BlakedwardsUK's Full Review: Urotsukidoji #2: Legend of the Demon Womb
What confuses many (including the previous reviewer) is, perfectly understandably, what does this have to fo with the last film? The world was destroyed at the end and Nagumo appeared to be stuck as the Overfiend and Akemi as the mother of the Chojin. In fact, it is fair to say that this is actually more of a prequel than a sequel though with the story confusingly and irritatingly bended in places so as to contradict much of what was said in the previous film. For example, in this one Nagumo and Akemi know that they are to resurrect the Chojin and seem to be a stable couple, while in the first film they didn't find out until halfway through. Amano Jyaku, though, still remains one of Anime's all time great heroes, but while the first film started slowly and got better, this one starts magnificently but just gets sillier and sillier.
The story opens in 1944 in Nazi Germany. In an atmospheric and eery opening, we are taken to the headquarters of the Vrill Association, where the Fuhrer is awaiting the results of an ambitious project. It seems Hitler was a diabolist and called upon the evil and mad Dr. Munihausen to perfect a way of opening the door to hell and calling upon the Evil King, or Kyo-O, a demonic fiend who is the only one capable of killing the Chojin and ruling the three worlds. With the help of his son, Munihausen has invented a terrifying rape machine that can create the effects needed to call Kyo-O to Earth. But the machine goes wrong and ends up turning against the Fuhrer causing overhead American planes to drop bombs onto the Vrill Association. Munihausen is killed by Hitlers angry henchmen in front of his sons eyes. The action cuts to the 1990's and Munihausen Jnr has taken it upon himself to continue his fathers work. When Nagumo's blood is transferred to his cousin Takeaki, Amano's sister Nagumi falls in love with him, but when she discovers Munihausen Jnr is planning to manipulate Takeaki into killing Nagumo, she and Amano are determined to stop him.
As in the first film, this complicated plot provides plenty of excuses for more extreme sex and violence, including a pointless scene in a sex show and a particularly gruesome moment of castration which is likely to convince any man of the dangers of your girlfriend performing fellatio on you while driving a car! This one goes well over the top and the genuine terror that the viewer got from Legend of the Overfiend is replaced in this one by sheer repulsion.
The opening sequence in Nazi Germany is simply stunning in every respect. The climatic fight between Amano and Munihausen is full of thrills too, but the film faulters by resorting to sentiment at exactly the wrong moment as Takeaki is dissuaded from killing Nagumo because of the knowledge that his beloved cousin Nagumo loves him even though he is a grotesque monster who has killed many people!
Legend of the Demon Womb is to be viewed only by those with prior knowledge of the first film and characters. The animation is good but again some bits look dated. Diehard fans may be disappointed that the voices sound a tad different than before, and some of the characters actions and motives differ from the kind of thing we would have expected them to do in the first film (Amano in particular seems to have become rampantly lascivious since the introduction of his girlfriend Mimi, and also he doesn't seem to care much about the Overfiend in this film even though he was obsessive about it in the first). For fans only, really.
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