Demon City Shinjuku

1988. OAV. 79 min. Horror/occult thriller. org Hideyuki Kikuchi (novel). dir Yoshiaki Kawajiri. des Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Yuji Ikeda. -bc

A pair of teenagers enters the demon-occupied district of Shinjuku in Tokyo to stop an evil occult genius from unleashing a horde of demons into the human world. Similar in style and theme to Wicked City, which shared the same source writer and director, it’s different enough in overall effect, including the elimination of sexual violence, to be quite a refreshing departure.

Young Kyoya ponders the fate of his father, an occult master who disappeared ten years ago while fighting a onetime classmate, Levih Rah. The battle ended with the Shinjuku district of Tokyo being abandoned to Levih Rah and his otherworldly minions.

When President Rama of the World Federation comes to Tokyo, he is kidnapped and taken to Shinjuku. Master Lai, who trained both Kyoya’s father and Levih Rah, urges Kyoya to go to Shinjuku to stop Levih Rah from opening the Demon Void, which will bring an army from the Demon Realm to take over the Earth. Kyoya is also approached by Sayaka, the young daughter of President Rama, for the same mission, but he hesitates. When she heads into Shinjuku by herself with little protection, he has no choice but to follow.

In the nightmare world that Shinjuku has become, Kyoya and Sayaka confront monsters, demonic apparitions, and all sorts of shady characters in a series of increasingly harrowing encounters. They are joined by a young urchin on motorized roller skates who is helpful, but always looking for an angle. Gradually, Kyoya comes to realize his innate power and confronts Levih Rah in a dramatic finale that takes on near-apocalyptic proportions just as the Demon Void opens up.

Yoshiaki Kawajiri is a master at providing sharply detailed leading characters, and the two teens here may be his most appealing. Kyoya and Sayaka, the hero and heroine, have remarkably realistic faces for such young protagonists and we can read a lot of what happens on their faces. They are young but deadly earnest, with a tinge of maturity in their expressions complemented by an aura of youthful resolve that strengthens them in their battle with evil. Kyoya wears a high school uniform with some fashionable touches, while Sayaka stands out in her pink long-sleeved dress with white collar, a demure vision of purity in a corrupt, decaying landscape. The supporting characters, however, are the usual Kawajiri collection of stylish villains with long hair and long coats, and eccentric street characters with their own agendas. In addition, there is the pack of grotesque creatures we’ve come to expect from Kawajiri, all gaping jaws, tentacles, and sinuous limbs.

The dark, abandoned Shinjuku district offers a nightmarish backdrop of ruined buildings, piles of debris, dank tunnels, subways, and black, inky openings into the demon void, where monsters lurk in wait. At one point, Kyoya is hypnotized into thinking the public park is green and sunny and filled with happy park visitors. The real park is derelict and covered in a spooky purple fog, which is host to the angry lost souls of those who died when Shinjuku was plunged into its demon control.

Director and character designer Yoshiaki Kawajiri had previously directed the similarly styled Wicked City and went on to turn out several more hard-edged, violent, and stylized works, including Goku Midnight Eye, Cyber City Oedo 808, Ninja Scroll, and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, as well as X (2001), the TV series based on the CLAMP manga, and “World Record,” a sequence in The Animatrix.

While Wicked City was sci-fi future noir with a crime movie feel, Demon City Shinjuku, made the following year by much the same crew, is more of a traditional occult thriller, with the emphasis on nightmarish horror imagery and a particular mood of doom, despair, and great evil. When Sayaka first enters Shinjuku on foot over a lengthy rubble-strewn bridge, the mood is set very carefully and the sense of great danger is built up slowly, shot by shot, step by tentative step. The first living thing Sayaka sees in Shinjuku is a cat that is quickly snatched up by tentacles from some unseen source and then, seen only in shadow, ripped apart. Monsters and evil spaces abound and Sayaka and Kyoya are saved on more than one occasion by a vaguely sympathetic denizen or two, one of whom is immediately swallowed up afterwards by a void as the ground gives way beneath her.

In the midst of all this horror, the compassionate Sayaka genuinely seeks to avoid violence when confronting danger. At one point she soothes and tames a snarling two-headed dog. At another, in Chuo Park, she confronts the lost, suffering souls of those who died and finds a way to bring them peace. This is in sharp contrast with Wicked City, in which action heroine Makie fights and kills her share of baddies, but also gets raped and sexually assaulted for her trouble. Sayaka is briefly manhandled once, but never suffers the humiliation that Makie does. Also, the romantic element of Wicked City, which relied on a passionate but comparatively tastefully done sex scene between the two leads, has its counterpart in the chaste time the two teens spend together in Demon City. Theirs is a sweeter, more innocent romance but one that is no less confident, heartfelt, and unmistakable in its body language.

With fewer of the spectacular narrative flour­ishes of Wicked City, Demon City focuses more intently on its two youthful leads and sets up a stark contrast between them and the demon-ridden devastated landscape around them, as opposed to the way Taki and Makie, both considerably less innocent, moved more easily through a corrupted cityscape. If there is any problem or structural flaw here it is in the final battle between young Kyoya and the demonic father figure Levih Rah, which happens much too quickly and can even be called anticlimactic.

There is a key scene in a ruined city park, referred to as Chuo Park, where Sayaka tries to comfort an eerie little girl who has approached her, only to be bitten by her. Sayaka believes the girl to be the ghost of a victim of the Shinjuku destruction and soon puts all her effort into finding a way for the all the suffering souls trapped in the purple-shrouded park to find peace. As she does so, little bubbles of light appear and float down, while soft, lightly mournful music plays, connecting with the souls and taking them away. It’s a beautiful scene that demonstrates how purity and goodwill can overcome demonic horror and chaos.

advisory There are monstrous creatures with piercing claws, sinuous limbs and gaping jaws filled with long, sharp teeth, but they are more grotesque than anything else and don’t draw a lot of blood. There’s nothing else to get squeamish about, although the overall nightmarish tone may disturb viewers under the age of eleven.