Did You Know?: "Shoujo Tsubaki" 1992 film was banned everywhere due to its storyline

Written by:

Jei Beltrano

Published on:

August 19, 2020 at 4:45 PM PHT (GMT +8:00)

One anime film of the 90's that really went to controversy was Hiroshi Harada's Midori: (Chika Gentō Gekiga) Shoujo Tsubaki" that was released in 1992 based on the Suehiro Maruo's comic version of the kamishibai standard of the same name.

The film's story follows the misadventures of a girl called Midori who, after losing her mother, joins a funfair freak show. She is harassed, abused and humiliated by everyone else in the show, until the appearance of a dwarf magician-hypnotist.

Due to its very dark and depressing storyline in addition to the graphic representation of the scenes, the film was banned entirely everywhere by discontinuing the tape production and its screening was made very rare to see at all as Harada will only screen Midori in Japan if the venue is presented as a carnival freak show.

The film also contained nudity, sexual assault, violence towards animals, and discriminatory language from the audio track resulting for many people to destroy the tapes after first seeing the film.

For many years, a videotape transfer of the film was all that was known to exist of the film but 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.

In 2016, aA live action film adaptation of the manga directed by TORICO and starring Risa Nakamura was released in Japan in May 2016 but many changes were made to the story and the way scenes are portrayed from the film.

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