However halfway through the book I found myself being really horrified by the casual cases of domestic violence, both against women and children. The drawing seemed tame compared to the content they were trying to portray.

They juxtaposed stories of blood flowers and boys sucking on pig eyeballs. In the beginning Hino’s slightly cartoony character art came off as charming and cute. This is my first time reading through a Hideshi Hino book and I have to say I was shocked at how effective he is as a horror storyteller. Overall I liked this very much and feel like it could be appreciated by several more people here.A horror manga about a painter obsessed with blood and various stories about his family members and their strange obsessions. In the end it comes together to form a pretty unique style and in my opinion it gives it an almost timeless quality. Think something like Munch's 'The Scream' mixed with old style Japanese manga a la Doraemon. It's definitely far from a modern style of manga but I think it's very well suited for what Hino is trying to accomplish here, being sort of an expressionist in style his drawings are not meant to be realistic but to convey an array of feelings and mental states trough the distorted faces of the characters.

There is a fair dose of symbolism too and Hino touches on different subjects even if only in passing which makes this work very prone to different interpretations and I'm sure great for re-reads.įinally I'll comment on the art style which might be a turn off for some people. We can see insanity, obsession, addiction, domestic abuse, child abuse, the effect of the atomic bomb, post WW2 Japanese mentality, karma, sociopathy, introversion and of course death. This manga deals with A LOT of themes even if at first it seems as if it was only focused on pure shock value. That which might have seemed in the beginning as gratuitous gore and gross outs begin to take shape as part of a greater whole as the painter's psyche is unveiled.

The place the artist lives in and his surroundings are so nightmarish and decadent as to be immediately immersive and Hino deftly takes advantage of this and takes you by the hand on a trip first trough the painter's environment and then trough his past. Panorama of Hell is framed as a one on one conversation with a mad painter who shows you his 'Hell Paintings' and tells you what exactly came to inspire them culminating in him talking about his unfinished masterpiece 'The Panorama of Hell', the end of everything.įirst of all I think it's necessary to say that this manga is not so much about a definite 'plot' but more about atmosphere and ideas, each painting giving insight into the troubled mind of the protagonist. I read this manga a couple of days ago and would like to recommend it to everyone here.

Hideshi hino panorama of hell