Reviews: Demon City Shinjuku (1988) Movie Review
Genres: Horror, Action, Fantasy, Animation, Demons
Subgenres:
HellHorror’s review of Demon City Shinjuku (1988) breaks down the plot, scares, cast performances, and its lasting impact on the horror genre.
Demon City Shinjuku (1988) is a Japanese Animation fantasy horror film that is 82 minutes long and was adapted from Hideyuki Kikuchi‘s novel, Demon City Shinjuku that was published on September 30, 1982. The novel and anime differ slightly in that the novel does not have a fight whereas the anime displays a fight scene between two former friends. Director Yoshiaki Kawajiri (The Animatrix (2003), Ninja Scroll (1993), Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000), X (2001)) executed this low budget anime fabulously and almost flawless. The anime contains brief anime character nudity with s**ual language, violence, minor bad language (the F word was used in the English dub version) and minor scenes that may be frightening to some viewers.
Demon City Shinjuku begins by showing us two former friends, Rebi Ra (voice - Kiyoshi Kobayashi - The Castle of Cagliostro (1979), Lupin the 3rd (1977), Daitokai - tatakai no hibi (1976), Rupan sansei (1971)) and Genichirou fighting. Rebi Ra is an evil Lord to the extreme where he allows himself to be possessed so that he can be powerful enough to beat Genichirou. Genichirou did not survive the battle with Rebi Ra resulting in Rebi Ra destroying a part of Tokyo called Shinjuku by creating a devastating earthquake. Shinjuku becomes a demon-haunted wilderness which helps Rebi Ra with his plans in summoning demons to help him conquer the world. The anime skips forward to ten years later where we see Rebi Ra attacking the World President, who is in charge of controlling world peace. Unknown to Rebi Ra, he will have to deal with Genichirou’s son, Kyoya Izayoi, who inherited his father’s powers and a little extra. Watch the anime and see what happens. I was not disappointed upon seeing this anime and hope that you find a liking to it also.
I prefer the original version of this film over the English dub, and I did not mind reading the subtitles. The English version was all over the place with its characters and their accents - a little kid with a Mexican accent and the heroine with what seems to be a British accent. The plot, action scenes, and the screenplay was excellent as well, but the characters needed a little more depth.
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Sources Used to Shape This Review
Insights in this review are drawn from director interviews, fan commentary, production notes, and long-form breakdowns across genre-specific platforms. Content is written uniquely and reviewed for accuracy.
- Demon City Shinjuku Rating Scores
- Our Score: 7/10
- Overall Score: 6.55/10
- IMDB: 6.3/10
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