Four words for you. NO RULES, NO LIMITS. I remember the days when I used to watch impressive horror and fantastic films, and think to myself, "where do the creators come up with this stuff ?". Well, these days I don’t say that anymore. Most of today’s horror and fantastic films are retreads of movies we have already seen, bathed in cold calculating digital FX. Okay, I’m a little jaded these days like most of us. But now and again, my brain craves something original and unique. Well, I’m pleased to inform you that after viewing this feature, I found myself asking that question again, "where did they come up this stuff". Before continuing I just want to inform all that this film is not for everyone. It is explicitly violent (and vile), it's pornographic, and its of an extreme adult nature. If there is a house movie in Hell, they would be hard-pressed to find anything more grotesque to show than this film.

Consider this film the Anti-Disney. Disney is known throughout the world as the creators of sweet, cuddly, musical, (and formulaic) animated features with marketable characters. Imagine then, on the flip side of the coin, a conglomeration of artist/creators (Noboru Aikawa, Hideki Takayama and Toshio Maeda) that set out to push the envelope of taste, animation, and creativity to come up something as even more epic in scale than a Disney film, but so extremely vile, it can only be called Anti-Disney. What I meant by NO RULES, NO LIMITS, is that the creators break all the rules for this film. Also the art form of animation allows for no limits. They dream up and execute things that no digital FX could ever duplicate. But behind the demon rapes scenes, behind the bloody shredding of nubile young women, behind the Armageddon of the human race, there is a genuine story here, and one much more imaginative and ambitious than any Disney could produce. The movie is frowned upon by a great many people including the audience it was intended for. But these days, it’s rare to find a movie that is highly original and not mundane. The movie actually managed to offend me, and that ain’t easy. This is an epic, disturbing film that spawned several sequels and imitations, but none hold up to the originality and scale of the original.

This DVD release of UROTSUKIDOJI: LEGEND OF THE OVERFIEND is the English version of the foreign (gasp!) Japanese animation 1989 film CHOJIN DENSETSU UROTSUKIDOJI. The title translates to THE WANDERING KID, which is a reference to the enigmatic lead character named Amano. Amano is part human and part beast and he exhibits strange super powers (such as levitation, telekinesis, etc.) although the limits of his powers are not established. He also has a horny sister named Megumi. The likeable human characters are Akemi, a cute teenager who is raped by a demon, and her boyfriend Nagumo. Although Nagumo does not know it, he is the human incarnation of a god-like being called the Chojin. There is another human character that adds to the conflict named Nikki; he is Nagumo’s rival for Akemi’s affections.

The plot is very complicated and worthy of an entire article, but I’ll attempt to give a brief overview and not discuss spoilers for those that have not yet scene the film. In this reality, there are three worlds sharing the same space. Our world, a world of demons called Makai, and a world of beast men called JyujinKai. Beings on all these worlds are sexually active but not all for the same reason. In both the demon world and the beast men world all the residents exhibit supernatural powers. The demon world preys on both the human and beast men. But only humans do not have the power to fight the demonic supernatural powers. There is a prophecy that every ten thousand years a super powerful being (the Chojin) is born into the human realm to save humanity and unite the three worlds as one. The demon world has dispatched its brethren to Earth to locate and destroy this Chojin. The world of the beast men has sent it representatives, the brother and sister team of Amano and Megumi to locate the Chojin and solve the mystery surrounding the prophecy.

On Earth, high school student Akemi is kept after school by her headmistress. The headmistress metamorphs into a nightmarish creation which starts to rape the poor girl. Amano (posing as a high school student) and boyfriend Nagumo manage to defeat the hideous demon. Soon demons begin to appear throughout the city causing havoc, and Nagumo is killed in an automobile accident. At the hospital, Nagumo’s body transforms for the first time into the monstrous Chojin, a being so powerful that to drink its blood would give the drinker super powers (this concept is used later). The Chojin rapes Nagumo’s nurse, and transforms further into a huge beast which destroys the entire hospital then disappears. Nagumo reappears alive, stunning his friends. One friend named Nikki, a victimized nerdy teenager, is disturbed to see Nagumo alive, because Nikki had hoped to seduce Akemi with Nagumo out of the way.

Some demons approach Nikki and offer to give him super powers to rival the Chojin. Somehow, the demon’s manage to give him a bit of Chojin blood and the nerdy guy becomes super powered instantly. Nikki kidnaps Akemi, and the Chojin emerges to face the evil Nikki and the demon horde. Amano witnesses the mayhem and is himself attacked by the leader of the demon world. Before the demon leader dies, he warns Amano to beware the Chojin. Amano travels back to the world of the beast men full of questions. His master, who has strange powers sends Amano to the future where he sees the Earth world; it is a barren, dried out husk of a planet—a victim of the Earth’s savior, the Chojin? Amano, Nagumo, and Akemi must unravel the mystery of the Chojin before all three worlds meet a cataclysmic fate!

