An anime with a sad-eyed waif as the hero must surely be something for the kiddies, no? Well no, if the waif carries a blood-stained axe and greedily devours human flesh like a starved wolf.
Keiichi Sato's feature animation "Ashura (Asura)," whose eponymous hero is the above-mentioned waif, is unrelenting in its violence, gore and nightmarish horror. And now that I have done my duty by scaring away parents of young children, I have to also say it is a deeply religious film, as well as a work of high animated art.
A contradiction? Not to fans of the George Akiyama manga on which "Ashura" is based. Running in Shukan Shonen Magajin (Weekly Shonen Magazine) from 1970 to 1971 it was banned in various localities around Japan for its graphic depictions of cannibalism, but was influenced in its title, as well as its world view, by Buddhism. The pint-size hero is given his name by a wandering Buddhist monk for his perceived resemblance to Asuras, fallen deities in Buddhist and Hindu mythology known for their wrathful, intemperate natures.