is a four-part hentai anime series released in 1994 by Pink Pineapple in Japan. The series focuses on tentacle rape and S&M, as well as frequently featuring girl-on-girl scenes, often under circumstances of mind control or possession. It was adapted into a live-action series. The animated series was released in North America by ADV Films under their SoftCel Pictures label. The series utilizes tropes of the sci-fi, fantasy, and horror genres within the erotic scenarios it depicts.

Plot

First Story During a rainy night in a thunderstorm, Professor Goda is digging under a large tree within a construction site. He breaks through a mysterious stone tablet, and is suddenly attacked and consumed by a mysterious tentacled monster, the tentacles possessing him and inhabiting his body for its own use. Later, students are attending the opening ceremony of the new school semester at a recently built, distinguished Women's Academy, built in a forest in the place of an older boarding school. A new chapel has also been constructed. We are introduced to the protagonist, Atsuko Yoshikawa, and her lover Sayaka Matsumoto, both freshmen at the school, at an entrance ceremony in the chapel. After this ends, a group of girls discover a goblin or gnome-like creature in the background of a photograph, and they decide to throw away the picture due to its frightening appearance.

In an underground basement beneath the school's chapel, Professor Goda and The Director are shown raping a freshman student who is tied up and gagged. The Director is wearing black S&M bondage gear, while Goda is naked. The Director appears to be enjoying watching the rape and involves herself in the process by whipping the freshman with her riding crop until the freshman faints from shock. Goda comments that he needs the "extract" of young women in order to provide food for an organism that he just discovered, and that he will need to seek out more freshman girls.

The scene cuts to the dormitory where Sayaka and Atsuko are currently engaging in heavy fondling and passionate kissing in their dorm room, developing into a full sex scene until they are interrupted by a group of fellow students knocking at the door asking them to come to dinner. All the girls in the dining hall appear to be listless and uninterested in anything, including Atsuko's cartoonish feats of strength. Yuko manages to wake them through her violin playing, but it is clear there is still something wrong.

Professor Goda is in the church listening to the music when he is suddenly attacked by what appears to be a fairy, later revealed to be a forest elf named Rom. He is seen to rearrange and reform his body at will while defending himself, summoning dark red tentacles from his limbs and mouth. Atsuko is seen scoring at lacrosse and being cheered by her teammates. Sayaka prays in the campus church before hearing a noise behind the altar, and discovers that noise and light is emanating from the grated basement hatch. Atsuko arrives, having completed her lacrosse practice. With Sayaka having described the strange discovery to Atsuko, they return after dark to investigate, though Sayaka remains frightened and wants to return home. The two are followed by mysterious creatures and startled by a cat before arriving at the church. Atsuko lifts the grate behind the altar, uncovering a set of stairs leading downward.

Upon entering the basement passageway, the two discover a strange cavern covered in greenish organic masses and medical or scientific equipment, including a glowing red orb that contains Professor Goda's organism. They are shocked to see several girls being bound and raped by tentacles to feed the organism, while the director stands by and Professor Goda implants something into one of the girls. Professor Goda notices them, and Atsuko and Sayaka flee. Goda opens his coat and several tentacles rush from his body to pursue them. Sayaka escapes the church while Atsuko stays behind to buy her time, telling her to escape and get help. Atsuko evades the tentacles, jumping through a stained glass window to escape before being cornered on a ledge and falling a great distance.

Sayaka finds Yuko at the dorm and tells her that Atsuko is in danger. Atsuko wakes up in the woods, naked, bound in vines, and being sexually assaulted by a group of small bearded gnome-like creatures. Upon Atsuko's protests, the creatures begin to bite her cruelly, before Rom appears and tells them off. Rom says that the tribe of bearded creatures, referred to as dwarves, have become bound to the "Dark Elemental," and the dwarves defend their behavior by explaining that they are subject to the power of the Dark Elemental's desires now that a human has broken the seal and freed it. Rom chases off the dwarves and heals and frees Atsuko, introducing himself and explaining the situation to her. He explains that Goda has become the vessel of the Dark Elemental, an "unclean, filthy beast" ruled by evil appetite and fueled by human lust, who must not be allowed to achieve his final form. Rom also states that the woods used to be a magical place populated by many elves and dwarves, before a lightning strike heralded the arrival of the Dark Elemental. He wreaked havoc on the elves and forest, but they were eventually able to defeat him and bury him in the form of a seed, along with a protective stone seal. Over time, however, the influence of humans and deforestation caused the population and power of elves and dwarves to diminish. This allowed the danger of the Dark Elemental to be unleashed, when construction unearthed the sealed entity and Professor Goda unleashed it.

Characters

First story

A tomboyish college freshman with short blue hair, who behaves similarly to a standard Shonen protagonist. She and Sayaka have dated since high school, and she applied to the academy in order to stay with her, despite barely passing the entrance exam. Atsuko plays lacrosse and enjoys showing off with feats of strength. She is nervous about hiding her relationship with Sayaka from her older sister, Yuko.

A sweet and intelligent college freshman with long brown hair, Sayaka is more reserved and easily frightened than her girlfriend. She is seen accusing Atsuko of looking at other girls, though she is also shown to potentially have a crush on Yuko.

Yuko is Atsuko's older sister, and a teacher at their school. She has silky dark hair and wears glasses. She is elegant and responsible, and is seen to play the piano and violin.

Goda is a young science professor at the prestigious Women's Academy who broke a protective seal and was attacked and possessed by the Dark Elemental, an evil tentacle monster. His original personality and motivations are unknown, but under the influence of the Dark Elemental, he is seen to be a sexually sadistic mad scientist, working towards the goal of reaching his final form by using the bodies of young students, and later Yuko.

Siren Director

Second story

Production Considered soft porn, Angel of Darkness''' attempts to merge the magical girl anime formula with the tentacle rape hentai genre. This was done in order to circumvent stringent Japanese censorship laws at the time that did not allow the animation of the pubic region and identifiable genitalia. As such, hentai films began using monsters with phallic tentacles to "rape" women in films.

Media

AnimeAngel of Darkness series was licensed by ADV Films and released under their Softcel label. All four episodes were released on VHS and DVD with subtitles only.

Live-actionAngel of Darkness was adapted into five live-action adult films and were released in English by Critical Mass Video.

Reception

Patrick Drazen regards Angel of Darkness'' as being an example of the use of "horror to express sexual anxiety", and as an example of Gothic fiction.Patrick Drazen, (2003) Anime Explosion pp. 70-71 Chris Beveridge regards the hentai to be "neither the best nor the worst" that he had seen, but enjoyed the third episode over the last, as it was more plot-oriented.

References

External links Official Pink Pineapple Angel of Darkness website SoftCel Pictures page: animated series Critical Mass Video page: live action series ASM page (live action): AOD movie 2