In this episode of The Karate Bugmen's "Mystery Bugmen Theatre" segment, I join the main crew and a couple of the guys from The Oriental Cartoon Show in live-riffing the first episode of the underrated Japanese action show, Pro-Wrestling Star Azteckaiser! The story revolves around a mysterious masked hero who fights to save professional wrestling and all of its competitors from the Black Mist federation, led by the evil Satan Demon! Azteckaiser is a live-action special effects show with animated fight sequences, and was co-created by two of Japan's biggest comic book legends, Go Nagai (Devilman, Mazinger Z) and Ken Ishikawa (Getter Robo).
This episode marks my second appearance on The Oriental Cartoon Show. Here, Mark and I talk about one of my favorite giant robot sagas: GaoGaiGar: King of the Braves, and its place in Japanese robot history.
"Deep beneath the earth, seven robots lay dormant: a human, a mammal, a bird, a fish, an insect, a reptile, a ghost... and the Great General of Darkness."
After having watched Pacific Rim in the theater three times and with the home video release coming up, I'm definitely in the mood for some old-school giant robots. Let me tell you, it doesn't get much more old-school than the very first piloted robot, Mazinger Z! Although Great General of Darkness was the titular robot's second theatrical feature (the first being Mazinger Z vs. Devilman), it is unquestionably the most influential.
Like every theatrical film based on a Toei Animation TV show, it expects that the audience is already familiar with the characters and setting. Just in case you're going into this one blind, I'll give you a brief synopsis: Koji Kabuto is a teenager who lives with his little brother, Shiro, and his grandpa, Dr. Juzo Kabuto, a brilliant inventor.
One day, Koji discovers a secret laboratory underneath his house, where he finds a massive robot and his grandpa, crushed under some rubble. Juzo explains that he's been spending years down in this lab building this robot, "Mazinger Z", constructed out of the most indestructible metal known to man: Super Alloy Z! With his last dying breath, Juzo tells Koji that Mazinger Z is his to do whatever he wants with, and that with such power, he could become either a god or a devil. Koji and Shiro, now orphaned, live with Professor Yumi, a colleague of Juzo's, and his daughter and Koji's girlfriend, Sayaka, at the Photon Research Institute. Japan soon finds itself under constant attack by Mechanical Beasts, which were unearthed from ancient Mycenae ruins in Greece by the evil Dr. Hell, and only Koji and his friends can put a stop to this threat with the power of Mazinger Z!
As Koji and Sayaka's friend, Boss, is taking cover from a vicious storm with his two lackeys, he sees a shaman who tells him that a powerful evil, The Great General of Darkness, is coming to take over the world and that the only thing that can stand in his way is Mazinger Z. When all the major cities in the world come under attack by an army of giant robot monsters, Koji, Sayaka, and Boss all once again sally forth inside their mighty robots to save the world once again! However, this time, Koji learns very quickly that this is a fight he may not win...
To keep from disappointing anyone, I'm just gonna come right out and say that not only do we not see Mazinger Z actually fight the Great General, we never even see them occupying the same space together. It became something of a tradition during the '70s when Toei was making crossover movies based on Go Nagai's work that we (almost) never see the titular fights commence.
You may have noticed that I haven't actually discussed the overall quality of the movie, itself. When you consider that it's just an extended episode of the TV series, there's really no need. Stock footage, static animation, new weapons out of nowhere, and Ichiro Mizuki music are the order of the day, and your tolerance/appreciation of all that will determine whether or not this one's for you.
If you want to take a look back at a really important milestone in giant robot history, then watch Mazinger Z vs. The Great General of Darkness. Without our mighty Castle of Iron there would be no Voltron, Gundam, Evangelion, or Pacific Rim, and I can guarantee that you'll find elements of each one of these famous mecha stories right here, where they made their grand, Rocket Punching debut!
Mazinger Z vs. The Great General of Darkness is based on the comic book series, Mazinger Z, written and illustrated by Go Nagai.
The direct-to-video animation market in Japan used to be a hotbed for up-and-coming animators to be able to spread their wings and show off the full extent of their talents by either creating their own independent short films or adapting comic and novel series'. From the eighties to the mid-nineties, video stores were flooded with many different genres and styles of Original Video Animations (OVAs). Some of my favorites from this era include The Guyver (1989), Riding Bean (1989), and M.D. Geist (1986).
