#250: Bartender (2006)

 

Studio: Palm Studio

Director: Masaki Watanabe

Screenplay: Yasuhiro Imagawa

Based on the manga by Araki Joh

Voice Cast: Takahiro Mizushima as Ryuu Sasakura; Ayumi Fujimura as Miwa Kurushima; Leo Morimoto as Narration

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

Manga, and anime adaptations of them, about food and cooking were once a niche in the West, but this has begun to change when certain titles gained traction. Food Wars, a Weekly Shōnen Jump title whose manga run was from 2012 to 2019, and its anime series adaptation, helped as an accessible example of this genre, depicting cooking by being a story of rivalry and competition by way of over-the-top Iron Chef scenarios. Other stories, like Yakitate!! Japan the manga and the anime, took this more over-the-top tone too, a story about competitive bread making which is just as ridiculous and offers one bread recipe so good it briefly sends one to the afterlife dead, so there is enough playfulness with the idea of food as a story premise. Work that is more serious does exist, and this is not forgotting that alcohol, an important part of human culture too, has been the subject of manga and anime too. One manga about wine, The Drops of God (2004-2014 for the first manga series) as written by Tadashi Agi, a pseudonym employed by creative team of sister and brother Yuko and Shin Kibayashi, even became influential in the wine industry itself. During the journey of its lead to solve the mysteries of thirteen wines his late father has assigned him to find, wines which were namedropped in the manga gained interest for those wishing to try them, turning the likes of the French wine market upside down as a result, increasing stocks and prices alike¹.

Among anime, Bartender is distinct even within this genre, what it says on the tin, about a bartender, and in that presenting something completely different even next to others mentioned in this paragraph. A title that was once a fan subbed only release, this has in the 2020s had official Western releases, in the United States by Shout! Factory, and Anime Limited in the United Kingdom. Finally getting its due in the 2020s in itself feels apt, as this also belongs to another trend over the 2010s of anime designed to be soothing and comforting, saying a lot about the state of the world in general that anime not about plots or drastic drama needed to be created, but in itself presenting different ways for them to still tell stories in themselves, Bartender as a 2000s production befitting their ilk as a prototype.

Bartender is both very idiosyncratic in premise, but is so simple structurally that, if a longer work, this could have lasted seasons as a "cocktail of the week" show. Ryuu Sasakura, who we do snippets of the past of during this series, is considered the "Glass of the Gods", a bartender who goes beyond the basic requirements of the job to being even a life preserver for the down-and-out, able to serve the right drink for the right time. He follows leads of other manga and anime, regardless of profession and genre, exaggerated in how good he is at picking the right cocktail. He can make a Black Velvet, champagne mixed with Guinness beer, without causing it to spill out of the glass, but he can literally scare off a con artist trying to marry a woman for her money by guessing the taste of alcohol diluted into a single drop in water.

To the show's credit, it is actually effecting emotionally. Expect knowledge and exposition thrown at you men - it explains not only the history of certain alcohols, but other types of culture, such as one episode structured around Ernest Hemingway and his last work The Old Man and the Sea (1952) - but it has a human core. Regrets, loss and disillusionment are tackled as much as there is humour, the wacky professor part of the Christmas episode where the Black Velvet is prepared. It can be viewed as pat, finding happiness when the right metaphor for your life is served by Ryuu in an expensive drink, but it works. This is especially as this does the admirable thing of having even how a cocktail came to be and alcohol consumption given weight to them sociologically, even in terms of real history when one episode talks about the hostile rule of the English over Scotland in centuries past, especially the taxes, influenced their legendary types of whiskey production. It is also easy to forget, as this has an emotional heart to it, that alcohol and bars despite being linked to addiction and destructive decadence even in pop culture and art still have an importance in human history. Alcohol has existed since the first cave dweller (or pre-historical civilisation) accidentally discovered intoxication, and even alcohol has been said to have been given to us by Gods, such as the Ancient Greek god Dionysus being the god of wine among his other contributions to existence.

