Urotsukidoji V: The Final Chapter (1 episode, OAV, 1996)
This single episode OAV pretty much marks the end of the "original" Urotsukidoji saga, however due to various problems with production, it really doesnt do it very well at all.
100 years have passed since Osaka castle was consecrated as the place for the rebirth of the Chojin into our world, however 75 years ago, Amano Jyaku was tricked into believing the Chojin had come early in response to the birth of the Kyo-O. In fact, the Chojin that sent Amano Jyaku to Tokyo was in fact a normal demon in disguise (all of this is explained in flashback) , and when the Kyo-O was brought to it, it attempted to rape her,in order to bring her under its control, but was destroyed after the Kyo-O realised it was a fake.
The real Chojin is reborn and assumes the form of an androgynous human, possessing characteristics and genitalia of both, which it changes at will, and it sets about destroying the world, starting with resurrecting its father Nagumo in his destructor Demon form (him having been killed at the end of the third part when the Kyo-O released its full power) .
Amano Jyaku, Megumi and the now released Akemi all try and stop the Chojin from destroying everything, but the Chojin proves it is every bit the super being by thwarting their every attempt.
This film is a pretty horrid mish-mash of bits of unused footage left over from Urotsukidoji III, as well as reused footage from the first two films, as well as some hastily made and really low quality bits of "filler", all jammed in together alongside some original animation created for this film before its original production was halted. As such, the film is little more than one massive plot hole which sort of brings the saga to an end, but then fucks this up by having it end on a bit of a cliffhanger, which has to date not been resolved, and more than likely never will be.
There are only really two scenes which stand out in this film, both of which were newly created.
the first one is the birth of the Chojin, in which Akemi basically masturbates herself until she gives birth, and the second scene in which the Chojin rapes Megumi, using both its male and female sex organs to complete a spell which it uses to resurrect Nagumo.
This is easilly the most forgettable part of the Urotsukidoji saga, unfortunately though as it forms the last entry in the "classic" series, it is all we will be getting.
1 very limp tentacle up, which really took a hell of a lot of effort.
Thursday, 27 June 2013
Tuesday, 25 June 2013
Urotsukidoji IV: Inferno Road.
Urotsukidoji IV: Inferno Road. (3 parts, OAV, 1993-1995)
The fourth part in the saga continues more or less from where the previous OAV ended.
At the end of the third part, Buju pledged to escort the Kyo-O, who has now fully manifested in the form of a young girl after unwittingly releasing her full powers at the end of part III. Buju is joined by a small group of other Makemono, as well as the demon-cyborg D9, who drives their transport tank.
It is thought that should the Chojin and the Kyo-O meet, they would cancel each other out and thus stop either side from destroying the world, or at the very least, stop the Chojins destruction and reshaping of it.
The first 2 parts of this OAV take place in a seemingly abandoned city block which rests at the bottom of a crater and is perpetually shrouded in fog, in which the children who live there all have ridiculously powerful psychic abilities and use them to make the adults bend to their will. This town is seemingly ruled over by a pair of boys, the youthful Ellis, and his disfigured twin brother Fallis, however not all is as it seems and Amano Jyaku suspects the Chojins interference.
The final part deals with the gangs eventual arrival in Osaka, and Amano Jyakus eventual final defeat of Munchausen and his new lackey, Suikakujus sister, who has sworn revenge on him for killing her brother in the first and second films...
Overall, the first and second parts serve little to no purpose in the overall storyline, and again exist merely as a platform to bombard the viewer with horrific scenes of a sexual nature, although most of them were trimmed, cut or obscured for western release. The storyline itself is half decent though, so its not all bad.
The final part acts merely to "wrap up" the plot line introduced in part III which, in all honesty, didnt really go anywhere fast and just kind of clogged up the nice smooth flow of the story with the addition of characters that no one gave two shits about and didnt miss one bit when they had gone. It does however nicely round off the story line though, albeit in a rather disjointed and cack handed manner.
My final verdict is "watchable but forgetable"
5 tentacles up.
The fourth part in the saga continues more or less from where the previous OAV ended.
At the end of the third part, Buju pledged to escort the Kyo-O, who has now fully manifested in the form of a young girl after unwittingly releasing her full powers at the end of part III. Buju is joined by a small group of other Makemono, as well as the demon-cyborg D9, who drives their transport tank.
It is thought that should the Chojin and the Kyo-O meet, they would cancel each other out and thus stop either side from destroying the world, or at the very least, stop the Chojins destruction and reshaping of it.
The first 2 parts of this OAV take place in a seemingly abandoned city block which rests at the bottom of a crater and is perpetually shrouded in fog, in which the children who live there all have ridiculously powerful psychic abilities and use them to make the adults bend to their will. This town is seemingly ruled over by a pair of boys, the youthful Ellis, and his disfigured twin brother Fallis, however not all is as it seems and Amano Jyaku suspects the Chojins interference.
The final part deals with the gangs eventual arrival in Osaka, and Amano Jyakus eventual final defeat of Munchausen and his new lackey, Suikakujus sister, who has sworn revenge on him for killing her brother in the first and second films...
Overall, the first and second parts serve little to no purpose in the overall storyline, and again exist merely as a platform to bombard the viewer with horrific scenes of a sexual nature, although most of them were trimmed, cut or obscured for western release. The storyline itself is half decent though, so its not all bad.
The final part acts merely to "wrap up" the plot line introduced in part III which, in all honesty, didnt really go anywhere fast and just kind of clogged up the nice smooth flow of the story with the addition of characters that no one gave two shits about and didnt miss one bit when they had gone. It does however nicely round off the story line though, albeit in a rather disjointed and cack handed manner.
My final verdict is "watchable but forgetable"
5 tentacles up.
Monday, 24 June 2013
Urotsukidoji III: Return of the Overfiend.
Urotsukidoji III: Return of the Overfiend (4 parts, OAV, 1992-1993)
The third part in the Urotsukidoji saga (Japanese name "Chojin Densetsu Urotsukidoji: Mirai hen") takes the story in a rather different direction than the first two installments.
Following on from parts 1 and 2, the story begins 21 years after Nagumo became the destructor demon and the Chojin placed Osaka castle behind an impenetrable holy barrier so that it could gestate in Akemis womb for 100 years.
Things move more quickly than imagined though, and Amano Jyaku finds himself being summoned by a seemingly prematurely born Chojin, who tells him that due to the arrival of "the evil from the east", he has had to come early in order to stop the world from being destroyed, and, as such, he requires Amano Jyaku to travel to Tokyo to find and destroy this evil.
the "evil" in question is actually the legendary Kyo-O", the Chojins opposite number in natures balance, and as the prophecy quoted by Munchausen in the previous film goes "if there is a god, then there must also be a devil..".
