Demon City Shinjuku (1993)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Original story by Hideyuki Kikuchi
Directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Script by Kaori Okamura
Translation by Neil Nadelman

Features:

• Character gallery
  
• Trailers
  

Dindrane's Anime Warnings:

• Violence
• Implied sexual menace
• Demons

Released by: U.S. Manga/Central Park Media
Region: 1
Rating: NR, safe for 15+
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 format.

My Advice: If you mind violence, rent it, if you don’t, buy it.

The evil demon Levi Ra is the emissary to Earth of the demon world, and several years ago, he slew Kenichiro Izayoi, a human with special powers. The Shinjuku area of Tokyo likes in ruins from Ra’s scheming and is overrun with his demon allies. Now, Kenichiro’s son, Kyoya, must travel through this dangerous area to put a stop to Ra’s plans and keep Ra from opening a demon gate that will demons to swarm the mortal world and destroy us all. Kyoya, for his part, is assisted only by Sayaka, the daughter of a successful diplomat, and Chibi, the comic relief.

Originally written by Hideyuki Kikuchi, creator of Vampire Hunter D, Demon City Shinjuku is a classic of anime, and it’s easy to see why. Combining fantastic action with adventure, magic, the occult, and even a touch of romance, this is one movie that has something for everyone. Unfortunately, it also has a great deal of silliness and excessive violence. The dialogue has even been "fifteened," meaning that gratuitous curse words were added to increase the rating from 12+ to 15+, intended to make the movie more attractive to older teens. While certainly far from the level of a title like Urotsukidogi with tentacles abounding, there are still elements of shock and violence to this title that might disturb more tender viewers, both adults and children.

The audio and video quality on this release are both about standard. The bad side of the audio is that the English voice cast just seems monumentally uninspired. If you don’t mind reading your movies or if you happen to know Japanese, you’re definitely better off with the Japanese audio track here. The art is really quite attractive, especially the backgrounds. The artists do a good job of making it clear that while this is Tokyo, it’s not the Tokyo you know today. The otherworldliness of the demon-infested areas are truly disturbing in subtle ways, and the menace is clear and unrelenting.

The extras are mediocre: we get a nice, but ordinary character gallery and trailers. It would have been nice to have had more behind-the-scenes information on this venerable title; this is a rather influential title in anime history, and as such, it deserves a few special extras, like interviews, making-ofs, and so on.

The upshot is that if you enjoy tales of demon attacks and ultra-violence then you should check out Demon City Shinjuku. If your anime tastes tend to run more towards the relatively low-level of horror and grotesque in Blue Seed then you might still want to give this a viewing, but you probably won’t need to buy it. If, on the other hand, you want to collect the most famous titles in anime history, you’ll definitely need to add this one to your collection. Just don’t watch it with the kiddies in the room or when you’re already depressed or having anger management issues.