"Midori: The Camellia Girl" (少女椿), Original Japanese Movie Poster 2016, TORICO / Suehiro Maruo, B2 Size (51 × 73 cm) N260
This is an original Japanese B2 theatrical poster printed for the 2016 live-action release of Midori: The Camellia Girl (少女椿, Shōjo Tsubaki), written and directed by TORICO.
Adapted from Suehiro Maruo’s celebrated and controversial underground manga, the film combines ero-guro imagery, circus spectacle and alternative Japanese fashion within an intensely stylised visual world. This original poster is one of the most striking Japanese cult-film designs of the 2010s.
Film background
Published in book form in 1984, Maruo’s Shōjo Tsubaki became an important work of Japanese underground manga. Its fusion of erotic grotesquerie, prewar popular entertainment, surrealism and meticulously rendered graphic art established Maruo as one of the defining artists of the modern ero-guro tradition.
The manga had previously been adapted as the independent 1992 animated film Midori: The Girl in the Freak Show. Its disturbing subject matter and elaborate imagery nevertheless made a conventional live-action adaptation appear exceptionally difficult.
TORICO’s film was released in Japan on 21 May 2016, with a running time of 90 minutes and an R15+ classification. It stars fashion model Risa Nakamura in her first film role, alongside Shunsuke Kazama, Misaki Morino, Takeru, Daichi Saeki, Motoki Fukami and Akihiro Nakatani.
Nakamura plays Midori, a 14-year-old flower seller left orphaned following the death of her mother. She is taken in by the Red Cat Circus, an itinerant troupe populated by eccentric and frequently cruel performers. Among them are the strongman Akaza, the beautiful Kanabun, snake charmer Benietsu and foot performer Muchisute.
Midori’s circumstances appear to change when the mysterious magician and psychic Wonder Masamitsu, played by Shunsuke Kazama, joins the company. His apparent tenderness offers her temporary protection, but his possessiveness and capacity for violence gradually reveal another form of danger.
Rather than attempting to reproduce Maruo’s monochrome drawings literally, TORICO transforms the material into a vividly coloured nightmare shaped by theatrical costumes, practical sets, animation and contemporary Japanese alternative fashion.
Poster design
The spectacular design resembles a vintage circus handbill reconstructed through Pop Art, fashion photography and grotesque collage. A red-and-yellow tent canopy crowns the composition, while decorative borders, blackened woodgrain textures and four staring birds frame the imagery like an elaborate sideshow cabinet.
At the centre is Risa Nakamura as Midori, presented with a blunt black bob, stark white makeup, an enormous polka-dot bow and a matching spotted pinafore. Her fixed gaze and carefully posed hands give her the appearance of a porcelain doll—beautiful, vulnerable and distinctly unsettling.
Beside her appears a grotesque illustrated head recalling the linework and anatomical distortions of Suehiro Maruo’s original manga. Pale, disembodied forms curl around Midori from behind, further blurring the boundary between human figure, theatrical prop and hallucination.
Shunsuke Kazama as Wonder Masamitsu appears in the upper-right vignette, manipulating a mysterious glass vessel. Around him, fragmented images of the Red Cat Circus performers emerge from red, pink and black theatrical scenery.
The title 少女椿 is divided across three large red panels bordered like perforated postage stamps. This unusual presentation makes the title resemble a set of sinister collectible cards or labels taken from an old travelling curiosity show.
A white line of text beside Midori asks:
“Who is mad—me, or you?”
The yellow circular device in the lower-left announces:
“The forbidden original work, said to be impossible to realise on film, is finally adapted!”
The dense cast and production credits at the bottom identify TORICO as director and screenwriter and Suehiro Maruo as the original creator. The Japanese R15+ classification mark remains clearly visible in the lower-right corner.
This poster is in excellent+ condition, approaching near mint. The densely printed colours remain exceptionally vivid, the surface is clean, and the intricate imagery and typography retain excellent definition. The margins and reverse are similarly well preserved, with only the most minimal signs of handling consistent with age (please refer to imagery, both front and back, of the exact poster for sale).
It is 10 years old.
It is not a reproduction or a reprint.
Certificate of Authenticity included.
