Demon City Shinjuku

[valondar]

Demon City Shinjuku
(a.k.a. Makai Toshi Shinjuku)

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Notice: Some corrections.

STORY
4/10

Good and evil are about to have a final showdown. That’s pretty much a given when tentacles grab a Japanese ‘Federation’ President from the roses given to him by the also Japanese Miss Universe. Rather bad timing as the President is on the verge of achieving world peace, and even more implausibly has just solved the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Being anime, the fate of the world rests in the hands of an ordinary high school student, who must travel to the demon-filled hellhole that is... Shinjuku, Tokyo. Infested for over a decade with demons that have killed all trespassers and plot to take over the world, it's not the most welcoming of places. Of course, the student has a special power – a magical variety of kendo which involves glowing blue lights and arbitrary deus ex machinas.

He refuses to go once suggested by the ghostly projection of an old man whose body is busy protecting the tentacle-clad President. Naturally, he relents when the President’s cute daughter is somehow thrown into the mix and insists on going with or without him.

I’m being glib, but I haven’t exaggerated how utterly ludicrous this is. The plot manages to be both completely clichéd and immensely stupid. All I can say to its credit is that it paces well, moving fairly briskly from character development scenes to action scenes to the denouement. More than a few of these are poor, but the pace is right. In form I can hardly fault it, in content it is severely lacking.

ANIMATION
7.5/10

While not as eye-popping as some of its contemporaries, Shinjuku has aged rather well visually. The production oozes a dark, gritty atmosphere that Madhouse has made practically a registered trademark. The character designs, though occasionally dated, are far from the garish abominations that crop up in other films by Yoshiaki Kawajiri. Some of the monster designs are also quite impressive.

The action sequences are generally quite satisfactory and often imaginative – it’s clear that most of the effort was spent here, script be damned. If you’ve ever wanted to see a waxen bishonen fight off a woman with tentacle arms – and come up with a rather clever finishing move – you’ll be quite satisfied. Interestingly, this is also an entirely gratuitous action sequence involving redundant characters with scarce relevance to the story.

SOUND
5/10

The voice acting is fine, but the music has not aged as well as the animation. Heavy on synth, the music gives moments of drama a camp factor. Best thing I can say is there’s really very little of it. The rest of the soundtrack has fighting and monster noises which were certainly well utilised.

CHARACTERS
5/10

The characters are as cookie-cutter as they come. You have the reluctant hero, the cute yet courageous girl, the streetwise kid, the old mentor, the evil villain. There’s also a mysterious stranger, whose main role is to pad out the running time. It’s true the hero has more personality than some of Kawajiri’s other protagonists – but as he favours bland stoic nonentities over brooding teens, that’s not much of a compliment.

OVERALL
4.5/10

Demon City Shinjuku is never boring, which is more than I can say for either Vampire Hunter D production. Though often entertaining for the wrong reasons, some of the film's action sequences are genuinely enjoyable. If you want to turn your brain off and enjoy some gloomy old school ultraviolence, you may extract some enjoyment from this picture. The same applies if you're a fan of Kawajiri's other forays into cinema. Otherwise, give it a pass.

[vivafruit]

It's rough but seems good. I think this is one of the few cases where I actually approve of the plot summary - it's a good way to show how absurd the show is.

Some things I noticed:

That’s pretty much a given when a Japanese President who is on the verge of achieving world peace is then grabbed by the tentacles that were in roses given to him by the Japanese Miss Universe.

This sentence isn't necessarily too long (I like the idea of cramming in as many retarded details as possible to emphasize the show's stupidity), but it reads poorly and I had to read parts of it twice during my first read-through. I think it could benefit from fixing the passive voice and rearranging some of the clauses so that the subject (tentacles) and the verb (grabbed) are closer to the beginning of the sentence.

Perhaps the least believable part of that set-up is he's just solved the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Lawl. Still, there seems to be a time conflict between having just solved the Israel/Palestine conflict and being on the verge of world peace.

Naturally he refuses to go once suggested by the ghostly projection of an old man whose body is busy protecting the tentacle-clad President. Unsurprisingly he relents when the President’s cute daughter is somehow thrown into the mix and insists on going with or without him.

Both of the adverbs at the start of each sentence need a comma after them. I'd also probably change one of the adverbs to make the paragraph less repetitive.

More than a few of these hurt quite badly in your common sense

This reads really weird.

If you’ve ever wandered to see a waxen bishonen

I think this should be "wanted."

Heavy on synth the music gives moments of drama a camp factor

Comma after synth. Basically when you begin a sentence with something that isn't the subject, that something needs a comma.

*

That's all I saw on the first run-through. It is kinda weird that you group the two Vampire Hunter D's together in relative quality; I considered bloodlust a huge step up.

[valondar]

Thanks again for the feedback, vivafruit, I appreciate it.

Originally Posted by vivafruit

Lawl. Still, there seems to be a time conflict between having just solved the Israel/Palestine conflict and being on the verge of world peace.

Well, that's literally the situation as the film presents it. Israel/Palestine has just been solved and permenent world peace is now almost at hand. Not quite the smartest commentary on geopolitcs I've seen in anime. Regardless I've endeavoured to make that clearer.

This reads really weird.

I remember hearing the phrase 'hurts in my common sense' somewhere. Thought it sounded funny, guess not.

That's all I saw on the first run-through. It is kinda weird that you group the two Vampire Hunter D's together in relative quality; I considered bloodlust a huge step up.

I thought Bloodlust was a step-up but it's still pretty dull in places. Dispassionately either D is a better film than Shinjuku as their plotting is hardly as moronic, but I don't feel Shinjuku ever really outwears its welcome as those do.