Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend (Blu-ray Review)

• Reviewed by: Stephen Bjork
• Review Date: Jun 25, 2025
• Format: Blu-ray Disc
• 

Director

Hideki Takayama

Release Date(s)

1989 (May 27, 2025)

Studio(s)

Phoenix Entertainment/Shochiku-Fuji (Discotek Media)

• Film/Program Grade: See Below
• Video Grade: See Below
• Audio Grade: See Below
• Extras Grade: D+
• Overall Grade: A-

Review

“Heed these words, foolish Humanity. There is more to the world than your mortal eyes see. Alongside the world known to mankind, there exists a world of Man-Beasts and a world of Demons. And many of these Demons live in the Human realm. There is a legend known among the Demon realm. Once every three thousand years, the Ultra God, the Chōjin, will be re-incarnated. When he is reborn, he will combine the three worlds, creating a single Eternal Kingdom. Heed these words, foolish Humanity. Listen to the voices of the Demon realm, and know that mankind is not the lord of all creation. You shall learn the truth when the Ultra God is reincarnated. The promised time is close at hand.”

That promised time was early 1989, when the first volume of the Original Video Animation Urotsukidoji was unleashed upon the public—a public that quickly learned the truth that there were more things in heaven and on Earth than were dreamt of in their philosophy. “We have such sights to show you,” Clive Barker’s Cenobites had promised in Hellraiser, but the demons in Urotsukidoji delivered on that promise to such extremes that even Pinhead would have doffed his crown of nails to them. While it was hardly the first adult animation in Japan, the levels of sex and violence in Urotsukidoji were so extreme that it became the godfather of a subgenre affectionately(?) known as “tentacle porn.” Yet it’s so much more than that; in some respects, Urotsukidoji is the ultimate in cosmic horror.

Still, despite the presence of a variety of destructive deities, any parallels between them and Lovecraft’s Elder Gods are purely incidental. Urotsukidoji is based on the manga by Toshio Maeda, who has long denied even having read Lovecraft. Yet Lovecraft’s influence extends far beyond those who have read his works, and there’s little doubt that Maeda absorbed some of the mythology on a subconscious level. He ended up combining that with a variety of other influences taken from Japanese folklore (and elsewhere). For example, Man-Beast Amano Jyaku, the “wandering kid” of the title who has been roaming the three realms in search of the Chōjin, is named after the Japanese trickster demon Amanojaku, even though his personality and mission are somewhat different. In terms of design work, Maeda drew inspiration from a wide variety of sources—there’s even a touch of Big Daddy Roth in some of his monstrous apparitions. Yet there’s another inspiration that towers above all the rest: John Carpenter’s remake of The Thing.

It’s impossible to overstate the profound influence that The Thing has had on generations of Japanese manga artists and animators—or rather, the profound influence that Rob Bottin and Stan Winston’s work on the film has had. That’s what arguably put the tentacles in tentacle porn, but it’s also in regards to the way that Bottin and Winston were able to plasticize human and/or animal bodies, tearing them apart and reassembling them in imaginative ways. Yet makeup artists back then were still constrained by what could be achieved with foam latex and animatronic effects, while there’s never been anything hindering what comic book artists and animators can do other than their own imaginations. As a result, animators in Japan let their fancies run wild, and based on the foundation laid by Maeda, director Hideki Takayama and his mostly pseudonymous crew did just that in Urotsukidoji.

In Urotsukidoji, the human body is stretched, mutilated, torn asunder, and reassembled in ways that make The Thing look positively tame. Takayama’s team was working on a tight budget, so the animation is limited and there are plenty of cost-cutting measures like panning and zooming the camera across static artwork. Yet there’s nothing cheap about the design work, and the low budget did nothing to constrain the imaginations of the animators—or even that of writer Shō Aikawa, either (although like most of the rest of the crew, he used a penname in the credits). The first three OVAs for Urotsukidoji form an arc known as Legend of the Overfiend (aka Chōjin Densetsu Urotsukidōji), and as the storyline builds toward an appropriately apocalyptic conclusion for the finale, Takayama, Aikawa, and the rest of the team didn’t hold back. After all, the opening scrawl promised the rebirth of the Chōjin and the intersection of the three realms, and the principle of Chekhov’s gun applies to apocalypses as much as it does to firearms—you can’t promise and not deliver. Fortunately, however limited that the animation may be, the vision of these artists wasn’t.

