The latest choice for “anime of the day” is the one and only Azumanga Daioh.
Azumanga Daioh is the extremely popular and critically-acclaimed series that was adapted from the manga of the same by. The manga ran for over three years and has been collected into three massive volume called tankobon. It’s creator is mangaka Azuma Kiyohiko and just looking at the name one sees the etymology of the series’ name.
The anime adaptation was done by anime studio J.C. Staff and shown by the Japanese tv network TV Tokyo over 26 episodes. The North American license used to be under ADV Films before it’s inevitable collapse wherein the North American licensing rights was bought by a Houston-based company called Aesir Holdings. One could still find the anime series on DVD which is great news since Azumanga Daioh is one of the best slice-of-life genre series with characters fully realized and storylines which range from comedic to drama with the two overlapping at times.
The series is about the lives of six Japanese high school girls and how their friendships evolve through their times together at school and out of it. There’s fan favorite Chiyo Mihama, the child prodigy, who struggles to fit in with her classmates who happen to be five years older. Then there’s the athletic Kagura whose friendly rivalry with the reserved Sakaki forms one subplot in the series. There’s Osaka the transfer student who fills in the role of the spacey and eccentric character in the series with Yomi and Tomo rounding out the cast of friends.
While most of the series focuses on the six friends other characters come in and out of their lives such as their homeroom teacher Yukari Tanizaki and their phys.ed instructor, Minamo Kurosawa. Then there’s Kimura-sensei. It’s this character that may have some viewers watching the series with a bit of discomfort as this character becomes a borderline obsessive with the teenage high school girls he teaches, especially the six girls who the series focuses on. While the series never goes over the line with Kimura-sensei’s behavior some people may still get turned off by it and dismiss the series. Here’s to hoping that doesn’t happen because Azumanga Daioh does a great job of exploring the lives of these six high school girls as their friendships with each other grows.
The anime doesn’t go overboard with surreal and way-out-there scenes. Most of the series really just shows routine, day-to-day activities that the girls go through in high school, but the writing is so spot-on that watching the series will definitely bring back fond, nostalgic memories of one’s own time in high school. There are some surreal moments, but they’re usually reserved for times when Osaka’s spaciness gets the better of her. This usually involves her imagining weird things about Chiyo-chan’s pigtails.
Azumanga Daioh does fall under the moe label due to the cuteness of the animations with special regard to the youngest in the group, Chiyo-chan. This moe aspect plus the fun and heartwarming stories involving the girls make this anime a fine choice to be the latest “anime of the day”.
I’ll readily admit, I’m not a huge fan of AMVs. Don’t get me wrong, when they’re good, they’re really fun and entertaining to watch. The thing is, 99% of AMVs suck. Seriously, most of them are just a mashup of some fan’s favorite scenes from an anime put to a song they like that really don’t fit together. But, the ones that are good, tend to be really good. You can tell when someone takes the time and the effort to put together something that they can be proud of.
This AMV is one of those good ones. There hasn’t been anyone yet that I’ve shown this to that hasn’t gotten hopelessly hooked on it. It’s the perfect blend of a high energy song, clips that make sense with the words of the song, and really good editing. It was made by JaddziaDax, but I’m not certain where it premiered at. All I do know is that it is impossible to watch this and not wind up singing along on the subsequent playthroughs. And there will be subsequent playthroughs. The first time I watched it, I immediately had to play it again, and again, and before I knew it I was on my fifth consecutive viewing. Now that’s a sign of a good AMV! So, feel free to watch this, but just be forewarned, you might not be able to look at a can of Bumblebee Tuna without thinking of this AMV again.
I realize that entertainment is very subjective. One person’s masterpiece is another person’s trash. Still, there are some anime that are just so good that no matter who you are, no matter what your interests, as long as you’re a fan of anime, you should be watching it. The first example that comes to mind for me is a well received, yet fairly unknown title called Aria.
Now, I know what some people are thinking. “Is there a lot of action? Explosions? Naked girls? Blood and guts? It’s at least fast paced, right?” There is none of those, but you know what? You’re still going to enjoy it anyways. Thus is the power of slice-of-life shows. There is no action at all, yet you’re left with a big smile on your face after each episode.
