From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
The Mylar Procedure
This article is about the 2022 doujinshi. For the canonical embedded tale it reimagines, see Rico the Architect. For other comic and manga adaptations, see Category:Comics.
The Mylar Procedure is a 48-page color doujinshi that expands and darkens Rico the Architect, the canonical embedded tale from Beach Surgery. Self-published by an anonymous artist collective at Comiket 102 (August 2022), it reframes Mylar, the Mylar: “youngest of a line of surgeons”, as the narrative's true protagonist and reimagines her hand-to-wall "surgery" as a contemporary medical body-horror sequence.
Where the canonical outline emphasizes surgical grace—the Mylar: “contented smile” of Rico's body-as-breathing-building—The Mylar Procedure foregrounds viscerality, penetration, and the ethics of consent. Mylar's hand pressed to the wall becomes violent penetration. The "breathing building" exhales ash and organic matter. Crucially, Rico remains conscious throughout, eyes open, experiencing transformation as simultaneous agony and apotheosis.
The artwork employs heavily cross-hatched ink and saturated colour fields that obscure anatomical clarity, rendering the procedure simultaneously beautiful and illegible. Notable production choice: several spreads use metallic ink (metallic silver and copper), a laborious and expensive self-publishing technique that elevated costs and rarity—original prints now circulate at ██ on secondary markets.
Circulation remained primarily within Japanese doujinshi networks until 2023, when fan scans spread internationally. An unofficial English fan-translation exists; official English-language publication has not been announced. [citation needed] The Mylar circle has not publicly reappeared or published subsequent works.
Reception & scholarship
The Mylar Procedure is now cited alongside the TV anime and original manga as a definitive treatment of the Rico tale. The Clinic's 2024 symposium "Healing and Harm: Surgery Across Media" featured a dedicated panel on the doujinshi's interrogation of surgical ethics. [1]
Critics remain divided: some argue it deepens the original's thematic scope; others contend it violates the canonical deadpan tone by centering affect, pain, and explicit body-horror. [citation needed]
See also
- Rico the Architect
- Mylar
- A Complicated Surgery Will Take Place on the Beach Tonight (manga)
- Category:Comics
- Category:Embedded tales
References
- ↑ The Recurrence Clinic, June 2024, Tokyo.