Metamorphosis byShindo L

This review contains discussion of a work featuring sexual content and trauma that some people may find distressing.

I.

In fanspeak, “X porn” is akin to “superstimulus”: a description of something that exists in reality, but taken to a level beyond what most people are likely to ever encounter. George R.R. Martin’s multi-page descriptions of banquets are food porn. The shopping scene in John Wick: Chapter 2 is gun porn. The brilliant ad hoc engineering efforts in Apollo 13 and The Martian are competence porn.

Shindo L’s Metamorphosis1 is misery porn. It’s the story of Saki Yoshida, a lonely, once innocent high school girl, pushed into experimenting with drugs and casual sex, followed by her being assaulted, kicked out of her home, and turning to prostitution to pay for her worsening drug addiction. Metamorphosis is not merely depressing: it’s tragedy stacked upon tragedy, illustrated in lurid detail, and compressed into a couple hundred pages of disturbingly well-drawn artwork.

It’s also porn. As in: pornography.

The first page of Metamorphosis, and one of the few pages I can show while keeping this review safe for work.

II.

Among English-speaking fans, “ecchi” refers to soft-core or merely sexually suggestive anime and manga, while “hentai” is reserved for sexually explicit Japanese media.2 The line between the two is not always clear, especially assomeworks force platforms to reconsider what they are willing to keep in their library.

But Metamorphosis is definitely hentai. However, unlike many hentai manga, the plot doesn’t read like an excuse to move from sex scene to sex scene. Instead, the sex scenes are critical to making the story work: Saki’s admittedly poor decisions seem more understandable, and her tragedy feels that much more terrible for how explicitly it is portrayed.

Saki, having spent middle school without making a single friend, tries to remodel her looks and personality for high school. While shopping, she meets Hayato, who compliments her, invites her to karaoke and gives her alcohol. With her judgment impaired, Hayato encourages her to take a pill (implied to be Ecstasy/MDMA), and then pushes her into having sex with him.

Throughout all of this, Saki is aware at some level that she’s making bad decisions, but remains sympathetic. She has no friends, and now an attractive guy is complimenting her. She doesn’t originally intend to drink or take drugs, but just goes along with what Hayato gives her. And, in the moment, losing her virginity doesn’t seem like such a bad idea, considering how much Hayato cares for her. From an outside perspective, Hayato is clearly preying on a vulnerable teenage girl, but Saki is inexperienced and conflicted.

The artwork reflects her internal conflict in the reader. It’s, ahem, kind of hot, with disturbing undertones, but why not enjoy it? The artwork makes it clear that drugged up sex with Hayato is the most pleasurable experience Saki has had in her life.

And it will remain the most pleasurable experience in her entire life. She spends most of the rest of the story chasing that first high.

III.

Shindo L's portrayal of drug use in sex scenes is clever, maybe even brilliant. It feels titillating, forbidden, and comes with no immediate negative consequences. It’s only later that Saki and, most likely, the reader feel that something has gone very, very wrong.

Saki wants to fit in with her classmates, but can’t afford to buy clothes or fashion accessories. She learns that she can make money via compensated dating3, with the promise that all she has to do is have dinner with clients. Saki is reluctant to have sex with the older man she goes to dinner with, but relents as he bribes her with a large sum of money. Afterwards, some of her classmates, having inadvertently discovered her on the date, blackmail her into having sex with them as well.

Next, Saki’s father, returning home drunk after losing his job, rapes her. When her mother finds out, her father claims that Saki seduced him, and her mother believes him, blaming Saki. Saki flees her home and starts living with Hayato who pushes her into prostitution and harder drugs.

Saki as a gyaru. Gyaru, a Japanese transliteration of “gal”, is a fashion subculture (and popular hentai tag).

And, however bad of a life trajectory this sounds, it really only gets worse from there.

Incredibly, Shindo L uses the unique possibilities of hentai as an artistic medium to more powerfully express Saki’s story. The sex scenes become less appealing as the disturbing nature of her circumstances start to outweigh any eroticism. The drug use is illustrated as the enticing relief from reality that it is for Saki - but it doesn’t last. By the time she is raped by other homeless people in a public park, most readers are not reading Metamorphosis for the sex scenes.

They’re reading it for the story.

Saki is not blameless, but her circumstances are not entirely her own fault. The story, especially towards the end, is disturbing, but Saki remains sympathetic enough to where readers want to know how it will end.

Badly. It ends badly.

IV.

Metamorphosis is popular. Possibly, one of the most popular pornographic works ever. It is difficult to provide statistics, especially given how often pornography is pirated, but there is evidence that readers find Metamorphosis a compelling story, beyond the pornographic content and shock value.

The numbers 177013 are aninternet meme in their own right, referring to the 6 digit code it was assigned on a certain hentai database. Google searching “177013” will bring up images of Saki on the first page of results; r/177013 is its own subreddit.

Metamorphosis has fan fiction. Metamorphosis has fan art. Metamorphosis has a fan-made 10 page fully-illustrated alternative ending, “I’m Gonna Fix That Girl”, with it’s own 6 digit code, 265918.

But, I think most tellingly, Metamorphosis hascosplay. It’s common these days for fans to dress up as characters from their favorite comics or TV shows. It is rather less common for fans to dress up as characters from their favorite pornographic work.

Metamorphosis is the only hentai I’m aware of with multiple fans cosplaying as the main character.

Rui Ai as Saki

V.

As implausible as this sounds, I think Metamorphosis is culturally significant. Beyond the explicit illustrations and shocking story content, it captures a deep fear present in the modern world. Stumble off the socially accepted path of high school to college to gainful employment, and it’s easy to be targeted by a predator and/or turn to drugs to try to escape. Metamorphosis may be “a tragic and preachy story”4, but the elements of the story are all too real.

What makes a book a “classic” depends on many criteria. A classic should capture the zeitgeist of its era, yet remain timeless. It should be skilfully written, while still speaking with its own unique style. It should be subversive in a way that makes it particularly memorable.

And like some classics, many readers report the experience of reading Metamorphosis to be absolutely miserable.

I don’t go around recommending Metamorphosis to people. But I can’t help but think that it’s a classic in the making, destined to become one of the significant works of literature from this era.

These book reviews often end with a picture of the cover. But that’s not safe for work, so here’s a t-shirt that I own.

[1] Published in Japan as 変身 (Hepburn: Henshin), originally subtitled Emergence

[2] This is a western invention. In Japanese, エッチ (“etchi”) refers to all things sexual, and 変態 (“hentai”) is a catch-all for perversion, not necessarily sexual.

[3] Enjo kōsai, similar to Western sugar dating

[4] Shindo L’s own words from the afterword