Unfortunately, with the turn that the Japanese economy's taken since then, animation studios have become much more averse to taking any risks. These days, the only DTV animated features being released in Japan are either TV show tie-ins or pornography. Thankfully, an annual project conceived two years ago, called "Anime Mirai", in which the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs funds on-the-job training for new animators, has been resulting in more independent OVAs being released lately. The short film that I'm writing about now, Little Witch Academia, is 2013's entry from Trigger, the animation studio that brought us the amazing Inferno Cop.
After attending a magic show by the dazzling Shiny Chariot, a brash, starry-eyed young girl named Akko enrolls in an academy for witches, but soon discovers it's not as easy as she hoped. She falls asleep in class, her spells backfire on her, and she's bullied by a girl named Diana, who both looks and acts like she might as well be Draco Malfoy's younger sister. When Akko tells her friends that she wants to be like Shiny Chariot, they say that she has a reputation for giving off the wrong impression of what witches do, and is probably a fraud. When it comes time for an exam that requires the students to navigate a labyrinth and seek out treasure, Akko jumps at the chance to both prove her worth and vindicate her idol.
Little Witch Academia sports a nice, safe story that doesn't break any new ground whatsoever, but it's competently written. The plot's solid, and it gives the audience enough of a reason to cheer on its hero. However, an original story was not the intended goal here, since it was created solely as a way for a young artist to put his talents on display, which it greatly excels at. The character designs are original, the colors are vibrant, and the animation is very fluid, which makes it really stand out from what's considered the norm for anime these days.
This was what the OVA movement was all about: letting artists showcase their talents by allowing them to take risks and not feel the need to conform to the industry standard in order to sell home video copies and merchandise. Little Witch Academia oozes that sense of artistic freedom, and in doing so, feels like a breath of fresh air. At only twenty-five minutes, it's able to maintain a good pace and doesn't drag on at all. I recommend it to those who like independent animation and want to show their support for it.
Little Witch Academia is Trigger's submission for the 2013 "Anime Mirai", and was animated and directed by Yoh Yoshinari (FLCL, Gunbuster 2: Diebuster).
"Mr. Jackson, we officially present your new home in space."
To say that Michael Jackson has done it all would not be that big of a stretch. Aside from a multi-platinum music career, he has also starred in film, television, and even video games. Michael made his animation debut in the classic 1991 episode of The Simpsons, "Stark Raving Dad", where he played a large white man at a mental asylum who believed he was MJ. In 1997, MTV Animation released a short made-for-TV film centered around the King of Pop called Planet Jackson, which stands as one of the most heartfelt, as well as obscure, works based on his life. It was thought to have been lost because MTV discarded the sole film reel after a lack of publicity resulted in staggeringly poor Nielsen ratings. This may also be due to the fact that Jackson did not voice himself in this feature, presumably because of scheduling conflicts that arose while he was filming the movie, Ghosts.
In order to escape unwanted media attention, the King of Pop hires a large crew to build him his own space station, far out of the public's eye. Isolated out in space, Michael is finally able to rediscover true happiness now that nobody's trying to leech off of his success. However, his euphoria is cut short when he is visited by a fleet of enemy ships, commanded by his siblings, who have all become white in an effort to emulate their famous brother. Now, Michael must make the difficult, heartbreaking decision of whether to fight his own family in deadly starship combat, or be forced to bend to the wills of everybody around him for the rest of his days.
Planet Jackson is a perfect metaphor for all of the hardships that Jackson was going through during the late 1990s. It does a very good job of getting across the idea that no matter how hard he tried to hide from all of the negative attention he was getting, stemming from his divorce with Lisa Marie Presley and the many child molestation allegations, he couldn't escape. It is a tragic tale that pulls you in with its bright animation style, courtesy of acclaimed sci-fi animation director Toshihiro Kawamoto (Macross Plus/Gundam 0080), and then silently tugs at your heartstrings, showing just how high the price of fame can really be. It's truly unfortunate that not many people have had the pleasure of watching a production so worthy of Michael Jackson's name.
Although Planet Jackson was once so obscure to the point where many doubted its existence, a few years ago, somebody came forward with a VHS recording of it that had been taped during the film's initial broadcast on MTV, and uploaded it to YouTube. Now here, for all of you to enjoy, is Planet Jackson:
Planet Jackson aired as part of an episode of MTV Animation's Cartoon Sushi during its anime parody-themed Ultra City 6060 segment, and was created using stock footage from the direct-to-video series, Mighty Space Miners.
