#222: Another Lady Innocent (2004)

 

a.k.a. Front Innocence

Studio: ARMS

Director: Kinji Yoshimoto and Satoshi Urushihara

Voice Cast: Kazuhiko Inoue as John; Kumi Sakuma as Faye; Hiromi Hirata as Eichel; Kaname Yuzuki as Aine

Viewed in English Dub

 

Here with a Moonrock production, released by H.M.P., a company whose logo looks like it has three stone cherubs peeing, we are covering eroge ("hentai") anime, but with a distinct name involved. Known directors and actors, even voice actors, have worked on hentai, whether it was the likes of Hiroyuki Kitakubo cutting their teeth on the Cream Lemon series in the eighties, to Masami Obari around the early 2000s helming Angel Blade (2001-3). Satoshi Urushihara is the centre of Another Lady Innocence, co-director, Art Director, and Character Designer. He is a manga artist, anime director and illustrator with a very distinct art style, one which is not only known from anime he helmed like Plastic Little (1994), but also his work on the JRPG franchises like Langrisser and Growlanser. He is unapologetic though his female character designs and content of his work throughout the decades in depicting eroticism, which makes his decision to co-direct and be an auteurist voice in a pornographic straight-to-video series not that absurd. This is not the first time he worked on hentai either, as he was one of many cutting his teeth in the Cream Lemon days, a character designer on New Cream Lemon (1987), episode two called White Shadow.

The thing is, and connects with Another Lady Innocent as it was titled in the West for release, Urushihara's art style is exceptional, and he fetishes everything. The costumes for female characters, even armour for men and women, is resplendent; his male characters, as John in this show, can be just as elegant in their designs, and he is as obsessed with his female characters' faces and expressions, as is probably one of the more notorious aspects of his art style, the undeniable fact, without being too crass, he has gathered the title "Master of Breasts" at one point¹, the kind of title honestly which would suggest far crasser work than he does. That title does raise a concern, when dealing with an artist whose male gaze is undeniably here, but is contrasted by how, if you look up his art whether sexually explicit or not, is also very good. This side of him, being very much obsessed with eroticism, but being insanely precise as an artist, is exactly what is at the centre of this title, a hentai release unlike many others that was well made, looking like it took years just to get this one episode created when hentai, truthfully, in the animated form can be rushed out as cheaply as live action porn can be.

Moonrock are a distributor for eroge anime, but also involved are ARMS, an animation company who would transition to mainstream anime this year even if they still kept their toes dipped into ecchi and sexually franker work even in this territory. I had known them, without knowing, for Elfen Lied (2004), a notorious but cult anime series, a company until its 2020 bankruptcy who could go from production assistance on Naruto entries as they were involved lurid titles like the Queen's Blade franchise. This, set within the North American past, meant to evoke a Southern melodrama like Gone with the Wind (1939), is unabashedly pornographic, as for most of its twenty nine minutes the work is the sex scenes themselves. There is a story here, which follows the lives of Faye, the daughter of a wealthy landowner, and two childhood friends, Sophia and John, the later dubbed by both young women "Big Brother John". Faye and Sophia are childhood friends but are, as ends the episode, romantically linked, and both are in love with John. Faye has returned home, and as a prologue to the main story, we see a sinister person named Lord Mark who clearly had intentions to have Faye all for himself, in a narrative we never were able to see as only one episode of this was ever completed and released.

The tone is exaggerated despite its period setting, one chosen clearly for the choice of elaborate period costumes, but with Faye's father living in a stately manor where all the young maids working there are both well dressed but not dressed at all, exposing everything on themselves erotically. Even Faye's costume is closer to other Urushihara female characters in style than Scarlett O'Hara, including a giant red bow that looks like red elf ears. The show is still meant to be porn, a show when released in the West had an English dub with actors credited as Pete Meat and Dick Hardon in the voice cast, the performances for my wish to not bury anyone just doing their job frankly terrible, including Miss Jane, an older matriarch Faye views as a sister and barely seen, literally monotone in her line readings.

There is a weird incestuous edge to the work as well, in that for a really icky joke, as the older patriarch has maids happily serving his needs and enjoying themselves, Faye does barge in on him mid-orgasm in the study, with two of the maids working for him, in an unintentionally funny (and icky) moment. He will also be spying on Sophia with her and John getting up to a lot in the stable, which emphasises a kinky transgression to the proceedings. Even if this was not there, if you are put off by porn, I do not recommend this, nor if you find animated drawings meant to be erotic off-putting too. The difference here, which makes this production interesting though, is how incredibly well animated and designed this is, which was likely the reason too why a second episode and any continuation did not happen. When hentai is usually very cheaply made, this production's aesthetic high bar clearly was not enough to sell, and too time and financially straining to continue with.

