Publisher: U.S. Manga Corps (Central Park Media, USA)Format: Region Free DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Dub and English Subtitles
Length: 56 mins (OVA 1), 60 mins (Movie), 50 mins (OVA 2), 2 Episodes x 50 mins (Second Series OVAs)
Production Date: 1988 – 1989, 1991 (first series OVAs/Movie), 1994 (Second Series OVAs)
Currently in Print (as of writing): No
Yes, I still have unwatched CPM discs (three single OVA discs, one 52 episode series left after this show). Like a lot of the material they released, this one is an oddity. Now I’ve said this a million times before, but I’ll state it again; anime is good at two specific things; genre stuff and exploitation material. This series is most definitely more the latter than the former. But first in an attempt make things a little less confused (that they already are), I’ll talk about the daft way this series was released in the US. The latter 1994 series was released first, then the three part series which begin in the late 1980’s. This was pretty silly on CPM’s part as the second series seems to be a reimagining of the original manga the anime was based off and incudes the death of two characters. I’m sure this would have confused the hell out of anyone who viewed the series in the sequence of the US release order.
The series focuses on a young Buddhist monk named Kujaku, who specialises on exorcising demons. Latched on to him is the somewhat love sick Ashura, who doesn’t seem to do a lot except be girly. Another major character is Onimaru, who looks like an extra from “Fist of the North Star”. So essentially both series are demon killing spectacles with plots that make little sense. However I don’t deny the fact that they are damn fun and great to watch. The only problem with the first three in the series is the lack of consistency of the character designs and animation. Having three different directors probably didn’t help. The first really looks like it was made in 1988. The style is SO late 1980’s OVA animation. The second is theatrical feature (strangely enough it played in cinemas with one of the “Ariel” OVAs) directed by Ichiro Itano. The animation is really fluid but looks really shite and wrong like the first episode of Itano’s “Angel Cop” OVA. The third is a really good classic looking OVA for the early 1990’s. All contain fairly high levels of gory violence (especially with Itano’s movie as you’d expect) and lot of nudity. The third in the series is even more exploitative with sexual violence; an invisible demon rapes a woman. This is the kind of exploitative trash that a 1990’s Manga Entertainment UK would salivate over and release, but oddly they never acquired it (to the best of my knowledge).
For the 1994 reboot Rin Taro was director. Talk about absurdity. Putting aside the usual style over substance we often see in this work, the plot is all over the place. The opening scene includes a bunch of Nazis stealing an artefact for a store owner in San Francisco’s Chinatown. With the Hindenburg flying overhead, naturally you’d assume this was the early 1930’s, right? Wrong. They’re robot neo Nazis and use their facsimile Hindenburg as their transport. Hmm, not exactly inconspicuous or something that would make a fast getaway. And yes, it does suffer the same fate as its namesake. Oh the humanity! The first OVA in this series contains a good deal of backstory which brings everything to a grinding halt. The plot with robotic neo Nazis attempting take over world kind of did my head in. It was too stupid to suspend any disbelief.
While I enjoyed a lot of the action and the exploitative nature of the first series (coupled with the late 1980’s era animation style and designs), the second series annoyed me a fair bit. Both series are far better than what I expected, but they’re still disposable trash. But it is really entering disposable trash. While the Madhouse animated second series was better in terms of animation quality, the rather ugly designs and garbled plot made it a real let down. CPM’s DVD release was unnecessarily confusing. Couldn’t they have at least numbered the discs? And why change the name when it was already previously released as "Peacock King" on VHS? 6 out of 10.
Remaining Backlog: 24 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).
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