From Bizarre to Sublime

Sex in avant-garde erotic anime, Kanashimi no Belladonna

"Belladonna. Beautiful is she. Belladonna. In love is she. She isn't hearing the footfall of sadness yet." - Sadness of Belladonna

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Kanashimi no Belladonna (Sadness of Belladonna) is a personal favourite of mine when it comes to experimental animation. Despite being produced in 1973, it is timelessly affectionate, and still continues to influence contemporary animators like Ikuhara (Utena) and Yuasa (Kaiba, Kemonozume) today. One of the most interesting thing about this movie is that, as an erotic animation, sex scenes are 1. more sensory than representative, 2. essential tools used to develop the character of Belladonna.