Cleopatra (Cleopatra: Queen of Sex)

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: クレオパトラ

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Information

Type: Movie

Episodes: 1

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Sep 15, 1970

Producers: None found, add some

Licensors: Discotek Media

Studios: Mushi Production

Source: Original

Genre: Sci-Fi

Theme: Historical

Duration: 1 hr. 52 min.

Rating: R+ - Mild Nudity

Statistics

Score: 5.46¹ (scored by 2,378 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #11744²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #7610

Members: 6,487

Favorites: 14

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5.46

Ranked #11744Popularity #7610Members 6,487

MovieMushi Production

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Episodes: /1

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Synopsis

In the far future, earthlings come across the foreign planet of Pasatorine. Few things are understood about the planet, but it is clear that earthlings are not welcome there. However, the inhabitants of Pasatorine have initiated something called the "Cleopatra Plan." Puzzled why an alien planet would name a plan after a woman from Earth, the military decides to send three soldiers' minds back to the past to study Cleopatra's life.

The Kingdom of Egypt, led by the drunkard Ptolemy, is threatened by Julius Caesar and the Roman empire. In an attempt to save Egypt, Cleopatra, the younger sister of Ptolemy, chooses to undergo a procedure that makes her body irresistible to Caesar. Caesar is immediately smitten and desires to rule Egypt with Cleopatra at his side—but little does he know that she intends to assassinate him as soon as she can.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Other:

Senya Ichiya Monogatari, Kanashimi no Belladonna

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Characters & Voice Actors

Cleopatra

Main

Nakayama, Chinatsu
Japanese

Caesar, Julius

Main

Hana, Hajime
Japanese

Witcher, Hal

Main

Felllow, Maria

Main

Calpania

Supporting

Imai, Kazuko
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Tezuka, Osamu

Director, Original Creator, Series Composition

Yamamoto, Eiichi

Director

Kawajiri, Yoshiaki

Key Animation

Sugii, Gisaburou

Key Animation

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Opening Theme

No opening themes have been added to this title. Help improve our database by adding an opening theme here.

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Ending Theme

"Cleopatra no Namida" by Yuki Saori

Reviews

Aug 19, 2018

Gundroog

Mixed Feelings

Cleopatra is a wild ride. Just looking at the cover and reading the synopsis will not prepare you even for a fraction of what happens in this movie and while overall it’s drawn out mess there’s enough crazy in this to warrant a watch.

First things first, when it comes to story Cleopatra is a rather dull, stretched out, vaguely historical retelling of Cleopatra’s life that mixes historical accounts with some legends and its own original scenes. For some reason this is all wrapped in the premise of people way far in the future going to the past cause they overheard aliens talking about a plan ... that has Cleopatra’s name in it.

Either way none of this would be worth talking about as something bad after all there’s nothing inherently wrong with alternative history plots that stray from historical facts for drama. What breaks the story elements of this movie apart is that it can’t find balance between comedy, surreal and arty segments and the drama. When it wants to be funny it is actually hilarious at times and when it goes for the surreal a lot of the time it is beautiful and captivating but when it goes for drama there’s a sharp contrast. Cleopatra most of the time speeds over the moments that would humanize the characters or make you really care or sympathize with them so when it comes to tragedy or joy it’s hard to get those emotions out of the movie, so more likely response is just “so what, when’s this scene gonna end”. The movie lasts just sightly under 2 hours but thanks to all the serious segments it feels like all 3.

Luckily there’s a lot more to this than drama that makes this movie easy to recommend to anyone with passing interest. First of all the comedy is really good a lot of the time. With old shows and movies there’s sometimes a concern about how it aged. What was hilarious 40 or 50 years ago might be puzzling now but Cleopatra is not an example of that. The humor is surprisingly really damn inventive and even if something falls flat the movie never lingers on it and instead offers something different at a steady rate. I couldn’t expect a movie made in 1970 to feel so fresh.

The second and probably bigger attribute of enjoyment is how wild this movie gets with its visuals. That is evident right from the start because for some reason the movie opens up on live action footage with 2D faces drawn over actors and one of first visuals in Egypt you get is a psychedelic montage of romans massacring people in a way that’s simultaneously gruesome and cartoony way. Somewhere closer to the middle there’s a parade in Rome which consists out of pretty damn detailed animations that parody some famous paintings from many different styles. It’s just wild and even though it doesn’t persist throughout the entire movie there’s still a lot here to entertain the eye.

Just in case the hentai tag concerns you, don’t worry, it’s really hard to characterize this movie as erotic despite the story having a lot to do with seduction and sex. Yes there’s boobs, yes there’s sex on the screen but it’s so cartoony and sometimes surreal that it makes Titanic seem like hardcore german porn in comparison.

In short, the story is poorly written and not engaging but the comedy and visuals make up for it. It’s not great but definitely a unique watch.

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Jun 28, 2021

LadyStardust97

Mixed Feelings

Cleopatra is a difficult work to talk about and with, because it's essentially a very long and occasionally meaningless sex pervert movie (or, to put it more professionally, an erotic arthouse film) that nonetheless has a lot of historical and artistic interest.
The story and characters both effectively exist only as vessels for the artistic intent that MushiPro wanted to convey, which careens between erotic, comedic, genuinely tragic, and completely abstract. It's a long, long movie with very poor pacing that can be difficult to sit through if you're not in the right mindset, especially since most of the plot is flat and it occasionally ...

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Apr 5, 2019

Assthete

Not Recommended

I haven't read most of Tezuka's manga, but as far as anime is concerned, he sure isn't very good. He seemed to lack some basic discernment, much like Tomino does for example, and littered his shit with unbecoming tonal shifts and jokes that have no place and exist merely cause he thought it would be funny. When reading some of his titles, it is common to have the flow interrupted by some visual gag and I wondered just why it was there to begin with. Cleopatra is a disaster in most senses, starting with its premise that sounds like one which would be promptly refused ...

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