MELTING POT

Where can you find “an unadulterated vision of a world on the brink of sexual appetite and apocalypse?” Orange County, of course. According to Laguna Hills cineaste Todd French, hundreds of residents of this conservative region are mesmerized by some of the planet’s most off-the-wall films--animated science-fiction films from Japan.

French, 29, is a member of Summerside, one of 32 underground Japanese-animation fan clubs in California. The clubs usually screen PG-level fare--the Robotech series, the GoBots--but the hottest items these days, French says, are a series of bootlegged half-hour films called “Urotsukidoji” (“Wandering Kid”). Conceived by 36-year-old Hideki Takayama, “Wandering Kid” involves attempts by the feline Kid to reunite the three overlapping worlds of mankind, beast-men and demons. French describes the series as “an animation masterpiece with jaw-dropping X-rated sequences . . . offering a mesmerizing glimpse of a world rift by chaotic hunger and rioting libido.”

“Wandering Kid” and such direct-to-video series as “Crying Freeman,” “Violence Jack” and “Record of the Lotus War,” French says, provide more than titillation; they offer Westerners a peek through the cracks of an often misunderstood culture. In Japan, animation is one of the few refuges for rampant imagination and anarchic impulses--which is probably why these films have become so popular in Orange County.

“This stuff is almost like the animated equivalent of punk rock or slash metal,” explains French. “I have mixed feelings about ‘Wandering Kid.’ The misogyny is outrageous, but the sheer energy and kineticism of the storytelling is unbelievable. It’s like H. P. Lovecraft for the ‘90s.”