Kanashimi no Belladonna

The beautiful Jeanne marries a man named Jean, and the happy newlyweds make their way to the Lord's castle with a cow's worth of money for his blessings. However, the demonic Lord is unmoved by their offering, ignoring their desperate, impoverished pleas. The Lord's wife offers an alternative: Jeanne must become the Lord's conquest for the night in a ritual deflowering.

Scarred by the experience, the shaken Jeanne receives no sympathy from her husband. Instead, she is neglected. But as Jeanne drifts off to sleep, she is met by a strange spirit that encourages her to deliver retribution to those who wronged her. And with a mysterious surge of pleasure and an unquenching libido, Jeanne agrees.

Kanashimi no Belladonna is a captivating, psychosexual adventure that tells a story of cunning witchcraft and deceitful superstition in a poor, rural village of medieval France.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Jeanne Main

Nagayama, Aiko Japanese

Devil Main

Nakadai, Tatsuya Japanese

Jean Main

Itou, Takao Japanese

Clown Supporting

Akino, Taisaku Japanese

Priest Supporting

Yonekura, Masakane Japanese

Narrator Supporting

Nakayama, Chinatsu Japanese

Lady Supporting

Shimegi, Shigako Japanese

Lord Supporting

Takahashi, Masaya Japanese

Yamamoto, Eiichi Director, Script

Tashiro, Atsumi Sound Director

Fukuda, Yoshiyuki Script

Nakayama, Chinatsu Theme Song Lyrics, Theme Song Performance

Reviews

Oct 24, 2025

spikethedragon

Recommended

The rest of these reviewers need to go back to primary school to develop some critical thinking skills.

This film is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. The story it portrays takes the typical "witch" folklore and turns it on its head. What's more, the breathtaking original soundtrack takes the viewer by the hand, and guides them through each of Jeanne's defining moments. The audience gets a representation of the emotions she's experiencing at the hands of her village, and has no choice but to feel empathetic towards who she chose to become in order to protect herself.

Other reviewers will tell you that the ... erotic elements of the film do not live up to their expectations, or that they're too violent or graphic. Honey, that's the point. Jeanne's story is one of bloodshed, and it simply cannot be told in any other way. This is the most honest form of storytelling that the film could've chosen. Anything else would be discounting her story for the approval of the masses.

The art itself is so fluid and seminal that it evokes the liveliness we see in Jeanne- her desire to live despite the manmade horrors she is subjected to. Not to mention the character design, which breathes so much life into each character while grounding them in the historical setting.

Lastly, the pacing of the story is perfect; as if the viewer was reading a storybook, the film advances each plotpoint efficiently. I was on the edge of my seat while rooting for Jeanne's upheaval.

Everything about this film is perfect. Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is probably just scandalized by the honesty of the storytelling, and not willing to admit that Jeanne was just an everywoman who did what she had to for those she loved. That's just it- there's a bit of Jeanne in all of us, and if that scares you, that means the film did its job.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by spikethedragon (2)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Nov 27, 2023

Szanowna_Herbata

Mixed Feelings

Bro, I hate making long reviews.

Anyway, Belladonna of Sadness is quite a masterpiece when it comes to symbolics and artstyle, but overall - not so much.
Sure it is about a woman who explores depths of her own mind and body, but I wouldn't say it's really that interesting.

Symbolics such as the devil, the whole belladonna thing and colour symbolics are really good, they actually made me interested in this whole film.
I also can't complain about the animation, it's a anime from 1973, we can't expect Studio Bones like quality. Artstyle - absolutely gorgeous, it truly made the movie stand out from ... others.

I think my whole mixed feelings are because of the plot itself, because I couldn't help but stop the movie to see how long does it take to end.
Music is also not likeable, well atleast for me, but I'm aware that it's only because of preferences.

Overall? It's not that bad, really. I'd even say it's actually worth watching, but subjectively, It's a 4/10 from me, adios.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Szanowna_Herbata (2)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Nov 9, 2025

1stDecame4Danime

Not Recommended

*Severe epilepsy warning for 1 long scene*

Stylistically, the closest I could compare this to would be Disney's Fantasia with lots of focus on music and avant-garde artistic bombast instead of the story itself. But the movie suffers from terrible pacing as it is painfully slow where it has nothing more to show and yet skips through most actual plot points. And the story itself is not good both because of the plot and the views conveyed therein.

I always disliked the Spider and the Fly/The Scorpion and the Frog. It's not as if the parable can't be done well, it's just the way they do it ... is a bigoted eugenics dehumanizing perspective of "It's in their nature to be evil, you mustn't trust those tricksy subhumans." right at home with any other supremacist ideals. One could very easily see a form of this movie where it didn't very deliberately push such ideals. But this movie is not what it could've been.