This show, frankly, is meant to sell booze, and to a lesser extend Ginza, where the show it set, where these cocktails would be expensive and the locale potentially elitist, but the show never feels like this is the priority. One episode even explicitly is about a man who is poor but saved from all his work to half drink an expensive choice, which shows that Bartender was after something universal, even in having the recipe each week per episode for the viewer to record. The show is less selling glamorous than a hardcore rumination on alcohol in fuzzy blanket of quaintness. This is also in mind to how, working around the budget and the limitations of the story, the creators of Bartender, studio Palm Studio, deserve a lot of praise for the visual creativity they put into the production. You can notice that the bottles of alcohol, even the liquid inside them when poured, are CGI and that there are many static scenes of dialogue, but it does not stop the production from being visually creative. The show is willing to bend reality, intersplicing the variety of figures within the tale, such as the two older male bartenders who taught Ryuu, and Ayumi Fujimura, a female character introduced in the first episode that becomes the only other reoccurring character, to interject the history of the subjects being discussed.

The show is also happy to be metaphorical and distort reality, such as a beautiful moment following an advertiser, near the end of his career and regretting his career path, being nodded to by his creations across Ginza and the rest of the city as he travels to his desired goal. Touches like this make Bartender ultimately a show that, taking its distinct premise, won me over early into the episodes, and thankfully, as it is finally more readily available in the West, more people can appreciate it as well for its virtues. Sadly, if there is a tragedy to this work, it is that Palm Studio in 2007 stopped producing animation. With only a few titles in their CV, it is sad that they clearly were not able to continue developing more titles and films in their short run. It befits the melancholic tone of Bartender though to metaphorically drink a toast to them and appreciate this fully.

 

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1) The Drops of God: The Manga That Disrupted the International Wine Market, written by Bea Caicoya and published for CBR.com on May 29th 2021.

#249: Uchida Shungicu no Noroi no One-Piece (The Cursed One Piece) (1992)

 

Studio: Kyoto Animation and Shin-Ei Animation

Director: Yoshiji Kigami

Screenplay: Miho Maruo

Based on the work of Shungicu Uchida

Voice Cast: Chisa Yokoyama as Michiyo, Hiroko Moriguchi as Kaori, Mariko Kouda as Yuuko

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

A short horror special based on the work of Shungicu Uchida, this production by Kyoto Animation is sadly too short to easily distribute outside of digital streaming or purchase, which is a shame as making this widely available to non-Japanese anime fans would lead to a lot of people embracing this production, in its thirty minute form, to their hearts with what it has, a sumptuous little horror anthology based on gender peer pressure. About three girls in three tales, the stories are based around the titular one piece dress, a thing of horror in elegance whose existence also comes with themes of gender stereotypes.

Shungicu Uchida herself is distinct, someone I had known in the least expected way but emphasising her as a provocative creator, as she plays the mother in Takashi Miike's Visitor Q (2001), an infamous film even in the career of an infamous cult director like Miike's. A controversial film, it is like a retelling of Pier Paolo Pasolini's Theorem (1968), in which a man (Terrence Stamp in the Italian film) seduced the men and the women of a family, even the maid, taking a seemingly steady middle class/upper class family and breaking their facade. Visitor Q was about an already broken family, a male stranger named Q coming into their lives, and bringing them together as a happy family even if it involved murder and necrophilia among the many taboos broken onscreen. A satire, Uchida's role as the mother was a brave one, as alongside baring her body in nude scenes, one of the taboos broken, even though it is a natural part of the human body, was lactation, taken to its extreme with the kitchen floor covered in breast milk in the film's exaggerated and extreme humour. Hers was a good performance, and it is delightful to realise this, one of my few encounters with her creativity, was to someone whose career as an author/manga artist/singer/essayist/actor was openly confrontational even when it came to her semi-autobiography Father Fucker, or how one of her works was adapted into a genre film, Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl (2009).