There’s a lot of story there, and I just scraped the surface. But before you think this movie is just talk let’s review the mayhem (bring your barf bags):

Four young women are killed in grizzly fashion. One of the corpses is hanging from the wall. Her entrails erupt and fall to the ground. The entrails reintegrate into one of the monster demons.

The Chojin rapes a woman until she explodes (literally).

A demon uses a protruded mouth on its torso and swallows a man whole. The man turns into a wolf like monster inside the demon, and slashes the demon to ribbons as it breaks free.

The man reverts back to normal and spontaneously combusts into a skeleton and is then reduced to powder.

The Chojin, using a various assortment of destructive powers, destroys an entire city including the residents who turn to ash.

This is just some of the bizarre imagery that occurs in this film. Again there is much, much more that I do not mention. The animation quality, though not of AKIRA-like detail and quality, is excellent and matches what you would find in a Disney film, though the style is different and obviously more darker in tone. The creators of this sickness (Maeda, Takayama, and Aikawa) really come up with interesting and mysterious characters and an equally intriguing storyline. Visually, the character designs, monster/demon designs, and backgrounds are all excellently designed and animated.

SIGHT

The transfer is presented full frame (1.33.1). The image is very sharp with superior detail. Certain colors (like the color of blood and gore) are genuinely bright and appear accurate. Keep in mind most of the movie takes place at night or in the shadowy beast world. There are only a few daytime exterior scenes and they appear genuinely bright. Contrast and brightness are good with decent shadow detail. There is no bleeding between colors and no haloing was observed. The blacks are deep and solid and are put to use in the transfer as most of the scenes occur in dark, dank places which helps reinforce the tone of the narrative. The images of global Armageddon and the lusting monsters and demons are painstakingly designed and animated. To summarize, the film features dazzling animation and images all done justice by this DVD transfer.

SOUND

The audio is Dolby Digital Stereo. The audio for the front soundstage is pretty good. The ambience, crispness, and bass of the front soundstage are well done. The rear speakers support the front soundstage well. But rear-rear or rear-front panning effects are few. The voices come from the center speaker and are very clear. Bass effects are good, though somewhat underused in the mix. They did a good job with the dubbing, surprisingly (with a couple exceptions). Some reverb and distortion is added to the monstrous characters voices making them sound as demonic as they look. There are several sequences when the characters are screaming and the voice actors pulled it off without sounding fake or forced. There were several sequences where rear activity could have enhanced the presentation (a 5.1 remix would have been helpful). Masamichi Amano’s score is good, but it’s utilized sparingly to enhance dramatic effect. Mr Amano should have gone all out instead of holding back; this would have made the film even more menacing in tone.

FEATURES

Central Park Media is getting better with their special features section though none of the supplementary features pertains to the film itself. It would be nice to see character designs or production history etc. Instead we get Web Connex, a DVD-ROM feature that connects you to the CPM website. Cool Clips are 4 jumps to particularly mind blowing chapters of the film: Armageddon, The Transformation, Demons Fight, Chojin Wrath. Promo Page is a submenu that includes a page that advertises UROTSUKIDOJI comic books, other ANIME 18 trailers, and Anime Artform featurette. The ANIME 18 (meaning adult animations) trailers are not trailers at all, just a 3:38 video compilation featuring scenes and logos from: UROTSUKIDOJI films 1-4, TWIN ANGELS, DEMON BEAST INVASION, and ADVENTURE KID. The Anime Artform featurette is an informative 3:15 essay on the art of Japanese animation which addresses certain aspects of the artform, such as why the humans have such big eyes, why the humans have no pubic hair, etc.

In the DVD Sneak Peaks menu, you can view each trailer individually, or there is an option for viewing all 5 sneak peaks chronologically. The trailers are for LEGEND OF LEMNEAR, WRATH OF THE NINJA, BEAST CITY, LADY BLUE, and GRAPPLER BAKI. All trailers are full frame and the running time totals 6:15 for all trailers. There is no trailer included for UROTSUKIDOJI: LEGEND OF THE OVERFIEND

CONCLUSION

On one hand, a very good effort by Central Park Media. But on the other I think they should have went all out and letterboxed it (this was originally a theatrical feature, not a video presentation) and remixed the audio to 5.1. I’m going to strongly recommend this to horror and animation enthusiasts. But there is no doubt in my mind that many of you won’t like this. Either the sexual depravity aspect or the complex storyline aspect will turn a lot of viewers off. But if you are sick of the current retreaded horror movies (like CHILDREN OF THE CORN 5, add infinitum) and are looking for something devilishly original, UROTSUKIDOJI: LEGEND OF THE OVERFIEND is worth checking out. As this film is banned from most video chains, you may want to rent it from Netflix.

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