Still, a few compromises did have to be made. The Japanese prohibition on showing pubic hair or genitalia meant that the most explicit imagery had to be optically censored, although rather than applying the usual mosaic effect or optical dots, the animators added a diffuse fog effect that obscured what was happening but didn’t completely block it out. So, even with that compromise, Urotsukidoji leaves little to the imagination (although it’s worth pointing out that it’s much, much less explicit than the manga was). The English-language versions (both dubbed and subtitled) also changed the Myojin Academy to a college instead of a high school, the better to avoid western prohibitions on underage sexuality. Yet regardless of any minor (no pun intended) compromises like that, the Urotsukidoji OVAs were so successful that the promise of the Chōjin reuniting the three realms ended up paying off on a metaphorical level: all three OVAs were united into a single feature film for theatrical distribution: Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend.

In its original incarnation, Urotsukidoji consisted of three separate OVAs, with a total running time of 140:50. All of them are included here in their original forms:

1. Birth of the Ultra God (SD – 36:50)
2. Curse of the Ultra God (SD – 57:50)
3. Final Inferno (SD – 46:10)

The movie version edited all three together and made a variety of other changes, with a final run time of 105:17. It eliminated the closing credits from OVA 1 and 2 (and the closing credits for OVA 3 were replaced by a different set of credits). It also eliminated the opening credits and recaps from OVA 2 and 3. Those changes alone would have significantly shortened the running time, but other cuts were instituted in order to pass muster for theatrical exhibition. While most of the extreme violence was retained, nearly all of the explicit insert shots were eliminated (although a few brief ones still snuck in). Less explicit alternate takes were also used, and in some cases, the original takes were optically zoomed in, framing out the graphic parts of the image. The 1923 flashback that opens OVA 2 was repositioned in order to clarify the connection between it and the later appearance of Suikakujū, and it was included in full color instead of black-and-white. A new scene with Amano Jyaku’s antagonist was also added, as well as another bit with Kuroko, and there were a few dialogue changes along the way. (For a complete list, check out the page at Movie-Censorship.com.)

As a result, Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend the movie is a different beast (Man-Beast?) than the OVAs. It’s not just a matter of censorship; it’s an alternate version of the story, and in some ways, it arguably works even better than the original (the shifted flashback is a definite improvement). Yet it’s undeniably incomplete. On the other hand, it’s slightly more accessible than the OVAs, although fair warning: Urotsukidoji in any form is never going to be even remotely safe for work. “Not for all tastes” would be the understatement of the century. Heed these words, foolish Humanity.

Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend was animated via traditional cel animation, photographed on 16mm film, and completed on video at the full frame 1.33:1 aspect ratio for the original OVA releases. For the movie version, the 16mm footage was blown up to 35mm film, slightly reframed at 1.37:1. (It may have been matted to 1.66:1 for some screenings.) Unfortunately, all of the original film elements for Urotsukidoji are considered lost (or at least their provenance is unknown). The only known uncut 35mm film elements for the movie are a pair of prints owned by Central Park Media founder John O’Donnel. The prints were scanned in 2K by Reel Revival Film, and the damage was cleaned up both manually and with the assistance of AstroRes AI that had been specifically trained for this task. (One scene was too damaged on both prints, so it was upscaled using AstroRes to match the surrounding material as closely as possible.)