Mind you, this movie does make superficial token appeals to more egalitarian morality, but under any scrutiny it is very much pushing the opposite. Anti sex, anti women, anti 70s sexual empowerment of women, Christian propaganda, corrupt rapist/tyrant apologist, pro witch-hunt, etc...

One can very easily imagine a movie:
In which Jeanne doesn't immediately get horny at the memory of being brutally torture raped by the tyrant lord and a train of men and instead actually struggles with overcoming the trauma of rape like an actual person rather than the plot being some juvenile man-writing-women rape fantasy.
In which husband Jean doesn't victim blame his wife for getting raped by immediately 180ing into trying to kill her and just being an asshole abuser to her in every way possible for the entire rest of the movie.
In which Jeanne is merely the victim of a witch hunt and the state's/church's idiotic and self-serving cherry-picked condemnations against certain sins of sex/science/womanhood, instead of justifying both the witch hunt and the church's condemnations by her having literally sold her soul to the devil to become a witch succubus trying to turn people from God.
In which Jeanne doesn't immediately become a villainous hypocrite by effectively becoming like the very noblewoman who had her raped by choosing to be tax collector kapos to sell out their fellow villagers and then double-down and whore herself to become a moneylender to lord over them further rather than simply gain her freedom from these assholes, all to push the 'slaves want not to be free but to be the masters' zero-sum supremacist rhetoric.
In which Jeanne doesn't grant the wish of someone (who separately assaulted her leading to her being sexually assaulted again) to have sex with the noblewoman by giving her the witchcraft equivalent of a roofie love-potion so that the guy can rape the noblewoman who hypocrite Jeanne almost exactly parallels because clearly not a rape fantasy, ok?
In which Jeanne doesn't randomly character 180 from a jaded supernaturally wise badass demoness wife of satan back into her initial helpless self to lose all agency and inexplicably do a little Passion of the Christ/Jean d'Arc to die for no reason so this slapped on ending can happen.
In which the sexual metaphor/symbolism is actually intelligent instead of forcing the audience to sit through lugubrious scene after repeated scene of a thousand juvenile drawings with no subtlety of penises and vaginas to try to convince the audience that sex is the devil/bad.

Evil scarlet woman who whores herself to the devil to be a witch seductress to whore herself to men for money and power and get torn down by them 'Fallen now is Babylon the Great'.

Past the beginning the plot is just really simple and really stupid, especially that tacked on ending.

The animation itself is so slow, it stretches every little nothing so much across the entire runtime that it is really rough.

The visuals are (only) occasionally interesting.

3/10 (where 5/10 is average)

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by 1stDecame4Danime (108)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Strikingly Singular Stories

by ManicPixieTerror

33 Entries · 139 Restacks

Bits of memories in a kaleidoscope

by galimx

26 Entries · 67 Restacks

Psychedelia

by Euphonia-exe

18 Entries · 9 Restacks

North American Anime & Manga Releases for May

Here are the North American anime, manga, and light novel releases for May. Week 1: May 7 - 13 Anime Releases Hyouken no Majutsushi ga Sekai wo Suberu (The Iceblade ...read more

May 5, 2024 10:47 AM by Aiimee | Discuss (0 comments)

Q4 2023 Anime & Manga Licenses [Update 11/17]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of anime and manga licensed in the fourth quarter (Oct-Dec) of 2023. Fall 2023 anime which were licensed before...read more

Sep 29, 2023 8:05 AM by Snow | Discuss (7 comments)

	Poll: Kanashimi no Belladonna Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Alicia3000 - Oct 11, 2009	61 replies	by Y-MELLY »» Oct 19, 2:36 PM
	Valerie and Her Week of Wonders Absurdo_N - Sep 7	0 replies	by Absurdo_N »» Sep 7, 4:55 PM
	Her Hell shegoblin - Sep 7, 2008	1 replies	by mydaddy »» Nov 21, 2024 8:40 PM
	Belladonna of Sadness original artwork restoration project announced St0rmblade - Sep 9, 2024	2 replies	by Zarutaku »» Sep 9, 2024 1:26 PM
	Is the remaster available for purchase or anything? BasedCereal - Aug 15, 2016	3 replies	by Etherious_123 »» Apr 20, 2021 8:16 AM

Belladonna of Sadness: It's Not Hentai, It's Art!

This summer, American arthouse theaters screen one of the craziest anime films ever made, an erotic pseudo-historical musical acid trip produced by Osamu Tezuka in 1973. Learn about what makes Belladonna of Sadness a one-of-a-kind experience. Content Warning: discussion of sexual violence

by removed_user

30,752 views

Spoiler

AnalysisSupernaturalArt