History Anime / BelladonnaOfSadness

[[http://www.cartoonbrew.com/anime/belladonna-sadness-1970s-anime-erotica-gets-u-s-theatrical-release-blu-ray-art-book-139610.html Released in 2016 with theatrical and home video re-release in North America,]] the official and Red Band trailers can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9LUA3NgQN0 here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WkcLMapo_Y here.]] It has also been broadcast, uncensored, late nights on Creator/TurnerClassicMovies.

* WomenAreWiser: Jeanne gets the abilities of a traditional wise woman, such as plant knowledge, healing and making magical potions. She's also more knowledgeable of human nature, judging by the fact that she knows her meeting with the baron will be a trap. In contrast, her husband, Jean, is rather feckless and gets treated like a ButtMonkey.

%%* WidgetSeries: Widget Movie. This movie is ''utter fucking madness.''

!!Belladonna of Sadness'' provides examples of:

* BarefootPoverty: Jeanne never has any shoes in the beginning because she and her husband, Jean, are farmers with only one cow which they sold for offerings to the baron). It transitions to DoesNotLikeShoes as she's still barefoot when she becomes the town moneylender.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Or clothes for that matter.

* HornyDevils: The Devil literally looks like a penis and grows larger the more he has sex with Jeanne. That said, he's portrayed as less of a seducer and more of a thuggish rapist, little better than the baron.

* AristocratsAreEvil: The baron is a sadistic rapist who taxes his townspeople to near starvation and indulges in Droit du Seigneur. The baroness isn't better.

** TheBlackDeath sequence.

%%* AristocratsAreEvil: The baron and baroness.

* BrokenBird: It's more like Jean that's the broken one than Jeanne. She is broken after her gang rape but quickly gets her bearings back after meeting the Devil. He, on the other hand, almost strangles his wife after getting cuckolded;from then on, he's rarely sober and his behavior gets worse after she becomes the main money earner then he gets his left hand chopped off for not collecting enough taxes.

** The "transformation scene" in which Jeanne sells her soul to the Devil with some vigorous sex is particularly surreal and even visually quotes ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine'' **TheBlackPlague sequence.

%%** Jean after he tries to fight back at Jeanne's execution.

Jeanne (voiced by Aiko Nagayama) is a peasant woman who has just been HappilyMarried to Jean (voiced by Katsutaka Ito).However they can't pay the absurdly high marriage tax, so the [[AristocratsAreEvil baron]] (voiced by Masaya Takahashi) sees fit to [[DroitDuSeigneur have his way with her]].

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The page shields the baroness with a modern-day umbrella despite the Middle Age setting.

Jeanne (voiced by Aiko Nagayama) is a peasant woman who has just been HappilyMarried to Jean (voiced by Katsutaka Ito).However they can't pay the absurdly high marriage tax, so the [[AristocratsAreEvil]] baron (voiced by Masaya Takahashi) sees fit to [[DroitDuSeigneur have his way with her]].

* MohsScaleOfViolenceHardness: Level 8.

Jeanne (Aiko Nagayama) is a peasant woman who has just been HappilyMarried to Jean (Katsutaka Ito). They can't pay the absurdly high marriage tax, so the [[AristocratsAreEvil baron]] (Masaya Takahashi) sees fit to [[DroitDuSeigneur have his way with her]].

When she returns home, she is seduced by the Devil (Creator/TatsuyaNakadai) and finds herself gradually turning to witchcraft to find empowerment and freedom. At first, she and her husband are prosperous, but as famine, war, and TheBlackDeath strike the rest of the village, suspicion grows and she is eventually cast out of the village. She wins the villagers over when she offers a miracle cure for TheBlackDeath, but then the nobility catches wind of her power...

!!''Belladonna of Sadness'' provides examples of:

* BrokenBird: It's more Jean that's the broken one than Jeanne. She is broken after her gang rape but quickly gets her bearings back after meeting the Devil. He, on the other hand, almost strangles his wife after getting cuckolded, and from then on, he's rarely sober. His behavior gets worse after she becomes the main money earner and he gets his left hand chopped off for not collecting enough taxes.

** The sex scenes, especially Jeanne's rape--which begins with a white silhouette of her body being torn in half through the crotch--are packed with surreal and often disturbing imagery.
** The "transformation scene" in which Jeanne sells her soul to the Devil with some vigorous sex is particularly surreal and even visually quotes ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine''.
%%** TheBlackPlague sequence.
%%* DiesWideOpen: Jean, after being impaled with many spears.
%%* DoesNotLikeShoes: Or clothes for that matter.
%%* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: All over the film, but most strikingly the devil, who is a literal dickhead.

%%* TheDungAges: Set in an ambiguous time during the Middle Ages, and all of the usual tropes of the time period show up, including DroitDuSeigneur, ThePlague, and [[spoiler: BurnTheWitch]].
* EmasculatedCuckold: Jeanne doesn't cheat on Jean per se but is [[DroitDuSeigneur raped by the town's evil baron]], but the dynamic is nevertheless there. Jean, a peasant, is devastated by the rape but is a total pushover who is incapable of defending his wife's honor and remains useless throughout the movie, preferring to drink away his sorrows rather than get revenge or exercise power when he gets a promotion to taxpayer. Meanwhile, the rape triggers Jeanne to make a DealWithTheDevil and she becomes increasingly sexually and magically empowered as the film progresses.

