo, incluso las construcciones monstruosas, y las ruinas, que remedan el paraiso, lo imposible- el orden trastocado, que niega al dominante como único, que supera el caos, que traza las curvas, las lineas y los volúmenes de lo insuperable.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A masterpiece of graphic art - and indeed there are some graphic scenes in this story (usually of a sexual nature, in case you are offended by such things). An odd tale by Japanese mystery writer Edogawa Rampo is turned into an adult manga classic by illustrator Suehiro Maruo. If you are looking for something a little more mature than most manga on the market these days, then you might want to take a chance on this one. The book design and English translation are perfect. Although the tale is fairly simple and straight-forward (it won't take you very long to finish reading), the artwork and deeper underlying meanings will linger in your mind. There is obviously a lot of symbolism here, much of it imported from European cultures, which could be analysed to death. The ending is a bit abrupt, but appropriate in its own way.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 5 out of 5]

<-I adore the Japanese reading direction<-.

Story: ****
It's creative and indulgent with an enigmatic and baffling character.

Art: *****
I most appreciated the sprawling sensualscapes of lavish scenery stunningly architected with curious characters in the form of props- the ultimate of backgrounds.

[Autek Devilski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Na początku myślałam, że mnie nie porwie, ale ostatecznie uważam że banger. Tam jest tyle warstw, że musiałabym to przeczytać jeszcze raz i sprawdzać double meaning wszystkiego co się tam dzieje. Końcówka mega. Ja to będę bronić wszystkiego co ten koleś napisał tbh 👋☺️

[Edgar Cotes Argelich · Rating 4 out of 5]

El que sorprèn més d’aquest manga és el seu dibuix i la seua ambientació, que són impressionants i et transporten a l’Edèn eròtic de l’illa Panorama. La trama en si mateixa és secundària i no gaire complexa, però el castell de focs que ens presenta l’autor és tan bonic, que importa poc.

[juls · Rating 4 out of 5]

od dawna już jestem fanem twórczości edogawy, tutaj też dodatkowo bardzo podobał mi się artstyle który fajnie oddawał klimat

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

The wonderful Edogawa Rampo novel turned into a brilliant manga comic by Suehiro Maruo. I reviewed the Rampo book in detail, so I am just going to concentrate on Maruo's interpretation of that novel. First, he follows the narrative very closely, and strange enough, the Rampo novel is more erotic, but saying that the original source is like a full-watt battery for Maruo. He takes "The Strange Tale of Panorama Island" to another level.

Reading this I am not disappointed with what he has done with "Panorama Island." Usually with a visual book like this or even "Foam of the Daze" one can be disappointed by the artist who is re-interpretating the original source, because it fails the reader's vision of that work. But I think Maruo not only respects the work, but I suspect it is a very important text for him and his work. He follows the Rampo vision, and added his touches, but in many ways Maruo (with respect to his work) is very much the son of Rampo. They share the same sensuality mixed with a taste for violence and the bizarre. Maruo's heart is very much with the early 20th Century and his work with Rampo's book is the perfect marriage or relationship.

What one hopes is that there will be more works translated into English for both Rampo and Maruo - and that must happen now!

[Kamakana · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com

200614: reread and reaffirm favoritegraphic, this time notice setup more, very japanese grisly, fantastic, origin/crime and then later murder, everything is for art. no morals. no arguments. just art...

160906: this is the first edogawa rampo i have read. set in 1920s Japan this reminds me not of Poe but of surrealist and decadent authors. books lthat involve usage of great wealth to create some garden or landscape 'cabinet of curiosities'. i think of raymond roussell's 'locus solus' but set in Japan, in which an entire island is transformed into an 'adult' amusement park...

i like this more than written work primarily as the graphic work is very effective, very surreal. there is little reference to the world before our artist protagonist fakes his own death and resurrection as a wealthy aristocrat. we know he is impoverished and no one wants his writing. we know he writes and dreams extravagant fantasies. we watch him pretend to be the industrialist, even as his motivation is to change an entire island to his ideal...

