Demon City Shinjuku (1988)

Yoshiaki Kawajiri has some fun, if questionable, popcorn flicks under his name. Demon City Shinjuku (where did the name Hell City Shinjuku, US come from?) is not one of them. DCS is everything bad about the violent anime of the era, and nothing good. Worst of all, it has little to laugh at, or guilty-pleasure action.The hero is the stock, young, masculine, Japanese every-man. The villain is evil with no character behind him. The love interest is simply there, and lacks any real reason for affection. Their pasts are empty, their presents are uninteresting, and their futures lack change. There isn't even wasted effort here. Its just as pandering as the shallow moe anime of today, only for a different audience of a different time.The animation and action scenes are alright, but without any likable context to ground them, I wasn't amused. You can see this kind of stuff in many other crappy forgotten demon anime. The one saving grace is a fight with a seductive demoness on a pool table. It was the stylized, over-the-top bad I like from Kawajiri. But its a lone, short scene. You've also got a final battle that's easily won through deus ex machina, like they couldn't come up or afford an actual fight. That ruins the film even for the most tolerant retro-nerd side of me.There are hundreds of anime out there. And there are dozens that are more exciting, campy, or embarrassing. While I can't say I hate DCS, there isn't a good reason to see it.

Demon City Shinjuku is a not particularly interesting entry in the anime genre, with a derivative story. Modeled closely on the Star Wars paradigm, it follows the adventures of a young hero, teamed with a female sidekick / princess type and a holographic spiritual mentor, who must defeat an evil man with supernatural powers. Just remove the bizarre demons and punks out of a poor man's Akira, and add in space battles, and you have a George Lucas feature.Aside from the unoriginal plot, the film suffers from being quite juvenile. It's not just that the violence and nudity are kept to a largely PG-13 level. The film's overall tone is juvenile, without any of the intelligent plotting of Akira or the philosophical themes of Ghost in the Shell. Moreover, the animation comes across as that of a rather grimy Saturday morning cartoon, with none of the beauty of artists such as Hayao Miyazaki.Ultimately, one cannot escape the conclusion that this was a bargain basement anime thrown onto the American market to cash in on the success of better features like those named above. The only good I can see to this feature is that it would make a reasonably good introduction to more adult anime to teens who are growing out of the Dragonball Z stage.

When I first watched this movie on the Action Channel, I gotta say that this is one of the most popular anime films since Darkside Blues,and Vampire Hunter D. The film was so cool, I had to see it again,and I did. But after buying the DVD at BestBuy,it turned out to be the best since it was aired on the Action Channel.My favorite characters in the movie are Kyoya,and Mephisto, they are pretty cool. And I do like the fighting scenes, they are intense. And of course. the most scariest thing in the movie are the monsters. So in closing to this film,if you plan to see this film. A word of advice, Please be very careful, it could mess with your head.

This anime kicked butt. Lots and lots of action and a good story. Great demons and interesting super-powers. Just a great movie. If you like anime you'll like this.