Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The first must-see film of the year.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

I'm almost hesitant to review Legend of the Overfiend, as I am only familiar with the dubbed version of the movie. The uncut version is nearly impossible to find, so I had to settle for the edited dub. To put it mildly, it left something to be desired. Aside from the fact that the edit cuts out much of what made the film infamous in the first place, it is a very cheaply done effort.To start with, the voice acting and dialogue is terrible. The actors frequently over-emote, with many of them putting emphasis on random words in their dialogue. This gives the film a very stilted feeling, taking viewers out of it. Furthermore, the editing is at times rather choppy, with bits of dialogue cut midway at times.However, some of the animation is very good, with some scenes of destruction disturbingly rendered. Furthermore, although the soundtrack itself is rather generic, it features some early work by Masamichi Amano, composer of the Battle Royale soundtrack. All in all, it's worth seeing if only to say that you have.

The delightfully titled Chôjin densetsu; Urotsukidōji - also known as Legend of the Overfiend (1988) but more accurately translated as 'The Legend of the Ultra God and The Wandering Kid' - is a near infamous series of short-form Japanese anime, edited down and compiled Shogun Assassin (1980) style, into one of the most controversial films ever released within the wider context of Japanese animation. In fact, you could even say that it to some extent defined expectations of what Anime meant to a lot of people in the western world, who expected every single piece of Japanese animation since to be filled with the same kind of explicit sex, gratuitous violence and images of rampaging demons. Although there are a number of notable films that fall under this particular description - for example, many of the films of Yoshiaki Kawajiri, such as Wicked City (1987), Hell City Shinjuku (1988) and Ninja Scroll (1995) - there are still many different sub-categories of Anime than this particular film's controversial reputation might not suggest.Regardless, what I like about this film (and the broader aspects of the series as a whole) is the sense of imagination, the scope of the world that is created, and the depiction of characters and scenarios that couldn't possible exist, even within the confines of our wildest dreams or indeed, our very worst nightmares. Yes, some elements are pure sleaze, but you could make the same accusation against Pasolini's Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975), which is one of the finest works of political satire and pure cinematic art ever created. Obviously, Legend of the Overfiend lacks any such lofty pretentious, essentially offering us a reoccurrence of that central Japanese image of the giant monster destroying Tokyo, with all kinds of episodic sub-plots and sidelines involving the war between three different worlds, a bullied schoolboy extracting revenge and a tender teen lover-story between two of the central characters. Naturally, the film also finds the time to revel in the depictions of lurid sleaze, mystical prophesising and the occasional burst of grandiose destruction; but there is still a recognisable intelligence here, and a sense of imagination that is deeper and richer than what many potential viewers might expect.If you wanted to read (perhaps) too much into it, then you can also see the film as something of a critique of modern society and the general negativity and selfishness of human behaviour in general. Does this mean that we can also read the more outré supernatural elements as a potential metaphor; creating something of a wicked satire and parody on the infernal horrors of over-sexed adolescence and the woe's of teenage-angst? Probably not; but it is worth noting the film begins with the narrator discussing "ignorant humans" in an opening voice-over that clues us in on the three different worlds and the legend of the overfiend itself, while the ending - without giving too much away - suggests that to find peace and harmony we must destroy everything that went before and rebuild it completely from the ground up. These notions can be looked at in more detail, or they can be treated as superfluous information secondary to the violence, fantasy and action. Regardless, these elements alone show that Legend of the Overfiend is a film far more interesting than its reputation as a work of over-the-top, sexually explicit exploitation would suggest.The original Japanese release is the version to see, if you can find it. The story, although edited down from three single episodes, is easier to understand and the dialog manages to convey the story, as well as giving us a vague insight into the characters. The US dubbed version is often heavily censored to the point of incomprehensibility, whilst the American dialog is laughably bad ("hey, that's quite the boner you've got there... let me help you with that) and delivered so flat as to make even the most innocent of lines seem like the most childish of double-entendres. Because of this, the first third of the film seems almost like Porky's (1982) by-way of early Cronenberg - think Shivers (1977) in particular - as teen-film clichés and a nod to De Palma's Carrie (1976) are juxtaposed against elements of tentacle-rape and purely indulgent hentai. Beside these more controversial talking points, we get some exciting scenes of action, an interesting flashback to the great Kantō earthquake of 1923 and something of an ironic twist towards the end.