The story of Aria revolves around a young girl named Akari who leaves Manhome (Earth) and comes to the Martian city of Neo Venetia to become an Undine, or gondola pilot. This is obviously modeled after the Italian city Venice, and in fact it is stated that in the realm of this anime, Venice has already sunk, which was the main motivation for the Martian terraformers in creating the town of Neo Venetia. Much like the real life city of Venice, Neo Venetia’s streets are all waterways. Of course they have normal walkways, but if you don’t feel like walking, or if you need to move goods around the town, traveling by gondola is the way to go. When the anime starts, it begins with Akari already being a Single, but they later on show flashbacks to when she first arrived and started out as a Pair.
The terms Pair and Single refer to the gloves they wear. The gloves are both practical and aesthetic. When an Undine is wearing two gloves, it both signifies that she is an apprentice, and it’s also because when they’re just starting out, their hands require more protection from constantly rowing. As a Pair, they are not allowed to carry passengers at all. As they gain more experience, and as their hands get more used to the abuse that the oar gives, they can go down to one glove, hence the term Single. Also, as a Single, they are allowed to carry passengers as long as a fully licensed Undine, or Prima, is in the gondola with them. And obviously, once they reach the rank of Prima, they are fully qualified Undines and can carry passengers on their own.
Life on Mars is a little bit different than life on Earth. The main difference is that cats are sentient beings on Mars. They can’t speak English, but they appear to understand it. Plus, all gondola companies on Mars must be owned by a blue eyed cat. Akari’s company is owned by one President Aria, who fits in perfectly with Aria Company’s easy going attitude.
And that is a typical scene from the anime. I know that shouldn’t be entertaining, but it just plain is. Episodes revolve around such action packed events like delivering the mail, or going to a festival. In other words, there’s no action at all. It’s an incredibly serene show and is the perfect complement to watching other anime that ARE action packed. It’s like a palate cleanser. As such, I also don’t recommend marathoning the show, or else some of the luster and wonderment of it is lost.
The strong points of the anime are the high production values, which can be seen when viewing some of the lush backgrounds of the places that Akari visits. It’s obvious that the show was given the proper budget, and that’s probably in no small part to the fact that it was helmed by director Junichi Sato who directed such popular and respected anime as Sailor Moon, Princess Tutu, Kaleido Star, and Sgt. Frog, among others. Plus, unlike with a lot of anime these days, the decision to animate it didn’t come until after the manga had been running for awhile and thus had already gotten a good following. Another factor in its high budget could possible come from just good timing. The first Aria season came out when companies were still willing to take a chance on a show that’s a little different from the usual otaku bait. Luckily it proved to be successful and it was allowed to tell its full story.
And that’s another strength, is the finely told story that Kozue Amano came up with. When you don’t have flashy explosions and super powers and naked breasts bouncing around to keep people interested, you had better be able to tell a good story, and Kozue Amano did not disappoint. When watching the anime or reading the manga, you get the feeling that you’re right there with Akari, and that you’re both exploring and experiencing things together. It’s that kind of emotional attachment that’s crafted that makes for a good story.
Ultimately, I can’t promise that you’re going to be blown away by this. Slice-of-life isn’t for everyone, but you certainly would be making a mistake if you didn’t at least give Aria a chance to wow you. And who knows? If you go into this with an open mind, you might just find, that for some inexplicable reason, that you have a huge smile on your face at the end and can’t wait for your next adventure in Neo Venetia.
It took awhile but finally an official Youtube version of the AMV which won three awards during Anime Expo 2010. Scintilla’s very excellent “And Now, A Word From Out Sponsors” is the latest entry to be AMV of the Day.
This AMV is pretty brief but what’s shown gives enough proof as to why it was voted by the Anime Expo attendees to win three categories. It won the Staff Favorite and Best Comedy categories, but it was winning the top prize for Best In Show which cemented this amv as top in a field that had some very good entries.
The video edits together several scenes from different anime to match the lyrics of the song. A song aptly titled “Burger Dance” by DJ Ötzi. Some effects work such as putting the KFC, Pizza Hut and McDonalds logos into the scenes were made, but in the end the song is just a laugh riot from start to end. It had everyone singing along to the chorus. That is just how great and fun an amv it was.
Now, if the creator of the amv “Alchanum” just follows suit and also uploads to Youtube that Best Drama amv winner.