These are Satoshi Urushihara's designs fully, and it is an ode to the sexual act, uncensored for the Western release, as painstakingly drawn as it is as explicit as possible, all without crossing over into the unnatural barring that, like real life porn, certain considerations especially for the time period it is set in, like concerns of contraception, are ignored for the logic of porn regardless of the country of origin. It is also an ode to a relationship between two women and one man, a childhood friendship which became a sexual one for all of them, which is not something to criticise and is actually something that is in the work's favour even beyond being erotic fixated on animated sexual acts. If it may put some viewers off this very explicit erotica has flashbacks to these characters as little children meeting, and developing these earliest friendships, it is at least the show developing these characters so you care for them. Even if the short almost entirely, for this sole entry, is almost all the three having a lot of "activity" in a variety of ways, it is set around these three lovingly each other unconditionally in consensual sex which they all engage with. That the animation is actually well done, and intricate, to be frank, in the depiction of the human body in movement, this could have been so much worse, and the taboo of depicting the sexual act between human beings is the only thing that undercuts that, yes, with a male gaze involved that Satoshi Urushihara is painstakingly creating this ode to this act here and not slouching in the production quality.  In fact, this even takes a risk even having most of it set in a stable, as horses are by accounts some of the most difficult animals to render in animation in general, making them (not even seen with heads) in the background swaying and eating hay the closest to the budgetary ambitious stretching.

What this can be credited in having virtue for is to its credit, including the relationship between Faye and Sophia which, with the later acting like a maid to Faye out of preference, also is a physical one they devote themselves to. Even the incestuous aspect is less a taboo here, not like other hentai which does fetish the subject, or even non-erotic anime which does this as well, but more an icky comedy and that it is hinting at Faye's father being as attracted to Sophia as well. The only moment here which did concern me was problematic, an out-of-place introduction to Lord Mark, a character who would have been involved, where he and a gang of men in the countryside, whilst Faye passes in horse and carriage in the distance, have a women stripped on the grass with an uncomfortable sense of being a prelude to molestation or a gang rape.

This is something which sticks out in what is, even with the scenes like Faye bursting on her father having sex, very wholesome and celebratory of sex, the caution that, unfortunately, one of the reasons I myself have avoided eroge anime, alongside being not readily available to access in the United Kingdom, is that there are quite a few taboos including non- consensual sex which I want to distance myself from, sad knowing that a market for material which would welcome people to enjoy their sexuality, even if with some kinkiness, is welcome and probably exists more readily in manga. There is an end-of-credit preview for what would have been Episode 2, involving a masked costume ball that likely became an orgy, but it also notes at Lord Mark having his way, including a distressed Sophia in a shot with voice acting, likely an uncomfortable touch into non-consensual content that is a huge issue with hentai narratives and, even if this would have told a melodrama, could have easily made Another Lady Innocent a title for many to avoid for glamorising this type of content.

The other issue is that this is set during or around the American Civil War. There is no explicit reference to this being within a Northern or Southern state, nor any references to slavery, which presents a concern. This feels like a Southern melodrama, like Gone with the Wind, but as anyone can attest to with that film decades on, including in film criticism, such works are problematic for glamorising a period of deeply problematic culture, the American South, and depending on what Lady Innocence went could have added an additional moral quandary. Either it does not mention this at all, and would have become problematic, or it did, and either somehow managed to be a pornographic work that subtly tackled the issue with clarity, which would be a once-in-a-blue-moon moment, or be just as offensive. But that never came to be. Another Lady Innocent/Front Innocent never got a sequel. Satoshi Urushihara would go onto the likes of Key Animation on the Ikki Tousen franchise sequels, and there is a sense the hard work to even make one episode here was not worthy financially to be continued. A lot of what-ifs are here, and honestly, in the perfect world, no one would complain if there was a work set in North America, even in the past with all the problematic issues of their history their citizens have to struggle with, which was just a melodrama which some drama, but a lot of it being the romance between two women Sophia and Faye, in their master-maid relationship, and their protective boyfriend John, and had as much sex in as many different ways as we just get in twenty nine minutes here. No uncomfortable undercurrent of non-consensual content, choose a plot type that could dodge or nod to uncomfortable historical concerns, somehow do well enough to animate more than one episode this well, and let everyone enjoy.