This adaptation, for its luscious style, is a series of simple horror tales with twists, trademark for the genre, which however are all connected by peer pressure and expectations of teen girls to look feminine, the dress (brought by ghosts of malicious intent to their door steps barring one) an elegant gown of prettiness. Yuuko's tale is entirely that, wishing to be pretty to attract a boy, a monkey's paw scenario as to attract him, her clothes her mother buy looking inferior especially next to the popular girl they are going to the birthday party of, who is able to look ultra stylish and has an eye on him too. Immediately as well, you see, as this TV special has been preserved and made available in higher definition, how beautiful it is to look at. Sumptuous to look at, Kyoto (with Shin-Ei Animation) is well regarded for shows like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2006), but this is a surprise in their early career for experimentation. It offers an interesting contrast in the catalogue of anime horror too as because, whilst the stories have horror beats, the horror twists here are mostly in pure day light in homes and quaint locations, between teen bedrooms to outside in the day, presenting a significant contrast. Depicted in mostly bright colours and with distinct character designs, what was originally a shoujo story for young women shows horror contrasted by how gorgeous the visuals are, even if, with little time here to elaborate, the visuals will get to the goods when it comes to the horror itself, such as the dress being cursed and turning one briefly into a possessed demon.

Kaori, the next victim, is brought the dress by the young brother of family, finding herself waking up wearing the dress constantly as a living nightmare, literally becoming a skin as a costume of elegance can for people. All of this is in mind the show can have scenes drawn like pastels, or with distinct use of space, for simplifying the image to only what needs to be drawn to the viewer's attention even if outlines, to get the point across perfectly, a visual style which is distinct and also precise for very simple tales, making them work far more in the little time they are afforded. When it wishes to be more detailed, the production does, and even ends this second one on a face of madness manga author Junji Ito would be proud of. Michiyo's tale, sad to know a boy she knew has transferred schools, emphasises gender stereotyping as she internalises guilt of never being able to comment fully to him, with emphasis as a teenager who is a tall tomboy, not good at sports and even teased by her own mother for not fitting the ideas of being ladylike at all. Hers is a radio drama twist waiting to happen, involving ghosts, but together with the other two shorts, Noroi No One Piece is a compelling production which took me by surprise. Tragically, it comes with the knowledge that Kyoto Animation's history includes the July 2019 arson attack that took place to their studio, one which took the life of this production's director Yoshiji Kigami among others, an attack which thankfully has not undercut their legacy in producing titles but was a tragedy no one would want and took the likes of Kigami who were visibly creative as here. One Piece itself was one title I had no knowledge of even in terms of horror anime's more obscure productions, as it was not an OVA either, and it did floor me without any expectations. If you can find it, it is recommended, and more voices becoming aware of this could like make the title properly appreciated.

#248: 009 Re: Cyborg (2012)

 

Director: Kenji Kamiyama

Screenplay: Kenji Kamiyama

Based on the characters by Shotaro Ishinomori

Voice Cast: Chiwa Saito as Cyborg 003 / Françoise Arnoul; Daisuke Ono as Cyborg 002 / Jet Link; Hiroyuki Yoshino as Cyborg 007 / Great Britain; Mamoru Miyano as Cyborg 009 / Joe Shimamura; Noriaki Sugiyama as Cyborg 008 / Pyunma; Sakiko Tamagawa as Cyborg 001 / Ivan Whisky; Tarou Masuoka as Cyborg 006 / Chang Changku; Teruyuki Tanzawa as Cyborg 005 / Geronimo Jr; Toru Ohkawa as Cyborg 004 / Albert Heinrich; Nobuyuki Katsube as Professor Isaac Gilmore

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitle

 

Major Spoilers Throughout

This was the least desired way to have experienced the 009 Cyborg franchise for the first time. Thankfully this was not the first time I experienced a work adapted from Shotaro Ishinomori, one of the most prolific and well regarded manga authors of his era, as I had seen 009-1 (2006) in my early years into anime, a television adaptation of his female cyborg spy character which got released from ADV Films only to disappear as a license when the company did. 009 Re: Cyborg promised an enticing work on paper, part of a push to reinterpret these legendary characters of Ishinomori, a band of people (and one Russian baby) turned into superpower cyborgs, for a grand scale computer animated film which even joined the bandwagon for three dimensional effects films in the late 2000s and early 2010s were trying for. At the time someone like Kenji Kamiyama directing and writing the script was enticing, having gotten attention for his work on Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2002-3), the TV series, and Eden of the East (2009). It was clearly intended as a big event feature, and it is the first time 009 Cyborg had been brought to the UK officially too, as we never got the 2001-2 television series, nor any of the other animated adaptations since Shotaro Ishinomori first started the manga in 1964, so a good adaptation could have made any of the other titles in the franchise of interest for release.

