Torn from his homeland and the woman he loves, Spartacus is condemned to the brutal world of the arena where blood and death are primetime entertainment.

Since the Edo periods of Japan, gladiator arenas exist in certain areas. In these arenas, wealthy business owners and merchants hire gladiators to fight in unarmed combat where winner takes all. Toki Taouma, nicknamed "Ashura," joins these arenas and devastates his opponents. His spectacular ability to crush his enemies catches the attention of the big business owners, including the Nogi Group chairman, Nogi Hideki.

This seven-hour British-Italian adaptation of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1834 epic, set against the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. and previously filmed in 1935, and in 1960 was a vehicle for muscleman Steve Reeves, was trashed by the critics as the campiest of sword and sandal sagas to emerge in years. This despite its reported $19-million price tag, the nobility of its cast that includes Laurence Olivier, Siobhan McKenna and Anthony Quayle, and its rather unspectacular special effects. The central figures are Nicholas Clay as Glaucus, the noble Athenian; Olivia Hussey as the high-born Ione, his love, who is seduced by the Egyptian, Arbaces (Franco Nero), a religious fanatic; Duncan Regehr as Lydon, the champion gladiator; and Linda Purl as the blind slave Nydia, who is torn between Glaucus and Lydon.

Spartacus, who was enslaved by the Romans after they murdered his father, leads fellow slaves in an attempt to overthrow the repressive Roman Empire.

Avenger is an anime series, produced by Bandai Visual, Bee Train and Xebec, and directed by Koichi Mashimo. It is set on post-apocalyptic colonized Mars. The series premiered across Japan between 1 October 2003 and 24 December 2003 on the TV Tokyo network. It was later licensed for North American distribution by Bandai's distributive unit across the region, Bandai Entertainment.