Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show

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Midori, a little girl from a run-down family, sells paper flowers in the streets. She wishes that if she makes enough money, she can perhaps join her classmates in the school picnic. Late one night, she returns home to find her ailing mother dead -- what's more, rats are gnawing at her private parts. With no one to turn to, she tries the address one customer gave her -- and comes to a seedy freak show run by a money-hungry Mr. Arashi. Midori is degraded, brutalised, and forced to perform fetishistic acts on stage, until a midget illusionist comes along and takes Midori under his wings. Will Midori at last find true love and happiness? ... Well, what kind of story you think you're reading, my friend?

Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show is Suehiro Maruo's most famous manga, and the work that has cemented his reputation in the west. A crude but very faithful animated adaptation has been made through the effort of one single person: Hiroshi Harada.

Tropes used in Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show include:

• Art Shift -- Midori's fever dream is partly rendered in a rounded, simplistic style common in girl mangas.
• Banned in China -- the animated film adaptation, Midori, is banned in Japan, and the master reels were confiscated.
• Blood-Splattered Innocents -- the notorious chicken scene.
• Break the Cutie.
• Circus of Fear -- especially when the midget illusionist is angry...
• Downer Ending.
• Eye Scream -- this is by Suehiro Maruo, after all.
• Flower Motifs -- the original Japanese title "Carmelia Girl" comes from a Japanese nursery rhyme, which Midori sings at the onset.
• Gorn -- it is actually quite tame by the standard of Suehiro Maruo.
• Hermaphrodite -- the boy-girl, one of the members of the troupe.
• High Octane Nightmare Fuel.
• Hope Spot -- there are two: the first is when a talent scout seeks out Midori; the second when she and the midget leaves the freak show for good.
• Innocent Flower Girl -- Midori almost qualifies, if not for the thing she does to Mr. Arashi.
• Jerk With a Heart of Gold -- the Snake Woman is cruel to Midori, but when other members want to lay hands on Midori, she stands out for her. Indeed, most people in the troupe are not irredeemably evil; their hearts are merely hardened by the harsh circumstances.
• Kick the Dog -- literally: not only kicked, but stepped on and cooked.
• Master of Illusion -- Masamitsu the midget.
• Parental Abandonment -- Midori's father has walked out of the family long before the story starts.
• Rape As Drama.
• Yank the Dog's Chain -- and how.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot.