#179: Judge (1991)

 

Director: Hiroshi Negishi

Screenplay: Katsuhiko Chiba

Based on a manga by Fujihiko Hosono

Voice Cast: Kaneto Shiozawa as Hoichiro Ohma; Daisuke Gouri as Enma-Oh; Issei Futamata as Koji Kawamata; Keiko Yamamoto as Junko Asami; Miki Itō as Nanase; Hideyuki Hori as Ryuichi Murakami; Junko Asami as Keiko Yamamoto; Shinya Ohtaki as Susumu Yamanobe/Watanabe

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

Now we have past the era when DVDs where the main source of viewing for anime fans - where streaming has taken over predominantly and physical releases are the source for connoisseurs to collect titles - I wonder what will happen to the history of the OVA (straight-to-video) market. Titles have been released again, many from upscale of video masters which adds another concern in their preservation over celluloid. The bigger concern is just the preservation of the large mass of titles created; the eighties boom which began this format into the Millennium churned out so many that, even if they still exist in some form nowadays, it is a history in itself perilous in being forgotten about. Especially as many were one-offs only around forty to sixty minutes long, fragments in themselves, with complicated rights issues as time has passed, to contend with in trying to re-sell them to an audience. It is a history for all this full of terrible work, and we will not lie to ourselves about that fact, but it is a compelling and fun history too alongside all the legitimately great titles created, especially as so much was churned out and strange concepts were explored.  Before television series were more commonly released in the West, companies like the American distributor Central Park Media made their bread and butter getting OVAs as they did theatrical work as well, even up to their closure for bankruptcy in 2009.

Also in mind to CPM's mascot, and one of the key titles, being M.D. Geist (1986), which is not a great anime in the slightest, the OVAs they released as for other companies had their own personalities and were part of their reputation, bringing up many obscurities not including their porn sub-label Anime 18 that should not be forgotten. Many OVAs, such as Judge here, were never full stories, just adaptations of manga never released in the West as tie-ins. Judge, based on a two volume manga, is such a title, of Hoichiro Oma who by day is a bumbling but charming salary man, but by night is the voice of the judges of the afterlife who, on behalf of the Twelve Gods of the Underworld, is targeting and punishing corrupt businessmen. Unlike Government Crime Investigation Agent Zaizen Jotaro (2006), a late animated series about an independent anti-corruption organisation where the titular member has the power of unlimited money to combat embezzlement, Hoichiro here would just follow the Buddhist Hell tradition of horrible torture fitting the crime followed by death. Who needs a designer black gold card as the titular Zaizen Jotaro required, saying "Da bomb!" randomly as he deals with a corrupt middle manager, when Judge's lead despite his meek normal personality dons a costume, with wig, and nails a man's tongue for perjury, whilst topping the ultimate unlimited credit card with a book made from human flesh, magical powers and just killing people.

Barely a fragment, the plot follows his next target after that, another high figure at the company he is currently working at as a lowly member, Koji Kawamata. I will say, whilst this may just be me, most premises no matter how silly always intrigue me to want to see an anime from them, this no different as a supernatural story which is yet fixated on business corruption. One which takes from supernatural lore, with loosely reinterpreted mythology, and could have been a morbid slant on a crime show from the West with trials involved. Like many OVAs, the pleasures are not found in the story, which sadly is only around forty minutes and can do little of this I imagine. Instead, it is by the little touches like the premise. Despite Hoichiro's no tolerance policy to crime, when it introduces an unnamed Defence Lawyer, who offers his services at an expensive price for anyone targeted by the underworld, you get something unconventional in this premise having an actual defence lawyer for the villain, even if he has to use magic himself or even his own magical gloves, able to slide off and choke people by themselves, also made from human flesh.

The premise in its nature has quirks. Having a defence lawyer, also a villain but still demanding a fair trial for defendants, is an interesting note as, whilst never given a name, he is clearly the mirror image to Hoichiro as in many anime. That this defence lawyer's one trademark, rather than smoking or lollipops, is that he always has children's juice boxes with plastic straws was an amusing touch. That human flesh is apparently the ultimate material needed for super-magical objects is a more gruesome, if silly touch, Judge very much part of the horror genre too as Hoichiro will terrorise the guilty with the dead they have wronged, be it a female co-worker emotionally manipulated into embezzlement who committed suicide or, for the main antagonist, a friend he has disposed of in South America in the opening scene. Even this becomes part of the humour as, used to assist him in his endeavours, Hoichiro even as a hellish demon parrot as a pet, creepily drawn with giant eyes but one scene just as capable of mimicking people's speech. Unfortunate as, with Hoichiro is in a romantic relationship with a co-worker Nanase, it can mimic sex noises from the night before for an awkward morning's breakfast.

And some touches are unexplained, like Judge's antagonist, Koji Kawamata, having giant eyes almost bigger than his head, like frog's, which is never explained or mentioned, just a curious touch to the OVA. One which, in quality and plot, is just okay in reality but sustained by a lifelong viewer of this medium because of these curious touches scattered through many titles. It would have not been able to be defended were it not for these at all aspects talked. Thankfully as well it takes a different direction with the ending that, unlike most anime, the finale is not resolved in a conflict but an actual trial with twelve gods of the underworld, witnesses from the grave, and a giant mirror at the back which cheats by having one's reflection confess your guilt if you touch or look at it.

Production wise, it was one of many titles like this made in its era, the thing of note being its director Hiroshi Negishi, someone who was very prolific in the nineties but has, despite working into the 2010s, been a forgotten man in himself. The OVAs like this are an obscurity of the past, but one of Negishi's productions was Saber Marionette J (1996), an anime series which managed to get three follow ups but has been forgotten as time went. Even in terms of history, Judge is just one of the many odd things that Central Park Media were distributing (or legitimate masterpieces like Night on the Galactic Railroad (1985)). With the manga not even a known quantity in the West due to scanlations, Judge could tragically be forgotten for simply being okay, a shame as, even if not the best, these curiosities are fascinating too.