One of the side effects of the Chojins appearance and subsequent joining of the three realms is that the mixing of spiritual energies has created a new race, the "Makemono", or "Demon-Beasts", many of whom now live in the Tokyo area, and work for the evil cyborg crime boss known as Caesar.
One of these Makemono is Buju, a large and very bestial looking man who ruthlessly kills and rapes people who live within his domain, however his world is shaken by his growing affection for Caesars daughter, Alector.
over the course of the film, Caesar and his assosiate, Faust, continue Munchausens work and use Takeakis blood (spilled at the end of the previous film) to bring about the birth of the Kyo-O, which oddly takes the form of a young girl, surprising all concerned.
The film never really properly made it out of Japan, as, like the previous entries in this series, the content was considered to be far too horrific to be given an uncut western release.In the original release of this film on video/dvd in the late 1990s, one part which caused the most controversy, and which was subsequently removed in its entirety, was a scene christened "the rape of Alektor", in which Alektor, after finding out some truths about herself and her father, is subsequently violently raped by him while Buju looks on powerless to stop it. Some parts of this scene were restored in later DVD releases, however the entire scene has never been shown in western media, quite simply due to the combination of incestuous content and due to the horrifyingly graphic and disturbing nature of the scene itself.
This reason on its own, for me anyway, marks the turning point in the Urotsukidoji saga in which the series became more concerned with packing in as much violent sex as possible, and focusing on that rather than the main storyline itself, which overall in this entry is rather poor and seems simply to be tacked on as filler in between scenes of rapes, orgies and violent deaths.
This entry in the series also marked the introduction of new characters, while older characters were relegated to being merely second bananas, and the storyline suffers because of it, although i can see that basically Nagumo and Akemi needed to be written out for a while due to their plot not needing to be advanced until later, but the most ridiculous omission was Amano Jyaku himself, who plays little to no role in the films overall plot, instead, most of the stuff he should be doing gets lumped on Bujus shoulders.
So overall, a disappointing entry in the series, I can see what they were trying to do, but instead of sticking to it, they decided instead to make an animated hardcore shocker porn film.
4 tentacles up.
The third part in the Urotsukidoji saga (Japanese name "Chojin Densetsu Urotsukidoji: Mirai hen") takes the story in a rather different direction than the first two installments.
Following on from parts 1 and 2, the story begins 21 years after Nagumo became the destructor demon and the Chojin placed Osaka castle behind an impenetrable holy barrier so that it could gestate in Akemis womb for 100 years.
Things move more quickly than imagined though, and Amano Jyaku finds himself being summoned by a seemingly prematurely born Chojin, who tells him that due to the arrival of "the evil from the east", he has had to come early in order to stop the world from being destroyed, and, as such, he requires Amano Jyaku to travel to Tokyo to find and destroy this evil.
the "evil" in question is actually the legendary Kyo-O", the Chojins opposite number in natures balance, and as the prophecy quoted by Munchausen in the previous film goes "if there is a god, then there must also be a devil..".
One of the side effects of the Chojins appearance and subsequent joining of the three realms is that the mixing of spiritual energies has created a new race, the "Makemono", or "Demon-Beasts", many of whom now live in the Tokyo area, and work for the evil cyborg crime boss known as Caesar.
One of these Makemono is Buju, a large and very bestial looking man who ruthlessly kills and rapes people who live within his domain, however his world is shaken by his growing affection for Caesars daughter, Alector.
over the course of the film, Caesar and his assosiate, Faust, continue Munchausens work and use Takeakis blood (spilled at the end of the previous film) to bring about the birth of the Kyo-O, which oddly takes the form of a young girl, surprising all concerned.
The film never really properly made it out of Japan, as, like the previous entries in this series, the content was considered to be far too horrific to be given an uncut western release.In the original release of this film on video/dvd in the late 1990s, one part which caused the most controversy, and which was subsequently removed in its entirety, was a scene christened "the rape of Alektor", in which Alektor, after finding out some truths about herself and her father, is subsequently violently raped by him while Buju looks on powerless to stop it. Some parts of this scene were restored in later DVD releases, however the entire scene has never been shown in western media, quite simply due to the combination of incestuous content and due to the horrifyingly graphic and disturbing nature of the scene itself.
This reason on its own, for me anyway, marks the turning point in the Urotsukidoji saga in which the series became more concerned with packing in as much violent sex as possible, and focusing on that rather than the main storyline itself, which overall in this entry is rather poor and seems simply to be tacked on as filler in between scenes of rapes, orgies and violent deaths.
This entry in the series also marked the introduction of new characters, while older characters were relegated to being merely second bananas, and the storyline suffers because of it, although i can see that basically Nagumo and Akemi needed to be written out for a while due to their plot not needing to be advanced until later, but the most ridiculous omission was Amano Jyaku himself, who plays little to no role in the films overall plot, instead, most of the stuff he should be doing gets lumped on Bujus shoulders.
So overall, a disappointing entry in the series, I can see what they were trying to do, but instead of sticking to it, they decided instead to make an animated hardcore shocker porn film.
4 tentacles up.
Tuesday, 18 June 2013
Lexx - The Complete Series.
Lexx was a science fiction TV series that ran for four seasons between 1997 and 2002.
A Canadian-German co production (a most peculiar union if i ever did see...and it shows during the series too..) , Lexx was not your usual run of the mill Sci-Fi fayre, as it featured a hell of a lot of surreal story lines, mixed in with some high concept sci-fi and decidedly "adults only" situations and dialogue.
Each season was centred around an overall theme, along with a secondary theme and a few episode specific sub plots, as well as the overall story arc of the crew of the Lexx simply looking for somewhere nice to live after they fled their own horrible or boring lives.
I first saw Lexx in 1997, when it first aired in the UK on the , then new, Channel 5, usually on late on a Friday night.
Unlike the other sci-fi that was airing on the various channels of the time, Lexx was refreshingly different to me as it wasn't pretentious and it actually felt like watching a normal drama series. The characters simply lived in the bizarre universe created by the series and paid very little attention to the rather odd things going off around them, as though they were just normal everyday occurrences.
The tongue in cheek humour and adult story lines really appealed to me as a teenager, and unlike most of the people I knew at the time, I actually "got" most of the story lines and plot points.
