Bloody Maiden: Toomarimiki no Shima

megafat Jul 28, 2022

5.8

In the 16th century, a group of bandits known as the Kidoshu wander around Japan, plundering whatever they can find and storing their vast treasures on Toomariki Island. However, they don't escape the law for long and are eventually caught, crucified, and burned alive. Over time their legend fades, leaving the island and the museum on it as the only monument to their memory and the only proof of their existence. A few centuries later and we arrive in modern times as Onitsuka Miaki and Koizumi Suzuka, along with with the ten other girls from the naginata club and their advisor go to Toomariki, go to a retreat to hone their skills. However, the gruesome past of the island quickly makes itself known and soon the members of the club get brutally killed off one by one by an unknown force, with the survivors having to band together to find out who the killer is before it's too late. Bloody Maiden is a supernatural tinted slasher film distilled into the form of a manga and it doesn't try to be anything else. There's no fluff and it gets into the action almost immediately. It's filled with gratuitous amounts of violence, blood, gore, nudity, and lesbians, and it even has it's mostly female cast decided to change into their swimwear randomly out of nowhere and for no reason. It's sleazy but it's not pretending to by anything else. It knows exactly what it wants to be and runs with it, having fun with it's silly premise and going all in with just how absurd the whole thing is. I can't even talk more about the plot beyond it's initial premise because I would end up spoiling it, that's how little to the plot there is, but nobody is here for the plot outside of it being an excuse to have a killer going around killing people and for the female characters to show off some skin. The manga is only one volume long and it's a fairly quick and breezy reason, and could probably be read in the same time as a 2 hour slasher movie. The killer even has an iPod filled with bands and artists like Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, and Alice Cooper, easily setting the tone of just how campy it is. Both the design of the iPod and song titles are all just conveniently covered up just enough to now get sued, but clear enough to make it obvious as to what it's trying to get across. If you're into slasher films like Friday the 13th, Nightmare On Elm Street, or Child's Play, like sleazy campy horror movies from the 80s in general, or could easily name at least 3 films that John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and/or David Cronenberg has directed or written, you'll get something out of this. If this doesn't sound like your cup of te