NOTE: This is a review for the NC-17 versionBefore, I begin, I'd like to state that what despite others say, the plot of this version was easy to understand, despite being heavily cut.Now, this is a hard film to rate. To a degree, I was a bit embarrassed while watching it(probably because I invited a friend over to see it this Friday, promising that it'd be a platter of gore and violence), due to the fact that beneath the plot, even in it's NC-17 form that removes most of the sex, it's a hentai. As such, I'll be splitting this review into three categories, "The Good", "The Bad" and "The Ugly".The Good: 1. This film has one of the nicest DVDs I've ever seen. By this, I mean that I love the art on the physical DVD disk. 2. One of the most badass final 20 minutes I've ever seen in a film, with an awesome apocalyptic battle. 3. A smorgasboard of shocking scenes. To my surprise, the "woman getting raped 'till she explodes" bit was still in there, intact. Numerous disembowelment's, dismemberments, and other forms of violence make this film a must for violent anime fans. 4. Awesome villains, and a cool main character, who's unfortunately flawed due to the English dubbing.The bad: 1. As stated before, this is a hentai, strictly speaking. It contains numerous sex scenes, even after 48 minutes worth of sex was cut out! This was also the film that started the "Tentacle rape" craze. While watching these scenes, I felt like a 40 year-old virgin living in his mother's basement. However, some of these scenes are necessary to the plot, I will give them that. 2. Horrific English dubbing. There are no subtitles on the NC-17 version, though the uncut version has them, so this flaw, and the following, only apply to the NC-17 version, not the uncut one. 3. There were times when the acting was just HORRIBLE. During some serious scenes, I got the giggles because of this. 4. There were some very cheesy lines, many of which detracted from the experience. These lines made me more uncomfortable than the sex. The first 20 minutes came off as quite cheesy too.The ugly: Giant dicks with explosive jizz. I mean this literally. The Overfiend has several dozen large dick tentacles, all of which are bigger than the Washington monument in terms of length. And by explosive, I do in fact mean fiery explosions that cause death and destruction. In one scene, the Overfiend jizzes over various locations in a city, causing buildings to explode and people to die.All in all, I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5.

LEGEND OF THE OVERFIEND is absolutely my favorite anime, and one of my favorite films of all time. The only anime I had seen before OVERFIEND was AKIRA and FIST OF THE NORTH STAR...imagine my surprise when a friend popped this one in the VCR...LEGEND OF THE OVERFIEND is an extremely in depth film, but I will give the briefest of synopses, as there is NO WAY to do this film justice unless you see it for yourself. My review is based on the completely uncut/uncensored 3 episode series that makes up the first "part" of the OVERFIEND story : The universe is divided into three realms, human, demon, and man-beast. Every 3000 years the Overfiend is reborn to unite the three realms. But is the Overfiend the all-powerful benevolent force of unity and peace...or a power-drunk devil bent on chaos and mindless total destruction? OVERFIEND is ABSOLUTELY not for all viewers. There are EXTREME scenes of sex, rape, murder, gore...basically all forms of viewable chaos. Pretty much anything you can think of that falls into the sick and depraved category is graphically detailed in this film. But what sets OVERFIEND apart from many other hentai-style animes is the depth of story. The whole concept and execution is absolutely amazing, it staggers my mind to think that someone could have thought this sort of concept up, much less gather a team of artists to render it into a 3 hour film. The story is so involved that I have literally watched it at least 20 times, and I still find new elements. Again, NOT FOR THE CASUAL ANIME VIEWER, if you're into DRAGONBALL Z, or even some of the more "adult" stuff but haven't viewed any hentai material, do your research first. All other daring souls should grab this one fast. One of the only films I give a 10 out of 10....