i call it a favouritegraphic because i really do not see it working except in this format: visual, fantastic, more dream than reality, no long passages of mechanics by which he uses wealth, no real development of characters- just images. as a book it would not be such spectacle. as film it would be a passing series of tableau which would not be always there to return to, it would just flash by. so the story is not a story, the characters flat and/or crazed, the island and 'panorama' has no rational meaning or purpose, the wealth is just a free pass to bringing the world of dreams to life. the graphic artwork is representational, realistic, probably more what Japanese readers expect, with the dream world as coherent as our version of 1920s Japan...

[Steven Lin · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's something about the way Maruo draws eyes. I plan to devote more study to this, but there comes a point where, despite their identifiable, even relatable trials and tribulations, the characters, by virtue of the way their eyes are drawn, become inscrutable, distanced. One feels that even in their purest, most intense depicted moments, they are forever unknowable.

[Helena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute genius. Take the literary GENIUS of Edogawa Ranpo, an absolutely dearly beloved favorite, and then turn it into manga drawn by the most fucked-up eroguro artist alive, Maruo Suehiro, and you are guaranteed to have a winner. I find myself proud to have this one on my bookshelf.

[melancholinary · Rating 4 out of 5]

What could be more stunning than Suehiro Maruo illustrated Edogawa Rampo's short story?

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most gorgeous books that has ever made me feel like I needed to bathe after reading.

[catita (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.) · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5
ayayaicito.
de verdad que no hay nada malo que sacarle a este manga; creo que este -junto con la sonrisa de vampiro- deja más que claro lo BRÍGIDO que es suehiro maruo como mangaka, de verdad que cada dos páginas me detengo a ver detalladamente lo que se le ocurrió poner en un panel.
le amo mucho ✨.
dejando de lado el estilo, la historia como tal es!! interesantísima!! y me dieron muchas ganas de leer la novela de ranpo uvu.

[Catalina García · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es el primer manga que leo en la vida. Llegó a mí por recomendación de un amigo y me gustó mucho. Es de un una oscuridad suave, pero oscuridad al fin y al cabo.

[Hagar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love!!!

[Jú la Deppravada · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me siento un poco estafada porque el manga que compré venía con varias páginas en blanco y otras mal impresas... una pena (Glénat, te odio con toda el alma). Pero dejando de lado eso, la fusión Edogawa/Maruo es un viaje al interior de sueño utópico-erótico que se sirve maravillosamente de muchas referencias artísticas.

Cuando se lee La extraña historia de la isla Panorama, se nota de inmediato que el argumento no es propiamente de Maruo, lo que hace que todo sea mucho más fácil de digerir en cuanto a la comprensión del mismo manga. Creo que es una obra donde se puede disfrutar mucho más de a ilustración, ya que la historia está bastante resumida pero, aun con eso, el sello personal del mangaka está impregnado con fuerza, lo que causa la misma sensación de sobrecogimiento que cuando se lee La sonrisa del vampiro, Dr. Inugami o Midori: la niña de las camelias.

Fascinante la idea expresada del 'ou-topos' en el ejercicio metalingüístico del protagonista, aquel que, de cierta forma, deja de 'ser-humano' y está absolutamente dispuesto a extinguir su vida para usurpar la identidad de quien sí puede concretar su paraíso terrenal... Para su infortunio, Hitomi sigue siendo nada más ni nada menos que el doppelgänger de un fantasma.

[Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exquisite adaptation of Japanese horror master Edogawa Rampo’s titular story, "The Strange Tale of Panorama Island," manga artist Maruo Suehiro grants this graphic novel retelling with lush details, brimming with surreal landscapes populated by realistic human characters. A tale of madness and dreams realized no matter the cost, the strange tale follows an impoverished writer with plans to realize by taking the place of a dead classmate who had an uncanny resemblance to himself and using his vast wealth to build a monument to beauty and extravagance. Maruo's art reflects this ascetic decadence, incredibly rendered and includes influences and references to other artists, particularly the Renaissance master of the surreal, Hieronymus Bosch, following Rampo's tribute to the literature of Edgar Allan Poe. The world of the transition between the Taisho and the Showa eras in Japanese history (the late 1920s) is wonderfully realized. A very worthy adaption of Ranpo's tribute to Poe and his gothic tales of mystery, horror, and artistic expression.

