General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Cleopatra (クレオパトラ) (1970 film)

Cleopatra (クレオパトラ) is a 1970 Japanese adult animated feature film directed by Osamu Tezuka and Eiichi Yamamoto, produced by Mushi Production, and distributed by Nippon Herald Movies on September 15, 1970¹. It is the second of the three "Animerama" adult-oriented theatrical features made at Mushi Pro, following A Thousand and One Nights (1969) and preceding Belladonna of Sadness (1973)². The film mixes a science-fiction frame story with a comic, heavily anachronistic retelling of Cleopatra's relations with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, and it was marketed by its distributor as an erotic animated work for adults¹.

Key fact	Detail
Japanese release	September 15, 1970, distributed by Nippon Herald Movies; color, wide screen¹
Directors	Osamu Tezuka and Eiichi Yamamoto; original plan and story line by Tezuka¹
Key staff	Screenplay Shigemi Satoyoshi; music Isao Tomita; character design Isao Kojima¹
Series position	Second of the three Animerama adult features, between A Thousand and One Nights (1969) and Belladonna of Sadness (1973)²
Setting	A 21st-century frame story sends three human minds back to Egypt of 50 BC, during the Roman invasion³
North American release	1972, retitled Cleopatra, Queen of Sex by Xanadu Productions with an unauthorized self-applied X rating⁴
Reception	A critical and commercial failure in Japan, unlike its predecessor⁵

Spoilers

Story

The film opens in the 21st century, when humanity is expanding into space and targeting the planet Pasatorine. Earth learns that Pasatorine's inhabitants are plotting a conspiracy called the "Cleopatra Plan" against humanity, and to discover its truth three humans have their minds sent back to Egypt of 50 BC, the era of Cleopatra³. In the French-language synopsis the three are Mary, Jirou, and Hal, whose souls enter the bodies of the resistance fighter Lybia, the slave Ionius, and, through a programming error, Rupa, a tamed leopard⁸.

Egypt is under invasion by the Roman army led by Caesar. In this telling Cleopatra is introduced as an ugly young woman; to ensnare Caesar she undergoes plastic surgery and is transformed into a great beauty¹⁰. The men around her, Caesar first among them, quickly fall captive to her charms, but Cleopatra herself comes to want happiness as a woman rather than as a queen¹⁰. After Caesar's death, the next Roman commander, Antonius, attacks Egypt and she captivates him as well³. Her attendant Apollodria, who organizes guerrilla resistance against Rome, repeatedly pushes her to seduce the incoming conqueror Octavian, and Cleopatra furiously refuses¹¹. The film follows the historical outline of Cleopatra's life to its tragic end².

Production

Mushi Production, the studio Osamu Tezuka founded in 1961, made the Animerama features as theatrical animation aimed at adults, a direction Tezuka had long wanted to pursue⁶. After A Thousand and One Nights became a hit in Japan, Nippon Herald commissioned this second film⁷. The schedule was tighter than for the first film, but the team finished on time for the September 15, 1970 premiere⁸.

Tezuka took the original plan and story line and co-directed with Eiichi Yamamoto, his longtime collaborator; the screenplay was by Shigemi Satoyoshi, the music by Isao Tomita, and the character design by the manga artist Isao Kojima, known for Hige to Boin¹^•³. The distributor advertised the film with the slogan that it was "far more erotic than a thousand and one nights"¹.

Reported running times differ among sources: the Tezuka Productions and Kinenote records give 112 minutes¹^•⁹, allcinema lists 113 minutes¹⁰, and Mushi Production's own page gives 100 minutes³.

Style and humor

Parody is the film's signature. Mushi Production's own description calls it a parody spectacular that depicts Cleopatra's eventful life as a historical pageant while scattering Tezuka-style gags throughout³. Popular manga characters of the day, including those of Sazae-san, Kamui, and Harenchi Gakuen, make cameo appearances; the Roman triumph parade brings on famous paintings by Picasso, Van Gogh, and others; and Caesar's assassination is staged as a parody of the pine corridor scene from Chushingura³. Contemporary topical jokes and catchphrases fill the dialogue⁷.

The visual approach is deliberately eclectic. The opening sequence in the far future places animated faces on live-action bodies, a pastiche of the American Synchro-Vox technique used in Clutch Cargo; Tezuka himself described it as a deliberate in-joke⁵. Elsewhere the film mixes limited animation, rotoscoping, watercolor animation, cut-out sequences built from classic paintings, and live-action footage combined with cel overlays². Sexual content is present but largely stylized: sex scenes are rendered through abstract, semi-abstract, or comic devices rather than explicit depiction¹².

Voice cast and music

Cleopatra is voiced by Chinatsu Nakayama, Caesar by Hajime Hana, and Antonius by Osami Nabe, with Nachi Nozawa, Jitsuko Yoshimura, and others in supporting roles⁷. Isao Tomita wrote the score, and the theme song "Cleopatra's Theme" (クレオパトラの涙) has lyrics by Nakayama Chinatsu, music by Tomita, and vocals by Saori Yuki¹^•¹³.

Release and reception

In Japan the film failed with both critics and audiences, a sharp reversal from A Thousand and One Nights; commentators blamed Tezuka's self-indulgence, and the bewildering opening, topical gags, and avant-garde mix of styles were judged too esoteric for the general public⁵. The Tezuka Productions official site acknowledges that the topical humor gave the film's comedy no lasting universality, while crediting its imagery as remaining impressive and beautiful¹.

The American release compounded the failure. To capitalize on the success of Ralph Bakshi's X-rated Fritz the Cat, the distributor Xanadu Productions released the film in North America in 1972 as Cleopatra, Queen of Sex, with a self-applied X rating that was never submitted to the MPAA; the film opened on April 24, 1972, twelve days after Fritz the Cat, and neither the title nor the rating attracted an audience⁴^•⁵^•¹⁴.

Place in animation history

The three Animerama films are now studied as an early, influential attempt to establish feature animation for adults in Japan, at a time when Ralph Bakshi was opening the same territory in the United States². Scholarship on Mushi Pro's adult films argues that, whatever their flaws, they blurred the line between full and limited animation and experimented with styles drawn from manga, fine art, and popular culture¹⁵. In Cleopatra the studio also experimented early with aerial compositing of live-action film and animation, a technique it had begun testing after the first Animerama film¹⁶. The film's failure, however, contributed to Tezuka's withdrawal from Mushi Pro's management; he had already founded Tezuka Productions in 1968, and Mushi Production went bankrupt after Belladonna of Sadness was released in 1973⁵^•⁶.

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026