The storyline of the entire series is set at soem unspecified point in the far future, and pans out across approximately 8000 years, and in places features some rather intricate plot developments wich take a while to get your head around....
2008 years ago -
In the far, far future, the universe is populated by an incalcuable number of humans, with very few alien species mentioned throughout. Most of the universe is ruled over by the Divine order, an empire of 20,000 worlds that cower in fear of a being known as "His Divine Shadow", a seemingly immortal entity that posesses the bodies of chosen humans and who has seemingly supernatural powers.
Kai, a young warrior from the planet Brunnis-2, leads a group of other young people in a defiant and totally pointless defence of his home planet, which has come under attack by His Divine Shadows flagship of the time, the ForeShadow.
The defence is totally ineffective, all but Kai are killed and Brunnis-2 is destroyed by the ForeShadows planet destroying weapon, so, as a last act of desperation, Kai rams the ForeShadows command pod, serverely injuring himself in the process and bringing him into the presence of His Divine Shadow.
His Shadow explains that he has heard of a prophecy that states that the last of the Brunnen-G, Kais people, will kill him and end his tyrannical rule, so he takes pleasure in knowing that the Brunnen-G are now extinct. His Shadow then personally kills Kai and takes his memories, but rather than having the body disposed of, he orders it preserved as a curiosity for future use.
8 Years ago -
Assistant deputy back up courier Stanley H Tweedle of the Ostral-B heretics, a group of worlds violently opposed to the Divine Order, travels to a pleasure satellite and is embarrassed when his pathetic attempts to barter for sexual services by offering to trade various bits of junk from his spaceship fail to get him what he wants. His pompousity makes him more attractive to the owners of the establishment though, after he blabs and tells them who he is and what he does for a living, so they let him in.
After he has satisfied his lustful yearnings, he returns to the Ostral-B secret base, completely unaware that His Shadows new flagship, the GigaShadow, has followed him after the owners of the pleasure satellite have passed on the morsel of information they managed to trick out of him.
Within minutes of his arrival back at the secret base, the GigaShadow destroys it utterly, leaving Stanley adrift in his damaged spacecraft. He sends out a distress signal and is tricked into being captured by a pair of sadistic mercenaries, who spend the next couple of months inflicting humiliating sexual tortures on him before trading him to the Divine order once they find that one of his teeth hides secret codes for gaining entry into the Ostral-B heretics' homeworld defences.
Season 1 - (4 episodes at 2 hours each)
Stanley Tweedle lives out a miserable existence on "The Cluster", the homeworld of the divine order, as a security guard class 4, the lowest ranking position within the orders workforce.
After being traded to the divine order, they kept him alive just in case he could be of some use to them in the future, but the mind numbingly boring life he leads on the cluster leads to him having real problems with authority, so he always manages to land himself on trouble.
One day while at work (his job is to simply press a button to allow transport ships to dock at his docking bay, which hardly ever gets used) a transport ship containing Thodin, leader of the Ostral-B heretics, as well as Zev Bellringer of the planet B3K, is diverted to Stanleys station. Stanley, relishing the absolute minuscule amount of power he has, at first refuses to allow it to land, (being as the ships captain cant remember the landing code, which no one actually uses any more being as the cluster is one massive fortress), but Stanley is overruled by a more senior officer, and the ship lands, with most of the prisoners being transported on it recognising Stanley and referring to him as "The arch traitor" as they are offloaded and taken for summary justice, ending in most of them being cut up for their organic materials.
Zev of B3K is an extremely unattractive woman, who for the crimes of "failing to perform her wifely duties" and "humiliating her husband in the temple" (she punched her husband after he rejected her during the ceremony for their arranged marriage) Is sentenced to be transformed into a love slave, where she will spend the rest of her life willingly providing sexual services to the divine orders soldiers.
Through a series of bizarre incidents, Stanley ends up gaining possession of the key to the Lexx, which he, Zev, Kai and 790 then steal and use to bring about the death of the Divine Shadow.
Season 2- (20 episodes of 45 minutes each)
This series' main story arc revolves around the crew of the Lexx trying to prevent Mantrid, the former bio-vizier of His Shadows divine order, from destroying the universe, but the secondary story arc deals with Stanley and Zevs ( now renamed "Xev" due to a change in the actress playing her,) largely unsuccessful attempts to get laid.
The series culminates in a final apocalyptic battle between the Lexx and Mantrids forces, ending when the light universe is finally destroyed.
The Lexx manages to escape at the last minute when a portal to the dark zone materialises and sucks the Lexx through......
Season 3 - (13 episodes of 45 minutes each)
This series marked a change of tone in the narrative. Set largely in and around the twin worlds of "Fire" and "Water", the stories of season 3 were a lot more surreal in their tone and this series was generally unpopular as it dealt with some far more esoteric themes.
The main theme of the series deals with the concepts of life and death, as well as the concepts of good, evil and the morally ambiguous.
The Lexx, drained from the battle with Mantrid and then the strain of crossing into the dark zone, informs the crew that it cannot do anything until it feeds, meaning that the ship cannot move under its own power, and that it cannot even provide food for them while it drifts to a planet that it can feed from.
790 calculates that the nearest planet that the Lexx can feed on would take anything between 500 and 16,000 years for them to drift to, so the crew put themselves into cryostasis to wait out the long journey....
3882 years later-
The Lexx is pulled into the gravity well of the twin worlds of Fire and Water, and the crew is awoken by an expedition from the planet Fire, led by a mysterious man simply called "Prince".
The twin worlds share a single atmosphere, and are polar opposites, Fire is an uninhabitable wasteland populated by evil people, whereas Water is a planet rich with life and populated by good people. Both planets are at war with each other , although the people of Fire are always the aggressors.
As the series unfolds, the crew of the Lexx run into people on both Fire and Water who they know to have died, but yet they still live, moreover, no one on either world is afraid of death, or stays dead for very long when they are killed.
All of this series takes place over the course of about two weeks in real time, with very little action taking place on the Lexx itself, and for the first time incorporates a series of recurring secondary characters, all of whom have a part to play in a series of power games orchestrated by Prince, whose soul preoccupations are destroying Water, and stealing the Lexx.
At the end of the series, both Fire and Water are destroyed, and the soulds of the people trapped there fly off into space, converging on a small blue planet in the exact opposite orbit to where Fire and Water were.....
