Nicole on Cole: Belladonna of Sadness (Patreon)

CONTENT WARNING: Belladonna of Sadness, as well as our ensuing conversation, contains depictions and discussions of sexual assault. Please proceed at your own discretion.

In 1973, the anime studio founded and subsequently abandoned by Osamu Tezuka released the third and final film in their adult-oriented Animerama trilogy, a loose adaptation of Jules Michelet's La Sorcière directed by Eiichi Yamamoto (Kimba the White Lion, Space Battleship Yamato) by the name of Belladonna of Sadness. A commercial failure that would go officially unseen in the West until 2016, Belladonna was the last film Mushi released before the studio went bankrupt before the end of the year. Over fifty years later, it's now a singular cult anime film that's at once incredibly beautiful to behold and deeply harrowing in the tragedy and power that befalls peasant woman-turned-witch Jeanne.

Join Nicole and Cole for an in-depth (and characteristically tangent-prone) discussion of this one of a kind movie to commemorate Discotek's new rerelease.

Nicole's Letterboxd review (contains discussion of SA).

Link to donate to bail funds student encampments in solidarity with the people of Gaza.

If you can, also consider supporting these organizations in Palestine:

• ANERA (American Near-East Refugee Aid) 

• PCRF (Palestinian Relief Children's Fund)

• MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)

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