Line #70 Anime/BelladonnaOfSadness


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Belladonna_3460.jpg]]
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3	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]].
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5	When she returns home, she is seduced by the Devil (Creator/TatsuyaNakadai) then finds herself gradually turning to witchcraft to find empowerment and freedom.
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7	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.
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9	She wins the villagers over when she offers a miracle cure for TheBlackDeath, but then the nobility catches wind of her power...
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11	''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 Sorcière''), the film was directed by Creator/OsamuTezuka's disciple, Eiichi Yamamoto, and produced by Tezuka's studio, Creator/MushiProductions.
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13	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 ArtNouveau 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''.
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15	[[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.
16	----
17	!!''Belladonna of Sadness'' provides examples of:
18	* AnimationBump: It's rather an animation earthquake when the slide-show "animation" is suddenly replaced by a full-animated psychedelic extravaganza during the DealWithTheDevil. In general, the sex scenes are intricately animated while the non-sex plot-moving scenes are LimitedAnimation or TheKenBurnsEffect. There are also dramatic moments where the animation becomes absurdly fluid. The juxtaposition between still frames and moments like these is both jarring and effective.
19	* AnArmAndALeg: The baron makes Jean the official tax collector for regularly paying his taxes, but during the war, he can't squeeze anything more from the peasantry. As punishment, the baron has Jean's left hand chopped off.
20	* AristocratsAreEvil: The baron is a sadistic rapist who taxes his townspeople to near starvation and indulges in DroitDuSeigneur. The baroness isn't better.
21	* ArtisticLicenseHistory:
22	** The page shields the baroness with a modern-day umbrella despite the Middle Age setting.
23	** To execute a witch on a cross like the Savior would have been considered blasphemy.
24	* BackFromTheDead: A villager comes back to life once Jeanne heals him from TheBlackDeath to the shock of his fellow peasants. His recovery leads the rest of the village to follow Jeanne and her witchcraft.
25	* 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 PrefersGoingBarefoot as she's still barefoot when she becomes the town moneylender.
26	* 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, contributing to events that spark UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution.]]
27	* TheBlackDeath: Jeanne sets out to save the villagers from the black death but it turns out to be a bad idea.
28	* BrokenAesop: The film's feminist credentials feel undercut by the constant sexual violence Jeanne endures, coupled with its [[MaleGaze fondness]] for long, lingering pans up and down her frequently naked body.
29	* 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.
30	* BurnTheWitch: The baron has Jeanne burned on a [[CrucifiedHeroShot cross-shaped stake]]. Her husband, Jean, tries to rescue her, but he ends up turned into a HumanPincushion.
31	* ButForMeItWasTuesday: The baron doesn't seem to remember torturing Jeanne and Jean.
32	* ClothingDamage: When Jeanne flees from the village, her cloak and tunic are gradually ripped apart until she reaches the wilderness completely nude.
33	* CoupleThemeNaming: The protagonist of the film is named Jeanne, who is married to a man named [[SignificantNameOverlap Jean]].
34	* CrucifiedHeroShot: The baron has Jeanne burned on a cross-shaped stake.
35	%%* DecadentCourt: The court of the baron and baroness.
36	* DealWithTheDevil: Jeanne makes a series of deals with the Devil to gain increasing material and magical power until she finally sells her soul to him, has sex with him, and becomes a HotWitch.
37	* DerangedAnimation: The film could be considered a TropeMaker for this trope in anime, since Creator/KunihikoIkuhara, the creator of ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', was directly inspired by it:
38	** 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.
39	** 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''
40	%%** TheBlackDeath sequence.
41	* DiesWideOpen: Jean, after being impaled with many spears.
42	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: All over the film, but most strikingly the devil, who is a literal dickhead.
43	* 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. [[UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution However...]]]]
44	* DroitDuSeigneur: Jean is unable to pay the exorbitantly high marriage tax to the baron, leading the baron and his entire castle to gang rape his wife, Jeanne, as substitute payment.
45	* 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]].
46	* EmasculatedCuckold: Jeanne doesn't cheat on Jean perse 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.
47	* EmeraldPower: Green is said to be the Devil's color. After he gives her the ability to make a highly desired thread to sell, Jeanne becomes the town moneylender and goes around in a green cloak, which makes the townspeople suspicious of her.
48	* EroticFilm: The film is a deeply bizarre anime film about a formerly innocent young woman who makes a DealWithTheDevil, which involves sex with him, and becomes a HotWitch. Lots and lots of anime sex is had.
49	* FeudalOverlord: The baron is a sadistic rapist who taxes his townspeople to near starvation and indulges in DroitDuSeigneur.
