is a one-shot

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

written and illustrated by essayist and manga artist

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 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 ...

'' 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 American and British English spelling differences) is the area of medicine concerned with conditions affecting the female reproductive system. It is often paired with the field of obstetrics, which focuses on pre ...

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. T ...

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 objective meaning or purpose.Veit, W. (2018). Existential Nihilism: The Only Really Serious Philosophical Problem – Journal of Camus Studies 2018: 211–236. https://doi.org/10 ...

Release

It was published in the June 1968 issue of ''Garo'' magazine and gained cult status among Japanese youth at the time. In 1972 it was published under the title ''The Stopcock'' in the scholarly journal, ''Concerned Theatre Japan'' for their double issue volume two release. 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 r ...

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

Drawn & Quarterly Drawn & Quarterly (D+Q) 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 con ...

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 is a 1998 Japanese drama film directed by Teruo Ishii. It is an adaptation of Yoshiharu Tsuge, Tsuge Yoshiharu's 1967 manga ''Screw Style''. Production The film is Ishii's eighty-first film. It stars Tadanobu Asano and Miki Fujitani. When ask ...

'') starring

Tadanobu Asano better known by his stage name is a Japanese actor, director, and musician, who has had an extensive career working in both Japanese and international cinema. He has been nominated for five Japan Academy Film Prizes, twice for Best Actor and ...

and

Miki Fujitani is a Japanese actress and former Idol Singer. In addition to her many live-action film and television roles, she had a prominent voice role as Kamiya Kaoru in the ''Rurouni Kenshin'' anime series, and as Chun-Li in '' Street Fighter II The M ...

References

External links

* *
The Stopcock

scanlation Scanlation (also scanslation) is the fan-made image scanner, scanning, translation, and Image editing, editing of comics from a language into another language. Scanlation is done as an amateur work performed by groups and is nearly always done w ...

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