Wicked CityTensions between two worlds give rise to all manner of horror and destruction. Wicked City is a Japanese animated horror/action movie about a man named Renzaburō Taki, who poses as an electronics salesman by day, but by night is a member of an elite and secret special force called the "Black Guard". He, and others like him, are charged to uphold a tenuous peace between his world and the world of the supernatural, called the "Black World", where monstrous demons dwell. On the eve of the arrival of an important dignitary named Giuseppe Mayart to renew the peace accord between these two worlds, he is partnered with a beautiful agent from the "other side", a supernaturally powered woman named Makie to protect Mayart from assassination.
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Wicked City is an example of the kind of anime touted as "extreme" or "not for kids" at the rise of what was called "Japanimation" in the Eighties and into the early Nineties. It was a time when anime was only to be found at participating retailers (like Suncoast) who were willing to stock animated movies or TV shows on VHS with occasional warnings about "explicit content" and for "mature audiences only". Like some of its contemporaries, Wicked City straddled the line between dark and gritty action and adult entertainment. Advertisements for this and its like were found at the beginning of those classic VHS tapes and teased the most sensational aspects of the movies, ramping up burgeoning anime fans (like myself at that age) with the promise of a wild and intense action ride unlike anything served up by Western animated classics (save for the likes of, say, Heavy Metal). This movie was an example of how "pornographic" anime was not such a black and white concept, but was a part of a spectrum. While Wicked City doesn't display any genitalia or penetration, blurred or otherwise as is common in Japanese hentai, it is replete with approximately a half a dozen graphic scenes of sexuality, including forced relations in half of them, one scene involving multiple assailants. It would be one thing to say that these scenes are just for story context, but they are designed with the intent to titillate, so that isn't a very likely claim. Wicked City was created by the prolific Yoshiaki Kawajiri, whose works also include such hard-edged and sexy action anime as Goku: Midnight Eye, Demon City Shinjuku, and Ninja Scroll, but also includes touching and poignant works like A Wind Named Amnesia. As with other seminal anime titles, like Akira, Wicked City boldly presents itself as a herald of animated entertainment for a new generation, even if it struggles under the weight of its own plot and mishandles depicting mature content in a way that seems anything but. Nevertheless, Wicked City is a gorgeous animated feature, and not just because of the bevy of attractive and very lethal ladies present in it. It exudes a neo-noir charm and carries a tone of dread and tension throughout. And despite the perceived flaws of its excessive sex and violence, it--and other works by Kawajiri--have left an indelible impact on creative artists today. Even Taki's opening monologue can be found sampled in the intense and dark synthwave stylings of artists like Perturbator, whose music in turn influenced the violently psychedelic action game, "Hotline Miami". Love it or hate it, Wicked City is a defining entry in a crucial epoch of Japanese animation.
Taki is an example of a hyper-masculine Übermensch, able to quip at the drop of a hat, fight off hordes of superhuman radicals from the Black World, and lay any woman he gets his hands on. Note, however, that his initial sporting with a barfly named Kanako turns out to be a trap, since she's really a spider demon. Still, she sleeps with him before trying to kill him, so I suppose that is just another testament to Taki's virility. Taki's prowess is actually incorporated into the plot, probably to appeal to the target audience for Wicked City--and I mean this with no disrespect, mind you--which is likely young men with overactive sexual imaginations. The surface conflict is presented as Taki and Makie guarding Mayart, who unleashes a constant barrage of unwanted advances toward Makie, further testing their patience. When he escapes--to visit a "soapland", i.e. a brothel in Japan disguised like a bathhouse--they track him down and save him from a radical demon, shapeshifted into a prostitute. Mayart acts like a spoiled and overly horny teenager, so both Taki and Makie bond over their mutual frustration with what feels essentially like babysitting. And in the midst of the chaos that is their assignment, Makie is abducted and taken by the radicals--she seems to have previously had relations with some of their men--and is subjected to terrible violations by them, which infuriates Taki when it is shown to him. Taki defies Mayart and goes after her to rescue her, which he does despite hypnotic temptations cast upon him by (yet another) sex demon. Yet the valiant Taki prevails, and when he rescues Makie, their bond deepens further still, and they fall into bed with each other. (Women from the Black World must be awfully emotionally resilient to entertain the idea of sexual congress not more than a couple of hours after being gangraped.) Yet in the climactic final battle, Mayart reveals that the purpose of assigning the two of them together in the first place was so that they would conceive a child--a rare thing that was intended to bind our world and the Black World together in peace. Audiences may recall, if they weren't overly distracted by Kanako's...ahem, acrobatics...that she "got what she came for" after their dalliance, which is sure to mean that, when all is said and done, Taki is super special because of his seed. That's right: Taki isn't just a stand-in for horny boys to project themselves onto because he's smart, funny, and strong, but because he has special sex genes. Of course, in the interest of making a compelling adventure story, this detail is deliberately withheld until the end of the story, as Mayart puts it, because he wanted their union to be natural and born of love, not duty...never mind the atrocities Makie had to endure as a result of his ruse. This revelation underscores that Wicked City may not be a movie that places sensitivity to sexual violence at a premium, but accepts that its target audience will probably overlook this inconvenient detail anyway, remembering instead about all of the cool action and risque fun that came along for the ride.