Season 4 - (24 episodes of 45 minutes each)
The Lexx arrives on Earth, seemingly in the 21st century, however things are not quite as they would first seem, especially when they run into Prince again, this time round though, Prince, although still immortal, cannot resurrect himself in the form of anyone he chooses. Prince uses his position as head of the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms to once again try to steal the Lexx so that he may continue spreading his own brand of evil across the universe, however the crew of the Lexx are always there to stop him, as well as some weir alien drone probes, that seem to take great delight in entering peoples bodies via the anus....
All in all, Lexx was a good series, although very slow and hard going in places, it is still worth a watch even now, as many sci-fi series made after have borrowed concepts used in it, but there has yet to be another series made that successfully blends surreal humor with good storytelling and adult drama.
A Canadian-German co production (a most peculiar union if i ever did see...and it shows during the series too..) , Lexx was not your usual run of the mill Sci-Fi fayre, as it featured a hell of a lot of surreal story lines, mixed in with some high concept sci-fi and decidedly "adults only" situations and dialogue.
Each season was centred around an overall theme, along with a secondary theme and a few episode specific sub plots, as well as the overall story arc of the crew of the Lexx simply looking for somewhere nice to live after they fled their own horrible or boring lives.
I first saw Lexx in 1997, when it first aired in the UK on the , then new, Channel 5, usually on late on a Friday night.
Unlike the other sci-fi that was airing on the various channels of the time, Lexx was refreshingly different to me as it wasn't pretentious and it actually felt like watching a normal drama series. The characters simply lived in the bizarre universe created by the series and paid very little attention to the rather odd things going off around them, as though they were just normal everyday occurrences.
The tongue in cheek humour and adult story lines really appealed to me as a teenager, and unlike most of the people I knew at the time, I actually "got" most of the story lines and plot points.
The storyline of the entire series is set at soem unspecified point in the far future, and pans out across approximately 8000 years, and in places features some rather intricate plot developments wich take a while to get your head around....
2008 years ago -
In the far, far future, the universe is populated by an incalcuable number of humans, with very few alien species mentioned throughout. Most of the universe is ruled over by the Divine order, an empire of 20,000 worlds that cower in fear of a being known as "His Divine Shadow", a seemingly immortal entity that posesses the bodies of chosen humans and who has seemingly supernatural powers.
Kai, a young warrior from the planet Brunnis-2, leads a group of other young people in a defiant and totally pointless defence of his home planet, which has come under attack by His Divine Shadows flagship of the time, the ForeShadow.
The defence is totally ineffective, all but Kai are killed and Brunnis-2 is destroyed by the ForeShadows planet destroying weapon, so, as a last act of desperation, Kai rams the ForeShadows command pod, serverely injuring himself in the process and bringing him into the presence of His Divine Shadow.
His Shadow explains that he has heard of a prophecy that states that the last of the Brunnen-G, Kais people, will kill him and end his tyrannical rule, so he takes pleasure in knowing that the Brunnen-G are now extinct. His Shadow then personally kills Kai and takes his memories, but rather than having the body disposed of, he orders it preserved as a curiosity for future use.
8 Years ago -
Assistant deputy back up courier Stanley H Tweedle of the Ostral-B heretics, a group of worlds violently opposed to the Divine Order, travels to a pleasure satellite and is embarrassed when his pathetic attempts to barter for sexual services by offering to trade various bits of junk from his spaceship fail to get him what he wants. His pompousity makes him more attractive to the owners of the establishment though, after he blabs and tells them who he is and what he does for a living, so they let him in.
After he has satisfied his lustful yearnings, he returns to the Ostral-B secret base, completely unaware that His Shadows new flagship, the GigaShadow, has followed him after the owners of the pleasure satellite have passed on the morsel of information they managed to trick out of him.
Within minutes of his arrival back at the secret base, the GigaShadow destroys it utterly, leaving Stanley adrift in his damaged spacecraft. He sends out a distress signal and is tricked into being captured by a pair of sadistic mercenaries, who spend the next couple of months inflicting humiliating sexual tortures on him before trading him to the Divine order once they find that one of his teeth hides secret codes for gaining entry into the Ostral-B heretics' homeworld defences.
Season 1 - (4 episodes at 2 hours each)
Stanley Tweedle lives out a miserable existence on "The Cluster", the homeworld of the divine order, as a security guard class 4, the lowest ranking position within the orders workforce.
After being traded to the divine order, they kept him alive just in case he could be of some use to them in the future, but the mind numbingly boring life he leads on the cluster leads to him having real problems with authority, so he always manages to land himself on trouble.
One day while at work (his job is to simply press a button to allow transport ships to dock at his docking bay, which hardly ever gets used) a transport ship containing Thodin, leader of the Ostral-B heretics, as well as Zev Bellringer of the planet B3K, is diverted to Stanleys station. Stanley, relishing the absolute minuscule amount of power he has, at first refuses to allow it to land, (being as the ships captain cant remember the landing code, which no one actually uses any more being as the cluster is one massive fortress), but Stanley is overruled by a more senior officer, and the ship lands, with most of the prisoners being transported on it recognising Stanley and referring to him as "The arch traitor" as they are offloaded and taken for summary justice, ending in most of them being cut up for their organic materials.
Zev of B3K is an extremely unattractive woman, who for the crimes of "failing to perform her wifely duties" and "humiliating her husband in the temple" (she punched her husband after he rejected her during the ceremony for their arranged marriage) Is sentenced to be transformed into a love slave, where she will spend the rest of her life willingly providing sexual services to the divine orders soldiers.
Through a series of bizarre incidents, Stanley ends up gaining possession of the key to the Lexx, which he, Zev, Kai and 790 then steal and use to bring about the death of the Divine Shadow.
Season 2- (20 episodes of 45 minutes each)
This series' main story arc revolves around the crew of the Lexx trying to prevent Mantrid, the former bio-vizier of His Shadows divine order, from destroying the universe, but the secondary story arc deals with Stanley and Zevs ( now renamed "Xev" due to a change in the actress playing her,) largely unsuccessful attempts to get laid.
The series culminates in a final apocalyptic battle between the Lexx and Mantrids forces, ending when the light universe is finally destroyed.
The Lexx manages to escape at the last minute when a portal to the dark zone materialises and sucks the Lexx through......
Season 3 - (13 episodes of 45 minutes each)
This series marked a change of tone in the narrative. Set largely in and around the twin worlds of "Fire" and "Water", the stories of season 3 were a lot more surreal in their tone and this series was generally unpopular as it dealt with some far more esoteric themes.
The main theme of the series deals with the concepts of life and death, as well as the concepts of good, evil and the morally ambiguous.
