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Ranpo Kitan: A Twisted Metamorphosis from Page to Screen


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bobob101



Joined: 28 Jun 2013
Posts: 201
PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 11:08 am Reply with quote
This article of yours is exactly why Ranpo is my favorite anime of the season. I haven't read all of his mountains of work, but Edogawa Ranpo is one of my favorite pre war authors.
You make a brief reference to it, but I highly recommend watching the movie adaptation of Black Lizard. Not only is it based on Yukio Mishima's stage play, but the man playing the lizard was Mishima's lover.
I also recommend the Island of the Malformed Man, a movie mostly based off of Panorama Island eith materials taken from other novels. It's not scary per se, but the imagery that movie trades ibis beyond description.

When the anime finishes, is there a chance this article could be updated with the rest of the references that occur? I believe that would be usef to the uninitiated and those experienced in the world of Ero Gueo Nonsense
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Kuroko the Best Stalker



Joined: 12 Apr 2015
Posts: 39
Location: In your wet dreams, baby ❤
PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 11:31 am Reply with quote
Not my best this season but I'm really enjoying the mystery, the symbolism and the macabre/horror.

Sadly, most of the people I know have dropped it bec of the trap. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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amcnulty



Joined: 29 Aug 2014
Posts: 48
PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 11:39 am Reply with quote
I've been wondering what the parallels to the original stories must be. Thanks for an informative, interesting article!
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-Ana-



Joined: 24 Jun 2015
Posts: 75
PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 11:40 am Reply with quote
It's a one weird show but something about it makes me like it.
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
Posts: 4125
Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 12:10 pm Reply with quote
Kuroko the Best Stalker wrote:
Sadly, most of the people I know have dropped it bec of the trap. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


Ditto. It's depressing to me how something so trivial can cause people to run away. I hate having to preface every recommendation with that.
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zztop



Joined: 28 Aug 2014
Posts: 641
PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 12:21 pm Reply with quote
For the Caterpillar story, the amputee soldier was described as having a "horribly scarred" face. The article may need to be corrected in this regard.

Also, the horrific nature of the soldier's injuries in Caterpillar led to Japan's then-military government banning Ranpo's story in the 1930s. The government was concerned it would negatively affect public support for their colonial expansions into China and the rest of Asia.
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 16 Dec 2008
Posts: 2597
Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City
PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 12:58 pm Reply with quote
bobob101 wrote:

When the anime finishes, is there a chance this article could be updated with the rest of the references that occur? I believe that would be usef to the uninitiated and those experienced in the world of Ero Gueo Nonsense


I'd love to write it if the Powers That Be don't mind. I had actually planned to do Strange Tale of Panorama Island in here, but was short on time.

zztop wrote:
For the Caterpillar story, the amputee soldier was described as having a "horribly scarred" face. The article may need to be corrected in this regard.


The first translation I read had him with a "beautiful face," but the second I just checked said only "beautiful eyes." Since you've backed up the latter, I'll see if I can get it changed in the article.

Also, thanks for mentioning the repercussions of "Caterpillar" - the Boy Detectives also underwent some changes during the War, so the Japanese government was keeping a strict eye on Ranpo's work. (Couldn't quite figure out how to work that info into the essay...)
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Felicity dash





PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 1:08 pm Reply with quote
Kuroko the Best Stalker wrote:
Not my best this season but I'm really enjoying the mystery, the symbolism and the macabre/horror.

Sadly, most of the people I know have dropped it bec of the trap. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


Same. Especially on the site where I watch my anime, guess there is a ton of horny boys where even a bit of BL breaks them into freaking out that its automatically terrible. Which is honestly more of a childish act.
One of the comments literally said:
"Everyone lets think that kobayashi is a girl and watch all the episode thinking that Very Happy" Its was by a person called JapJapSenpai. I wanted to puke after reading that.
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jojothepunisher



Joined: 04 Sep 2007
Posts: 799
PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 1:22 pm Reply with quote
Felicity dash wrote:
Kuroko the Best Stalker wrote:
Not my best this season but I'm really enjoying the mystery, the symbolism and the macabre/horror.

Sadly, most of the people I know have dropped it bec of the trap. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


Same. Especially on the site where I watch my anime, guess there is a ton of horny boys where even a bit of BL breaks them into freaking out that its automatically terrible. Which is honestly more of a childish act.
One of the comments literally said:
"Everyone lets think that kobayashi is a girl and watch all the episode thinking that Very Happy" Its was by a person called JapJapSenpai. I wanted to puke after reading that.