"It was the dark ages when Braiking Boss and his robots ruled the Earth. Some found the courage to resist this tyrant. Among these freedom fighters, one stood out above the rest."
Tatsunoko Productions is a famous animation studio that is probably most recognized for its many superhero characters created during the 1970s. Among them is the Neo-Human, Casshern (romanized as "Casshan" in the original Streamline Pictures release of this series), who was the human son of a scientist that developed androids to try to benefit humans' needs, only to have them turn on their masters. In the wake of this worldwide catastrophe, the boy, named Tetsuya, volunteered to be turned into a cyborg so he could defend humanity. Together with his girlfriend, Luna, and his transformable robot dog, Friender, Casshern wanders post-apocalyptic landscapes, saving villages and fighting the robot armies of the android who originally started this rebellion, Braiking Boss ("Black King" in the Streamline release).
In this iteration, Casshern is portrayed as an amnesiac Jesus allegory whose strength is determined by whatever the writer feels will prove more exciting at the time. Unfortunately, the big problem with this incarnation is that it never actually does feel exciting. Even with an endless supply of exploding robots and a theme song from Mr. Exciting himself, Hironobu Kageyama (Dragon Ball Z/M.D. Geist), this miniseries was unable to elicit any sort of reaction from me. I say this because it just feels like there's far too much emphasis on providing exposition than giving me a reason to care about these characters and why their struggle is so important. Too much tell, not nearly enough show.
The backgrounds and character designs are all really good, but it becomes hard to care once you realize that Casshern has only slightly more fluid animation than a motion comic. The animation was another reason I couldn't get absorbed in any of the fight scenes. There was very little movement during the action, and the fights were kept very short, presumably due to budget constraints.
What could have been a cool, action-packed series about a cyborg superhero karate-chopping robots in half turned out to be surprisingly dull. Casshern: Robot Hunter is a story with a lot of potential that was ultimately squandered by its tendency to put world-building before anything else and its lame animation. I spent most of its run time wanting to just stop it and pop in The Terminator instead, since it explores very similar themes without making me constantly want to check the clock. For a far less mediocre take on this character and his quest to save mankind, I would recommend you watch the original series. The more recent remake, Casshern Sins, is also pretty good, if a fair bit melodramatic.
Casshern: Robot Hunter is based on the 1973 television series, Neo-Human Casshern, created by Tatsunoko Productions.
"This devil... it will be the god who brings us salvation..."
No matter what it may be, if it has Go Nagai's name on it, you can sure-as-hell expect to be entertained, and this is no exception. Mazinkaiser SKL is the most recent animated offering from Nagai's company, Dynamic Productions, and exists as a spin-off of the miniseries, Mazinkaiser (itself a spin-off of Nagai's 1970s comic series, Mazinger Z). Thankfully, absolutely no prior knowledge is needed to enjoy this, as this is series is completely stand-alone, and makes for a pretty good introduction to the exciting world of Go Nagai.
In the far future, there exists an island called Kikaijima, where three different tribes have been waging a seemingly endless war for complete control over the island and its resources. The first tribe we're introduced to is the Kiba Army, a large group of Mad Max-style badlanders who rely more on brute force than anything else. Next, the Garan Army, who have a Warring States Era samurai motif, and are more strategy-reliant than the others. The last tribe is the Hachiryokaku, a convent of toga-clad women with magical abilities. The only thing these groups have in common is that they all use the same instruments of destruction: GIANT ROBOTS!
The only thing keeping this small-scale war contained is a device called the Gravity Curtain, which is a powerful force-field that regulates what can and can't enter or leave the island. Unfortunately, due to the amount of power being used by Kikaijima's inhabitants to keep the war going, the Gravity Curtain has become so unstable that it will explode in 66 hours, possibly ending all life on Earth. In light of this, the government has dispatched two former mercenaries and their demonic-looking robot, Kaiser, to the island to crash, smash, and slaughter their way through legions of other robots in order to save the world from a massive cataclysm.
From the time when I found out that Mazinkaiser SKL was being made, I couldn't wait to see it. Ninety minutes of two homicidal psychopaths in a giant robot tearing apart everything in sight in the name of justice while 80s heavy metal masters Loudness belt out some face-melters is exactly the kind of thing I look for in my action entertainment. There isn't a dull moment to be found here. The action manages to remain exciting throughout, which definitely makes up for its very simplistic plot.
