Manga Review – The Strange Tale of Panorama Island by Edogawa Ranpo, Translated by Elaine Kazu Gerbert (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Mystery/Fantasy
Length: 160 pages
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Release Date: January 17, 2013
ISBN-13 : 978-0824836337
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Gift
Rating: 3/5 stars
“Ranpo’s panorama island is filled with cleverly designed optical illusions: a staircase rises into the sky; white feathered “birds” speak in women’s voices and offer to serve as vehicles; clusters of naked men and women romp on slopes carpeted with rainbow-colored flowers. His fantastical utopia is filled with entrancing music and strange sweet odors, and nothing is ordinary, predictable, or boring. The novella reflected the new culture of mechanically produced simulated realities (movies, photographs, advertisements, stereoscopic and panoramic images) and focused on themes of the doppelganger and appropriated identities: its main character steals the identity of an acquaintance. The novella’s utopian vision, argues translator Elaine Gerbert, mirrors the expansionist dreams that fed Japan’s colonization of the Asian continent, its ending an eerie harbinger of the collapse of those dreams.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got this as a gift in hardback format.
Thoughts: This was okay. The premise starts out as interesting and then kind of degenerates into a series of lots of double-wide illustrations of very explicit continuous orgies. The drawing and detail are very well done. The story seems to be classic “lazy person comes up with a plot to be rich and live out their dreams only to find out life still sucks for them”. I found the ending somewhat confusing and ended up going online to see what others had thought happened.
The story follows a man who is a somewhat lazy and failed writer. He is just getting some interest from his publisher in one of his stories when he finds out a rich man that he went to school with that looks identical to him, has died. He decides to steal this man’s life by pretending to be him come out of a coma from the grave. The only person who really doubts him is the dead man’s wife. He then uses all of the rich man’s money to create a island paradise full of strange panorama, sculptures, delicacies, and lots and lots of naked people having sex constantly. Strangely (I am being sarcastic here) he finds out that he really isn’t any happier, and he is constantly in fear of his duplicity being discovered.
The illustration is well done and very intricate. I liked some of the intriguing ideas about creating these illusionary panoramas from different parts of the island. I felt like the second half of the book was more about drawing as many orgies as physically possible than anything else. These are very detailed drawings with tons of female nudity and some male nudity. Even the fantasy elements of the island are plagued by this. For example, there are magical giant swans…with people having sex on top of them. Unlimited tables of food with people having sex on them. You get the point.
My Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay but somewhat disappointing. The premise is initially interesting, the ending is bizarre, and the middle is strangely boring for all the depravity that’s shown. It is a kind of odd blend of horror, fantasy, and erotica themes. If that sounds intriguing to you, give it a try. It is incredibly well drawn and some of the ideas are intriguing (especially around how the panoramas are created) are intriguing.