[Charliesabers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Himiko is a failed novelist, who decided to abandon his mediocre life by usurping the place of a rich old friend of his, who could've been his twin, after he died. Taking over his fortune, contacts a power, he realises his dreams of building an utopia or food, drinks, sex and perversion, spending all the man's fortune. The story is a quick read, and the pacing is breakneck, but the progression is always clear and well done. The art is amazing, with great details and ornate vistas framing every scene. The book itself, is a beautiful hardcover edition, which is a joy to look at. This manga is pulp at its finest. Do yourself a favour and get lost in Panorama Island for an hour or two, you will likely come visit again!

[Meepelous · Rating 2 out of 5]

An enjoyable enough read, I did feel like this modern adaption could have improved upon some of the historic ideas - namely the romanticizing of completely unnecessary violence against a woman. The drawing style felt very reminiscent of more classic Japanese art.

[Natalia · Rating 4 out of 5]

La Extraña Historia de la Isla Panorama

[Michael Van Vleet · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, what was it like?

Well, it was a strange tale. Lots of pretty panoramas, though. Set on an island.

Name's a bit of a giveaway.

[Alistair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me start with saying that I am a huge fan of both Suehiro Maruo AND Edogawa Ranpo.
So when I found out (quite late) that there was a manga adaptation by Maruo of that book from Ranpo, I was jumping up and down in my apartment. I had to get it.

And I have to say, this edition is incredible. Maruo style really help brings out Ranpo's story in an intriguing way. I don't think I could have hoped for a better adaptation but I'm biased as I really like both artists/authors.

I won't go into spoilers land, but I felt like I was reading Ranpo's novel all over again. The grotesque was there, as well as the awkward and crazy. It was very well portrayed although I must say I did prefer the novel. Perhaps I felt more in the story with the things being explained and shown with words, instead of manga panels. I was however very happy with it as it gave me another opportunity to get into both Ranpo and Maruo's universes.

To me, Maruo is a master of the ero-guro genre and did a faithful representation of Ranpo's story. I wish I had known about it earlier in my life as it was actually quite hard to find a copy of this manga where I am.

I would recommend it to anyone wishing to discover this genre as well as the peculiar universes of these two. This is definitely something I will read once a year when I'm going through my favorite mangas/books.

[Luana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Visto che avevo tra le mani due versioni della stessa storia, ho deciso di fare un piccolo esperimento: e così, dopo il romanzo, mi sono letta anche il manga. Qui la vicenda presenta qualche differenza con il libro di Ranpo - a partire, per esempio, dalla malattia del povero Genzaburo, non più epilessia ma asma, passando per la volontà di mascherare i piani di "paradiso terrestre" con la scelta di costruire un parco divertimenti per adulti su un'isola semideserta.
Se, da un lato, non ho trovato la stessa attenzione nella descrizione e nell'analisi del lato psicologico, dall'altro ci sono tavole davvero incredibili: qui si può ammirare davvero il tipo di utopia messo in piedi da Hirosuke, un mondo in cui eros e morte si fondono, in cui non esistono più freni inibitori, regole o aspettative sociali. Un paradiso dei sensi. Il regno personale di Hirosuke/Genzaburo. Quei capitoli che mi avevano un pochino annoiato nel romanzo, sono diventati il punto forte del manga, e viceversa: gli elementi che avevo apprezzato di più nel libro di Ranpo, qui non mi sono sembrati così convincenti. Comunque sia, sono stata contenta di aver letto entrambe le versioni, mi sono tolta lo sfizio.