Due to the nature of Mazinkaiser SKL as a three-part direct-to-video series from Japan, you really shouldn't go into this expecting a more complex plot than what I described above. Towards the end of the second episode, there are hints of possible character development in the final episode, but all that gets dropped in favor of more robo-carnage. Considering I wasn't expecting any development before watching this, I was able to let it slide.
If the very thought of robots exploding in a huge bloody mess to the sounds of screaming 80s metal gets your blood pumping, then you'll love Mazinkaiser SKL. Just be warned that prolonged exposure to this series may lead to the following symptoms: 1) Adrenaline starts to flow. 2) You're thrashing all around. 3) Acting like a maniac. 4) WHIPLASH!
Mazinkaiser SKL is based on an original story by award-winning comic book writer/artist, Go Nagai.
"If you ever feel like dying to help the universe, just let me know. I'll be waiting."
When I accepted my friends' offer to go see Madoka Magica at the theater with them this past weekend, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.All I knew was that it was really popular, and that it was supposed to be pretty dark. What I wasn't prepared for was exactly how dark it would become. Don't let any of the cutesy imagery fool you for a second, as this is one of the cruelest, most brutal works of art I've ever had the pleasure to take in.
The story starts out innocently enough, showcasing the start of a typical day at school for our main character, middle schooler Madoka Kaname, and her best friend, Sayaka Miki. After their homeroom teacher finishes projecting her relationship troubles on her students, she introduces the class to a new transfer student, named Homura. It seems like Homura wants nothing to do with anybody else, until she leads Madoka away from the classroom, and suddenly warns her against giving up the life that she has. Madoka and Sayaka spend some time after school pondering what her warning could mean, until Madoka suddenly hears a voice in her head, begging her for help.
The two of them follow it until they come across a very strange-looking cat with serious wounds, being gunned down by Homura. She tells them to get out of her away, until an unnamed blonde girl shows up and tells Homura to leave. After Homura agrees, the three girls are then transported into a strange world that looks like it was animated entirely by Terry Gilliam, and come face-to-face with a giant monster, called a Witch. The blonde girl is able to save Madoka and Sayaka by magically summoning a wall of flintlock rifles and blowing the monster into dust. When they are all in the clear, the cat starts talking to them telepathically. He says that his name is Kyubey, and that he will grant the two of them any wish they desire, as long as they agree to become Magical Girls, and hunt down the Witches that have been wreaking havoc on society. From this point, our heroines delve deeper into this mysterious world of magic and monsters, discovering the grave consequences of those who choose to become Magical Girls, and what Kyubey's real intentions are.
Even after the scene where it appears as though Kyubey is about to meet his maker, Madoka Magica really didn't seem as dark as it had been made out to be by my friends, and every single review of it I had read. It wasn't until a little later when it happened. A moment so shocking and out of left field, that I had to cover my mouth to keep from screaming, "HOLY SHIT!" right in the middle of the theater. It was at that moment that I realized that I actually cared about these characters, and the thought of what cruel fate may await them had me in complete suspense. I knew that the emotional pull was only going to get more intense as the saga continued, and I was completely right. What's especially amazing was how the movie was able to pull this off without feeling gratuitous or exploitative in any way.
A lot of this movie's success owes itself to its very moody, emotional atmosphere. When it needs to be, the animation can either be deceptively bright and cheerful, or just downright frightening. The scenes that take place in the Labyrinths, the Witches' dimensions, especially, look like the kind of imagery you would see in an actual nightmare. The music really helps set the mood, as well. Except for a couple strangely out-of-place pop songs, the score consists mostly of haunting classical fare, frequently accompanied by chanting.
What really makes Madoka Magica work for me, though, is that it had characters who I had learned to sympathize with as the story progressed, it had a great ending that surprisingly managed to answer every question I had, and that despite the fact that it presents the audience with an enemy that really feels dangerous on a cosmic scale, it never forgets where its true focus lies. It's a story about people learning to live with the decisions they've made, and how to overcome them in the face of a great tragedy, and it does a fantastic job of it.
It's not enough for me to recommend this to just anime or sci-fi fans. I strongly believe that if you're a fan of FICTION, you owe it to yourself to check out Madoka Magica. I'm not one to just toss around the word, "masterpiece", but I feel like this movie really earns that distinction. Just some fair warning: it is absolutely not for the faint of heart.
Madoka Magica: The Movie, pt. 1 & 2 was made using compiled footage from the award-winning 2011 TV series, Puella Magi Madoka Magica. A sequel is due out sometime next year.