Instead it is a curiosity, one with the sadder realisation, than unlike a regular straight-to-video one-off, that porn as in other mediums is done so quickly and cheap that, alongside trying to preserve or comment on it, trying to make something more artistically minded if like trying to push a boulder up the hill like Sisyphus.

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1) For an example of this nickname appearing, whilst looking at his work from an artistic standpoint, is Langrisser I & II Review: Legendary Weapons With A Side Of Tarnish, from Bella Blondeua, published by The Gamer on March 3rd 2020. With a review like this never mentioning where Satoshi Urushihara got the "Master of Breasts" name from, it feels like an elaborate Chinese whisper for a nickname which could undercut how, in the video game world at least let alone animation and manga, his work is as much a spectacle for how lavish and beautiful it is without the sexual content. Considering the review is a burial of replacing Urushihara's older art with a revamp from a new artist, his illustrative style clearly has more fans beyond their sexual content.

#221: Mawaru Penguindrum (2011)

 

Studio: Brain's Base

Director: Kunihiko Ikuhara and Shōko Nakamura

Screenplay: Kunihiko Ikuhara and Takayo Ikami (with collaborations from Shingo Kaneko and Tomohiro Furukawa)

Voice Cast: Miho Arakawa as Himari Takakura; Ryohei Kimura as Shōma Takakura; Subaru Kimura as Kanba Takakura; Marie Miyake as Ringo Oginome; Akira Ishida as Keiju Tabuki; Mamiko Noto as Yuri Tokikago; Yui Horie as Masako Natsume; Yutaka Koizumi as Sanetoshi Watase

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

[Contains some plot spoilers]

This is a special work to cover, and in the time period it was released, Mawaru Penguindrum, mostly known for many as just Penguindrum, was the first title Kunihiko Ikuhara worked on in the driver's seat for twelve years. This was my first production from Kunihiko Ikuhara, going off a reputation of a work out of availability in the United Kingdom, in the legendary 1997 TV series Revolutionary Girl Utena, at the time, yet was the perfect period to discover his work. Made by Brain's Base, with co-direction of the series with Shōko Nakamura, those involved with Penguindrum are just as worthy of praise, but this was significance that Ikuhara had effectively been in exile since The Adolescence of Utena (1999), returning with this complex production. Penguindrum was a considerable return, and it is a heady production in content, aesthetics and themes, with the grace that, as if making up for not working throughout the 2000s, Ikahara in the 2010s effectively made a triptych of titles with Penguindrum, Yurikuma Arashi (2015) and Sarazanmai (2019), which share the aesthetic touches and his attitude to telling serious points.

Penguindrum out of all of them is the more ambitious to return to, juggling a precarious challenge between humour and empathy against some of the most sombering subject matter a show can have even from the get-go, with the set up that brothers Shōma and Kanba Takakura have a terminally ill younger sister Himari. Collapsing whilst visiting the aquarium, it sadly seems she has passed, until the flamboyant penguin hat they found at the gift store resurrects her, and has a personality within it which is brazen and requests that, to save her life, they need the acquire the titular Penguindrum. The Penguindrum itself is something which is vague throughout the series, but becomes a huge connector in themes and mood, all initially stemming with a young teen girl named Ringo Oginome and her diary, someone Shōma goes with but realises is stalking his male homeroom teacher Keiju.

The show is already challenging even if, at first, its first act is initially humorous, the tone comedic as Ringo's goal to win over Keiju to love her is playfully absurd, but all in mind, including literally sleeping under his house, her goals are problematic. The comedy of this initial set-up, including the more problematic nature of Ringo's goal, and the sympathy you yet have for her when you learn quickly why she is doing this, part of a trauma of her parents simply divorcing, is an initial gamble for the story to have take. Penguindrum is entirely a gamble, with one outright villain notwithstanding, all about damaged and traumatised people trying to find themselves even if they will consider deeply objectionable choices, even that villain the result of a world within itself, while love is the answer, marked as equal by cruelty. This is more a challenge in how this is depicted in the style that would be Ikuhara's 2010s aesthetic style with his production teams. Originally he was openly inspired by the Japanese avant-garde to the point that, for Utena, J. A. Seazer, known for his collaborations with film maker and experimental theatre creator Shuji Terayama, to compose music for that series and partially for the theatrical film. The difference here is that this feels of the 2010s as the later shows in tone.

