is a

one-shot One shot may refer to: Film and television * One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so * ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake * ''One Shot'' (2 ...

gekiga , literally "dramatic pictures", is a style of Japanese comics aimed at adult audiences and marked by a more cinematic art style and more mature themes. ''Gekiga'' was the predominant style of adult comics in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s. It is ...

written and illustrated by essayist and mangaka

Yoshiharu Tsuge is a Japanese cartoonist and essayist. He was active in comics between 1955 and 1987. His works range from tales of ordinary life to dream-like surrealism, and often show his interest in traveling about Japan. He has garnered the most attent ...

. ''Screw Style'' follows of the story of an unnamed boy who goes around several places in war-torn

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in order to find a doctor who can fix his pierced artery. The manga was first published in the manga anthology magazine ''

Garo Garo may refer to: People and languages * Garo people, a tribal people in India ** Garo language, the language spoken by the Garo tribe Places * Kingdom of Garo, a former kingdom in southern Ethiopia * Garo, Colorado * Garo Hills, part of the Ga ...

'' in 1968 to popularity among Japanese youth. The manga has been adapted into a video game and a live action film.

Plot

A boy arriving ashore in war-torn Japan is bitten by a jellyfish that pierces his artery. He enters a nearby village and goes around looking for a doctor, but finds none. The boy then proceeds to follow a road of railway tracks in hope that it will lead him to the next village, only to get onto a train that brings him back to the village he first entered. He then decides to search the village again, this time properly and encounters an old woman who tells him that the doctor he desires is in a nearby factory, but the boy goes to a female

gynecologist Gynaecology or gynecology (see spelling differences) is the area of medicine that involves the treatment of women's diseases, especially those of the reproductive organs. It is often paired with the field of obstetrics, forming the combined area ...

who resides in a

bunker A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. ...

instead. He has sex with the gynecologist before getting his pierced artery fixed with a safety valve and wrench. The manga ends with the boy sailing away in a motorboat.

Style and themes

''Screw Style'' does not have a conventional plot, and like many of Tsuge's works for Garo, it has a surreal, ambiguous quality in the progress of the narrative and the artwork. All characters except the main character are drawn as if they are static. There have been various interpretations of the themes of the manga, with various critics arguing the manga is about birth and death, or

existential nihilism Existential nihilism is the philosophical theory that life has no intrinsic meaning or value.Veit, W. (2018). Existential Nihilism: The Only Really Serious Philosophical Problem – Journal of Camus Studies 2018: 211-236. https://doi.org/10.131 ...

Release

It was published in the June 1968 issue of Garo magazine and gained cult status among Japanese youth at the time. It was subsequently translated into English by Bill Randall for the American magazine ''

The Comics Journal ''The Comics Journal'', often abbreviated ''TCJ'', is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels. Known for its lengthy interviews with comic creators, pointed editorials and scathing re ...

'' for its February 2003 issue. In May 2022,

Drawn & Quarterly Drawn & Quarterly is a publishing company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, specializing in comics. It publishes primarily comic books, graphic novels and comic strip collections. The books it publishes are noted for their artistic content, ...

announced that they licensed the manga for English publication.

Adaptations

The manga was adapted into a game for the Japanese PC-9800 and Sharp X68000 platforms in 1989. In 1998 Japanese film director Teruo Ishii adapted the manga into a live-action film (also known as ''Wind-Up Type'') starring Tadanobu Asano and Miki Fujitani.

References

External links

* *
The Stopcock

scanlation Scanlation (also scanslation) is the fan-made scanning, translation, and editing of comics from a language into another language. Scanlation is done as an amateur work performed by groups and is nearly always done without express permission from t ...

in ''Concerned Theatre Japan'' at Center for Japanese Studies Publications 1968 manga One-shot manga 1989 video games Japan-exclusive video games 1998 films Japanese drama films 1990s Japanese-language films Live-action films based on manga NEC PC-9801 games Seinen manga X68000 games Video games developed in Japan Gekiga Drawn & Quarterly titles {{manga-stub