It would be another couple of years before I encountered
Devilman again, at the dealers' room of a smaller anime convention that was
just a short drive from my house. Halloween was fast approaching, and I was
really caught up in the ghoulish spirit, so I was looking around for any
scary anime or manga. I was beginning to lose hope until I found six individual DVDs, all colored blood-red with pictures of grotesque demons on the side covers, bound together by a single rubber band. The first, and only visible, cover showed me that it was a TV series called, "Go Nagai's The Devil Lady". After reading that, it didn't take me long to realize the visual similarities between the feral-looking demon on the cover and the original image of Devilman that I remembered from when I was little. At that point, there was no way I could resist buying it.
I watched all twenty-six episodes of The Devil Lady over the course of a few weeks, and I came to the conclusion that while the writing wasn't exactly great, it had everything that I expected from my original image of Devilman: lots of violence, tons of gore, terrifying creatures of the night, and a demonic hero that fights for humanity. Unfortunately, the plot was so forgettable that it didn't really leave any lasting impact on me, or my overall impression of Devilman. At this point, it seemed as though nothing would.
Another couple of years pass, and I'm in my second year of college. One of my big obsessions at the time was the Getter Robo series, which was written by Ken Ishikawa, one of Go Nagai's assistants at his company, Dynamic Productions. Originally, I was reading English-translated scans of the comics off of a website, but one day, I just decided to download them so I could access them more easily on my computer. I went to the translators' website, where they had a list of other Dynamic Pro series' they had finished working on posted on the side. My eyes instantly widened when I saw that one of the comics they had finished translating was the original Devilman. Suddenly entranced, I downloaded all five books and started reading them.
I was immediately hooked upon finishing the first volume, which managed to do a very good job building its world, introducing its main characters, and delivering a surprisingly suspenseful origin story for our hero. These were all things that I wish The Devil Lady had been able to do when I was watching it. The second volume introduced its first named villains, who managed to provide the protagonist with an actual challenge, and with it, a very solid story. I really liked how everything was shaping up.
The final three volumes, though, were the ones that cemented the story's status as a masterpiece, to me. I don't want to give anything away, but the story arc contained in these last volumes not only really tugs at the heartstrings (one friend told me she couldn't stop crying while reading the last volume), but also provides some very interesting commentary on human nature, showing how on some level, we're all inherently prone to fear and violence.
If you haven't yet read this amazing work of pop art, make some time to do it. At only five volumes, I guarantee that you won't regret a single second of it. Just to give you an idea, the impact that it had when it debuted in Japan was very similar to the impact Watchmen had on the English-speaking comic world. It was violent, emotional, and rife with social commentary, which is why it has continued to garner seemingly endless amounts of reprints, remakes, and sequels over the last forty years. It's a hell of a good time!
As of this writing, Devilman has been one of my all-time favorite comic book stories for years. The long-lasting impact from its powerful writing and unfaltering heroes has left it with few peers worthy to even share the same book store shelf space it's occupied since the Seventies. For me, it's a gold standard for which I judge other graphic novels against. Judging from what I just typed, though, you may not have guessed that I didn't always feel this way...
My descent into madness began one cold, dark Saturday evening when I was just a little boy. My brother and I were spending the night at our grandparents' house, and my grandma had taken us to her local Blockbuster to pick out a movie to rent. While my brother walked around with my grandma, I rushed right over to the Cartoon section. Scanning the shelves, I saw the usual Disney movies and Nickelodeon TV show episodes on tape, and nothing else that seemed out of the ordinary. However, as soon as my eyes reached the second shelf from the bottom, they stopped, frozen, fixated on one image that stood out from all the rest:
I was paralyzed, struck with a sense of fear that I had never quite known before. Being so young, the most demonic thing I had ever seen in a cartoon at the time was in Sleeping Beauty, watching Maleficent turning into a gigantic black dragon. This, however, was on a completely different level. Just this one picture was able to fill me with not just the greatest terror I had experienced up until then, but also a great curiosity. As much as it frightened me, in those moments, I felt like I wouldn't be able to rest until I knew what secrets lie beyond this horrific image. Was this "Devilman" the hero? How could a devil be a hero? Was this a story about a villain? My mind was filled with so many questions.
Suddenly, I felt a hand pull on my shoulder, sending a jolt of electricity through my entire body that snapped me out of my trance. My grandma then asked me if I had picked out a movie. Since I hadn't yet, I quickly looked back at the shelf, saw one of the Land Before Time sequels, and took it to the guy at the register without thinking. That was the last time I would think of or hear about Devilman for almost a decade.
