Chôjin densetsu urotsukidôji: Original gekijô kôkai-ban

Possibly the most important Japanese gothic sci-fi tentacle sex horror metamorphosis allegory of our time, Urotsukidouji is poignant love tragedy wrapped in a shroud of horrific telescoping genitals and pink, luminescent semen. This movie is a large part of the reason anime has a negative reputation as porn.

Follow Nagumo as he falls in love, gets killed, comes back to life as a super sex demon and lives happily ever after. His cute, innocent love story with the character Akemi is a grand contrast to his propencity for non-consentual sex with just about everybody he meets. He truly is Everyman. I mean, uh...isn't he?

There is also an incomprehenisble plot about demons and half-humans and the repeated destruction of Osaka, Japan. But you'll have a hard time concentrating on the plot's intricacies, what with all the raping and the killing and the kicking and the hurting.

Part II is also good (maybe better than part I), then the series dissolves into post- apocalyptic gobblediguck. But if you have an insatiable appetite for monster porn, you better watch them all.

The main problem with this film is it tries so hard to offend that everything else (plot, character, good dialogue) gets thrown out of the window. The graphic scenes of sex and violence wouldn't really worry me too much if they were relevant to the plot but alas, the initially intriguing sci-fi premise is soon ditched in favour of a "let's see which one of us can do the sickest and most disturbing scene in the film" between the animators. Such a shame, if they actually put a bit of effort into developing the plot and less time testing the audiences morality then we might have something interesting here. Oh yeah, and what was the point in dubbing all the original Japanese voicework with completely out of place American accents? (which have to be squeaky of course, to suit the films Tokyo setting.) Couldn't they just have kept the film the way it was and added sub-titles at the end? Oh sorry I forgot, the studio thinks the average Yank doesn't have the patience to read them AND watch the film at the same time... Cheers for that vote of confidence there, dudes. In conclusion, this film is like that foul-mouthed child you stick in the corner for using bad-language: They try to get your attention by trying to shock you as much as possible, but really all they succeed in doing is make you realize just how sad and desperate they are.

One of the earliest 'hentais' to make it state side, this helped spark the uber obsession America's geeks have with anime. Featuring graphic violence, explicit sex and an adult-themed apocalypse story, this is one of anime's best offerings.

The world, it seems, is divided in to 3 parts. The human world, the beast world and the demon world. Demons being evil, beast being good, and humans caught in the middle. An ancient prophecy speaks of a creature, called the Overfiend, which will be born of man and will bring either peace or destruction to the three realms. The race is on to find it's vessel on Earth and harness it's potential power.

The story has more than it's fare share of fantasy and horror, it seeks to balance the two elements and does a nice job of it. But the main reason most people will watch this is the same reason I did: anime-sex. For inexplicable reasons that stuff is just plain hot, probably because they do things in the medium one would never see in a live action film.

The sored acts include all manners of regular sexual activity all the way up to tentacle rape. Yes, I said tentacle rape. However, unlike most other products of it's kind the sex doesn't feel like cheap excess nor does it come off as the only viewing point. Graphic (often fully explicit) though it may be, it serves a purpose with in the larger story. Rather than a stopping point it furthers the action.

Horror purists will be happy to know that mixed in with the sex and fantasy elements is a healthy dose of horror, J-pop style. Dr. Suess-inspired underworlds, great creature designs, and gobs of spilt hemoglobin. The ultimate conclusion is a little hard to get past at first (as with many J-horror films), but it still wraps up nicely.

Anime fans, horror geeks, and the rain-coat crowd should definitely seeks this one out.

9/10

This manga film is a sick movie! Women are getting raped by monsters. At one point sperm is being licked off the face of a woman by a monster. There is a lot of slash and gore. The story is very simple and yet they manage to tell it in a confusing way.

I think I just don't get Japanese animation.

Watch the Japanese version. Avoid the English dubbed version. It has been censored. And the most important clues of the plot happen exactly at those moments that were deemed too graphic for American viewers. As a result, in the English version the story makes much less sense.

Now, about the movie. This is a masterpiece of sick and twisted fantasy, filled with an obscene amount of sex and violence. And usually, the two are combined. It's an epic tale of the fight between good and evil, however, like most anime movies, it's never entirely clear who is good and who is evil. Aside to this, there are several smaller and more personal story lines as well, like the love between two teenagers, a kid and his alcoholic father and a few others.

The quality of animation of anime movies has improved much over the years and this movie is clearly one of the older ones. But it's still unique in its kind. It's one of the great anime classics, together with such movies Akira and Fist of the North Star.