When I had reached Ikuhara, he made his first toe dips with digital animation with The Adolescence of Utena, embracing the modernism of the changes in the animation industry without losing his initial style, a pop surrealism but a style with distinct layers. It is a style which takes real drama but with metaphors to it that over-the-top at times, but also capable of incredibly subtlety in evocative imagery. The Penguin hat's real world, setting this up, with the pace and tone of a magical girl transformation sequence, if combined with a music video, has enough to unpack in just the first time it appears. The bear mecha, elegant costumes, bright colours, music for the show which is symbolically interlinked, symbolism which only is unpacked by the ending and can be missed, and even the incestuous tone of the first "Survival Tactic" sequence, which begins the quests with the sensual gripping of the heart and has loaded meaning when more is learnt of these characters back stories.

That is not even mentioned the penguins. The three shows from their creator are all symbolised by animals or mythological creatures - later bears for Yurikuma Arashi, kappa for Sarazanmai - with penguins the mascots here, sent to the Takakura family as representatives for each of them, which cannot be seen by anyone else but are very real. There is so much within Penguindrum - referencing Kenji Miyazawa's Night on the Galactic Railroad explicitly throughout, dealing with parental trauma, both of a terrorist act and also parental sexual abuse, abandonment for children, cults and even explicitly the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack by the Aum Shinrikyo cult - and yet Ikuhara and the production team still have the anthropomorphic penguins even in serious moments present, symbolically connected to the themes but openly comedic. This for me, back when I first saw the show, and still now, show the bar of quality Penguindrum has above many animated series, in how this takes some huge dives into plot twists about the skeletons in characters' past, and yet can within the same scene combine moments of pure sincerity even with comedic penguins. The penguins present the ids of those involved, less Himari's ,but for Shōma a neat freak with an obsession with eating anything and everything, Kanba 's following his womanising a perverted penguin with nudie mags and stealing women's underwear, and this touch manages to even make jokes which would be cringe worthy work, such as a joke about women' underwear managing to actually be funny when it involved a sentient penguin.

There is a fourth penguin, and whilst later shows from Ikuhara were around twelve episodes or so, Penguindrum has twenty four, and a lot of characters to flesh out, all with their own traumas and self discovery to find including Masako, owner of the fourth penguin who is removing the memories of Kanba from his ex-girlfriend and wishes him to be by her side. Ikuhara and the screenwriters, with the creative team involved, manage with all these characters to tackle some incredibly adult and even transgressive material in a show which on the surface is incredibly bright and will be playful in tone. Characters will commit to awful acts, and yet everyone will be revealed to be sympathetic, be it Keiju with his fiancée, a Takarazuka actress Yuri, Ringo with her own need for closure when she is trying to bring her parents back together, and her late sister Momoka, a girl with the unnatural ability to change fates who is central to the Penguindrum itself and the narrative. In its centre is a terrorist attack in 1995 the Takakura children' parents were involved with and is a lasting scar for the boys, a ghost to return when a character named Sanetoshi, a literal ghost, wishes to try for their destructive act again even if it means playing with the hearts of many and even try to corrupt one of the Takakura siblings to his side.

It is a show where from the first episode to the last, the world has drastically altered over the time, the perceptions of the characters so radically changed as secrets are revealed, to the point the tone has drastically changed too, all linked to the diary that Ringo inherited from her late sister Momoka, Ikuhara's style using fantastical metaphors for people's emotions and fantasies, even for incredibly bleak material such as the theme of child abandonment, dubbed " The Child Broiler" in this series where children who in real life would be ignored and left in the cycle of foster homes, or on the streets, even ordinary children who never get a chance to stand out even if they had ordinary lives, are shredded here and become "invisible", not allowed to stand out as individuals. The light touch to its content is set up within the first episodes with a character who is at first an unapologetic stalker in Ringo, wishing for Keiju as an older man to fall for her as a teenager, a perfect set-up for how severe some of the content is, yet can have risks taken to them such as these episodes being incredibly funny despite being about a female stalker.