Anime: Code Geass, Azumnaga Daioh, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Fruit Basket, K-On, Axis Power Hetalia, Lunar Legend Tsukihime, Naruto, Princess Tutu, Revolutionary Girl Utena, serial experiements lain, Sgt. Frog, Soul Eater
Song: “Burger Dance: International Remix” by DJ Ötzi
Epic. Has there ever been a word that has been run into the ground so much that it’s practically lost all meaning? Pounding a bunch of noobs at Halo isn’t epic. The meal you just had isn’t epic. Anything that spawned from 4chan isn’t epic. Do you know what does deserve the title of epic? One Piece. Make no mistake, I’m not saying One Piece is the greatest anime of all time. However, the sheer scale of the story, and the high level of consistency maintained for 13 years and counting qualify One Piece to confidently call itself epic.
The story revolves around a boy named Monkey D. Luffy who’s goal is to become the King of the Pirates. But Luffy is no ordinary boy. He ate a Devil’s Fruit, which grant their users strange powers in exchange for losing the ability to swim or float. Quite the handicap for someone who wishes to live their lives on the high seas to be sure. Luffy’s particular fruit was the Gum-Gum fruit, which turns him into a rubberman, allowing his body to stretch to great lengths, and also making him immune to most projectile attacks. The exception being anything with an edge to it. So, while he can repel bullets and cannonballs, arrows would prove to be deadly to him. But, Luffy is the sort who will just charge straight ahead, without fear for his own safety, and unleash all manner of attacks using his unique makeup.
But before you get to thinking that Luffy always kicks ass and takes names, make no mistake, he gets his ass handed to him. A lot. But a big part of Luffy’s strength is the fact that he doesn’t let adversity get him down. He’s very much of the motto “If at first you don’t succeed, punch them even harder the next time!” Unlike with some shows where the hero has to gain a new superpower to defeat a foe that just beat them, ala Dragon Ball Z, Luffy is often able to just come back and win without needing to rely on such things. Granted, there are a few times where he has to come out with a whole new move, but it just feels so much more believable and causes you to roll your eyes less than with some other shonen fare like the aforementioned DBZ and Bleach.
Now, becoming the Pirate King is no easy task, and one couldn’t possibly do it all alone. A lot of the charm of One Piece lies in the cast of characters that Luffy has for a crew. To avoid any spoilers for anyone who is either just starting or plans to start, I won’t list the entire crew. Heck, at the point where I’m at in the series, I think there have even been one or two more crew members added in the recent episodes that I don’t know about yet. So, I’ll limit the crew to his pre-Grand Line bunch.
The first person to join Luffy on his adventures is Roronoa Zoro (some translations call him Zolo since L’s and R’s are interchangeable in Japanese, but Zoro just looks better to me) who is a swordsman that uses three katana when he fights, one in each hand and one in his mouth.
As I said, they don’t always win, and often get their ass handed to them pretty bad. And this is a kid’s show! Zoro usually is a fairly cool and collected type who doesn’t let Luffy’s idiotic nature get the best of him, and isn’t phased by many things they encounter no matter how bizarre, although no one is completely immune to Luffy’s nonsense.
The next member to join up with Luffy was Nami. She was a thief who stole from pirates, although it was for a good reason and was one of my favorite arcs in the series. She’s also an expert navigator who is capable of reading weather patterns and plotting the safest course through practically anywhere.
Nami has a love for treasure and money in general, and she’ll do most anything to get her hands on it. However, she’s not much on fighting and will avoid it if it all possible. After all, hard to spend money when you’re dead! An interesting bit would be that Nami definitely, ummm, grows throughout the course of the show. This is a picture of her in an early appearance:
Now compare that to one from later on in the series:
I guess Nami is just a growing girl, and I thank Oda for being the pervert that I assume him to be!
The next one to join the crew is probably my least favorite of them all, Usopp. Maybe it’s his voice, or perhaps it’s his character design, or maybe I just don’t like his attitude. Whatever the case, I don’t really care much for him. Two things to know about Usopp, 1) He’s a liar and 2) he’s a coward. He makes Nami look downright heroic with the extents he goes to stay out of any danger. That’s not to say he won’t fight when the chips are down. Luffy would never allow anyone who actually ran away from their duty on their crew. Just that whenever he fights, he works best when he can use his lies and his considerable sniping skills.