Sadly it becomes obvious what this is, a folly in terms of a crowd pleasing theatrical animation with cutting edge graphics. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) is evoked, and that is not a good sign. It is a chimera which cannot survive beyond its ill advised creation, a 3D animated spectacle which however has one foot in Mamoru Oshii’s more esoteric work, including lengthy discussions in bars and churches as much as action. I like esoteric Mamoru Oshii, even his live action work, but 009 Re: Cyborg even without taking this superhero team, from around the same time as the X-Men in the USA, into this tone is also an atrocious and vague mess. There is no clearness to what it was after, with a plot way too serious and ill defined for its subject, and with a questionable “have you cake and eat it” tone with the premise, which is religious and ends up being about God, but goes about it in a vague hard sci-fi tone it does not clear up.

It begins with the leader of the team from the source text, teenager Joe Shimamura (“009”) who has superhuman speed, brainwashed. In a world where skyscrapers are being destroyed by people who are brainwashed by “His Voice”, evoking a religious terrorist group at first, Joe is pulled from following the culprits blowing up a tower in Tokyo, pulling the team along into this plot. One immediate concern is that, for a reintroduction to these characters, this team consisting of nine figures does not get enough time between them for fans or for new people. One, Pyunma, has no real contributions beyond a subplot about angel skeletons, others only have cameos, and that for the plot only two have any real dynamic between them, Joe himself and Jet Link, cyborg 002 and the North American member who joined back with the American government when this film begins. For the one female member of the team, Françoise Arnoul, this film is really egregious for this, only really here to wake up Joe by jumping out of a helicopter, expecting him to save her, for a sex scene with him off-screen, and for sex appeal, least in terms of how painstakingly depicting her stockings are. This is not a good thing to raise, and even as someone who defends Rintaro’s 1996 adaptation of X, attempting an unfinished CLAMP manga into ninety minutes even if that is a lot of characters who appear and then get killed off, there was at least an animated spectacle to it like a visual dream. This is however a film which gets bogged down into an esoteric narrative it never really wants to take a risk with but is too esoteric for a mainstream audience, and also having little time to make proper use of this cast.

By halfway through, it is literally God or what is presumed it behind these bombings, never pictured and merely an abstract construct rationalized. Even in a lengthy philosophical discussion on evolution and religion in a church, “they” are only viewed as on the rational side of mankind’s thought patterns being God and now seemingly deciding to turn people to blow up society for reasons. “Reasons” is apt as eventually you are in the supernatural, in spite of the fact this should have focused on its cyborg heroes first even with a spiritual plot, made worse by the fact that this does not want to stray into the spiritual. A strange tale could be envisioned from this, a Noah’s Ark scenario with a nuclear submarine with a nuclear payload instead of the flood. Dubai is totaled in a cataclysm in the biggest set piece, but this film never wants to get into this subject in any real detail to bring real causality to even that disaster. When those brainwashed envision a young blonde girl with angel wings, and there is an angel skeleton, not of the Simpsons variety but eventually finding itself on the moon after the end credits, this is a story whose plot should have fully committed to this religious existentialism fully, but is confused and not pulling punches in any direction. It is literally the heroes versus God, but God is depicted as a vague function within the brain, so this cannot get spiritual even if a character is riding a nuclear missile in space and crying out to His Voice humanity is capable of good, nor that the ending involves a heavenly world that is never really given space to even be purely surrealistic. It is paradoxical, and this is without the fact key characters never get a lot to go with, or that this is still structured around action set pieces

