"Branded to Kill" was released to Japanese theatres on June 15, 1967, in a double bill with Shōgorō Nishimura's "Burning Nature". The films were financially unsuccessful and the former fared likewise among critics. "Kinema Junpo" magazine reported that the films "resulted in less than viewers at Asakusa and Shinjuku and about 500 at Yurakucho on the second day." Both Joe Shishido and Yamatoya Atsushi later recounted having seen "Branded to Kill" in practically empty theatres, the latter on its opening night. Iijima Kōichi, a critic for the film journal "Eiga Geijutsu", wrote that "the woman buys a mink coat and thinks only about having sex. The man wants to kill and feels nostalgic about the smell of boiling rice. We cannot help being confused. We do not go to theaters to be puzzled." Nikkatsu Studios had been criticized for catering to rebellious youth audiences, a specialty of contract director Seijun Suzuki, whose films had grown increasingly anarchic through the 1960s. This had earned him a large following but it had also drawn the ire of studio head Kyūsaku Hori. On April 25, 1968, Suzuki received a telephone call from a company secretary informing him that he would not be receiving his salary that month. Two of Suzuki's friends met with Hori the next day and were told, "Suzuki's films were incomprehensible, that they did not make any money and that Suzuki might as well give up his career as a director as he would not be making films for any other companies."