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Home We remember Robert Woodhead at an AnimeWest convention a few years back, telling us that no one would ever release the infamous "Wandering Kid" episodes in the US, because they were just too revoltingly violent. We both said, "Never underestimate the American appetite for horror fantasy!" Central Park later proved us right. "Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend" packed such a wallop, even WiReD magazine eventually noticed.
UROTSUKIDOJI III: RETURN OF THE OVERFIEND comes in four subtitled 55-minute episodes, also available in a boxed set, each tape duly marked with the warning notice: ABSOLUTELY NOT FOR CHILDREN. The Overfiend stories draw from the most universal mythic tropes: warring rulers of many worlds, a boy destined to be savior, annihilation and the promise of renewal. Their graphic violence exposes the gory underbelly of paganism most New Agers would sooner forget. Character swap spit, blood and semen in day-glo colors, and each secretion is served up like a magic potion.
Proprietor John O' Donnell has been forced to answer critics in the wake of negative press coverage of anime, inspired by the Overfiend. He counters with the analogy that no one should judge every American film ever made after seeing only that FX-fest "The Terminator." (Ironically, audiences were disturbed in another way by CPM's more realistic and much lesser known "Grave of the Fireflies ," which was based on a Naoki Prize-winning children's book about World War II.)
CPM's release labels continue to put out big names in anime/manga. As well as premiering a feature-length compilation "Blue Sonnet " for American audiences right now, they have another set of subtitled tapes in the rollicking A-ko series. Convertible robo-babes duke it out in a dystopic girl's school in Project A-Ko Versus Battle 1: Grey Side (54 min.) and Project A-Ko Versus Battle 2: Blue Side (52 min.). They also promise an update of the Gall Force collection with the newest installment, "Rhea Gall Force ."
(John O' Donnell was interviewed by Jeff Yang in Animerica, August 1993.)
