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Legend of Overfiend
by Len Cutler  
Legend of the Overfiend box
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synopsis
Story Synopsis

There is an ancient legend, a prophecy, foretelling the appearance of a superbeing every three thousand years. He is called the Chojin, a god above all gods. The Overfiend. The Chojin will appear through the body of a human and with his great power he will unite the three worlds. He will create a new world, a world of peace and harmony. The time has now come. Ignorant humans, the truth shall now be revealed.

With that, Toshio Maeda introduces his world of demons and monsters. The story hinges on the search for a special human destined to become the Overfiend, a being prophesized to be the savior of the three worlds. Amano Jyaku and his sister Megumi believe they've found him: Nagumo. However, Nagumo's not all that interested in saving his world, or any other world for that matter. All he cares about is winning the heart of Akemi, who he meets and mates with after she is sexually assaulted by a demon.

Eventually Amano and Megumi realize that the Overfiend isn't the savior nor even the person they thought he'd be. Instead, the Overfiend is bent on destroying the worlds that Amano and Megumi have fought so hard to protect.

Having believed so fervently in the Overfiend's messianic role, Amano faces the truth about Nagumo: the Overfiend's destiny is not to save the three worlds, it's to replace them. Before the creation of paradise, their worlds must be cleared away. Thus Amano and Megumi confront the prospect of being little more than debris to be cast away by the winds of fortune.

review
"Legend of the Overfiend" is a B-movie taken to the Nth degree, with a surprising level of success. Its demons, in addition to being evil killers, are also nymphomaniacs, seizing any and every opportunity to have sex - more often than not, with unwilling partners (hence the evil part).

The level of debauchery reaches overkill within the opening moments. It's readily obvious at this point that Maeda and company will use any excuse, no matter how flimsy, to exploit sex or death (or both at the same time) for its full entertainment value. Still, though perhaps drowned in them, the underlying story does rely on violence and sex to make its point. So what's the point?

Nagumo, the prototypical reluctant hero, who involves himself in the unfolding drama with the greatest trepidation, represents the fickle, dangerous future, changing unpredictably against his own wishes. Akemi, the quiet unassuming companion, a tattered image of the past, is a microcosm of humanity. Victimized repeatedly by superior forces, she refuses to surrender hope and ultimately becomes the literal curator of paradise. Amano and Megumi are the present. Impatient with the flaws around them, they rush impetuously through life, forever looking for the key to change, to progress and to the future.

All must discover that only through pain and sacrifice can mankind achieve peace and harmony. All must suffer, if not die, in order to get to heaven. In essence, good can only be created by evil.

It's a point made repeatedly. Nagumo meets Akemi only after witnessing her rape at the hands of a demon and Amano realizes the truth only after nearly being killed. Society can only be saved by being annihilated in a cruel, vicious bloodbath.

Unfortunately, there's never any justification for "why." Maeda introduces the concept but leaves the question starving for a follow-up explanation. It's not enough to simply state that in creating paradise a lot of "innocents" first have to go through hell. At least, it's not enough for an American audience for whom the answer to "why" is paramount.

In the end, Maeda's failure to acknowledge the relative, plebeian nature of his paradise - the paradoxical creation of a future heaven and a hell in the present - keeps the film from reaching true canonical status. Nevertheless, "Overfiend's" philosophical fencing - carried with richly fluid animation and determined, fatally tragic characters - makes for a daring example of just what anime is capable of in the hands of a master.

*Note: "Overfiend" was originally done as a five part OVA series (the Perfect Collection). It was so popular that they cut two features films from the footage and released them theatrically in Japan ("Legend of the Overfiend" and "Legend of the Demon Womb"). They were marketed in the US as two separate films. The Perfect Collection was marketed as the original OVA series. It contains about an hour of footage total that is not in the two feature films.



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