Midnight Eye: Gokû

Funny that I too caught this film by chance on a movie channel(cinemax I think)one late late summer night in 2001. Perhaps we saw the same showing...

This film is just like that: spur of the moment, definitely watch it at night, and anime buffs, probably won't like this. I watch anime now and then and this one is particularly interesting because of its "in the dark" atmosphere... you learn what's going on along with the characters, and that makes it all the more fun. A sense of mischief almost broods in the scenes of our antihero darting around the city. What Goku does with his bestowed powers is what some of us might do had be also been given such a gift.

Though short, this film is very unique. I've yet to see an anima quite like it, with such a down to earth and sort of "in your face" story-telling feel. Usually we get the ol' Macross and Gundam style, which leaves you as a watcher of wars and conflicts that are incredibly larger than your own. Goku however has in him a bit of us, of our mischief that we don't let out and which gives us great pleasure when it's shown. If you liked this I recommend Vampire Hunter D.

So Goku:Midnight eye is an anime mini series directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri one again a great anime series that not many people ever heard of it.The anime itself is a mix between his early work Wicked City and Batman.The series following a man named Goku, a former police detective turned private investigating strange and bizarre criminal case in a futuristic Tokyo,a place where anybody can be a half human half robot.After losing his left eye in a case Goku find out someone had replaced his left eye with a computer terminal that can control computers all over the world with a staff that can changing shape and shoot laser beam.This is a very awesome anime series with a interesting plot,good hand drawing animation and a badass main character.I find myself very enjoy this short anime series but the problem is it too short,many thing has not yet been discovered like what is the main reason behind the man that give Goku his left eye and the staff.It such a shame because this is just a two episode anime mini series

Midnight Eye: Gokû (1989) is a two episode series that my daughter and I recently watched together on Prime. The storyline takes place in a futuristic society and follows a former detective turned private investigator. There has been a rash of police officers who have committed suicide. He follows the clues to a weapons dealer who has created some new technology that may be responsible for the suicides. After barely escaping being attacked by the weapons dealer, the PI is implanted with technology that allows him to see things with X-ray vision and tap into technology systems. He will use this new power to solve this and future cases...

This picture is directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Ninja Scroll) and has an absolutely amazing storyline, great soundtrack, interesting characters and takes place in a fascinating universe. I adored the animation which is classic 80s and a lot of fun. The suicide sequences were intense and the club scenes were excellent. They use a nice mix of nudity and technology to create cool characters like the motorcycle lady. The bugs in the first episode and the sewer dragon robots in the second episode were so good and the action scenes have nice gore and unpredictable elements. There's some nice twists in the storylines and the villains are over the top and worthwhile adversaries for our hero.

Overall, this is an underrated anime gem that I'd consider an absolute must see. I would score this an 8.5/10 and strongly recommend it.

I can see by the reviews and the trend that this is going to be an unpopular opinion, but here it is and it's coming from a big fan of 80s, 90s and early 2K anime.

I found this recently, and I've got it in my watchlist for a while before I had time to watch it, I was really excited as it looked very much on the style of my two favourite animes of all time, Vampire Blood D: Bloodlust and Ninja Scroll.

What a disappointing time I had! I struggled to watch this, even after painfully going through the first episode, gave a chance to the second only to suffer through it too.

I don't even know where to start, since I can't really even point at something I DID like about this! The poster, that's it. I like the poster.

I'll break it down, since I think it's worth the explanation.

Story wise, it doesn't only fail to do anything original, but it does what's been done before in a boring, poorly paced way, with events that don't make sense or are explained and it rips off (this is no nod, it's ripping off) stuff from other well known animes and franchises.

In terms of how the character develops, there's only one aspect that is important, the eye. Where does it comes from, why it's give, why why why...? This is not one of those aspects that don't matter, like "how the zombies came to happen" type of question, this defines the character and it happens during episode 1, so it's part of the story, but it's never explained. It just makes the character almos unbeatable (even if he doesn't always uses the full potential, to serve the story so the enemies can actually do something..). The character besides this OP eye implant is quite bland, in terms of writing and design (that suit without shirt but with a tie is horrible.) I don't remember any character being interesting, it's an absolute ZERO in design.

The setting is been done before, the futuristic cyberpunk vibe, way inferior to pretty much everything I've seen, I won't even give examples, I meant EVERYTHING I've seen was better. There's no detail, there's no people in the backgrounds, no one living there, no atmosphere at all.

Of course, as most of Jap anime there's the rape/misogyny aspect, which I never found welcome but in this one it feels really pushed in to tick the box and sell (in those times it was a sell point..)

Talking about those rip offs, the character is called Goku (fairly common name, maybe?) and it has an unlimited extensible stick, not a boo, this is metallic and seems to have some sort of tech, but it doesn't feel organic in terms of how it work as there's no magic in this anime, so.. he uses this all the time, just to justify and make things easier for the story.. doesn't work.

The other massive rip off is the villain in the second episode. WTH. SF2 Bison.

One of the most important aspects of anime is the art! This has some horribly, amateurish anatomy and lighting issues going on. And when I say issues, I mean the whole thing was hard to watch. If you're into drawing and you're educated these two aspects (I draw since always and I've been a photographer for over 20 years) you won't be able to overlook the flawed art.

The action is very bland, except maybe for the VERY first scene which is decent, the rest of the two episodes, specially going into the last two thirds of the second one are HORRIBLE.

There's NOTHING interesting in this anime, it's not good in story or its art, there's no reason to watch it, but hey, quite a few enjoyed it here, and it's only two ep, so give a go to the 1st one and see.. I don't know if it's a nostalgy thing with this one, as a few are saying they just found it, like me.. I'm really puzzled on why people thinks this is good in ANY aspect, let alone the few who say this is a "gem".

I'll stop it there, I think you got the point I was making by now.

OK, what, a dude that wears a suit and tie and no shirt, a stripper that is part motorcycle, an implant, and a story that doesn't make any sense at all.

Bionic eyes and anime nudity.

Yeah, I can't say that I enjoyed this.