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Director: Tetsuo Imazawa
Screenplay: Yasushi Ishikura
Adapted from a novel by Yasuaki
Kadota
Voice Cast:
[Japanese] Hideyuki Tanaka as
Retsu Ukyo; Hiromi Tsuru as Fuyuko Asahina; Hiromi Tsuru as Yashaō; Toshiko
Fujita as Shun'yō-ni/ Youni Shun; Daisuke Gouri as Demon of Earth; Ikuya Sawaki
as Demon of Water; Junko Hagimori as Shunmin-ni; Masaharu Satō as Demon of Sky;
Masami Kamiyama as Shunkō-ni; Ryūji Saikachi as Elder; Shigeru Chiba as Prof.
Takase
[English] Alan Blyton as Ukyo
Retsu/Demon of Sky; Julia Brahms as Fuyuko Asahina; Lisa Ross as as Shun-You;
Roger May as Prof. Takase
Viewed in English Dub
Synopsis: Surgeon Ukyo Retsu finds himself embroiled in a Millennia
old struggle between human beings and demons, from a period before the birth of
Japan as a civilisation, when he treats a mysterious old woman for a monstrous
cancer.
Throw a pebble into the water and
you'll hit an obscure OVA. Some of them managed to linger into even the DVD
era, the likes of Manga Entertainment
licensing titles from the video era and repackaging them into trailers sound
tracked with The Mad Capsule Markets.
As a result, among the obscure Psychic
Wars is pretty known for an older anime fan or the curious who dig second
hand bins. Enough to warrant a permanent place on the Anime News Network worst-of list, voted by all its users, alongside
being generally pissed upon. It's strange as, less than an hour long and
amongst some true duds in Japanese animation, I have suffered through worse. Although
that could be bias as I've inexplicably bought second hand DVD copies more than
once of the fifty minute anime.
Like many, it's a strange mix of
various genres and tropes that are found within anime and still rear their head
into the modern day. They intermingle and create weird hybrids you can decipher
and pick apart from older titles, from ancient lost civilisations, in this case
an alternative history of one back when Japan was merely land full of primitive
early men, demons (as in many anime), time travel, science smashed head first
into esoteric weirdness, and the fact that Japan's religious background (Shinto
at least) feeds into the symbolism even if not explored with remotely any depth
here. Psychic Wars also has the
unique distinction, which gives it some infamy just from seeing it in the Manga Entertainment DVD trailer, of our
hero Ukyo Retsu, who looks like Kenshiro from the Fist of the North Star series
in glasses and a doctor's white coat, punching flying cancers to death.
Hands up, I confess a love for
these cheap anime productions for their gaudy horror/fantasy aesthetic and
plots, colourful in a tacky way and the monsters all bulky toothed ogres who
could be found in a Monster in My Pocket
fanny pack. It is from Toei Animation,
but could've been done by anyone. So much so that the one stylistic touch is so
distinct, when Retsu first enters primitive Japan and the scene is entirely in monochrome
until he defeats the horse riding demons, that you don't care if it was
deliberately or cost effective. The other aspect I like from this anime, and is
a personal obsession, is whenever a character finds themselves in a psychedelic
alternative reality with weird landmarks (usually floating in the air) and
backgrounds consisting of a couple of bold colours, be they in a phantom zone
or being enlightened on a task by a mysterious figure. Here it's a kaleidoscope
time vortex with priestesses floating in the air, part of this curious
obsession of mine where, even with little to work with, animators were given a
moment to be artistically creative regardless and without need for logic
involved.
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| From http://i.imgur.com/KnmDoAj.png |
The anime despite its short length is sluggish. Ultimately, it's not offensive to the eyes but among the many anime from this era that were churned out, even if they weren't carefully scripted or planned out, Psychic Wars is pretty rudimentary to stand out. Even considering its plot, depicting a period before Japan, one of the oldest civilisations, came to be even if that's depicted mainly through field and a demon city, it's not that different from other titles where alien entities intend to eliminate mankind and take over. How its managed to gain a reputation is arguably luck, and whilst I enjoy it immensely, I won't say it sets the world on fire even as a notoriously bad production. The tale of an evil demon race against human beings, its only the subplot with a generic nurse character which stands out in the end due to a cruel dynamic twist, one that's unpredictable to give the anime credit when it's pretty predictable everywhere else.
The rest is interesting because
of the unintentional moments of humour. Punching cancers, which have giant
teeth and turn into fleshy starfish, has already been mentioned, but there's also
the fact that you can kick a giant, purple ogre demon in the testicles and still
have an advantage over them. The minor character of a historian obsessed with
his own theory of a secret civilisation, only to lament in horror at said
destruction of a lost civilisation by unexplained destruction, or that the
demons for all their advanced cityscape still keep enough explosives in one
place to cause traumatic damage to the foundations. That the Fist of the North Star reference cannot
be ignored as, whilst he looks vaguely different in the face, our hero's still
a muscle man with unexplained martial arts and sword welding ability, the only
difference between the North Star
hero being that he needs rifle to take
down horseback riding demons rather than be able to make them explode with a
mere touch.
I have used in regards to these
types of Manga Entertainment release
the term "beer and curry anime" in regards to their promotional
tactics for them, attempting to sell them like a straight-to-video action
watched drunk on a Friday night. I've probably overused the term, learnt from a
long gone British anime review site, as it clung to me that Manga Entertainment were so adamant to
try to sell even the likes of Psychic
Wars as a commercial release. When released on DVD, there was always a
sense alongside all the other titles in The
Collection [A growing list already covered HERE] they were still after this
market as well as exploitation old catalogue titles they still had the licenses
to. It predates the growing gender balance and recognition of female anime
fans, but I cannot help but view Psychic
Wars in the same way as the stream of straight-to-video C-movies that came
out in the nineties too, lurid edges usually with a little gore and sex, as is
exactly the same here. (This even replicates a trope from American action films
of its sole sex scene being all silhouettes in the dark). Something you need no
context for, and anime would be released even when it had no proper ending
anyway, exactly the same as those action films even if they had resolutions
which were as predictable in plots and events as all the others, but you could
still gain a lot from flooding the market with them. That sounds harsh but I
look back to it with sympathy for these titles. As there's a fan base for those
old action films, so I'm one of those individuals who are falling in love with
the likes of Psychic Wars. Low hanging
fruit in terms of taste, but it's not ironic love, instead understanding its
place in the world and wanting a rerelease one day, no matter how illogical and
unlikely to make back the cost of restoration that sort of decision would be.
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