Yôjû toshi

If you're a fan of classics like Ninja Scroll or Akira, you'll likely get a kick out of Wicked City. It's your typical extreme 80's anime. Twisted story, great action, tons of nudity and sex, and some memorable characters. The art style still holds up wonderfully.

This film is one of the more interesting Japanese animated films I've seen recently, though not necessarily in either a good or bad way. The setting and overall tone is very much along in line with the likes of Ghost in the Shell or Akira. It takes place in a dark, dystopian Japan far into the future.

The film follows a secret agent of sorts. He is recruited for a mission pertaining to a peace accord in Tokyo between Earth and a different realm. He is partnered with a humanoid female agent from the different realm. Their job is to safely escort an important ambassador (who turns out to be a perverted old man) to the peace accord so that the two realms can negotiate a treaty. However, there are beings from the other realm not too keen on making peace who set out to prevent the old man from making it to the accord. Adventure ensues.

This movie contains mild amounts of nudity and violence, so it is NSFW by all accounts, although nothing too outrageous is shown. Despite the dark atmosphere, it manages not to take itself too seriously. The perverted old man, while a cliché in Japanese anime and manga, is a likable enough character.

However, both the male and female leads are rather boring characters. Their inevitable romance feels cliché and forced. There really is no build-up for their relationship. The whole Romeo-and-Juliet "forbidden love" component here kind of falls flat. It has been done way too many times and comes off as uninspired and unoriginal.

That all being said, this movie does have some pretty badass animation, which is its saving grace. If you are watching this movie for a great storyline, you will more than likely walk away disappointed. If you are into dark, gory Japanese manga and animation, this may be right up your alley. I wouldn't write this film off, but I wouldn't necessarily want to watch it again. It wasn't particularly memorable either.

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!

Wicked City is a strange Japanese film that follows many of the same tropes of a standard issue biopunk anime. However, it's warped, graphic and unapologetically sexual, almost crossing the line into hentai territory. Many of the characters are contrived and stereotypical anime archetypes and the story is hardly memorable but the film itself has enough clever animation and action to make it watchable.

It was definitely a good time killer, especially since I knew nothing about it beforehand. If you've seen Akira and want something in that vain, you'll find this digestible. If you don't like things like that, stay far away.

B-

'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.