薔薇色ノ怪物

by Suehiro Maruo

Rose Colored Monster was Maruos debut work. He was 26 when he released it and if you compare it to his newer work you can notice the amateurism and high motivation in this work. Since it was his first official book he was free to do anything he wants and so he did. Stories vary from sad romances to outright scat drawings and then switches to a class abuse story. The opening story is called "Das Kabinett Des Dr. Caligari" or in English "The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari". It's worthwhile to mention that this is actually an tribute to a German silent expressionist film from the late 20s that went by the same way. There's a torrent circulating around for it so you can download it from isohunt if you'd like to see it (I did and I liked it; you might not if you are not into silent films). Other works also have various tributes and references which actually (to me at least) lets you discover with what things the author is fascinated by and thus peek a bit into his own life.

Genres: Manga, Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels

Comic

First published January 1, 1982

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

[Alana · Rating 5 out of 5]

finally getting to read the rose coloured monster in translation just made it worse. i know barbie is know for pink by why would greta gerwig site this as her main inspiration? blessed w the horrific and obscene to a degree yet unbeknownst to me as consciously achievable. the rich have fucked us already! what is left to do but for them to actually fuck us in a fucked up way. we eat their shit, may as well force us to literally eat their shit. until a swarming pool of shit is preferred to any other of the shit that surrounds us, that is fed to us, day in day out. i read every page shaking my head and frowning not because i want people to know i throughly disagree with its content (as i very much agree with child incest, killing my stepmom that was fucking herself with the stub of my leg that lost its foot then sticking my head in her vagina and accidentally falling in, a fair amount of chopped off dicks and eyeball licking, and running away to join the circus), it was all an involuntary bodily reaction. yeah, making urself feel physically and mentally unrepairable is cool, but suehiro maruo does it with unparalleled beauty, style, line work, poetry, and short story plots. these are the things that make the rose coloured monster the most damnedably perverse of them all. just imagine this being ur debut manga in 1982 and not one person has recovered their dignity since.

[Helena · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is absolutely definitive Maruo. Unfortunately my dearest Nana-chan lent me this one, my first Maruo, and I don't own it, for I chose to buy new ones I hadn't read over one I'd already read...a decision I do not fully lament, per se, but still look back on with some bit of regret, because this one is so much better than the 2 I bought instead (not counting the Edogawa one, which is just awesome). One day I will own this one. One day I will own all of them!!

[Bucletina · Rating 2 out of 5]

El mismo motivo es el que me obliga a ponerle bajo y alto puntaje. Me resultó completamente asqueroso porque sí así que, efectivamente, Maruo logra el efecto buscado: repulsión y ganas de vomitar. Pero como no está acompañado por ninguna otra sensación (miedo, angustia, terror, ansiedad, etc), no me resulta interesante una obra que apenas si me revuelve el estómago.

[Jorge Soto · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Alessandra S. · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Ah... ¡es la Luna! ¡La Luna me está mirando!"

"La ciudad huele a sangre y a violencia, pero a mí no me importa."

El primer relato ya era raro, pero el segundo, ¡y el tercero! Empeoraba antes de mejorar, aunque la octava historia "Belleza natural" es, en mi opinión, la mejor, y tal vez también la penúltima: "Se pudre la noche". Es la primera vez que leo algo de Suehiro Maruo, y me daba la impresión de que su dibujo era muy similar al de "Midori: la niña de las camelias", película de 1992, e investigando me di cuenta que él es el autor del manga publicado en 1984, lo que, de hecho, explica muchas cosas, incluso hay un capítulo sobre esta historia en cuestión.

Es una obra bastante retorcida, eroguro desde luego, y utiliza la moda japonesa de lamer las córneas para obtener placer, entre otras muchas prácticas. Es muy raro, no sé, pero también se siente muy japonés.

[Daniel Andreu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Debe ser que con la evolución de Maruo yo también he evolucionado y me había olvidado un poco de sus trabajos iniciales, porque he flipado bastante con esta primera antología de historias cortas publicadas en diversas revistas. Hay tantas aberraciones que a más de uno le podría explotar la cabeza (mucho sexo, violencia, tortura, enfermedad, violaciones, mutilaciones, incesto, lametones en globos oculares, etc etc etc), pero no a mí, claro. Aunque no llegue a la altura de sus cimas Midori y La sonrisa del vampiro, aquí está el inicio de su genio y la belleza de su trazo, y la acumulación de historias decadentes provocan un efecto muy potente en la mente y el corazón.

[Emma Roulette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely disgusting!! But damn, Maruo is an ambitious, prolific machine when it comes to drawing. I will be looking at his linework forever. Also, why does he like licking eyeballs so much?

[Félix D'Jesús · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extraño. Repulsivo y fascinante a la vez. Vierta poesía visual entre excrementos,sangre y semen.

[Tasnim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Demasiado grotesco para mí.

[Paloma · Rating 4 out of 5]

More chaotic and perverse. Also, I love the German Expressionism references.

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

good clean wholesome fun

[Xenia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Criminal

[Hugo Barine · Rating 4 out of 5]

De lo único que podría acusarse a Maruo en las 13 historias que componen "el monstruo de color rosa" -todas aparecidas en distintas revistas entre los años 81 y 82- es de ser demasiado breve. El resto, es Maruo himself. Las historias están llenas de esas perversiones que lo posicionan como uno de los nombres importantes dentro del manga japonés más extremo. Violaciones, mutilaciones, coprofagía y -el muy jamponés- oculolinctus -también conocido como eyeball lcking o simplemente, lamida de ojos- cruzan todas las historias cargadas de violencia gráfica y como no, un humor retorcido en muchos casos. En definitiva, un libro que salvo su brevedad es ideal tanto para fans como para quienes quieran acercarse a lo que sale de la mente enferma de este japonés. Se recomienda una mente MUY abierta y un criterio (de)formado.

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 3 out of 5]

Si esta no es la antología más asquerosa y perturbadora que haya leído, le pega en el palo. Y, sin duda, con un dibujo menos espectacular que el de Maruo, muy difícilmente habría alcanzado las tres estrellitas, ya que los guiones no son lo que se dice muy elaborado, aunque no para de sorprenderme la facilidad para imaginarse personajes-escenarios-vueltasdetuerca-chupadasdeojos etc. que tiene el autor. Por algún extraño motivo, sé que cuando vuelva a tener a mano un libro de Maruo seguro lo voy a leer, con los ojos entrecerrados, aunque este me sacó el hambre por un buen rato.

[Laura Valensi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este es otro manga de ''terror'', porque tiene de terror lo que yo tengo de Helena de Troya. Es un manga pensado para crear repulsión y a la vez curiosidad. Es un tira y afloja entre el autor y el lector sobre cuánto tardará en apartar la vista de las páginas. Quieres saber cómo se supera Mahuro en la siguiente página, y a la vez no. ¿No sé si me explico?
No tiene una trama continua, son simplemente mini relatos mayormente escatológicos, sangrientos, llenos de sexo (censurado, ¿qué os creéis?), incesto y algún que otro guiño al cine impresionista.

[Dony Grayman]

Recopilación de historias cortas erogutescas de Suehiro Maruo.