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YMMV / Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show

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  • Bile Fascination: Not that it's bad, but rather a large number of people who have seen the film did so because of its status as one of the most disturbing pieces of Japanese animation of all time.
  • Broken Base: Is it completely pointless, exploitative, and repulsive nonsense, or does it have artistic legitimacy and importance by depicting the worst sides of humanity?
  • Draco in Leather Pants:
    • Muchisute the mummy man; a noticable amount of the manga's fan base loves him despite the fact he raped Midori multiple times, even in the live action version. His Adaptational Attractiveness certainly further endears the fans even more.
    • Kanabun as well is fairly well liked despite killing puppies as his introductory scene. In the live action version, he is surprisingly played in a creepily appealing and also sympathetic way by SuG's Takeru, who portrays him like an excited little kid and endeared Kanbun to the audience even more.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Despite his treatment of her, a lot of fanartists prefer to pair Midori with Muchisute instead of her canon partner, Masamitsu. This mostly comes down to his Draco in Leather Pants status. For people who want her to stay within her age range, you'll often see them shipping her with Kanabun.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Most of the freaks cross the line with their continuous sexual assault of Midori.
  • Nightmare Fuel:
    • The premise alone. A little girl loses her only living parent, finds her corpse being gnawed on by rats and is sold into a freak show where she's raped on stage.
    • Masamitsu going on a rampage when one of his audience calls him a "fucking midget." He reacts by pulling a terrifying Mind Screw on everyone present, causing them to hallucinate themselves being horrifically deformed.
    • The visuals accompanying the animated film's ending monologue.
  • Narm: In the animated movie, the horrors of certain scenes are undermined by crappy animation.
  • No Yay:
    • Invoked with Midori and Masamitu's romance, the former being 12 and the latter being a grown, despite being a dwarf, adult. The pretty imagery also serves to highlight how actually messed-up the relationship is.
    • There are people who ship Midori with Muchisute. You know, her rapist??
      • A Love Triangle between two adult men and a twelve year old girl. Enough said.
  • Overshadowed by Controversy: The 1992 film is known less for its actual content and more for the fact that it was banned in its native Japan for 14 years as a result of its graphic depictions of child molestation and animal abuse (which are both shown in an overtly negative light in the film). There is plenty of discussion of the story itself, and many horror manga aficionados speak fondly of the film for its faithfulness to the original manga, but these discussions rarely go without bringing up the ban and the lingering controversy over it.
  • Questionable Casting: Osamu Tezuka's son as the man who buys all of Midori's flowers instead of Mr. Arashi himself.
  • Self-Fanservice: Muchisute is drawn in fanart simply looking like an amputee who just happens to be covered in bandages, mostly leaving out the skin damage caused by leprosy. And even when it's included, it's either toned down or he turns into a Butter Face.
  • Spiritual Successor: The animated film could be considered one to Belladonna of Sadness. The two use very similar animation styles and have a similar tone; the key difference is that Midori turns the graphic content up to eleven.
  • Squick:
    • Midori's Vomit Indiscretion Shot after a performance.
    • Rats eating at a Midori's mother's vagina.
    • When Midori is raped the first time, blood runs down her legs.
    • When Muchisute rapes Midori, his bandages come off, showing us his leprosy-infected skin.
    • The fact that Masamitsu, who is clearly an adult, shows romantic interest in Midori, who is 12, can rub people the wrong way.
    • In a similar vein as the above, Mr. Arashi having sexual relations with Kanabun, who obviously looks no older than Midori being a teenager at most.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The live-action film didn't utilize as much animation as was promoted in trailers, only using animation in three scenes of a 91 minute film.
  • The Woobie: Midori, obviously.
    • Jerkass Woobie: Kanabun in the live action film. It is hard to root for him, given his actions, but it's hard not to feel sorry for him when Mr Arashi, his lover, sells his body to the government official in order to keep the freak show going. His bitter attitude is almost justified if he didn't try to kill Midori. Even worse, selling his body was all for nothing when he is abandoned for a new boy toy near the end.
    • If you squint hard enough, the manga/anime version of Muchisute is this, due to being a leper. Also considering the time period, he's most likely been shunned and reviled by society in general due to his disease, so he only ever belonged in a freak show circus where even the audience doesn't like him very much. Not that it excuses his atrocities, however.


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