Neither helping is that, in terms of animation, this is flawed to. Cel shaded three dimensional figures, it could have looked good but, with its realistic character designs, it feels restricted in what can be animated. You even see an unfortunate choice of action scene which completely undercuts a big theatrical production, showing it had compromised itself with its animation, in which Joe runs on missiles. Unfortunately there is an iconic scene from an older anime, 009 Re: Cyborg placing itself in comparison with Project A-Ko (1986), a beloved film length tale where its lead runs on missiles in the air for one of its best known set pieces. Considering A-Ko, a great work even in terms of animation and one shown theatrically, was originally meant to be an episode in an erotic series, only to be given the love and weight to stand out in that sequence of its own as great animation, it really makes 009 Re: Cyborg look worse as it really is not a good looking production at all. The one thing which is arguably great, and he is always reliable, is the composer Kenji Kawai, always reliable as Mamoru Oshii’s regular composure that can always produce great music. The resulting film however is an actual disaster, including the knowledge Production I.G., who developed this, are an acclaimed anime studio, looking even worse as a film which really does not achieve anything. I had come to this with prior warning over years for its huge flaws, but if there is a really scathing comment I can make to kick it whilst it was down, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was at least a fascinating misfire from its era, whilst this was not a good idea in any of its content, and is dour and obvious to be appreciated unintentionally either.

#247: Makura no Danshi (2015)

 

Studio: feel., Assez Finaud Fabric

Director: Sayo Aoi

Screenplay: Ayumi Sekine and Yuniko Ayana

Voice Cast: Natsuki Hanae as Merry; Ayumu Murase as Hareto Enokawa; Daisuke Kishio as Yonaga Sagiri; Daisuke Namikawa as Sōsuke Tanaka; Kousuke Toriumi as Shirusu Mochizuki; Nobunaga Shimazaki as Nao Sasayama; Shinnosuke Tachibana as Yayoi Sagiri; Sora Takahata as Eiji Kijinami; Toshiyuki Morikawa as Yūichirō Iida; Yoshimasa Hosoya as Kanade Hanamine; Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Yū Maiki; Yuichiro Umehara as Ryūshi Theodore Emori

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

Your butt gets tense...

Using that quote because I am incredibly juvenile, I was hoping to come into Makura no Danshi as a curiosity, not like any anime I have yet encountered, and with a significant change of pace in terms of its gaze being entirely on men as attractive figures which I deliberately wished to sort out. Even as not the target audience as a heterosexual man, this was a deliberate choice to place myself into the position of another audience, apt as when I get into this mini-series, it is entirely from first person. Sadly I have to damn this micro-series, twelve episodes and four minutes each, for one episode which is incredibly insidious and undefendable, and honestly, and as an anime series I had heard of as it appeared on lists of one of the strangest ever made, I also felt disappointed with the rest of the episodes as it completely misses the intended goal.

Broadcast summer 2015 originally before Crunchyroll brought it to the West on their streaming service, Makura no Danshi has a very idiosyncratic structure. Each episode presents a new male character who directly talks to the viewer, helping them to sleep in the end. Until one of the later episodes, the gender of you the viewer is never mentioned, only making the faceless protagonist female in that later episode, opening up an entire spectrum of perspectives for this show. The unfortunate episode undercuts this, but the point is that whether it is a male librarian to the slightly dim-witted hunk in school, you are to crush on this representations of archetypes animated and voiced by male actors. The title translates to "Pillow Boys", the idea of men who help one to sleep just by talking to them or as you never hear your own dialogue, just one half of a conversation, them talking to you. There is clearly a fetishishtic side to this, but is also something which in itself here is not a bad thing at all as a concept even with that attractive allure of these characters, especially as the opening credits are more explicit then the show itself in having some of these characters, drawn with abs of pure steel, with their shirts almost dissolved off in a dishevelled sexy look. This premise in a form already existed as well as a Japanese live action drama series Shima Shima (2011), in which a business ran by a divorced woman sent handsome men to help female customers sleep, sending them over for the night not as sex workers but a form of emotional conform for those suffering from sleeping issues.

The anime itself is very idiosyncratic as, with mentioned, the other character is you the viewer, and most of the conversations are half one communicating to the viewer from the first person. The anime, in one of its flaws structurally, does break this continuity for no particular reason, which adds to the strangeness of the premise but does undercut the illusion. In terms of the "boys" themselves, they follow archetypes, be it the intellectual one, to the miscreant outsider who broads on the roof of the school like a cat who is unaware he is now human. There is also unintentional creepiness in the flower arranging twins. Their episode is an accidental case of creepiness in which their playfulness, including the game of find the flower in their clothes, feels less erotic and more the viewer trapped about to be killed. Also, it is about here we get to the contentious episode, the one which frankly as a viewer makes me wary to return to the series. That is Episode 7, which is about Hareto Enokawa, who is a five year old boy. It is creepy, even though the dialogue is the equivalent of having to babysit the son of someone you know, obsessed with a sentai show and the pair of you feeling tired as he wears you out as your charge, but in context, when these characters are meant to be fantasies, this is an alarm bell moment. Considering the point of each is that these are meant to represent various forms of guy of interest, it raises uncomfortable questions, even if accidentally distorting something innocence, of what the target viewer for this episode takes from this kid. It is a terrible creative decision for the studio feel. and Assez Finaud Fabric to have made as, yes, whilst others are teenagers, which is just as dubious, this in itself is the kind of thing even with the cheery context which has uncomfortable implications whether a pure misguided decision or intentional, which would be even worse to consider.