The last of the crew I’ll mention here is their cook, Sanji. Sanji can basically be summed up as a guy who just plain tries way too hard to get women.
Unfortunately for him, Nami can smell a chump like that a mile away, so she takes full advantage of it whenever she can. Despite his obvious weakness for women, Sanji is a very good fighter, using kicks as his weapon as he believes a chef must not harm his hands. However, he is very chivalrous, in that he refuses to ever kick a lady. Obviously this is a bit of a handicap at times, as not every opponent they run into are men. But, barring that, he doesn’t back down from a fight if one is picked with him.
These are the crew members that Luffy takes with him to the Grand Line. Having only gotten up to episode 356 myself (the anime is at over 450 eps right now) I only know of 4 other crew members that join them after they reach the Grand Line, and that may have increased. So, for the sake of giving people something to look forward to on their own, I won’t be introducing them.
As one can see, One Piece has a fairly unique character design. This does take a little getting used to. I held off on watching One Piece for years because of it, but they do grow on you after awhile. Sure, the women have impossibly thin waists, and most of them have ridiculously large busts (thank you Oda!), but after awhile it stops bothering you and you are able to enjoy the story being told. And what a story it is! I can’t think of another series, anime, manga, or novel, that can run for so long and still be entertaining. We’re talking 60 volumes, which is well over 400 chapters of material written over a 13 year time span. For the anime, it’s currently on episode 480 and has been running for 11 years while maintaining consistently high ratings. If I had to hazard a guess as to it’s lasting popularity, I’d say it’s Luffy’s enthusiasm and simplistic way of living. He’s not some moody, woe-is-me type, nor is he fighting the forces of evil to save the world. In fact, if you want to get downright technical, he is one of the forces of evil that is working to destroy the world. At the core, this is about a pirate going up against the world government. He may not pillage and kill townsfolk, but evil really is how you view it. From the standpoint of the Marines, he is a criminal. But for the countless people who he has helped in his quest to become the Pirate King, he’s a sort of folk hero.
I feel that this is the anime of the decade largely because of its enduring popularity. It’s by far the highest selling manga of all time in Japan, having sold over 200 million copies. Additionally, it holds the record for the most copies of a single book sold when volume 60 sold 3.4 million copies in it’s first print run alone, shattering the previous record set by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. In 2010, while an exact figure has not been made public, based on volumes sold and standard royalty agreements, it’s estimated that Eiichiro Oda made over $24 million. That’s in one year, not over his lifetime. That is an insane amount of money for a manga author. And the thing is, success hasn’t made him lazy. In the 13 years he’s been writing it the longest break he took was a 3 week break once, this year, and that was in part to set up the time skip he had planned. And when you realize that he’s serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump, which as the name implies is a weekly publication, the fact that he’s written chapters nearly every week for 13 years without jumping the shark is quite amazing. Further, according to Eiichiro Oda, while he does have an ending planned, the manga is only halfway done. 60 compiled volumes, well over 500 chapters, spawning 480 anime episodes, 10 movies, plus various tv specials and it’s only halfway done?
The only word that can properly describe that is epic.
I thought it was time for another edition of the latest AMV of the Day. As some know the term AMV means “anime music video”. It’s where people take scenes from an anime or several of them and edit them to perfectly match the music being played alongside it. The latest AMV of the Day is from AMV creator Chiikaboom and it’s called “Against All Odds”.
This particular AMV combines scenes from the mecha anime Macross Frontier with the song “Dream Wide Awake” from the Finnish band Poets of the Fall. I’ve only been recently introduced to this band from Helsinki by way of the Xbox 360 game Alan Wake where their music features prominently. I really like the melding of the scenes chosen from Macross Frontier with this Poets of the Fall song.
At first glance, the giant robots and singing girls may not be the subject and setting for such a serious and emotional song. In the way Chiikaboom edits the scenes with the song it really works. I haven’t been a big fan of the mecha genre of anime and manga, but this AMV has gotten me intrigued in checking out this particular anime of what was one of my favorite anime franchises in years past.
It helps that the creator of this particular AMV really has a handle at editing and adding in visual effects. Chiikaboom has become one of my favorite AMV creators and those wanting to see her other AMV projects can click the link to her name below.
