Tokyo Revelation Review

story 6.5/10

Tokyo Revelation is something that I figured would be kind of like watching Mystery Science Theater 3000, no joke. I attribute this to the absolutely horrible presentation Manga gave the DVD. Really folks, it's almost laughable. The front cover and artwork looks like it was badly scanned and printed out (on a low dpi printer), and everything is all grainy. The artwork appears to make it seem like a ripoff of X TV, and the menu isn't much better. Anyways, needless to say, I didn't expect much except a barrel of laughs, but I was pleasantly proven wrong.

Now, let me make it clear that this story was nothing to shout about, but it definitely wasn't anything close to the cesspool of nonsense I expected it to be. Essentially, the story is about demons taking over the world, combined with computer elements, which was pretty bizarre. I've seen some series with computer related things, and many with demons, but never the two combined (for example, a computer program that makes demons appear). The idea is really silly and all, but it definitely has an aspect of originality to it, hence the 6.5 and not a lower score. The rest of the story is pretty generic and uninspiring, but still ended up being surprisingly entertaining. I'm not sure why this is, and obviously I am one of the only people who considered it to be this way (just look at any other review, really). Regardless, for some reason the pacing and overall dark feel of the series ended up really interesting me, but still was too generic and textbook-like as far as themes and characters to warrant a higher score than a 6.5

animation 7/10

You know, for something made in the early 90s, this wasn't half bad. The main reason I liked the visuals so much, I think, was because of how dark the entire movie was, literally -- a large percentage of it takes place at night. There is definitely a horror feel to the movie, which is shown through the visuals as well. Fans of gore and violence who are expecting a great deal might be disappointed, as there isn't a large amount at all. Definitely no "super gore" as I like to call it (such as guts falling out or heads exploding). There is a bit of nakedness, and one somewhat sexual scene, but nothing completely offensive that would make people not want to watch it. The only iffy part of the visuals was the female character designs, who sometimes looked manlike or just freakish in some sort of way. Everyone else looked fine, and in general, I enjoyed the animation and visuals.

sound 7.5/10

The music was surprising, because for once, it wasn't generic synthy music that's in every single other horrorish anime out there. Tokyo Revelation's music, instead, is fairly gothic churchy sounding music (if that makes sense), with scary opera singing voices and pipe organs, etc. This fit the tone *very* well, much more than many series out there I've seen that employ much crappier music. The voices were also done well, though one of the demons has a very high squeaky voice that DOES NOT FIT. I swear it must be the same voice actor as one of the bad guys in Legend of Basara, who sounded equally as ridiculous. It's funny, I switched to the dub during one part of the movie just to see, and that demon's voice was replaced by a deep growly guy. Talk about a 180!

characters 6/10

The characters easily were the weakest part of Tokyo Revelation, as they all seemed very cookie cutter stereotypes, with some having very little explained about them. Most of the characters had some sort of set role, like the mysterious duo who save the day, and the little girl who clutches a toy and has mystical insights into the dangers that await our heroes. These types of characters aren't unique, we've seen them many times before, so they don't make for a very entertaining viewing experience, that's for sure. I will admit that the ending was a bit sad given what happened and who was involved, but the character interactions in general seemed to be lacking in some way.

overall 6.7/10

Although Tokyo Revelation definitely has its low points, I still found it to be an entertaining watch. At only 60 minutes, you won't be terribly upset even if you didn't enjoy it, and honestly, I just don't think it's that bad anyways. If you like dark things or horror, Tokyo Revelation definitely isn't a bad bet, though it also isn't fantastic either. Check it out, you may enjoy it...