Why are you making such a big deal out of something that is natural? There are plenty of anime out there where the commentators are disgusted in anime contents, especially those consisting of incest. The reaction you just showed us is exactly like the disgusted reaction I have seen other people give for shows like Yosuga no Sora. But you wouldn't call that kind of reaction childish, they are responding to something that is considered taboo in their culture. To me and most other people, homosexuality or transgender is about as taboo as incest, so I think it is for good reasons that people drop this show.
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Rederoin



Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 1427
Location: Europa
PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 2:20 pm Reply with quote
jojothepunisher wrote:
Felicity dash wrote:
Kuroko the Best Stalker wrote:
Not my best this season but I'm really enjoying the mystery, the symbolism and the macabre/horror.

Sadly, most of the people I know have dropped it bec of the trap. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


Same. Especially on the site where I watch my anime, guess there is a ton of horny boys where even a bit of BL breaks them into freaking out that its automatically terrible. Which is honestly more of a childish act.
One of the comments literally said:
"Everyone lets think that kobayashi is a girl and watch all the episode thinking that Very Happy" Its was by a person called JapJapSenpai. I wanted to puke after reading that.

Why are you making such a big deal out of something that is natural? There are plenty of anime out there where the commentators are disgusted in anime contents, especially those consisting of incest. The reaction you just showed us is exactly like the disgusted reaction I have seen other people give for shows like Yosuga no Sora. But you wouldn't call that kind of reaction childish, they are responding to something that is considered taboo in their culture. To me and most other people, homosexuality or transgender is about as taboo as incest, so I think it is for good reasons that people drop this show.


What does transgender have to do with this? He is just crossdressing from time to time.
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12skippy21



Joined: 25 Nov 2008
Posts: 785
Location: York, England
PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 4:41 pm Reply with quote
The original books sound interesting, I will have to seek them out. However I have found the show quite dull. The original stories sound more interesting maybe because of the era they were set while "updating" them as just brought them into line with everything else being made. Outside of Holmes a lot of mystery shows are "updated" now, setting them in the era they were made would be a lot more interesting.

For example, the variations with the human chair, the original story sounds creepy, more Junji Ito style (who I do really like) while the new one is just your standard torture porn dynamic, and it was done better in Psychopass.

Also, the trap character is fine, the friend who over reacts when he crosses dresses is the annoying one.
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BassKuroi





PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 4:43 pm Reply with quote
Felicity dash wrote:
"Everyone lets think that kobayashi is a girl and watch all the episode thinking that Very Happy" Its was by a person called JapJapSenpai. I wanted to puke after reading that.


That's a weird reaction to a pretty expected attitude.
Tolerance. That's what we all need.
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 7912
Location: Anime News Network Technodrome
PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 5:26 pm Reply with quote
Okay, this thread is 100% finished discussing transgender issues, homosexuality, or anything related to those subjects.
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Gilles Poitras



Joined: 05 Apr 2008
Posts: 475
Location: Oakland California
PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 7:48 pm Reply with quote
The librarian in me says i should share the following information:

Kurodahan Press has several volumes of Edogawa Rampo stories out.

The Fiend with Twenty Faces
http://www.kurodahan.com/mt/e/catalog/jp0027cate.html

The Black Lizard and Beast in the Shadows
http://www.kurodahan.com/mt/e/catalog/j0017cate.html

The Early Cases of Akechi Kogoro
http://www.kurodahan.com/mt/e/catalog/jp0064cate.html

The Edogawa Rampo Reader
http://www.kurodahan.com/mt/e/catalog/j0020cate.html

The University of Hawaii Press has published Strange Tale of Panorama Island
http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/p-8758-9780824837037.aspx

The manga version is available from Last Gasp:
http://www.lastgasp.com/d/36181/the-strange-tale-of-panorama-island

And of course there is the first collection in English of his tales from the 1950s

Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination
http://www.tuttlepublishing.com/books-by-country/japanese-tales-of-mystery-and-imagination
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Andrew Cunningham



Joined: 01 Feb 2006
Posts: 426
Location: Seattle
PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 11:43 pm Reply with quote
Really fantastic article.
When I lived in Kyoto I actually translated the Thief with Twenty Faces and tried to get it published. A little weird to see it get published by a different translator living in Kyoto, and published by a publisher I've done work for.
Glad to see it got published in English somehow; it's such an influential work that it has clear historical value even if the content is somewhat dated. (It's very much an 1940s boy's adventure novel. If you do a follow up article for the back half of the anime you might want to go into more detail on how Hashiba, the fiend, and Kobayashi are primarily children's characters, as far removed from the ero guro of his work for adults as possible, yet reflected back through that lens for the purposes of the anime.)
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