Belladonna of Sadness

An explicit odyssey based on a French novel about Satanism and witchcraft in the middle ages, with a stunning aesthetic more reminiscent of the psychedelic sixties than classic manga or anime.

An explicit odyssey based on a French novel about Satanism and witchcraft in the middle ages, with a stunning aesthetic more reminiscent of the psychedelic sixties than classic manga or anime. In fact Belladonna of Sadness was produced at the home of popular series Astroboy, but the studio had fallen on hard times and head honcho Osamu Tezuka had recently departed. This was a last throw of the dice for the filmmakers, and it’s fair to say they were not pitching their efforts at a mainstream family audience. The result is a true one-off, and a testament to the skills of animation director Gisaburo Sugii (see Animation Maestro).