I had always liked giant robots in some way, since I loved watching local channel reruns of the original Transformers and Voltron growing up, but I became hooked for life during my middle school years when I started watching G Gundam on Cartoon Network's Toonami block. Since then, a lot of my time has been spent seeking out new titles, collecting robot figures and models, and cheering on the good guys as they triumphed over some of the greatest evils our universe will hopefully never know.
At some point when I was in high school, my search led me to a comic book writer named Go Nagai. Reading up on him, I discovered that he was the man responsible for coming up with the concept of giant robots being piloted by humans, which he accomplished through his most famous work, Mazinger Z. Intrigued, I wanted to find out what else he had created, so I went to Wikipedia to look up a list of his other series', hoping to find anything else I may have heard of. While there were a couple of titles that I recognized at the time, only one really popped out at me: Devilman.
Like a flash of lightning, it all came back to me. The intense fear and curiosity that I had felt when I was little had returned. Like then, I knew I wouldn't be at ease until I finally discovered the mysteries behind this link to my past. The first thing I thought to do was search on that new website my friends had shown me: YouTube, a video-streaming site which seemed to have anything I might have wanted to see. I knew that if I was going to be able to find clips of Devilman anywhere, it would be there. This was the first thing that came up:
I just sat there for a few minutes, not knowing what to think. The thought that an old kids' show was what terrified me so much back then left me in total shock. Then, without thinking, I lowered my head and started chuckling to myself. I felt both a little relieved and disappointed. I was really looking forward to something hardcore and violent, but it seemed like that just wasn't the case. Oh well, one of the greatest enigmas of my life had been solved, and nothing had changed as a result.
This story takes place in the distant future. When mutants and demons slither through a world of darkness.
Vampire Hunter D was one of many anime movies to be released in America during the late 80s and early 90s that helped challenge mainstream perceptions of animation at the time. It was dark, violent, scary, and even a little sexy. These are just several reasons why it became a cult favorite during its time, and why it's still treasured by English-speaking fans of horror, sci-fi, and animation.
In the year 12,090 AD, vampires, werewolves, and all sorts of other ghouls roam freely, stalking the night and preying on the weak. One night, a young monster hunter named Doris is attacked and bitten by an ancient vampire, who reveals himself to be the legendary Count Magnus Lee, descendant of Count Dracula.
Shortly afterward, Doris comes across a vampire hunter traveling through town, and asks him if he would kill the Count in order to prevent her from turning into a vampire. In exchange for food and a place to stay, the vampire hunter, named D, accepts the job. One of the first things we learn about D is that he is actually a dhampir, a vampire/human half-breed, who isn't very accepting of his vampiric side. Over the course of the story, we learn much more about the stoic vampire hunter, like the code of honor that he binds himself to, as well as his relationship to the House of Lee.
D, himself, looks and acts like the archetypical Western hero. The character's creator, Hideyuki Kikuchi, has even been cited stating
that his original image of D was based on that of Phil Collins during the cowboy
segment of the music video for "Don't Lose My Number". Much like the Lone Ranger, or even more recent examples like Kenshiro or Kwai Chang Caine, he wanders from town-to-town across a mostly desolate land, righting any wrongs that he comes across, as per his unwritten code of honor. What sets each of these examples apart, though, is their individual motivation for doing what they do, and while D's motivation isn't made crystal clear, it becomes more implied as the story plays out.
The story remains exciting throughout and maintains a good pace, but still somehow manages to feel a little rough around the edges in a way that I can't quite explain. It feels more like an extended episode of a TV show than a theatrical feature. This is understandable, seeing as how director Toyoo Ashida's only prior directorial credit was for the first season of the Fist of the North Star TV show.
Easily the most interesting aspect of Vampire Hunter D is the setting. The world, itself, has a mixture of classic Western and Gothic elements to it, creating a very retro atmosphere. At the same time, the technology that is used in transportation, housing, and weaponry is very reminiscent of futuristic '80s sci-fi. This particular blend of landscapes and technology really works well in crafting a distinct environment.
While not perfect, Vampire Hunter D is still a really fun movie that managed to set itself apart from the rest of its peers when it was first released.
Vampire Hunter D is based on the first of an ongoing series of novels of the same name, written by Hideyuki Kikuchi and illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano.