The Lexx, drained from the battle with Mantrid and then the strain of crossing into the dark zone, informs the crew that it cannot do anything until it feeds, meaning that the ship cannot move under its own power, and that it cannot even provide food for them while it drifts to a planet that it can feed from.
790 calculates that the nearest planet that the Lexx can feed on would take anything between 500 and 16,000 years for them to drift to, so the crew put themselves into cryostasis to wait out the long journey....
3882 years later-
The Lexx is pulled into the gravity well of the twin worlds of Fire and Water, and the crew is awoken by an expedition from the planet Fire, led by a mysterious man simply called "Prince".
The twin worlds share a single atmosphere, and are polar opposites, Fire is an uninhabitable wasteland populated by evil people, whereas Water is a planet rich with life and populated by good people. Both planets are at war with each other , although the people of Fire are always the aggressors.
As the series unfolds, the crew of the Lexx run into people on both Fire and Water who they know to have died, but yet they still live, moreover, no one on either world is afraid of death, or stays dead for very long when they are killed.
All of this series takes place over the course of about two weeks in real time, with very little action taking place on the Lexx itself, and for the first time incorporates a series of recurring secondary characters, all of whom have a part to play in a series of power games orchestrated by Prince, whose soul preoccupations are destroying Water, and stealing the Lexx.
At the end of the series, both Fire and Water are destroyed, and the soulds of the people trapped there fly off into space, converging on a small blue planet in the exact opposite orbit to where Fire and Water were.....
Season 4 - (24 episodes of 45 minutes each)
The Lexx arrives on Earth, seemingly in the 21st century, however things are not quite as they would first seem, especially when they run into Prince again, this time round though, Prince, although still immortal, cannot resurrect himself in the form of anyone he chooses. Prince uses his position as head of the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms to once again try to steal the Lexx so that he may continue spreading his own brand of evil across the universe, however the crew of the Lexx are always there to stop him, as well as some weir alien drone probes, that seem to take great delight in entering peoples bodies via the anus....
All in all, Lexx was a good series, although very slow and hard going in places, it is still worth a watch even now, as many sci-fi series made after have borrowed concepts used in it, but there has yet to be another series made that successfully blends surreal humor with good storytelling and adult drama.
Saturday, 11 May 2013
Urotsukidoji II: Legend of the Demon Womb
Urotsukidoji II (Jap: "Shin Chōjin Densetsu Urotsukidōji: Mataiden") Was the 1990/1991 follow up to the original 1987/1989 OVA, consisting of 2 parts, both if which were later edited together into a feature length film which was released on home video in the early 1990s.
Unlike the first OVA however, Urotsukidoji II was not based on the original manga, instead taking some of the established characters and building up a completely stand alone story which introduced some new characters.
This particular OVA is generally not considered to be "canon" amongst Urotsukidoji fans, because its place within the overall storyline is unclear. On the surface, it appears to take place both during and between parts #2 & #3 of the original, as the apocalyptic events that occured at the end of that chapter havent yet happened, but Nagumo and Akemi are obviously in a relationship, however the sequence of events shown do not properly appear to fit in with the complete story, and a few plot holes appear, but this argument is really rendered moot as in later parts, events of this chapter are mentioned as being historical events.
Either way though, for a sequel, it isnt half bad.
As with the previous entry in the series, the main focus of this entry is Nagumos growing powers and Amano jyaku trying to protect him so he can fulfill his destiny to become the Chojin and unite the three realms in to a utopia, and, as with the previous entry, the storytelling is a mixture of horror, fantasy and adult drama.
Again, Urotsukidoji II was not well liked by the BBFC, and numerous cuts had to be made, once again calling for new scenes to be created that were less explicit, although this time round some scenes of penetration, rape and murder were blurred out, but generally left in where their removal would cause problems, this way, the OAV didnt suffer as badly as its predecessor had.
The main story begins with a flashback..
In 1945, the insane scientist, Doktor Munchausen (named "Muni Hauser/Hausen" in some dubs) begins a dark and perverse ritual in the presence of the fuhrer himself.
A dozen women are strapped to a large contraption, which begins to masturbate them viogourously. As the machine does its work, Maunchausen explains that the device and the ritual will bring about the coming of the "Kyo-O", the natural enemy of the Chojin (The Kyo-O is also referred to as the devil or "the evil king" depending on which version you are watching). Once the women reash orgasm, the machine drains their life force and channels it through a demonic artifact, which begins tearing a hole in reality and allowing a portal to the demon realm to form.
Before the ritual can be completed however, a squadron of American bombers destroy the castle, killing Munchausen in the process (uncle Adolf escapes) , however as the smoke clears, Munchhausens assistant, his teenaged son, still lives, and seeing that his father is dead, he claims the demon artefact for himself, and vows that he will continue his fathers work and one day summon the Kyo-O so it can prevent the union of the three realms.
45 years later, Nagumo, Akemi, Megumi and Kuroko wait at Tokyo airport for the arrival of Nagumos cousin Takeaki, who he hasnt seen for 10 years since Takeakis family moved to Europe.
As the plane comes in to land, a shadowy figure lands on the wing and rips off one of the engines causing the plane to crash, but miraculously, Takeaki survives, and Nagumo, wanting to help his cousin, offers to donate his blood, which after what happened in the previous film when someone got a hold of Nagumos blood, Megumi and Kuroko have reservations about.
Meanwhile in the beast realm, Amano Jyaku, desperate to see the future world which will be created by the Chojin, has sex with the elders grandaughter, whose orgasms can rip a hole in time, despite the fact that he had been warned by the elder to keep away from her.
Eventually, Takeaki becomes corrupted by Munchausen II (Doktor Munchausens son) and a series of events take place in which Munchausen II plans to kill the Chojin, resurrect the Kyo-O and become a despotic tyrant, all in one afternoon, however, at the end, all is not as it seems....
Like i said, this entry in the series isnt bad, however the differences in the plot direction (this OAV is much heavier on the humour and less heavy with gross sex acts, even though there are still some toe curling corkers in there) do make it stick out like a sore thumb from the rest of the series.
all in all though, id give it 7 tentacles up!
Unlike the first OVA however, Urotsukidoji II was not based on the original manga, instead taking some of the established characters and building up a completely stand alone story which introduced some new characters.
This particular OVA is generally not considered to be "canon" amongst Urotsukidoji fans, because its place within the overall storyline is unclear. On the surface, it appears to take place both during and between parts #2 & #3 of the original, as the apocalyptic events that occured at the end of that chapter havent yet happened, but Nagumo and Akemi are obviously in a relationship, however the sequence of events shown do not properly appear to fit in with the complete story, and a few plot holes appear, but this argument is really rendered moot as in later parts, events of this chapter are mentioned as being historical events.