Recommended for: Fans of a ultra-violent anime that dances between the acme of cool and bad taste with its copious gore, violence, and of course, sex and nudity (sometimes all at once), and rarely (if ever) operates with any restraint as it tells its dark and edgy story of demonic puppet masters, secret societies, and the tenuous balance our world has with what is essentially Hell. Suffice to say, Wicked City is--as it oft has been declared in its own advertisements--a movie that is definitely "not for children". (Probably also not for anyone other than the most die-hard anime buffs of the era, for that matter.)
Taki is an example of a hyper-masculine Übermensch, able to quip at the drop of a hat, fight off hordes of superhuman radicals from the Black World, and lay any woman he gets his hands on. Note, however, that his initial sporting with a barfly named Kanako turns out to be a trap, since she's really a spider demon. Still, she sleeps with him before trying to kill him, so I suppose that is just another testament to Taki's virility. Taki's prowess is actually incorporated into the plot, probably to appeal to the target audience for Wicked City--and I mean this with no disrespect, mind you--which is likely young men with overactive sexual imaginations. The surface conflict is presented as Taki and Makie guarding Mayart, who unleashes a constant barrage of unwanted advances toward Makie, further testing their patience. When he escapes--to visit a "soapland", i.e. a brothel in Japan disguised like a bathhouse--they track him down and save him from a radical demon, shapeshifted into a prostitute. Mayart acts like a spoiled and overly horny teenager, so both Taki and Makie bond over their mutual frustration with what feels essentially like babysitting. And in the midst of the chaos that is their assignment, Makie is abducted and taken by the radicals--she seems to have previously had relations with some of their men--and is subjected to terrible violations by them, which infuriates Taki when it is shown to him. Taki defies Mayart and goes after her to rescue her, which he does despite hypnotic temptations cast upon him by (yet another) sex demon. Yet the valiant Taki prevails, and when he rescues Makie, their bond deepens further still, and they fall into bed with each other. (Women from the Black World must be awfully emotionally resilient to entertain the idea of sexual congress not more than a couple of hours after being gangraped.) Yet in the climactic final battle, Mayart reveals that the purpose of assigning the two of them together in the first place was so that they would conceive a child--a rare thing that was intended to bind our world and the Black World together in peace. Audiences may recall, if they weren't overly distracted by Kanako's...ahem, acrobatics...that she "got what she came for" after their dalliance, which is sure to mean that, when all is said and done, Taki is super special because of his seed. That's right: Taki isn't just a stand-in for horny boys to project themselves onto because he's smart, funny, and strong, but because he has special sex genes. Of course, in the interest of making a compelling adventure story, this detail is deliberately withheld until the end of the story, as Mayart puts it, because he wanted their union to be natural and born of love, not duty...never mind the atrocities Makie had to endure as a result of his ruse. This revelation underscores that Wicked City may not be a movie that places sensitivity to sexual violence at a premium, but accepts that its target audience will probably overlook this inconvenient detail anyway, remembering instead about all of the cool action and risque fun that came along for the ride.
Recommended for: Fans of a ultra-violent anime that dances between the acme of cool and bad taste with its copious gore, violence, and of course, sex and nudity (sometimes all at once), and rarely (if ever) operates with any restraint as it tells its dark and edgy story of demonic puppet masters, secret societies, and the tenuous balance our world has with what is essentially Hell. Suffice to say, Wicked City is--as it oft has been declared in its own advertisements--a movie that is definitely "not for children". (Probably also not for anyone other than the most die-hard anime buffs of the era, for that matter.)