Ahhhh everyone's favorite genre! So a bit of background, I've read the genre for years. It's probably my favorite genre. I have massive respect for the ol' man, Rampo, after reading a lot of his books. For those that don't know, the genre of ero guro nansensu (commonly shortened to guro these days) is basically like shock content at times. It's grotesque depictions of love most of the time. Now, most people may think this is... weird to say the least. I mean, why turn yourself into a chair? But at other times, it's pure grotesque depicitions of eroticity. The best example of this (now I'm mentioning Rampo-kun a lot but that's because he's like the father of the genre. I'll go into other influential authors and artists soon so bear with me.) could quite possibly be Rampo"s claim to fame, Strange Tale of Panorama Island.
In this novel, some poor guy's rich doppleganger dies so our protagonist (Hitome Hirosuke) puts in action a magnificent plan to pretend that Genzaburo Komoda has been resurrected and steal his riches to create heaven on earth. However this heaven isn't much of a heaven in the eyes of many, seeming unnatural and terrifying. It also talks about the sensual grasp of death. I won't spoil as you should absolutely read it yourself so simply have this, "writhing and gasping under the muscular man forgot all suffering and fell into rapturous pleasure and indescribable ecstasy." The world that Rampo creates within the mind of his novel's protagonist is truly a magnificent example of ero guro nansensu.
Erotic? It would be strange to call a world without clothes any less. Grotesque? 'How can the author describe the madness and debauchery, the pleasures of revelry and drunkenness, the numberless games of life and death that were played day and night on that magnificent stage? You readers might find something that resembled it, in part, in your most fantastic, bloodiest, and most beautiful nightmares.', said world is that of a deathly fantasy. And last but not least, nonsensical? In a world in which one's wildest dreams may be achieved by such simple and foolish means, is that not the definition of nonsense?
