Tonight is a salute to directing legend Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Wicked City, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust) as he makes his <a href="https://boundingintocomics.com/movies/bounding-into-halloween-night-10″ rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>2ndappearance during this month’s horrorthon, and it’s two personal favorites from the long-lost 20th century. The respective worlds that they inhabit couldn’t be more opposite from each other, but they’re both post-apocalyptic crapholes full of monsters, and plenty of animated gore. Grab a few extra cans of Sapporo Premium, or a bottle of fine Sake, and let’s head back to Japan.
Get your weeb asses ready for the ultimate Splatterpunk samurai bloodbath! This masterpiece of ultra-violent, supernatural anime signaled the rebirth of the medium after shedding its dated (albeit charming) style from the 1980’s. Ninja Scroll follows Jubei Kibagami (Koichi Yamadera/Dean Wein), a former sword for the Yamashiro clan turned cynical ronin who wanders the countryside of feudal Japan.
When a squad of ninjas is sent to investigate a plague that wiped out an entire village, all but one of them are slaughtered by a giant rock-skinned demon. The beautiful and lethal food-taster named Kagero (Emi Shinohara/Wendee Lee) is the only ninja who survived, and let’s just say that rock face has other plans for her. Jubei rolls into town completely unaware of the situation, and reluctantly saves Kagero from the rock-hard scumbag, but also unwittingly thrusts himself into a beef with the Eight Devils of Kimon. They’re a crew of demonic ninja warriors with badass, flesh-tearing supernatural powers who plot to overthrow the government.
Then Jubei is poisoned by an aging government spy named Dakuan (Takeshi Aono/Abe Lasser), who gives him no choice but to hunt down the remaining members of Rocky’s monster club in exchange for the antidote. To aid him on this blood-soaked journey is Kagero, whose entire body is laced with a fatal toxin that kills anyone who dares to touch her, let alone engage in any nyan-nyan, and that should be more than enough to make Rogue from the X-Men feel a little better about her situation. Together they kill their way through a gauntlet of assassins, body-altering monsters, and even swarms of wasps. All leading to an end that goes full Body Horror.
Why are you still reading this?!? Go watch it on Roku right now, but first, trailer:
Now, it’s time to visit the Golden Age of anime, and all of its hand-crafted analog amazingness. That might be nostalgia talking, but as long as the discussion doesn’t turn to potential remakes, it’s still in the healthy zone. Released the same year as the groundbreaking Akira, it was slightly eclipsed by Katsuhiro Otomo’s valiant effort to truncate an epic story that he wasn’t even finished writing, and you see what I mean. Welcome to Demon City!
Ten years after his father perished in a duel against an evil sorcerer, the young Kyoya Izayoi (Hideyuki Hori/Christopher Corey) must rise from out of the shadows and journey into the heart of Shinjuku. A quarantined, ruined metropolis overrun by grotesque, reality-warping monstrosities. Guided by his father’s former mentor, Master Aguni Rai (Ichirō Nagai/George Little), and armed with a spiritual sword (along with the predictably reluctant sense of duty), our teenage hero enters the neon wasteland of Tokyo on a desperate rescue mission to prevent the physical world from merging with the underworld.
Where the last movie is a classic of its decade, the same very much goes for this standalone OVA. This is retro anime at its finest, with cheesy action music included. There’s the regular version of Demon City Shinjuku on Pluto TV, and the trailer is below:
