The book was well-received by Marxist critics on its initial release, and earned Kobayashi a positive reputation. Non-Marxists were less kind: attacked the work for its portrayal of individual evil but not organizational evil, attributing all the suffering of the characters to one man in Asakawa. Naoya Shiga was of the opinion that as a work of literature it should move readers directly, not by indirectly conveying ideology. Literary historian and critic Donald Keene wrote that the work "succeeds not because of its message, nor because of its confident appraisal of the future, but because of the vivid, believable details of life aboard the ship." Keene praised the novel's unflinching portrayal of sexual violence by the older fishermen against their younger comrades and refusal to set any one figure up as a "worker-hero". Adaptations In 1953, the film Kanikōsen was released, directed by Sō Yamamura and starring himself, Masayuki Mori and Sumiko Hidaka. It was awarded the best cinematography prize at the 1954 Mainichi Film Concours. A manga version of the book first appeared in 2006, the first of four so far. During 2009, two stage adaptations of the novel were produced in Tokyo, another was produced in 2012. A remake of the film Kani kōsen, directed by Hiroyuki Tanaka and starring Ryuhei Matsuda and Hidetoshi Nishijima was completed in 2009. References Works cited External links Kanikōsen online text. Red Star Rising 1929 novels Proletarian literature Japanese political novels 20th-century Japanese novels Shinchosha books Shōwa-period works