One of the best earlier episodes about her goal in this, only to realise its folly and find herself falling for Shōma instead, is set around a fantasy, one of many in her delusions designed like a pop up fairy tale book based on 18th century French/European aesthetics, a farce for the whole episode in trying to win over Keiju at the park involving his fiancée, a pet skunk that has gotten loose, and a disastrous attempt to use a hairy caterpillar. Yet even within this first act, which spirals out and even undercuts the relationship between the Takakura siblings, it is a still a grim tale for Ringo which she learns to escape from before she makes a legitimate mistake, one with psychological damage likely to happen for herself and for Keiju if she had committed to it. Even when done for humour this is a constant, Masako's back story one of the later episodes which is exceptional too, episode sixteen with credit to co-writers Shingo Kaneko and Tomohiro Furukawa, for a one-off between them, landing fully. It reveals she was raised with her sibling Marion by their grandfather, a giant in industry she inherited the wealth and power from, but a horrifying figure of toxic masculinity where, even as a child, she has dreams of assassinating him just to protect Mario from being turned "into a man". It is done with humour, so much so that, even in mind with the limitations of English acting in Japanese dubs, knowledge of Ikuhara having spent time in the United States makes even the casting of the grandfather's Western male assistant, with his wooden exclamations, likely to have been on purpose. Based around a series of macabre farces, imagining herself killing her grandfather, before his idiotic attempt to prepare poisonous blowfish by himself becomes his ultimate demise, it is a great episode within any other series, fleshing out a major side character, but here is one of many raking risks.

In these fantasies and light flourishes are however still the grim content, including material which some will find deeply uncomfortable in watching. One plot thread which is reoccurant, and is the one which was a risk to include but manages to find a dramatic weight in, is that characters nearly commit the act of drugging individuals with the intention of sexual relations with, which is an even bigger taboo with good reason a decade after the show was made. One is a joke involving the aphrodisiac from a rare toad, but the other two have Ringo herself, and then Yuri, nearly make the mistake of something harmful for them and the person involved. Yuri's is more transgressive, and why despite its light touch this was a rare anime to get an eighteen certificate in the United Kingdom, a rating for physical media which only very sexually explicit or violent work get.

That episode in another's hands would have turned Yuri into a predatory lesbian with severe psychological damage from her childhood, as crass and offensive as that would be. In mind to Utena and Yurikuma Arashi being explicitly LGBTQ narratives about women, escaping patriarchal views and true love between women, and Sarazanmai touching upon a male lead admitting a crush on one of the others, Ikuhara is someone admired for these works for these characters and themes, someone whose contributions to depicting gay characters in his work and how beautiful the depictions of them were will be one of his lasting legacies. Here Yuri's story is a huge risk he could have failed at, still could have been disastrous even with all the well wishes from other work, but as well, this is far more nuanced. Her back story is as bleak as it gets in the show, of a father's abuse of both a sexual and harmful kind, metaphor through the chiselling of stone so he makes her "beautiful", and that her life like others is embraced around the loss of Momoka, a figure who brought happiness to characters who were in despair and was lost when they were all still children, reflected later when another tries to get revenge for her death on Takakura family for the sins of their parents. In mind that these two bleak moments, one a male victim of drugging, the other Ringo herself, they do need to be warned about as they are extremely adult subjects to have tackled, but these are the moments where the show has nuances some anime never reach in managing, somehow, to make these characters, on both sides of the scenes, sympathetic and the content with meaning.

There is of course the subject at this anime's centre, which manages to have been an even greater risk to tackle. In 1995, the religious cult of Aum Shinrikyo set sarin gas off in the Tokyo Metro subway, killing fourteen bystanders and injuring over a thousand, a subject whose resonance as a tragedy over the years has been broached in art including Haruki Murakami's Underground, a 1997-8 non-fiction book interviewing victims of the attacks and members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, a book which is included in a scene in the background with a Murakami short story, Super-Frog Saves Tokyo, explicitly referenced in an episode whilst the character cannot remember its exact title. Penguindrum is explicitly referencing this tragedy in its opening credits of the first episode, with the terrorist attack here set in 1995 too, with subway trains and fate being interwoven on them the common metaphor. Fate is a huge subject of this, including that baring one villain, everyone here is a person of complexity, even the terrorist group's undefendable attack stemming from what they thought was a cruel world, one which abandoned children they adopted in the Child Broiler, and they felt such an extreme act was necessary. The show manages, with such a real subject and uncomfortable subject, to succeed, and with its vast amount of plot strands, its various repeating metaphors (the apples for example) and its many risks including all the comedy and whimsy still here, it is an ambitious success for televised anime. It is, out of the three from Ikuhara's 2010s, the most complicated and arguably the most challenging. It is however also something beautiful, literally in its craft and in its heart, and absolutely a gem from the decade it was made in.

