A.E.B.'s Full Review: Urotsukidoji #1: Legend of the Overfiend
This is the first movie of this kind I ever watched, and, in fact, it is the first movie that made the "erotic grotesque" genre take off and (with a natural amount of objection) become popular among groups in Japan and around the world\. I saw it on a dare (someone bet me I could not watch the entire thing straight through without being completely disgusted), and I have loved it ever since.
From the opening credits with the picture of a red-skinned demons, every muscle group shaded, doing what you might imagine demons to do with an ominous narration about the legend of the overfiend and the collapse of the three worlds in the background, the story is completely entertaining. These opening credits also serve as a good warning as to the adult content of the rest of the movie - if you are already feeling queasy or covering your eyes, I recommend you turn it off and avoid anything in this genre.
The characters are fully developed throughout the film, changing over time as one might expect with the sudden addition of paranormal forces into their ordinary lives. It is a story of love, war, desperation, misunderstanding and ultimately change, following the lives of children becoming adults in a world where demons and gods can interact with humans on a very intimate level.
In the beginning of the actual story, a sharp contrast is drawn between the demon world experienced in the prologue and the brightly lit world of the humans. Nagumo is a silly high school kid peeping into a locker room, obsessed with the girls in his school and enamoured by a beautiful cheerleader named Akemi. Akemi is a carefree, smiling girl in these opening scenes, when she is called in for a conference with a teacher and the horror begins. The teacher turns out to be a Makai, a demon from one of the three worlds explained in the opening narrative. This is the first battle Amano Jyaku, the 300 year old hero from the world of the man-beasts and Nagumo engage in, fighting together to stop the rape of Akemi, but I asked myself why they let Akemi get brutally assaulted before joining in the fight.
From here the story takes off as Amano Jyaku and his sister Megumi search for the Cho'jin, each following a different character. Nagumo is Megumi's pick, although he seems small and weak compared to the star basketball player Nicki, who Amano is following and who seems to have some kind of grudge against Nagumo. The story follows the lives of the characters, and although there are scenes of extreme violence and rape, none are excessive or distracting from the plot. The violence that surrounds the characters is what drives them, it is the force that promotes the changes necessary to live in the changing world. A lot would be lost to this story were the violence removed or even toned down, but remember that it is present before watching this movie or showing it to other people.
To tell any more of the plot would reveal entirely too much of the story. Much of the enjoyment is following Amano and Megumi on their search for the Cho'jin, a search which leads them to a pleasantly unexpected ending. If you can forgive the disappointingly weak english dubbing (I recommend watching this movie with subtitles if you can find it), it is a great film.
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