The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon (Wanpaku Ōji no Orochi Taiji) is a 1963 Anime film produced by Toei Animation with a score by composer Akira Ifukube.
A twist on the legend of the storm god Susanoo and his slaying of Orochi, Susanoo is now a young child with many of his violent outbursts turned into the tantrums of a mischievous boy. Distraught by the death of his mother Izanami and being told she's in heaven, the boy-god goes on a quest to try and find her. Joined by a talking rabbit named Akahana and the Gentle Giant Bo from the Land of Fire, Susano journeys through the Land of Night ruled by his brother Tsukuyomi, the Land of Fire oppressed by a fire demon, the Realm of Light ruled by his sister Amaterasu, before finally returning to Earth and befriends the young princess Kushinada. An extensive 21 minute battle to slay Orochi and save Kushinada from being sacrificed to the eight-headed serpent ensues.
The film is notable for being influential on such works as The Secret of Kells, Samurai Jack (with the film's lineless, geometric art style heavily influencing the show's overall look and Aku bearing a close resemblance to the Fire Demon) and Nintendo would use it as the basis for the visual style of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.note However, it is largely difficult to find outside of Japan, with the only international home release being a low quality copy of the American dub being included in Mill Creek's "Pop Culture Bento Box" set.
Provides examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: Orochi is shown getting drunk on sake as with the original legend, but here it is able to put up a fight against Susanoo despite being intoxicated, unlike the original where it drinks itself into a stupor and is killed while passed out drunk.
- Age Lift: Susanoo is aged down to a reckless child as part of an overall Disneyfication of the story.
- Big Bad: Orochi, and among its heads the eighth one, larger than the others and with a distinctive color scheme, acts as a sort of Final Boss.
- Bloodless Carnage: Played with in the battle with Orochi, where multiple impalements and beheadings show no blood, but the last head falls into the water and tints it red.
- Charged Attack: Orochi's breath weapon, signified by the head in question glowing the color of its fiery breath.
- Colossus Climb: Susanoo climbs up Orochi's last remaining head to finish it off with a magic dagger.
- Comic Relief: The crystal soldiers in the crystal kingdom.
- Dumb Muscle: Bo, the giant villager, who is big, strong and friendly, but not especially bright.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: Orochi is down to one head, but it manages to break Susanoo's sword! At the last moment, however, his necklace tranforms into a magical dagger that allows Susanoo to finish Orochi off for good.
- Eye Scream: The first of Orochi's heads to be slain takes a javelin right in the eye, and is shown thrashing in agony and spewing blue flame.
- Gratuitous Animal Sidekick: Akahana the black rabbit.
- Gory Discretion Shot: The death of Orochi's fourth head is shown offscreen, only Kushinada's reaction and the slain head crashing into the pots of sake.
- Missing Mom: Susanoo's mother has died and gone to Heaven, and Susanoo sets off to find her.
- Monochromatic Eyes: Orochi, save for the eighth head that has red eyes with yellow pupils.
- Mook Chivalry: Orochi's eight heads go after Susanoo one by one instead of ganging up on him, and easily are slain in turn.
- Multiple Head Case: Orochi, whose eight heads even fight each other when drinking the sake put out for him.
- No Name Given: Orochi is not named in the movie, simply addressed as "the eight-headed dragon".
- Only Six Faces: Surprisingly averted with Orochi's heads, each one has a unique design and can be tracked down in the order they're slain, if you look closely.
- Orochi: The main villain.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Has eight heads of slightly different colors, and breathes Technicolor Fire from each head. Strangely, its body is never seen (raising the
Fridge Logic of how the remaining heads are still able to move so much if they're attached to the already dead ones), though a tail the same color as the eighth head is briefly glimpsed crushing Kushinada's house. - Large and in Charge: One of Orochi's heads, colored black and orange, is noticeably larger than the other seven, and is the last of the heads to go down as a Final Boss of sorts.
- Paper Tiger: A literal case with the tiger that lives around Susano's village that bullies other animals, but is easily put in his place by the child hero.
- Palate Propping: Used to lethal effect on the second Orochi head, as Susano drives a javelin right up the roof of its mouth and out the top of its skull.
- Pegasus: To battle Orochi, Susano rides on a small flying horse (mainus the wings, however, and merely gallops through the sky) sent to him by his sister Amaterasu.
- Playing with Fire: The fire demon is animated in such a way to resemble a living flame and all Susano's sword swings do is split him into multiple copies.
- Prophet Eyes: Five of Orochi's heads are drawn with blank white eyes, with the other three instead having red eyes.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Three of Orochi's heads, including the eighth head which is the only head drawn with pupils.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: With one head left, Orochi attempts to flee, presumably dragging the seven already-dead heads with it. Susanoo, however, pulls off a Colossus Climb to slay it.
- Slasher Smile: Orochi's seventh head gives Susanoo one when it fights him one on one.
- Staircase Tumble: One of the crystal soldiers does this and he suddenly wakes up with it.
- Talking Animal: All the animals in Susano's hometown speak.
- Technicolor Fire: Orochi's heads breathe different flame colors, including red, blue, yellow and pink.
- Too Dumb to Live: Orochi's sixth and seventh heads are easily tricked into attacking each other, allowing Susanoo to easily decapitate them both while they're distracted.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Played with: Susanoo, due to his Age Lift into a child, is toned down from a wrathful and violent god to a child's mischief and trouble making, though he still does partake in some dangerously adventurous stunts.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Orochi is defeated with the aid of...sake. Downplayed compared to the original, as Orochi is able to put up a decent fight even when inebrieated, unlike the original myth where Susanoo simply slew the beast in its slumber.
