Ero-Guro

The Ultimate Shocking Manga Style! Adults Only!

Just a fast introduction if you are new to this. The Erotic Grotesque genre in novels is inspired from the famous writer Rampo Edogawa from the Taisho Japanese era (1912-1926), father of the detective story and author of numerous novels were erotism is intertwined with grotesque (ex: The Human Chair and Imomushi). It was introduced in the manga subculture of the 60’s by artists like Kazuichi Hanawa and Suehiro Maruo, later in the 80’s. Maruo’s style takes its roots in surrealists, marxists and expressionists movies. But the real inspiration of it all really comes from all the decay, the macabre and the grotesque that goes hand in hand with any war.

Le Lézard Noir is a French Editor founded in 2004 by Stéphane Duval whos editorial line is mostly inspired by something between black romantic and Japanese decadence. If you are curious and want to delve into those rare dark  depraved masterpieces of Japanese graphic novels with a rare, almost unbearable intensity, Le Lézard Noir Logo would be for sure the perfect place to look…  One of the main author of what is called the Ero-Guro (erotic-grotesque) style is without the shadow of a doubt Suehiro Maruo, who’s books are very troublesome and definitely ”XXX Rated”. One can simply say that this is pure and simple free provocation but it would be a mistake, if you take the time to dig into his art (because this can definitely could and should be called ”Art”) you will discover something that has been laying in our subconscious and says a lot not only about the atrocities the Japanese have witnessed and how heavy was the loss of their (extremely precious) pride when they were defeated by not one but 2 atomic bombs by the US but for sure a little something that lies within each of us too. Now I know these pages are hard to swallow and I totally recommend to keep these books out of the reach of your kids or any one for the matter. They are the kind of books that you keep under a lock after you have read them, exactly as if you had some Gestapo paraphernalia or a snuff movie…Well maybe not quite but almost… So I want to thank Mr Duval who has dared to present us those authors and if you’re into wicked japanese stuff… Like I said, look for the logo… So without further more useless words to describe the images, here are some drawings from various books and some animes made by Le Lézard Noir to present the graphic novels as they were released back then as well as some other ero-grotesque goodies (just click on the little logo for Lézard Noir homepage).

Eros X SF by Shotaro Ishinomori

Some clips made to present some of Suehiro Maruo‘s best works:

Les Femmes du Zodiaque – Miyako Maki

This last one couldn’t be listed as Ero-Guro but it is still very good. Same goes for the following one classified as ”seinen” (manga marketed to men in their late teens, 20’s or 30’s) which is most definitely a classic in his style so I thought that those of you who would be less ”hard core” would be able to appreciate more the one above by Miyako Maki and/or the classic ”seinen” below:

Clip with drawings from Shintaro Kago 

This is far from being complete but I hope if you are curious about this and want to know more, you now know some names and words to google to start your research!! Have fun and tell me what you found!!