The latest entry for Anime of the Day is the romantic comedy from Japanese animation studio J.C. Staff. I am talking about the quite popular anime series which had a 25-episode run in Japan’s TV Tokyo from October 2008 and March 2009. The series is Toradora! and is based on the light novel and manga by Takemiya Yuyuko.
This series is a romantic comedy and also one that is full of well-done drama. It’s an anime about relationships and stars two very atypical leads in Takasu Ryuji and Aisaka Taiga. Ryuji is the misunderstood highschool boy whose squinty eyes has labeled him a thuggish, criminal-type which causes some hilarious reactions from classmates and teachers both. Taiga is the doll-like tsudere-type who manages to scare everyone in her school due to her quick temper and improbable strong attacks. The two end up accidentally bumping into each other in the first day of classes and hilarity ensues from there.
Other characters such as Taiga’s friend Minorin (the weird, ditzy girl) and Ryuji’s best friend Kitamura Yusaku also lend their own personalities and relationship issues to the mix which ends up complication everyone else’s hook-ups. There’s also the kyuugere character in Kawashima Ami who is Yusaku’s very beautiful childhood friend whose attempt to hook-up with Ryuji causes other relationship complications which doesn’t untangle itself until very close to the end of the series.
Toradora! looks like the typical romantic comedy at first glance, but as one gets deeper into the series deeper layers in how the characters behave and their motivations for their earlier behaviors shine through. The comedy in the series actually begins to take a backseat to the complex romances in the show. We know from the beginning who should end up with who, but the journey the characters take to finally get to where they need to be in the end is the high point in the show.
For people new to anime this series is actually a very good starting point in the romantic-comedy genre as it takes the subject matter seriously and doesn’t pander to the usual easy hook of ecchi scenes and over-the-top comedy.
Believe it or not, originally I was brought on to be the anime guy. Granted, I haven’t always been the most active of people, but that’s my natural laziness taking over. But with the season being what it is, and me having drank enough, allow me to enlighten everyone about one of the finer horror anime out there, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.
Previously Arleigh had posted up another yandere classic, School Days. The Higurashi visual novel predates said visual novel by three years. The big difference is that while School Days was a fairly well funded project (with many, many bugs in it!) and Higurashi was basically a doujinshi project.
Let me explain doujinshi for a very little bit. A lot of people make the mistake that doujinshi instantly equals porn comics. Now, if you attend Comiket, which is the single largest doujinshi convention in Japan, you could be excused for thinking that it’s all about comics, and more importantly, comics that solely deal in erotic content. However, doujinshi basically just means “self published”. Again, not a literal translation. You want literal? Fine. The literal translation is “same person periodical publication”. Basically this can be taken to mean a project taken on by someone without the financial backing of the mainstream media. This could mean either comics, games, or even anime. Yes, the more common genre are the comics, but there is a fairly decent market for self published games. Higurashi falls under the blanket of the self published games.
But if you can get past the rough character designs, (keep in mind that the true meat of the game comes from the story, not the graphics) then you’re in for a very good story with many a twist and turn along the way.
One thing I must say, based on the experiences I’ve had with people is that you should probably watch the anime first. Perhaps I’ve just been subjected to extremely rabid fans, but too many of them have an irrational hatred of the anime. I’ll accept that there is a chance the complaints are valid, because I have not personally played the visual novel (you play them, not read them. Trust me on this) but having seen all of the anime, even if the transition is not perfect, it’s still a fun watch that will keep you guessing right up until the answer arcs are shown.
Each arc starts out in a very light hearted manner, but make no mistake, this is a horror series at its core. The fact that such cute girls are at the center of it all makes it seem all the more horrific, especially with the actions that are taken throughout the various arcs. While it’s very difficult for anime to effectively show gore without getting to the ridiculous buckets of blood level, Higurashi manages to be very effective in its depictions of it, and some scenes are actually a bit shocking to see.
The thing is, you have to watch both seasons of the show, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai, to get the true ending and find out the reason for all the happenings in the town of Hinamizawa during June of 1983, but it is well worth the time spent, and shows that anime can successfully pull off the horror genre.
For our latest Anime of the Day I have chosen the very controversial title School Days which aired from July through to September of 2007.
