Chôjin densetsu Urotsukidôji (1989) (V)

Director:

Hideki Takayama

Writers:

Shô Aikawa (writer)
Michael Lawrence (writer)

Release Date:

11 March 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery

Plot:

When Overfiend is found and born in a human, he will remake the world to something more of his liking...

Plot Keywords:

Demon | Student | Legend | End Of The World | Prophecy

Cast

Bick Balse	...	Ozaki (voice: English version)
Christopher Courage	...	Amano Jyaku (voice: English version)
Rebel Joy	...	Akemi Ito (voice: English version)
Yasunori Matsumoto	...	(voice)
Lucy Morales	...	Megumi Amano (voice: English version)
Jurgen Offen	...	Suikakujyu (voice: English version)
Rose Palmer	...	Kuroko (voice: English version)
Bill Timoney	...	Tatsua Nagumo / Niki (voice: English version) (also as Randy Woodcock) (also as Danny Bush)
Kôichi Yamadera	...	Yuichi Niki (voice)

Also Known As:

Legend of the Overfiend
The Wandering Kid
Urotsukidôji
Urotsukidôji I: Legend of the Overfiend (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Canada:18+ (Quebec) | Chile:18 | Australia:Refused Classification (original rating) | Australia:R (censored version) | Austria:(Banned) (original rating) | Germany:18 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R18 | USA:Unrated | Spain:18 | UK:18

Company:

Anime 18

Goofs:

Continuity: The toy Niki grabbed from Akemi's backpack is shown being destroyed in one scene, but a day and several scenes later, the toy is shown again completely undamaged.

Quotes:

Akemi Ito: Nagumo, tell me it was just a bad dream. Tell me Mrs. Ogami wasn't a monster, that she didn't rape me. Oh please!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The 100 Greatest Cartoons (2005) (TV)

Watch the Japanese version

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.