#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.