Either way though, for a sequel, it isnt half bad.
As with the previous entry in the series, the main focus of this entry is Nagumos growing powers and Amano jyaku trying to protect him so he can fulfill his destiny to become the Chojin and unite the three realms in to a utopia, and, as with the previous entry, the storytelling is a mixture of horror, fantasy and adult drama.
Again, Urotsukidoji II was not well liked by the BBFC, and numerous cuts had to be made, once again calling for new scenes to be created that were less explicit, although this time round some scenes of penetration, rape and murder were blurred out, but generally left in where their removal would cause problems, this way, the OAV didnt suffer as badly as its predecessor had.
The main story begins with a flashback..
In 1945, the insane scientist, Doktor Munchausen (named "Muni Hauser/Hausen" in some dubs) begins a dark and perverse ritual in the presence of the fuhrer himself.
A dozen women are strapped to a large contraption, which begins to masturbate them viogourously. As the machine does its work, Maunchausen explains that the device and the ritual will bring about the coming of the "Kyo-O", the natural enemy of the Chojin (The Kyo-O is also referred to as the devil or "the evil king" depending on which version you are watching). Once the women reash orgasm, the machine drains their life force and channels it through a demonic artifact, which begins tearing a hole in reality and allowing a portal to the demon realm to form.
Before the ritual can be completed however, a squadron of American bombers destroy the castle, killing Munchausen in the process (uncle Adolf escapes) , however as the smoke clears, Munchhausens assistant, his teenaged son, still lives, and seeing that his father is dead, he claims the demon artefact for himself, and vows that he will continue his fathers work and one day summon the Kyo-O so it can prevent the union of the three realms.
45 years later, Nagumo, Akemi, Megumi and Kuroko wait at Tokyo airport for the arrival of Nagumos cousin Takeaki, who he hasnt seen for 10 years since Takeakis family moved to Europe.
As the plane comes in to land, a shadowy figure lands on the wing and rips off one of the engines causing the plane to crash, but miraculously, Takeaki survives, and Nagumo, wanting to help his cousin, offers to donate his blood, which after what happened in the previous film when someone got a hold of Nagumos blood, Megumi and Kuroko have reservations about.
Meanwhile in the beast realm, Amano Jyaku, desperate to see the future world which will be created by the Chojin, has sex with the elders grandaughter, whose orgasms can rip a hole in time, despite the fact that he had been warned by the elder to keep away from her.
Eventually, Takeaki becomes corrupted by Munchausen II (Doktor Munchausens son) and a series of events take place in which Munchausen II plans to kill the Chojin, resurrect the Kyo-O and become a despotic tyrant, all in one afternoon, however, at the end, all is not as it seems....
Like i said, this entry in the series isnt bad, however the differences in the plot direction (this OAV is much heavier on the humour and less heavy with gross sex acts, even though there are still some toe curling corkers in there) do make it stick out like a sore thumb from the rest of the series.
all in all though, id give it 7 tentacles up!
Monday, 6 May 2013
Tron: Evolution (Xbox 360)
Greetings Programs!
I picked this game up the other week from Thats Entertainment! for the princely sum of £5. I'd been looking for it for a while but for some odd reason none of the usual video games places had it, even the various market stalls hadn't got one either, so I was quite happy to pick one up for the price I paid for it.
Having read one or two reviews of this game beforehand, and noting my own observations that games based on films are generally crap, I wasn't really expecting too much from this one, but thought id give it a try anyways being as I rather enjoyed Tron 2.0 on the PC and was expecting something along similar lines....couldn't have been more wrong though, but not for any bad reason really.
Unlike the first person shooter Tron 2.0, Tron: Evolution (hereafter referred to as TE) is a third person platform/adventure/action type game, similar I suppose to a fusion between Grand theft auto and Batman: Arkham city, albeit without the freedom of movement (more on that later).
As it stands, TE officially forms the bridge between the original Tron film from 1982, the comic/graphic novel "Tron: Betrayal" and the 2010 film "Tron: Legacy" (unfortunately, Tron 2.0 is completely ignored from the Tron "canon", which is a shame because they used some of the new stuff introduced in 2.0 in "Legacy" and the storyline of 2.0 fits in sort of nicely with the canon storyline, ah well).
The storyline begins with a video clip of Kevin Flynn (voiced by Fred Tatasciore , as he is in Tron: Uprising) waxing lyrical about the things he has discovered since he built "The Grid", including the amazing spontaneous evolution of the ISOs which he cannot explain as anything other than a serendipitous event, but one that will have profound ramifications on science, philosophy and theology once he has fully come to understand them.
The action jumps to the world of the Grid, where Flynn, Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) and CLU (Tatasciore again)discuss the ISOs and their integration into the Grids system framework. At first, the ISOs are generally accepted, as many of the programs (referred to in games as "Basics") created by Flynn share his vision of creativity and making the perfect world, however a faction within Flynns system does not see the ISOs as anything other than a menace to be derezzed.
Following the apparent "murder" of one of the ISO leaders, whom Flynn had planned to make a joint system admin alongside CLU, Flynn prepares for the official inauguration of another ISO in his place, this is where the game starts proper..
As a system monitor program named "Anon.exe", working directly under Tron, you are tasked with monitoring the proceedings for the inauguration ceremony, when suddenly Tron spots a mysterious ISO female (Quorra - Olivia Wilde ) attempting to gain unauthorised entry to the ceremony. Tron orders you to follow her, and thus a chain of events begins which leads up to the film "Tron: Legacy".
The first level is, as expected, basically a training level, as you follow Quorra around as she attempts to sneak in and disrupt the ceremony for reasons that become clear later. You really do need to pay attention to this first level though, as this games movement controls are simple but also somewhat complicated at the same time, this is because throughout the game, Anon.exe will move about the levels using various "Parkour/free running" techniques including running up walls, acrobatics, multiple gravity defying jumps etc, all of which are somewhat tricky to get the hang of and WILL lead to you getting derezzed quite a few times until you get the hang of some of the more complicated manoeuvres.
As this is the world of Tron, Disc combat features heavily as your primary means of dispatching corrupted and re purposed programs.
Your two basic attacks are ranged combat, in which you throw your disc, and close combat, in which you use your disc as a melee weapon.
The combat system is based aesthetically on Capoeira, as it involves a lot of stylised , free flowing moves with no fixed stances and lots of acrobatics, and as you progress through the game you will learn different combos incorperating ranged, melee and jumping attacks, as well as "special" moves which unlock as you upgrade your discs functions.