The work as well is missing a lot of potential. This is a curious premise, notwithstanding that episode I feel comfortable bringing up, but one which is missing that one touch to make it something far more rewarding. None of these pillow boys barring one ever stand out, the one who does managing in less than four minutes to show you could have done a whole series about him, set in his setting, and still keep the first person perspective where you the viewer are interacting with him. That being the one old guy, Yūichirō Iida, proudly calling himself the creepy one despite being the perfect dad fantasy figure, the oden food stall man who drinks on the job, reads shoujo manga for inspiration (shoujo meaning targeted for girls), shows off his appendicitis scar like a fight wound, and admits his body is breaking down despite looking (even as a drawn character voiced and animated) like the ultimate fantasy of the bumpkin some anime fans (of both genders) would want to sweep off them off their feet. The dialogue in this episode is actually funny, and I give full credit to their voice actor for the episode too, voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa, who at even this show was a veteran of the industry. He is also a veteran for the video game industry, and among the characters gamers will see as iconic he has voiced, anyone who has a passing interest in the legacy of Final Fantasy 7 (1997), in its tie-ins in animation and other games, will have heard Morikawa as Sephiroth, one of the whole Final Fantasy franchise's most iconic characters. In terms of how a seiyuu can make one appreciate even a show that is dubious and/or not great for their commitment, Morikawa in less than four minutes provided a memorable episode in what is, frankly, a weird curiosity which does not really get the potential of this show. As mentioned in this paragraph, imagining if this entire show as about the relationship between the unseen protagonist, you with possible narcolepsy, and the booze loving oden food stall man is an acquired taste not all viewers would like, but would have been a compellingly odd and enticing title if it had been pulled off. Even if they had made a show about a variety of "pillow boys" but had extended it out to multiple episodes with a few, and Toshiyuki Morikawa and this character were kept, we could have still gotten a good show regardless of its purpose and the target audience if the production focused on both a sleep aid but one disguising a set of character dramas.

Makura no Danshi even ends on a strange note with the first pillow boy bookending the show, the one behind the quote starting this review in his awkwardness, seemingly able to change ages and seemingly a sheep plush on your bed you imagined was a cute boy. This type of anime I admit fascinates me, when it is not just a narrative work but, with plot or not, it presents itself as deeply unconventional or with a purpose you rarely find in Western animation, in this case a sleep aid which is also depicts the various fantasies of men to gaze at as they talk to you. Unfortunately, one of these episodes means that I really cannot really recommend this, as it will be as creepy for many viewers as it was for me. Ultimately, as well, this is not a great anime too, a low budgeted affair which, even for its premise, even in terms of breaking its own cardinal rule of being entirely from first person, does not fully take advantage of its form and minimal production value to be something memorably quirky or a good sleep aid. It stays as a curiosity, from what I would call the "Crunchyroll era" of strange anime which you only get nowadays, when once it would have been fan made subbed releases, that only becomes available through that streaming service and others needing content. Stuff like this, especially these micro-series, are fascinating for what they are, even if as in this case, they are not always going to be great and even miss potential.