The series was adapted by anime studio TNK from the visual novel and eroge of the same title published by the company Overflow. School Days was your typical “harem” visual novel eroge where the main protagonist (most of the time male though there’s a few where it’s reversed and it’s a female) becomes involved with several of the female characters in the game. The goal of these eroge was to try and navigate through the many relationships between the protagonists and the many female characters around him (usualy in a sexual nature) and get the perfect ending which always ends up being the so-called “good ending”.
With School Days the main protagonist is one Makoto Ito who starts off as being a mild-mannered and polite high school student. This doesn’t last long as he become embroiled with the many female classmates he’s known for years and those he recently met. To say that the character of Makoto becomes addicted to having sex with his female classmates would be an understatement.
While there are several female characters in School Days who become involved with Makoto in one way or another it’s the duo of Kotonoha Katsura and Sekai Saionji who become rivals for Makoto’s affection. Just like the visual novel the anime series was adapted from (the visual novel was also adapted as a manga series) the complex and increasingly malicious attitudes by some of the leads in the series would lead to more than one tragedy for all involved. This is a series which starts off as a light-hearted harem title but as the series progresses towards its climactic finale it somehow takes a huge turn into the darkside that by the time it does make that turn the viewer has become so invested in the characters and the story that it becomes a major shock to the system.
School Days has become controversial since its release due to a real-life killing where a young high school girl kills her father with an axe which some thought as being too similar in tone to a sequence in the series. The controversy from such a real-life event caused the tv station broadcasting the series to replace almost half the running time of the final episode with an image of a nice boat and classical music playing in the background. This became such a major internet meme that saying “Nice Boat” has become the comment of choice when discussing controversial scenes and plot developments of any series that’d be ripe for studio censorship.
The series in all its form also emphasizes the character stereotype of yandere. School Days definitely has its major share of yandere characters and the many different endings to the visual novel shows how some of the yandere characters in the story deal with the callous way Makoto has dealt when dealing with their affections towards him. It gets bloody, violent and more than just a tad crazy-insane.
School Days is definitely one of the more seriously twisted anime offerings out there which doesn’t involved hentai in its description whatsoever. It’s a series that if it was a live-action series would be similar in tone and scope to many of filmmaker Ken Park’s films which deal with teenage highschool relationships, sex and the consequence which can come from it.
Hentai: slang for the Japanese term “hentai seiyoku” which literally means sexual perversion. A word used by Western fans of anime to signify anime/manga as being of the pornographic variety.
In 1990, during my junior year of high school, I was introduced to a form of animation unlike anything I had known before—the darkly imaginative and transgressive world of hentai. While explicit Japanese media had existed long before, the particular title that marked my first encounter with the genre was Chōjin Densetsu Urotsukidōji. The work did not simply define hentai; it transformed how adult animation would be viewed by audiences in both Japan and the West.
Prior to its release, erotic or explicit manga had long circulated quietly within Japan, often categorized separately from mainstream entertainment. Yet when mangaka Maeda Toshio’s Chōjin Densetsu Urotsukidōji was adapted into animation by director Takayama Hideki in the late 1980s, something shifted. The result was a film that combined the grotesque, the apocalyptic, and the erotic into a single overwhelming experience. Takayama’s adaptation was not content to merely illustrate Maeda’s ideas—it amplified them into a fever dream of violence and desire that pushed the medium into territory rarely explored in animation.
This era in Japanese media was also defined by strict obscenity laws. Direct depictions of genitalia or explicit intercourse were prohibited, both in live-action and animation. To circumvent these limitations, artists employed mosaics or invented visual metaphors. Takayama approached the problem with disturbing creativity: he replaced human anatomy with monstrous, tentacle-like appendages. These served a dual purpose—they satisfied censors while reinforcing the story’s occult and otherworldly atmosphere. Inadvertently, this gave rise to one of the most infamous tropes in hentai culture: “tentacle rape.” What began as a method of evading censorship evolved into a symbol of perversion, horror, and fascination.
Though Maeda initially regarded Takayama’s interpretation as excessively cruel and sadistic, he expressed admiration for the director’s ability to explore the darker undercurrents of his story. In time, Maeda’s own works would adopt similar motifs, blending eroticism with the supernatural. His later projects—including Yōjū Kyōshitsu Gakuen, Adobenchā Kiddo, and the enduring Injuu Gakuen La Blue Girl—refined the sensibilities born from Urotsukidōji, mixing violence, humor, and demonic imagery. These works often shifted in tone but never strayed far from the genre’s defining combination of horror and sexual excess.