Speaking of upgrades, you gain XP from finding various hidden items, completing objectives and from combat. Combat XP is awarded based on how difficult the enemy (or enemies) is to defeat, but also how "showy" your combat is, for example simply standing back and spamming a group of bad guys with basic ranged attacks will earn you far less XP than wading in and finishing them all of with a nice long freeflow combo. When you level up you will be awarded with some additional memory, which can be traded at various disc upgrade stations for things such as weapon upgrades, health and energy reserve upgrades, as well as buffs which can be used in multiplayer games.
The game world itself is what you'd expect to see, large pseudo futuristic neon lit cities within the digital world, the only real problem is that there is absolutely NO room for you to explore, as the game is a linear adventure, which is somewhat disappointing, and also makes it a little difficult to find the hidden items such as the Tron date files and pieces of Arbraxis's ( John Glover) disc to get extra XP and unlock new items.
As well as the Parkour inspired city based missions, there are one or two Lightcycle based missions, as well as a couple of opportunities to drive a game tank.
The Lightcycle bits play reasonably well, although the lightcycle can become a little difficult to control at high speeds, but the game tank sections are fairly boring, simply consisting of driving around shooting at programs, other tanks and sometimes the odd Recogniser, all while struggling to figure out how to keep the tank driving in the direction you want it to go in.
Now, while i have enjoyed this game thus far, it does have its flaws:-
#1 - Dynamic camera
The right stick controls your direction of facing and/or the camera angle when appropriate, which is fine and an expected part of this type of game. The downfall comes though when the bloody camera angle suddenly changes without warning, often when its most inconvenient, such as in the middle of a jump or even when you are stood with your back against a wall surrounded by bad guys. In the case of it changing during a jump, players should note that this is one of those games where the angle the camera is facing also can affect the direction of movement, you may start your jump holding the left stick "forward", but when that angle changes so that you're looking at yourself from the right side, "forward" on your stick becomes "left" in the game.
As for it switching during combat, this generally means the you wont be able to aim your disc properly, and will not be able to block/parry correctly, and thus you get derezzed....frustrating.
#2 - Unresponsive/over responsive controls
You're in the middle of handing out a whuppin' to a gang of bad guys and you've got a badass 50 hit combo in the making, when suddenly for no apparent reason, Anon decides to mag-lift instead of block, or instead of doing a disc throw followed by a melee smash, he instead does a 3 disc ranged attack, 2 of which hit nothing and waste time while he recovers from being left open. The worst one is when you are trying to climb up a wall, only to find yourself springing off it instead, and all of this is caused by a very, very unforgiving control system which takes a hell of a lot of getting used to.
#3 - Intrusive cut scenes
Although the storyline for TE is pretty good, some of the cut scenes which advance the plot come at really odd times, but the worst offenders by far are the cut scenes which dont advance the plot but instead give you hints at what to do in certain situations, or show you that pressing a switch has had soem sort of effect.
Case in point, there is a section mid game where you and another ISO program are trapped in a room which is falling apart around you. The game tells you you have 80 seconds to flick 3 switches hidden in various locations about the area to open the exit and escape, all around you, large sections of the floor and walls have become corrupted and will damage you when touched, so the last thing you need is for a cut scene to waste 5 seconds of your 80 showing you that when you flick one of the switches, a platform drops down at the other end of the room for you to grab hold of when you finally make your escape.
#4 - "Knock-back"
Back in the 80s, games developers had a thing for making it that when the hero character takes damage, they were knocked back slightly. It was realised by the mid 90s that in platform games this was rather silly as it led to players getting killed a lot more often than they should have due to falling to their deaths, and it quietly went away.....BUT SOMEONE FORGOT TO TELL THAT TO THE DEVELOPERS BEHIND TRON: EVOLUTION!!!!!!!!!! I can understand your guy being stunned after taking a hit, but the "knock-back" is completely unnecessary and just fucking annoying, especially in this type of game.
#5 - "JAFO"
Although Anon.exe takes part in the events which will eventually lead up to Tron:Legacy, for the most part, he is simply a silent observer who simply does as he is told to by the other "named" characters. His silence is also remarked upon by the ISO called "Gibson". I know that for TE they weren't really planning on making it a series of games requiring extensive character development etc, but it would be nice for Anon to do something other than just stand there like a spare wheel while the other characters pontificate.
So, all in all id say that Tron: Evolution is more one for the fans than for consumption by general gamers, it does have its problems, but overall it is an enjoyable enough little game.
Final Score - 7/10
----------End of Line----------
Monday, 29 April 2013
Urotsukidoji - Legend Of The Overfiend
Urotsukidoji - Legend of the Overfiend (aka "Choujin Densetsu Urotsukidoji" - lit "The wandering kid- Super god-demon legend") is a 3 part anime OVA based on the original 1986 manga by Toshio Maeda.
The story itself is, at heart, a love story, centered around the burgeoning passions of high school geek Tatsuo Nagumo and the object of his lustful passions, Ito Akemi.
....Of course, this being based on a japanese adult manga, its not as simple as that, for this OVA folks, is single handedly responsible for introducing the "Demon/Tentacle rape" genre of hentai not only to the west, but to the entire world....
This first OVA, made up of 3 chapters first released in Japan between 1987 and 1989, is only the first part in an epic five part story detailing how the simple act of a young couple falling in love and conceiving a child has near apocalyptic consequences not only for the human race, but also for the races of other realms which inhabit the same plane as the human world.
When Urotsukidoji first made its way westward and was earmarked for release on home video by Manga entertainment back in the early 90s, they found themselves with an unusual problem.
previous to this, the BBFC (British Board of Film Censorship) had allowed many adult oriented japanese anime titles to be released with only minimal cuts for violent or sexual content, meaning that with some creative editing, most things could sail through and receive either a 15 or 18 certificate without losing too much of the footage or plot, Urotsukidoji however, with its many, many disturbing and sexually explicit scenes crammed into almost 3 hours of film, did not fare so well.
After several rounds of censorship cuts, the leftover "usable" stuff amounted to little more than an hours worth of footage, and even then the plot holes created by losing nearly two thirds of the story to the cutting room floor meant that the finished product wouldnt make any sense to those viewing it who hadnt already had a chance to read the original manga.