#246: Beast Fighter - The Apocalypse (2003)

 

Studio: Magic Bus

Director: Kenichi Maejima

Screenplay: Junki Takegami

Cast: Kentaro Ito as Shinichi Kuruma; Nana Mizuki as Ayaka Sanders; Shoko Kikuchi as Maria Tengai; Taiki Matsuno as Tomisaburō Tengai; Atsuko Yuya as Shizue Kuruma; Katsuhisa Houki as Genzo Kuruma

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

How does one describe this adaptation of a Ken Ishikawa manga? The Bible as retold by pulp Japanese anime set in the post-apocalypse and made in the early digipaint 2000s era of anime. Ken Ishikawa, the source author, was a friend and collaborator of Go Nagai, together as a pair creating the Getter Robo franchise, whilst Ishikawa's own career as a manga author was prolific in its own right before his 2006 passing. Nagai's legacy in the West has grown as more of his work is available, especially after the success of Devilman Crybaby (2018), whilst Ichikawa is someone who many might not know of but has had adaptations of his material come to the West. Yakuza Weapon (2011), a live action film by Tak Sakaguchi and Yūdai Yamaguchi, is an adaptation of the manga author's work, whilst infamously there is the anime production Ninja Resurrection (1997-8). An adaptation of Ishikawa's manga, which is an adaptation of Futaro Yamada's 1967 novel Makai Tensho, I would argue it is infamous because a) it never had an ending and leaves on a cliff-hanger after two episodes, one which is more blatant in how the anime never really got going in its plot let alone concludes the manga, b) is pretty lurid for those who have seen it as a period samurai work with horror and supernatural content, and c) was likely released in the West with the desire to sell it off the success of Ninja Scroll (1993),  despite their only connections being a lead named Jubei.

Beast Fighter, if close to the source at all, and with knowledge that a 1990 straight to video version of this tale exists, shows a feverish insanity can seep through its author's work. This is a delirious production, once you get past it being a lower budgeted animated series, where its logical jumps are contrasted by the abrupt and sudden turn into emotional sincerity in its final act. Beast Fighter, as mentioned, is set in the post-apocalypse but one here where barring one ruined wasteland, is mostly well off. There is cities, government, train services, the news and even online porn sites as one joke point out, but there is at least an epicentre where children fend for themselves and murdering punks exist. There is also a credible threat, and this is where spoilers have to be brought up immediately, as in this world, God is an entity that is soon to awake, and there are two sides with their eye on this development. Genzo Kuruma is one of them, an evil scientist who sacrificed his wife, his son and his son's love to attain his power, who wishes to control God with his army of mutated humans, based on dinosaur DNA, and recreate Noah's Ark. The other is his son Shinichi Kuruma, melded with three animals (a lion, a bear and an eagle) into a powerful chimera, who wants pure revenge on his father as a result of all this.

The story begins properly with the introduction of Ayaka, a young woman saved by her father from a fatal heart disease but was an experiment with the intention of Genzo Kuruma to use his plans about God, thus kicking off this thirteen episode series. Alongside Tomisaburō Tengai, his comedy sidekick friend who is yet the head of the ninja clan and the brother of Maria, the woman Shinichi loved, Shinichi with his obvious father issues but with Maria's soul within him alongside the animals can either become a true hero or accidentally be turned into an entity far worse than Genzo that could annihilate humanity for good. Shinichi is going to immediately stick out as a lead. He is stereotypical for this medium, the stoic and angry lead with the positive contrast that he is capable of growing, and even feeling sadness like the best type of characters, but his powers are certainly memorable. Most heroes do not punch with an actual lion's head materialising from their arm in his full form, and it is surreal and certainly fun to witness, making close quarters combat with him dangerous alongside the bear's head in his chest and the eagle that he can send out from his back. Considering, however, this is a series where "pluripotent cells" is a key plot point, as is cloning God and needing "emotionless" blood to get the job done, alongside the evil dinosaur mutants, and you are dealing with an anime where this memorable lead is still one of the saner aspects to the production. It is a pulpy narrative which is an acquired taste but for those in harmony is compelling, and whilst there is gore and some luridness, a lot of the experience of Beast Fighter is a rollercoaster of abrupt plot events and all of its reinterpretation of Judo-Christian spirituality in curious ways.