%%* HappilyMarried: All five minutes in the film before things go downhill.

%%* IntimateHealing: Jeanne's apparent method of curing TheBlackDeath.
%%* {{Jerkass}}: Jean, the baron, the baroness, the page...etc.

%%* MindScrew: The symbolism and imagery can be nigh-incomprehensible at times.

%%* MohsScaleOfViolenceHardness: Level 8.

%%* ObviouslyEvil: The baron doesn't even look like a human being, with a skull-like face, empty black eyes, and horns.

%%** Despite the numerous explicit sex scenes and a distinct aversion of BarbieDollAnatomy, the animation uses free forms and contours to convey the eroticism of these scenes.

%%* WorldOfSymbolism: Virtually every scene in the movie contains some highly symbolic reference to sex or magic or religion or...really everything.

* GainaxEnding: [[spoiler:As Jeanne is {{crucified|HeroShot}} and {{burn|TheWitch}}ed, the faces of the women watching her all turn into the faces of Jeanne. The end title card displays a statement about how women lead the French Revolution over the image of ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Leading_the_People Liberty Leading the People]]''.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Jeanne gets burned at the stake and Jean dies trying to rescue her, but it's heavily implied the rebellion against the upper class and social norms that she started will live on.]]

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:The baron receives literally no comeuppance at all for his gang rape of Jeanne, ultimately burning Jeanne at the stake, suppressing the rebellious townspeople, and continuing to reign virtually unopposed. The baroness does cheat on him with the page, causing him to murder them both, but even that doesn't seem to trouble him much.]]
* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: The Baron has Jeanne gang raped in a DroitDuSeigneur when she and her husband, Jean, can't pay an absurdly high marriage tax, chops off Jean's hand when he can't pay more taxes, and finally has her [[BurnTheWitch burned at the stake]], and is unpunished when the movie ends and the rest of the village is cowed into submission to the Baron. Of course, her actions are heavily implied to kickstart UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution, and the Baron will most likely a meet a bloody but fitting end.

Although the film was initially a commercial failure, it has gained some recognition in anime circles for its experimental animation, which is full of beautifully painted still images, Creator/GustavKlimt Art Nouveau inspired imagery and heavily stylized depictions of sex. The film also inspired Creator/KunihikoIkuhara to work in anime, and its visual and thematic influences can be seen in ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena''.

* CoupleThemeNaming: Jeanne and her husband [[SignificantNameOverlap Jean]].

* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: The Baron has Jeanne ganged raped in a DroitDuSeigneur when she and her husband, Jean, can't pay an absurdly high marriage tax, chops off Jean's hand when he can't pay more taxes, and finally has her [[BurnTheWitch burned at the stake]], and is unpunished when the movie ends and the rest of the village is cowed into submission to the Baron. Of course, her actions are heavily implied to kickstart UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution, and the Baron will most likely a meet a bloody but fitting end.

Jeanne (Aiko Nagayama) is a peasant woman who has just been HappilyMarried to Jean (Katsutaka Ito). They can't pay an absurdly high marriage tax, so the [[AristocratsAreEvil baron]] (Masaya Takahashi) sees fit to [[DroitDuSeigneur have his way with her]].

%%* NudeNatureDance: Jeanne kicks off the village orgy with one of these.

%%* RapeAsDrama: In a very symbolic but very graphic scene.

''Belladonna of Sadness'' (''Kanashimi no Belladonna'', also known as ''The Tragedy of Belladonna'') is an avant-garde anime film made in 1973, and the final installment in the Creator/MushiProductions' ''Animerama'' trilogy that was started by ''Anime/AThousandAndOneNights''. InspiredBy Jules Michelet's non-fiction book, ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satanism_and_Witchcraft Satanism and Witchcraft]]'' (or ''La Sorciere''), the film was directed by Creator/OsamuTezuka's disciple, Eiichi Yamamoto, and produced by Tezuka's studio, Creator/MushiProductions.

[[http://www.cartoonbrew.com/anime/belladonna-sadness-1970s-anime-erotica-gets-u-s-theatrical-release-blu-ray-art-book-139610.html Released in 2016 with theatrical and home video re-release in North America,]] the official and Red Band trailers can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9LUA3NgQN0 here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WkcLMapo_Y here.]] It has also been broadcast, uncensored, late nights on TurnerClassicMovies.

* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: [[spoiler:It's heavily implied that Jeanne's actions kickstarted the UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution, so the baron won't be sitting pretty for long...]]

** KarmaHoudiniWarranty: [[spoiler:Though it's heavily implied that Jeanne's actions kickstarted the UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution, so he won't be sitting pretty for long...]]

When she goes home, she is seduced by the Devil (Creator/TatsuyaNakadai) and finds herself gradually turning to witchcraft to find empowerment and freedom. At first, she and her husband are prosperous, but as famine, war, and TheBlackDeath strike the rest of the village, suspicion grows and she is eventually cast out of the village. She wins the villagers over when she offers a miracle cure for TheBlackDeath, but then the nobility catches wind of her power...

** KarmaHoudiniWarreny: [[spoiler:Though it's heavily implied that Jeanne's actions kickstarted the UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution, so he won't be sitting pretty for long...]]

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Jeanne is burned alive, Jean is killed during his attempt to save her, and the rest of the village is cowed into submission to the Baron.]]