Yôjû toshi

Kawajiri outdid himself in this "retold" story of Demon City Shinjuku. Personally I am not clear on which came first, but I was exposed to Supernatural Beast City first. And let me tell you, exposed it the word for this film. It is a film filled with government agents, otherworldly beings, incredible gore, and incredible sex. If any anime other than Urotsukidoji deserves being called "Hentai" it's this film. If you are one with a strong stomach for violence and mayhem, watch this film. I personally enjoyed watching this thoroughly but I would not make it a date feature... unless you really wanted to scare her away. Note: last I checked, only the dubbed version was available through Orion - no subbed version was ever marketed here in the U.S.

'Wicked City' isn't the worst film that I have ever seen. It just wasn't enjoyable. For its director, Yoshiaka Kawajiri to now be considered a "visionary" anime director with his film 'Program' in the recent 'Animatrix' anthology, he can't be a total loss, his other films since 1989 maybe a lot better than 'Wicked City'.

But to the film. 'Wicked City' sees Taki, a member of the secret organization the Black Guards assigned to protect Dr. Mayart whose job it is to oversee the renewal of a treaty between Earth and the Demon World. As the mainstream movie-dom cliche tends to go, Taki who works alone is immediately paired with Mackie, a seductive Black Guard who hails from the mysterious Demon World. Together, Mackie and Taki protect Dr. Mayart from Demon World extremists (of course) out to stop the treaty from taking place.

In my experience, there are two types of anime. Really good anime and really bad anime. Unfortunately, 'Wicked City' falls into the latter category. In amongst the obligatory gratuitous violence which people have come to expect from action movies, the film has lingering scenes of gang rape and segments of the fights look like something out of a tentacle hentai movie which almost made me throw up.

'Wicked City' is not redeemed by what becomes the standard two-heroes-protecting-witness/diplomat storyline. Dr. Mayart, who is like Yoda with nymphomania is extremely dislikable, and the eye-rollingly bad sexual tension between Taki and Mackie seems only to be there to fill in time between cardboard sex scenes between the pair. The treaty sub-plot doesn't gel at least for me. Why is it that only people from the Demon World want to overthrow the treaty? So much for the political intrigue.

I don't get disgusted by a simple action film, but I do get disgusted by an overly simple action film that reeks of mysoginy and pervertedness. It was for those reasons that 'Wicked City' was so unenjoyable. I'll be able to forgive Yoshiaka Kawajiri for 'Wicked City' if his latest film 'Program' exceeds 'Wicked City' in quality. O *'s out of 5 from me.

Other than having City in the titles there really is not all that comparable to the two films. I have to say I enjoyed that film more as it was action packed and had very nice visuals. This one though does get points for the excessive violence and nudity as that film was devoid of nudity and the violence never did get all that bad in that film. This movie has two agents from two different companies as it were assigned to protect this strange old man. The catch, well one agent is human, and the other is some sort of being from another dimension. One could probably call her a demon and all the other crazy people in the movie. The old man the two are assigned to protect provides the humor in the film as he is one horny old dude, and while the action is not quite as fast paced as Demon City what there is of it is usually violent and bloody. As I stated there is sex and nudity in this film, but it comes in really small scenes not really long enough to make much of an impact thus I would not really call this movie a Hentai film, which is usually an anime film that has so much sex in it, that it is almost a porn flick and this one certainly does not contain that much sex. The story needs a longer runtime to it as it kind of goes by to quickly with little explanation in areas that need more explaining as I am sure not still what the other people are supposed to be. However, it entertains in a fun way, just not as fun as Demon City.

I feel this film is more about the atmosphere than the story.

Story wise it's nothing complex or new, but it creates with it's visual design and dark theme an intense experience which kept me interested throughout.

Also, I've seen the English dubbed version and it's surprisingly good, something that's not always the case.

The characters are nothing spectacular in terms of design, but their personalities (specially the male main) are well defined The guy reminds me a lot of George Clooney in the times of From Dusk Till Dawn, even though the anime is older.. Specially with the English cheeky way of talking!

The gore is quite heavy, in pretty twisted sexual ways.. The action is really good, as expected from the director.

Overall it's a very dak anime, very particular, definitely one of the classics from the 80s you don't want to miss!

This was my 1st. full-length anime motion picture I have ever seen, & ranks as one of my favorites! Taking place in the future, our hero, Taki who by day is an electrical salesman, & by night, a "Black Guard", is asked by his superiors to guard without failure a known senior negotiator, Mr. Guiseppe Mayart & to make sure he is at a treaty signing, & will be working with a partner, a "Black Guard" from the "Black World"....a female named "Makie". Together, they experience various situations from other renegade members of the Black World that try to thwart the treaty signing. What Taki & Makie don't know is that their pairing up from both worlds to protect Mr. Mayart has more that one objective, which makes sense later. What I liked about Wicked City is not just the storyline, but the anime itself. What I mean here is that this feature was "hand done" & not by computer, which is why it looks different from other anime features. NOTE: Unless your kids are of age, this anime is by all means not for the young ones. Aside from the "adult" parts, Wicked City is Excellent anime entertainment, which I am sure you'll enjoy!

PS.: Happy Birthday, IMDb! & May you have many more!