The results are far from perfect, but they’re still pretty impressive. The only other HD versions of Urotsukidoji to date are either fully upscaled from SD or else sourced from lesser quality, incomplete prints (the 2010 Blu-ray from Kitty Media being an example of the latter). The image is significantly sharper than on the SD video on the OVAs, with none of the aliasing and dot crawl that were the result of working with composite video sources. The source also had relatively poor gamma that washed out the contrast and made everything look flat and undetailed, but the improvements in contrast here provides some extra visual pop that gives the image much more depth. For the first time, the black levels are finally as deep as is warranted by a story that’s equally as dark. The colors are much more vivid, making the OVAs now look badly desaturated in comparison. Aside from the upscaled scene, the weakest points are the various shots that were optically zoomed in to frame out explicit material, which look coarse and have heavier grain, but that’s just the nature of the source. Taken as a whole, this is a miraculous rebirth for the wandering kid.

The OVAs in this release are sourced from the same D2 video master that has been used for all other digital versions to date, which was itself a few generations down from the original composite video masters. The first OVA has always looked even more washed out than the other episodes, and trying to adjust the gamma only made it worse, so AstroRes was used to bring it up to a similar level as the other two episodes. While they all still look like composite standard definition video, that fix at least makes them look a touch better here than they have in other releases.

Audio for Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend is offered in Japanese and English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio, with optional English subtitles, while the OVAs are Japanese 2.0 Dolby Digital only, with removable English subtitles. The uncompressed theatrical audio might have a wee bit more heft to it than the lossy Dolby Digital on the OVAs, but the differences are otherwise minimal. Either way, it’s a pretty typical mix for low-budget anime from that era, so adjust your expectations accordingly. There’s minimal low end with weak dynamic punch, and much of the stereo spread is provided by the music. Speaking of which, the movie uses a different piece of closing title music than what Masamichi Amano had composed for the final OVA, which was a pretty blatant steal from the “bike chase” music that John Williams wrote for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Can’t imagine why that wasn’t used in a movie that was intended for international audiences...

UROTSUKIDOJI: LEGEND OF THE OVERFIEND (FILM/VIDEO/AUDIO): B/B+/B
UROTSUKIDOJI: THE OVAS (FILM/VIDEO/AUDIO): B/C/B-

The Eastern Star/Discotek Media Blu-ray release of Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend includes a slipcover that duplicates the slightly censored artwork on the insert (and never fear, the uncensored version is on the reverse side). The following extras are included:

• Liner Notes (HD, 16 in all)
• Rush Print Footage (SD – 2:24)
• Japanese Movie Trailer (SD – 1:51)
• Japanese Movie TV Spot (SD – :20)
• Original Japanese Titles (SD – 6:08)
• English VHS/DVD Titles (SD – 2:26)
• US DVD Boxed Set Trailer (SD – 1:00)
• Japanese OVA Promos (SD – 12:42, 3 in all)
• Japanese OVA TV Spots (SD – :40, 2 in all)

The Liner Notes were written by Russ Smith of the now-defunct Kentai’s Films blog (and longtime Urotsukidoji fans will appreciate that he lists the interviews on the Perfect Collection LaserDisc boxed set among his sources). It’s a great overview of the Overfiend, from Japanese erotica and adult animation in general to the manga, the OVAs, the feature film, and the restoration. While he includes a few details that would qualify as spoilers, there’s a strong argument to be made that anyone experiencing Urotsukidoji for the first time would benefit from reading his liner notes first.

Aside from a pretty thorough collection of various different Trailers and TV spots, the rest of the extras consist of some Rush Print Footage, which includes rough pencil test animation and cel layer tests, as well as the Original Japanese Titles. (The latter are included here since the source for the movie was an English-language print with English titles.) While it’s not an extensive collection of extras, other than some still-frame material, DVD-ROM content, and trailers for unrelated films, Urotsukidoji hasn’t really had any prior to this. So, it’s an upgrade in every way imaginable. This release was clearly a labor of love from everyone involved (although in the true spirit of Urotsukidoji, most of them use pseudonyms in the disc credits, and you’ll definitely want to check those out). Given what they had to work with and the many months that it took to make everything as presentable as possible, there’s a strong case to be made that this is one of the best releases of the year so far. Highly recommended, at least for any of foolish Humanity that’s willing to learn that mankind is not the lord of all creation—and learn that lesson the hard way.

-Stephen Bjork

(You can follow Stephen on social media at these links: Twitter, Facebook, BlueSky, and Letterboxd).