50	* FoolishHusbandResponsibleWife: 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.
51	* 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 ''Art/LibertyLeadingThePeople''.]]
52	* HappilyMarried: All five minutes in the film before things go downhill.
53	* HealingHerb: After her final DealWithTheDevil to become a HotWitch, Jeanne can use the belladonna plant to cure all manner of illnesses and make magical potions.
54	* HotWitch: Jeanne makes a DealWithTheDevil that turns her into a witch and a ShamelessFanserviceGirl with a habit of starting orgies. She's actually put out by this, telling him that she would rather have been made an ugly crone in true WickedWitch style. But no, the Devil leaves her beauty fully intact.
55	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice:
56	** The coupling between the page and the mind-controlled baroness ends with both of them impaled on the same sword after they're caught mid-coitus.
57	** Jean, after he tries to fight back at Jeanne's execution, is impaled with many spears.
58	* IntimateHealing: Jeanne's apparent method of curing TheBlackDeath.
59	* {{Jerkass}}: Jean, the baron, the baroness, the page...etc.
60	* 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. Jeanne's actions are heavily implied to kickstart UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution, but the medieval baron would be long dead by then.]]
61	* TheKenBurnsEffect: The film takes LimitedAnimation to its logical extreme, as much of the film is simply a camera panning and zooming around still drawings.
62	* LeFilmArtistique: Often considered as an art film, with its psychedelic visuals and MindScrew plot.
63	* LimitedAnimation: A significant portion of the movie is made of either still images or pans over paintings.
64	* LovePotion: The page gets Jeanne to make him a love potion so he can have sex with the baroness. It ends badly for the page and the baroness when the baron catches them.
65	%%* MindRape: Jeanne's encounter with the fully-grown Devil in the wilderness might qualify.
66	* MindScrew: The symbolism and imagery can be nigh-incomprehensible at times.
67	* MindScrewdriver: The symbolism makes a bit more sense if you've read ''Satanism and Witchcraft''. For instance, the eight-minute "Schoolhouse Rock" sequence refers to the book's claim that as part of their DealWithTheDevil, witches received all knowledge of past, present, and future.
68	* MsFanservice: Jeanne is a beautiful girl who's never had any shoes and is fully or partially naked more often than not. She's such foot fetish material that in one scene of her gang rape, one of her rapists is playing with her toes. And then there are her various erotically charged encounters.
69	* NoNameGiven: The baron, the baroness, and the page have no name given.
70	* NudeNatureDance: Jeanne kicks off the village orgy by dancing nude with magical, healing flowers.
71	* ObviouslyEvil: The baron doesn't even look like a human being, with a skull-like face, empty black eyes, and horns.
72	* APartyAlsoKnownAsAnOrgy: Jeanne's return to the town with a resurrected Michel and the Devil seems to kick off an orgy that consumes the whole town. At least that's what the extended sequence featuring deeply bizarre DerangedAnimation sexual imagery seems to suggest.
73	* PornWithPlot: The film is a cult classic for its gorgeous, psychedelic artwork, its awesome {{psych\|edelic rock}}-{{prog\|ressive rock}} score and original songs, and its developed, well-written story with feminist themes (explicitly ending with a call for women to be at the front of the revolution -- not something you'd expect to see in a porn). It was also intended to be a porno, has some visible budget restrictions due to this, and a lot of very graphic sex scenes.
74	* RapeAsDrama: In a very symbolic but very graphic scene, Jeanne is gang-raped by the Baron and other nobles. The scene is rather disturbing and involves Jeanne's body turning into bats amidst her despair.
75	* {{Satan}}: The Devil seduces Jeanne, has sex with her, and turns her into a HotWitch.
76	* SceneryGorn: TheBlackDeath is visualized as a giant black wave filled with human bones sweeping over a city.
77	* SceneryPorn: The backgrounds are very detailed and beautiful.
78	* ShamelessFanserviceGirl: After having sex with the Devil and becoming a HotWitch, Jeanne is pretty much done with clothing as a thing.
79	* TitleDrop: A villager mentions that Jeanne extracted some liquid from a belladonna flower that cured his wife's labor pains.
80	* VisualInnuendo:
81	** 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.
82	** The Devil is a tiny little roughly penis-sized figure wrapped up completely in a white cloak except for his pink head. Shortly thereafter this becomes something more than innuendo as he jumps down into Jeanne's pants and begins pleasuring her.
83	* WorldOfSymbolism: Virtually every scene in the movie contains some highly symbolic reference to sex or magic or religion or...really everything.

Context Anime / BelladonnaOfSadness