OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *The Dark Myth

Ankoku Shinwa was a 1977 horror manga that was later on made into a 2-episode OVA series in 1990 retitled The Dark Myth when it was released by Manga Entertainment. It centers largely around Japanese religion and folklore, most specifically about how much of it was regionalized from outside beliefs like Hindu and Bhuddism. Anime director Takashi Anno handled this terror tale of prehistoric fiction which at times does contain spontaneous splatter scenes, but largely is like one long history lesson of Shinto.

Takeshi is a teenager who is drawn to the legend of a god which his father was investigating that took his life. A powerful family are searching for this legend too because it leads to a treasure which might lead to overwhelming power. Takeshi keeps running into different spirits and gods that bite him leaving a sort of stigmata that make him the chosen one in an ancient prophecy, plus a magic sword and enchanted mirror. The chosen one eventually fulfills his destiny where he encounters the God of Darkness which is really the Horsehead Nebula in the constellation of Orion that allows him to choose between returning to Earth and dooming the world, or taking his newfound enlightenment and transcending to a higher plane, similar to the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The Dark Myth gives an overwhelming amount of exposition going over the backstory of Japanese mythology, and not anywhere near enough in the way of horror fantasy like it appears to on the cover. Anyone hoping to find cosmic terror similar to Lovecraft here will be woefully disappointed. There's trite dialogue and boring essays which makes this more of a college thesis than an anime thriller. Manga Entertainment also gave this one of the least interesting dubs of all time when they released this on DVD.