To get around this, the original animation studio, West Cape productions, were commissioned to create new, less explicit footage to fill in the gaps as it were, and to boost the film, as it was to now be released as, to a more viewable 90 minutes. As well as creating new footage, West Cape also used the opportunity to touch up some of the original footage, thus more or less creating an entirely new anime film with a similar, albeit less explicit, storyline to the original.
The plotline unfolds like this:-
Several thousand years ago, the Overfiend (aka, the "Chojin" - lit "superbeing") created the Earth and populated it with Humans (the Ningen), Demons (the Majin) and the man-beasts (the Juujin - the man-beasts did not feature in the original manga, there were only humans, demons and hybrids). After some time passed, the Chojin realised that the three races could not co-exist peacfully, nor could they fully evolve into higher beings while they were too busy fighting amongst themselves over matters as trivial as sexual conquests, some of which had produced many bizarre, horrible and/or powerful hybrid offspring, so, to allow the three races to develop along their own paths, the Chojin decided that it would create realms existing simultainiously but kept completely seperate from the rest for each race, so thus was created the realm of man (the Ningenkai) the realm of demons (the makai) and the relam of man-beasts (the juujinkai).
The Chojin then decided that the three races would be allowed to develop without its guidance or interference, and thus the legend of the Overfiend was born.
The legend stated, or so it was believed at the beginning of the first episode of the OVA, that in 3000 years time, the Chojin would return and reunite the three realms into a single realm of peace and plenty for all, and, as the OVA begins, the man-beast Amano Jyaku (the "wandering kid" as alluded to in the translated title) nears the end of his 300 year search for the reborn Chojin, whom he swears to defend so that it can return and bring about the utopia it promised.
The unedited original japanese version of the Urotsukidoji OVA has NEVER been released anywhere in europe, however the closest it came to being released was the Anime 18 "perfect edition" DVD release, which still had ot make some edits in order to be granted a certificate for release, however this version comes in with a run time of 2 hours and 35 minutes, retaining some footage that was originally considered to be "too shocking" for an animated film, but still having to make some use of the newly created footage, along with some on screen blurring/distortion to remove some of the more "risque" elements from scenes which are otherwise perfectly useable (e.g - huge throbbing demon penis-tentacles, close up scenes of multiple penetrations and anal rape, ejaculation, forced sex acts etc.).
All in all, as a standalone movie/OVA, "Urotsukidoji - Legend of the Overfiend" is a fairly good, if somewhat disturbing story, and makes for a good first chapter in the whole saga, which manages to blend horror, fantasy and adult oriented sex drama into an enjoyable enough animated romp, so to speak.
I give it 7 tentacles up!
The story itself is, at heart, a love story, centered around the burgeoning passions of high school geek Tatsuo Nagumo and the object of his lustful passions, Ito Akemi.
....Of course, this being based on a japanese adult manga, its not as simple as that, for this OVA folks, is single handedly responsible for introducing the "Demon/Tentacle rape" genre of hentai not only to the west, but to the entire world....
This first OVA, made up of 3 chapters first released in Japan between 1987 and 1989, is only the first part in an epic five part story detailing how the simple act of a young couple falling in love and conceiving a child has near apocalyptic consequences not only for the human race, but also for the races of other realms which inhabit the same plane as the human world.
When Urotsukidoji first made its way westward and was earmarked for release on home video by Manga entertainment back in the early 90s, they found themselves with an unusual problem.
previous to this, the BBFC (British Board of Film Censorship) had allowed many adult oriented japanese anime titles to be released with only minimal cuts for violent or sexual content, meaning that with some creative editing, most things could sail through and receive either a 15 or 18 certificate without losing too much of the footage or plot, Urotsukidoji however, with its many, many disturbing and sexually explicit scenes crammed into almost 3 hours of film, did not fare so well.
After several rounds of censorship cuts, the leftover "usable" stuff amounted to little more than an hours worth of footage, and even then the plot holes created by losing nearly two thirds of the story to the cutting room floor meant that the finished product wouldnt make any sense to those viewing it who hadnt already had a chance to read the original manga.
To get around this, the original animation studio, West Cape productions, were commissioned to create new, less explicit footage to fill in the gaps as it were, and to boost the film, as it was to now be released as, to a more viewable 90 minutes. As well as creating new footage, West Cape also used the opportunity to touch up some of the original footage, thus more or less creating an entirely new anime film with a similar, albeit less explicit, storyline to the original.
The plotline unfolds like this:-
Several thousand years ago, the Overfiend (aka, the "Chojin" - lit "superbeing") created the Earth and populated it with Humans (the Ningen), Demons (the Majin) and the man-beasts (the Juujin - the man-beasts did not feature in the original manga, there were only humans, demons and hybrids). After some time passed, the Chojin realised that the three races could not co-exist peacfully, nor could they fully evolve into higher beings while they were too busy fighting amongst themselves over matters as trivial as sexual conquests, some of which had produced many bizarre, horrible and/or powerful hybrid offspring, so, to allow the three races to develop along their own paths, the Chojin decided that it would create realms existing simultainiously but kept completely seperate from the rest for each race, so thus was created the realm of man (the Ningenkai) the realm of demons (the makai) and the relam of man-beasts (the juujinkai).
The Chojin then decided that the three races would be allowed to develop without its guidance or interference, and thus the legend of the Overfiend was born.
The legend stated, or so it was believed at the beginning of the first episode of the OVA, that in 3000 years time, the Chojin would return and reunite the three realms into a single realm of peace and plenty for all, and, as the OVA begins, the man-beast Amano Jyaku (the "wandering kid" as alluded to in the translated title) nears the end of his 300 year search for the reborn Chojin, whom he swears to defend so that it can return and bring about the utopia it promised.
The unedited original japanese version of the Urotsukidoji OVA has NEVER been released anywhere in europe, however the closest it came to being released was the Anime 18 "perfect edition" DVD release, which still had ot make some edits in order to be granted a certificate for release, however this version comes in with a run time of 2 hours and 35 minutes, retaining some footage that was originally considered to be "too shocking" for an animated film, but still having to make some use of the newly created footage, along with some on screen blurring/distortion to remove some of the more "risque" elements from scenes which are otherwise perfectly useable (e.g - huge throbbing demon penis-tentacles, close up scenes of multiple penetrations and anal rape, ejaculation, forced sex acts etc.).
All in all, as a standalone movie/OVA, "Urotsukidoji - Legend of the Overfiend" is a fairly good, if somewhat disturbing story, and makes for a good first chapter in the whole saga, which manages to blend horror, fantasy and adult oriented sex drama into an enjoyable enough animated romp, so to speak.
I give it 7 tentacles up!
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