The Panorama of Hell

A horror manga about a painter obsessed with blood and various stories about his family members and their strange obsessions.

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. In the beginning Hino’s slightly cartoony character art came off as charming and cute. They juxtaposed stories of blood flowers and boys sucking on pig eyeballs. The drawing seemed tame compared to the content they were trying to portray.

However halfway through the book I found myself being really horrified by the casual cases of domestic violence, both against women and children. The painter’s family was prone to violence and torture and these acts transformed the cartoony art into something more sinister. I really praise Hino for his art and I really loved of black ink blood filled with white dots representing snow.

Unfortunately The Panorama of Hell is out of print along with all of Hideshi Hino‘s English releases. Hopefully a publisher will rescue Hino’s works and release them so more manga fans can experience his unique art and dark themed stories.

~dakazu