Devil Hunter Yohko (1990) Anime OVA Series Review

Mamono Hantā Yōko - Devil Hunter Yohko is a 1990 action comedy fantasy anime OVA mini-series that was released until 1995 and consists of six episodes. It was directed by Katsuhisa Yamada, Hisashi Abe, Jun'ichi Sakata and Akiyuki Shinbo with scripts by Sukehiro Tomita, Hisaya Takabayashi, Katsuhisa Yamada, Tatsuhiko Urahata. The cast includes Aya Hisakawa, Konami Yoshida, Yūji Mitsuya, Hiromi Tsuru, Chieko Honda and Noriko Hidaka. Aya Hisakawa also gives us some wonderful songs on the soundtrack, which take prominence as a way to sell the series. The success of the OVA series was enough to warrant a manga created by Gaku Miyao in 1996.

Teenager Yohko lived a normal life in Japan but one day she finds out that every woman in her family becomes a powerful demon hunter, who must go after the forces of evil once they are unleashed. Backed by her grandmother, her friend Chikako and an unwanted apprentice named Azusa, Yohko must both struggle between her new life as a demon fighter and maintain her virginity or else she will lose her abilities.

This coming-of-age fantasy action show with strong ecchi elements plays out like a normal storyline involving a girl that comes from a lineage of demon hunter women who battle the forces of darkness with their powers and abilities. This, of course, comes with the price of having to neglect some typical teenage stuff in favor of her duty. This is where some of the main conflicts in the show are found but none of it really becomes the focus as every episode changes the stakes drastically. Every chapter is a self-contained story, this episodic structure could have worked better if the show had far more episodes instead of just six (well, five actually but we can't count episode 4). So even though the episodes are fun and captivating you end up wanting a lot more.

I think my issue is that most of the series doesn't have a throughline outside of just presenting the main set-up in its near perfect first episode. The rest are just secluded plots with their own narrative, not relating much to each other. Not only that, but episode four is just a clip show that consists of new music videos with some footage from the series. It's of no real interest outside of some cute new animation but it works as something you can put on the background. Either way, the other storylines aren't bad, they are fun and playful while having enough emotional load to be worthwhile.

I gotta say some things about the series are quite disturbing or creepy, it invokes scenarios and images that are somewhat crude and daring in how much they want to deliver in the fanservice department but while having such inappropriate elements. An example is the female teacher harassing a male student or the several panty shots of the girls, some who are very young. It's weird but it's all greatly animated and brought to life that it looks nice. The animation itself is a highlight as the amazing battles between the main girl and the demons are outstanding in how majestic and epic they are executed. This is something that really couldn't have been as polished and detailed if it was a proper TV series, so the lack of episodes ultimately works out.

With great technical aspects and some entertaining episodes, Devil Hunter Yohko is a highly recommended retro anime series that will be more than enough for vintage anime fans.

Underworld (2003) Review

Underworld was a project conceived by actor/writer/director Kevin Grevioux, his pitch was basically “Romeo and Juliet but with vampires and werewolves” and he decided to give a spin to the formula by making lycanthropy and vampirism viruses instead of supernatural curses, a product of his formation in microbiology.

Screen Gems and Lakeshore Entertainment ended up producing the film but not without some issues. You see, back in the nineties there was a popular tabletop franchise called World of Darkness and two of their games, Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse, had a lot of similarities with Underworld which led the company behind the games, White Wolf, Inc., and writer Nancy A. Collins to file a lawsuit against Sony Pictures. It eventually ended in a confidential settlement. 

At any rate, Underworld was released in 2003 and starred Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Michael Sheen, Shane Brolly, and Bill Nighy. The film received bad reviews but it did good numbers at the box office and became a subject of interest among audiences because the concept of mixing vampires and werewolves in a romantic fashion with an action female lead was too exciting and striking to ignore. Remember, this was way before Twilight, the idea was new for mainstream audiences.

Vampires and werewolves (here called Lycans) have been fighting since ancient times. The Lycans are no longer as active since the vampires have managed to best them, but a group of werewolf assassins known as the "Death Dealers" are still hunting them down, particularly one of the Dealers, Selene (Kate Beckinsale). She falls in love with a medical student named Michael (Scott Speedman), but things get complicated after he is turned into a Lycan. Now she finds herself struggling between her feelings for the human and her loyalty to her clan. 

The film is flawed to its core, there's no doubt that it's too reliant on exposition, it's derivative, it deviates from it's main storyline into irrelevant segways, the characters are dull, the word building is clunky and the film isn't tightly written nor carefully directed enough for any of that to not matter. Its premise had potential but it gets bogged down and loses itself in a sea of overwritten scenes that just clutter the film with exposition and weightless (but cool) action. Lacking any heavy narrative thread that can carry it, the film can't hold the viewers' investment for long. 

The biggest and most solid aspects of the movie are the somewhat engaging action sequences and the gothic look certainly works wonders. There's a lot of generally amusing Matrix-inspired slow motion choreographies and battle sequences shown here, but none of it can be called memorable, it's all disposable and fleeting at best. The director didn't do a bad job and it might have been a solid effort for the time but it's hardly a great spectacle. Len Wiseman's filmmaking results have been on a downward spiral ever since his first movie, creating uninspired and cliche messes like Die Hard 4 and the Total Recall remake, dreadful stuff. While this is his best picture it certainly wasn't anything special.

Nowadays, the film could be remembered as a curiosity of the time, when black leather pants and the whole gothic look were in vogue but it feels incredibly dated and old fashioned, not to mention lacking substance of any kind. It's a lot of overused tropes rolled into one production, a film that never attempts to elevate its material or even to inject it with refreshing or valuable ideas, it's a rethread of old stories and styles but not much else. Completely one dimensional and with a singular and overplayed note, it's not hard to see why it wasn't well liked. 

Although I have been a bit negative, I will say that there are some rather neat aspects introduced here. The material had a lot of potential as certain elements are redeemable such as Kate Beckinsale's performance and look, the film's moody aesthetic (great production design is key here) and the concept of a war between werewolves and vampires was something rather new in blockbusters. Ultimately, I think these were the reasons people showed up to the movie theater and supported further entries in the franchise. It's also very telling that those are the only things people seem to remember out of it.

Other than that, it's not a film I would recommend to most viewers. It's stale and not highly entertaining aside from some sections. I think most people will be put off by its dullness and the lack of characterization of its protagonists. Only for the hardcore 2000's movie fans and for those nostalgic for the goth fad.