It was the first of Kunihiko Ikuhara's work I had seen, as mentioned early in this review, and it is in hindsight such a vast production to have discovered him through, but one whose lasting impact left me a fan of his work, and returning to was stronger now than it was before, right up to the final episodes, with the explicit Night of the Galactic Railroad references, a bittersweet happy ending and full abstract metaphors beautifully depicted. The project's lasting influence can be seen in the curious choice, in 2022, Ikuhara with studio Lapin Track created the two part compilation films, for theatres, called the Re:cycle of Penguindrum (2022). Compilation films are a curious concept in anime, especially in trying to tell the nuisances of Penguindrum's original twenty four episodes in two films, but alongside new material, and Momoka's prominence as a character taken further, clearly there was a reason for Ikuhara to return to this show's themes. There was material worthy for him to bring back to the public as much as, even if I view this 2011 series as perfect, he felt he could retell differently in a new way. The source material for this decision enough is still special even in the modern day, and further attention on it was worthwhile.

#220: The Skullman (2007)

 

Studio: Bones

Director: Takeshi Mori

Screenplay: Yutaka Izubuchi (with writing by Hiroshi Ohnogi, Seishi Minakami and Shingo Takeba)

Based on the manga by Shotaro Ishinomori

Voice Cast: Hiroshi Tsuchida as Skull Man; Makoto Yasumura as Hayato Mikogami; Ayako Kawasumi as Kiriko Mamiya; Fumiko Orikasa as Maya Kuroshio; Hiroyuki Yoshino as Akira Usami; Katsunosuke Hori as Kyouichirou Tachigi; Masayuki Katou as Yoshio Kanzaki; Toshiyuki Morikawa as Masaki Kumashiro; Tomokazu Seki as Tsuyoshi Shinjou

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

Skullman was created in 1970 as a one shot by the legendary manga author Shotaro Ishinomori, and in that text, including an expanded 1998-2001 manga by Kazuhiko Shimamoto with Ishinomori's contributions, the character was always an anti-hero, making this 2007 anime series not a bleak interpretation of a bright tokusatsu like character, but apt for the figure even if its own story. Skullman the series works as an interpretation in how the series is entirely around the titular figure, but for most of it, he is not the central character, instead a mystery in its centre of who he is and what his motives are, a mystery which will expand further on from this even when these two questions are answered in this interesting genre hybrid.

Set in an alternative world, where Japan is caught in a civil war, our protagonist is actually reporter Hayato Mikogami, who wishes to go to Ōtomo City, his place of birth and one caught in a tense political situation in terms of the ongoing war, with the intention of discovering who the urban myth of the Skullman is, the figure said to be behind the series of seemingly random murders of men and women in the city. Even in the opening credits, Skullman is first depicted as a monster, seemingly killing innocents, his first victim being a woman whose death is shot like a thriller not without purpose for hinting at this. Soon it becomes apparent, however, his mission, whilst at times edging to unjustifiable, is part of a more problematic conspiracy, much more dangerous to the world, and all circling all the victims seemingly being connected to the White Bell Association, a small religion entirely within Ōtomo City only that has a grip on the town and is very cultish. With Kiriko, a young woman who manages to wriggle her way into Hayato's life against his will, the pair finds themselves in a show where that, with only thirteen episodes to work with, does a stupendous job in using all thirteen economically to tell this tale.

There would be no time to have tangents or filler, but the production and writing team's credit, this manages to tell this story concisely, with a plot with juggles many genres which could not work, and manages to still have a unique personality, even humour of a cartoonish form at times. One of the twists, which it early on and really not a spoiler, is very reminiscent of Yoshiki Takaya's The Guyver, in which people are being turned into monsters, and the show is also a noir-tinged work of mystery, of drama, yet with a titular character who stands out, despite his anti-hero origins, influenced by tokusatsu action characters. It's tone is really idiosyncratic just from the opening, heavily leaning on the horror mood until one of the most curious opening tracks can be heard begins, jazz with funky layers, but the trumpet playing at a very odd time to the rest of the rhythm, or the backup vocals, whilst yet managing to work. One key character, an older man named Kyouichirou Tachigi who to Hayato seemingly knows everything, is a cool character but as much because of delightfully odd touches, like finding him fishing near the White Bell's church location, or that he is not only a man capable of handling himself, but within one scene revealed as a coffee aficionado who knows his obscurer blends in a coffee shop greatly.