Chōjin Densetsu Urotsukidōji can best be described as a collision of disparate influences: the mythic nihilism of H. P. Lovecraft, the explicit confrontational style of Larry Flynt, and the occult transgression of Aleister Crowley, all underscored by the philosophical cruelty associated with the Marquis de Sade. The film’s narrative combines apocalypse with pornography, constructing a universe where gods, demons, and humans become locked in violent and erotic cycles of destruction and rebirth. It is both a nightmare and a spectacle, a work that examines desire as an extension of cosmic chaos.
Watching the OVA as a seventeen-year-old was an experience of shock and bewilderment. Nothing in my understanding of animation prepared me for it. The optimism and adventure of series like Robotech, Starblazers, and Voltron stood in stark contrast to the nihilistic intensity of Urotsukidōji. If such a term had been common at the time, “culture shock” would have described it perfectly. Yet beyond my initial disorientation, I recognized something compelling beneath the shock value—a strange vision that treated eroticism not as mere indulgence but as a reflection of human fear and fascination.
Takayama’s film succeeded because it used obscenity as both spectacle and metaphor. The sexualized violence was horrifying, but it also emphasized the collapse of moral order within its world. The boundaries between sensuality and monstrosity blurred, suggesting that both sprang from the same primal source. In this way, Urotsukidōji transformed its limitations into aesthetic strength. Censorship forced invention, and invention created symbolism: the tentacle became an image of corruption, domination, and inhuman desire.
When Urotsukidōji began circulating in the West through VHS imports in the early 1990s, it acquired immediate notoriety. For many international viewers, the notion that animation could contain such extreme imagery was almost unthinkable. Western audiences, accustomed to animation as a medium for children or adolescent adventure, suddenly encountered a work that combined cinematic brutality with mythology and eroticism. Owning or viewing it became an act of curiosity and defiance. Accessing such media often meant seeking imported tapes or attending small conventions—a process that only heightened its sense of exclusivity and taboo.
Not everyone perceived Urotsukidōji as art. Its reputation became divisive; for some, it represented the most exploitative and grotesque tendencies of Japanese culture, while to others, it was a bold exercise in creative freedom. Regardless of one’s stance, its influence was undeniable. The film inspired countless imitators, establishing a visual and thematic template for subsequent hentai and “erotic horror” animation. Even as later works diversified into comedy, fantasy, and romance, the long shadow of Urotsukidōji remained.
There is also a deeper irony in its legacy. The same adaptation Maeda once criticized expanded the reach and visibility of his creation beyond what any manga publication could have achieved. The collaboration between artist and director—however fraught—produced a convergence of imagination that shaped both the erotic and horror dimensions of modern anime. In a broader sense, it demonstrated that the animated form could explore the same depths of transgression, myth, and existential dread that live-action cinema often reserved for its most daring auteurs.
Seen through this lens, Urotsukidōji becomes more than a piece of pornographic shock cinema. It emerges as a cultural artifact—one that reflects how desire, repression, and fantasy intersect within specific historical and artistic contexts. The work exposes how censorship and creativity can collide to produce unexpected invention, and how audiences, whether through fascination or outrage, help define a genre’s legacy.
For those of my generation, encountering Urotsukidōji was a defining moment that reshaped perception. It suggested that animation could express not only beauty and adventure but also the darker instincts of the human psyche. What began as disbelief evolved into a kind of reluctant respect for its ambition. Beneath the grotesque imagery lay a thematic depth that continues to invite examination—questions about power, violation, and the thin line separating horror from desire.
Today, both Maeda Toshio’s manga and Takayama Hideki’s adaptation occupy a controversial yet essential place in the history of Japanese media. They are remembered not only for their sensational content but for their cultural and aesthetic audacity. The story of Chōjin Densetsu Urotsukidōji endures because it refuses simplification—it is at once abhorrent and visionary, obscene yet strangely philosophical.
From the most ardent anime historian to the casual viewer, its reputation persists. Whether reviled or revered, Urotsukidōji remains the ultimate symbol of hentai’s origins and its infamous reach. It stands as both a warning and a testament: that art, when unfettered by convention and driven by instinct, can explore places society dares not name.
Through the Shattered Lens 