The Ultimate Anime Horror Collection
(MVM Region 2 PAL DVD)
(1995-1997)
review by Blackgloves

It may be pushing it a bit to call this the "ultimate" anime horror collection; but if one expects to find assorted monsters, blood-drenched dismemberment & gore, plus a fair dose of animated sexual content, then this three disc collection of stand-alone mini-features, released by MVM, ought to fit the bill for most aficionados of this anime sub-genre.

 

With a running time of barely fifty minutes, "Twilight of the Dark Master" is forced into the never satisfactory tactic of laying on a thick spread of back-story via voice-over narration in the opening few minutes. Here we learn that the age-old struggle between good and evil is really the story of a battle fought since the beginnings of time between demonic, monstrous denizens of the night and angelic, noble beings called Guardians -- this is basically a similar set-up to the excellent Russian flick, "Nightshift"; although this mini-film — based on the Manga by Saki Okuse — was released in 1997: well before that film came along. Interestingly, we learn that the Demons were actually made by the Guardians themselves, to keep the human population, who'd grown weak and dissolute, on their toes (so to speak).

 

The main story then kicks in: set in a Blade Runner-esque cyber city of the future (or 2089 to be exact) which has become a self-governed (i.e. lawless) place of thriving terror since a large explosion several years previously wiped out most of the population. But things get even more terrifying  when two handsome lovers, Tachibana and Eiji, have their soft-lighted romantic lovemaking rudely thwarted by the unfortunate occurrence of Eili turning into a ravenous monster, and ripping off poor Tachibana's arm!  A weapons unit is called in under the command of Mr Kudo, but when the creature is actually caught by the solders, it turns out that Kudo is being forced to follow the orders of two rather creepy beings who are the brother and sister servants of someone called Mr Takamiya, and who seem to be a bit too friendly with each-other considering they're siblings! The creature is taken off to a sex club owned by Kudo which, as well as providing a very unusual hiding place, also provides it with a great deal of fresh food! It turns out that a dastardly plot is afoot by Takamiya, the surviving Demon, which aims to turn human beings into Demons. Eiji is a lowly employee in the drugs company which provides a front for Takamiya's scheme, and is being used as a guinea pig in the experiments. All is not lost though, for Eiji's former lover Shizuka Tachibana has equipped herself with a cybernetic arm and joined up with a Guardian called Tsunami Shijyo and his (rather feckless) sidekick, Tenku. Most of the plot consist in these three protagonists figuring out the Demon plot and the whole thing ends in the expected big showdown between Shijyo and Tenkamiya. Herein lies the rub: there really isn't an awful lot of substance to the thing, and the plot manages the trick of being both thread-bear and hard to follow at the same time. While the characters don't get a chance to add up to much with such a short running time. The disc features both a gnomic Japanese 2.0 stereo track and rather more simplified (almost simple-minded) English dub in 5.1, which adds a lot of dialogue not featured at all in the Japanese version. This being a late-nineties anime, this 4:3 ratio film is obviously rather dated in appearance but the oodles of extra-violent content and smattering of gratuitous nudity are at least conducted with enough spirit to ensure the film is never completely without interest.

 

Similarly dated in style is "Psycho Diver". Based on a novel by Baku Yumemakura, this forty-five minute mini-feature from 1997 is supposedly full of disturbing imagery (according to the sleeve burb); but, despite a few excursions into violent surrealism now and again, there is nothing particularly shocking about anything included in this mildly engaging thriller. The psycho diver of the title is Bosujima: a man whose job involves a kind of psychic psychotherapy. With the aid of some advanced technology, as well as his above average psychic powers, Bosujima is able to provide the service of "soul cleansing", by peering into the deepest recesses of the inner being of his clients. When he is contacted by the Iris Agency to help a young female pop star called Yuki Kanou, he finds himself involved in a strange conspiracy involving a creepy religious cult called the Gordonians. Yuki's is suffering from some-kind of mental trauma that is stopping her from being able to record her new album. Bosujima is shocked to learn that a friend of his, who also worked as a psycho diver, had already attempted to help Yuki, but died in the process of connecting psychically, leading to his head exploding, Scanners-style! It seems Yuki possess great psychic strength — and her hidden rage makes trying to 'psycho dive' her a risky proposition. The religious cult are apparently also interested in her powers, but Bosujima soon becomes very suspicious of some of the people involved with the Iris Agency, particularly the head of the organisation, Mr Kudo. He does, however become romantically involved with Yuki's personal assistant, Kyoko. After just-about surviving his first attempt to psycho dive into Yuki's problems some much more concrete threats emerge when Bosujima and Kyoko become the target of a vicious slasher.

 

This mini-film works a lot better than the previously mentioned anime short: the plot is fairly straightforward and easily resolved within the forty-five minute running time. The violence and sexual content is just as strong (although a love scene between the hero and Kyoko is strangely coy) and, although dated in style, it is perfectly watchable with a nifty false ending and some last minute gore to keep the pulse racing right up to the end. I could have done without the Swing Out Sister-influenced J-pop though!

 

The DVD is another no thrills affair, and you don't even get the Japanese audio track on this one: just the English dub, which is — luckily — unusually good. The extras consist of trailers and an image gallery. 

 

The final film in this triumvirate is the one that justifies the set, although it does fragment into the usual incoherent anime chaos at the end. Here the imagery really is disturbing (with scenes such as the one where a slimy monster forces one of its phallic tentacles up and down a helpless female's throat in an unpalatably pornographic fashion!), the soft core sexual scenes surprisingly graphic and the gore particularly extreme and unpleasant. The premise is also by far the most interesting, managing to combine the best bits of the other two films into one feature. The opening scene recapitulates the start of "Twilight of the Dark Master" in reverse. This time it is the female partner of a pair of lovers (although their soft core copulating could best be described as rutting rather than lovemaking) who turns into a hairy distended monster, ripping her shocked partner to bits. Cut to a bored lecture hall where molecular biologist Koshihaya is giving a lecture on recombinant DNA to a rather uninterested bunch of students. But he and his partner, Komada augment their academic life with their work as bio-hunters: based on the premise that reports of monsters, ghost and other such phenomena, are really instances of a particular strain of retro-virus which accelerates evolution causing the infected to periodically transform into grotesque, bile-drooling monsters, Koshigaya and Komada investigate sightings of such hideous creatures in an effort to understand better this "Demon Virus". Their quest is aided by the fact that Komada is himself "half demon"; he even weeps mysteriously whenever a full-fledged demon is close by! 

 

When Komada rescues a beautiful young woman from the clutches of a gang of smartly-dressed thugs, the two scientists are plunged into a strange mystery concerning the whereabouts of Sayaka's missing grandfather: the famous fortune-teller Bokudoh Murakami, whose services have been sought by the rich and powerful, including the prominent politician, Seijua Tabe. Somehow, the mystery also concerns a spate of murders that have been taking place recently in the city. But Komada has other things to worry about besides -- his half-human, half-demon nature makes dating girls a fraught operation. When he finds himself becoming increasingly attracted to Sayaka, his demonic side seems to start to take over, leading to a crisis for the shy young man.

 

The two likeable protagonists, one with a Hulk-like tendency to transform at the least appropriate moment, have potential to become the stars of a regular series. This one hour special does a fairly good job of keeping the story moving along at a brisk pace. There are surprising developments and some good action scenes dotted throughout, and although the virus plot-line seems to fall by the wayside in favour of extreme depictions of sexualised violence, this is definitely the best-realised of the three films included here.

 

The disc features both English and Japanese audio tracks, original story-board images and some trailers.