The series composition was by Yutaka Izubuchi, with screenplay help from collaborators, and what is fascinating is that he is far more prolific as a mecha and character designer, with only a few screenplay credits in his prolific. This fact makes it to his credit and the other collaborators - Hiroshi Ohnogi, Seishi Minakami and Shingo Takeba - how good and interesting The Skullman's story is. The Skullman is a show whose episode titles are long, poetic and bleak, and Frederick Nietzsche is referenced and becomes a dialogue point between Hayato and Father Yoshio Kanzaki, a Christian priest who Hayato knows fondly from their youths. Until it gets completely serious, there is even exaggerated humour which fits the tone, such as a scene with food leading to characters having giant bellies, or the character of policeman Tsuyoshi Shinjou, who dogs Hayato believing him to be a suspect. That does not factor in, even very early in the show, the violence whether with the monsters or more conventional means which is still bloody and nasty. It manages as a curious tight walking act to all work, and it is a pulpy feat.

The Guyver comparison is apt, as in mind to spoilers, this involves alien artefacts, people being turned into monsters, against their will or willingly, and a conspiracy that involves a group very obviously connected to it, but there is more in just thirteen episodes which elaborates beyond this. Of government conspiracies, of an illegitimate son fostering contempt, of politicians being murdered by the Skullman which are more sobering to consider decades after, and that this is set in a war, one where a foreign group, even with the cartoonish super villain name of Brain Gear, are here to exploit the climate. With weapons that can literally disintegrate people, they are their own entity off to the side, in a show which pays a huge tribute to Shotaro Ishinomori by having characters and references based on his entire career, where there is a religious cult involved, and a far right imperialist Japanese group who wish to militarise and get hold of nukes, planning to stage a coup de trait even against the corrupt police force. The Skullman, as a result, also taps into some real politics even as a genre piece, which makes its ability to tell this all well even against monsters and a sci-fi plot more a further credit.

The Skullman's ending was open to a second season, even if a bleak turn, with characters becoming figures from Shotaro Ishinomori's Cyborg 009, yet still works as a conclusion in striking a balance between the tragedy that ends it, when a figure has their spirit crushed and becomes a weapon of the true villains, and the hope with the characters who have survived. There are a few side characters, and they are all interesting, be it Kyouichirou, a mysterious brother and sister revealed to be test subjects who can control their monster forms, Tsuyoshi, or even the daughter of a major political figure who acts as the voice of the White Bell Association, a frail and sympathetic figure clearly in love with Yoshio Kanzaki, transgressing her mother's views of talking to religious heretics by helping at his orphanage for children.

Even one off figures are interesting, such as episode ten introducing a troop of soldiers, from a war Yoshio was a front-line minister of rites on, who have been turned by cyborg killing machines by Brain gear, a sense of tragedy at hand just with one of them, unstable even for his peers, traumatised by not being called by his real name and a shell now giving dangerous access to a missile launching rig. The Skullman staying on path through its plot means there is not a lot of filler, its curious tangents all leading to a finale, all done with reward, with all characters getting a conclusion even if a bleak one. Even the fact there will be more than one Skullman is not worth marking as a spoiler as, without explaining detail, it comes instead as part of the really good dramatic turns of the show, actual drama even in the midst of a show as proudly a violent tokusatsu monster show with gore, with the downfall for one in sacrificing his soul for saving other, the other broken as a person whilst Ōtomo City turns into chaos in the final episodes, full on the streets of fanatics turning into monsters, a doomsday scenario being prepared for, and a coup de trait or two also transpiring.

It is an exceptional show, one that does stand out as being idiosyncratic as a sombre action take finds the balance between the genre touches fully, feeling adult without being contrived and manages to be serious even with explicitly fantastical touches. It was a title suddenly released in the United Kingdom in 2022 from MVM, a DVD only title for another curious touch, having been a Sentai Filmworks release in the United States before. Suddenly coming here decades after its first release adds something special as, clearly, this was worth release for all its virtues. It feels like a title very different from the type of anime show usually released, back then and still now, something very idiosyncratic and fantastic.