Considering the screenwriter Junki Takegami also worked on Crystal Triangle (1987), a work about conspiracies which leads one to ask why would God need a spaceship, the tone is probably explained by him as much as the source author. There is also the studio behind this Magic Bus; founded in 1972, whilst they have assisted with other studios and made porn anime, they have their own productions and with the likes of Mad Bull 34 (1990–2) among their titles, Magic Bus has its own specific mood when they decide to make something very weird. Here with Beast Fighter, they proudly tell this tale without batting an eye or winking in irony at the material, and without the problematic threat of sexual violence found in Mad Bull 34 either. For this series specifically, the religious content is going to dumbfound a few, and it itself one of the more distinct pieces of this series. With episode titles based on different books of the Old and New Testament, such as Episode 3 being the Book of Job, this is Christianity from a standpoint of a country where Christianity is a minority religion.

There is a small minority of believers, and a history within the country which is prominent, this is entirely from someone reinterpreting the meanings of the Bible from an entirely different culture, in ways which are fascinating if eyebrow rising. Literalising communion as cannibalism is also going to offend some too, so be warned, as this has the famous story of Mary Magdalene being saved from stoning, "May he who casts the first stone without sin", conclude with everyone being chased off or having their head exploded off. All those willing to go along with this will find some curious interpretations of note, such as the emotionless blood concept being important as, contrary to what one would presume, cloning God's DNA does not lead to one's ideal figure but someone capable of true nobility much to your chagrin.

How this is a lower budget show also needs to be considered. The time period it was made in, the early 2000s, is reflected in how this is a production from the time larger budgeted animated shows in Japan would have been figuring out how to make the new tools look good in digital ink and paint.  Many still dated themselves, let alone this one, and now that this aesthetic style is nostalgic is both proof I am old, but is going to be its own factor. Either you can appreciate this, including the fact you will never get a proper 1080p resolution for this title, or it will be off-putting in itself. Your composer here too, Hiroshi Motokura, only has a few credits under their name including Ikki Tousen (2003), the original series of the franchise, and they are going to be a factor as their music is either going to be too cheesy or fits the tone perfectly. That includes how Motokura skates on thin ice with a heroic melody sounding suspiciously like Queen's We Will Rock You with just some of the notes changed, something which has to be heard to be believed.

It is an absurd series, least until after the halfway mark where it managed to get serious in the midst of all its absurdities, and contrasting this is how this is a very simplistic plot at its core. Genzo Kuruma wants his son's blood, especially as it now has absorbed Maria's, the Virgin Mary figure of this Biblical tale, until he eventually targets Ayaka, and most of the thirteen episode series is one of two henchmen, the scientists Genzo has serving for him, their mutant henchmen or an openly corrupt member of the Japanese government. Though his transformation into a rat man unfortunately leans into racist stereotypes used against Jewish people, that is not the anime's fault in being insensitive either, merely to something to warn of as an accident trigger; the character himself really says a lot, if accurate to the source material, of Ken Ishikawa's own views of his own country's government if the Defence Minister here is willing to blow up an entire hot springs resort with the army, kill everyone in the town, and blame an accident from a nearby chemical plant just to kill Shinichi and claim the powers of God for himself.

The logic of the show can be summed up in how Shinichi can happily sever his own arm off, and be able to reattach it again, just to shake out parasitic insects one enemy infected him with, or how this is the kind of show where the lead fights sharks to the death and then processes to break Leviathan in half with an Argentine Backbreaker without the show batting an eye. It is amazing to think that, by the final episodes, the show manages to get serious in a way than is emotionally sincere, even if the content is still absurd, because it takes a huge risk of killing a main character off and having the entire last episode effectively tackling the lead's grief and inability to mourn those he has lost turns him into a Satanic force. It is a truly strange sensation, for how this show cannot be taken serious at all initially, I found myself doing so by its ending. Because of how the conclusion is actually bleak and tragic, with the subject of mourning its key conclusion, this managed to surpass expectations, gleefully here for its interpretation of Bible stories and its pulpy style, by caring about its cast, the true conclusion not that evil is all defeated but one accepting lost. It was actually quite emotionally stirring, and again, earlier on in this series, even when dealing with children being killed in the cross fire of this religious war, it can have them being bounced off walls onscreen in a tonally absurd moment, or have one of Shinichi's foes being an actual island. So the show is still as mad as a box of frogs too, you will have to be willing to accept its own logic to get to this as I did myself, but this managed to not only live up to the hope of being entertaining, but it managed to actually try being dramatic too even if this is a show fully of moments which are baffling too.