Wicked City is 1987 Japanese anime film Directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri. The film deals with human society secretly coexisting with the demon world as a secret police force known as the Black Guard helps defend the world from demon invasion. Wicked City is a fun, gory over the top anime film that any anime fan should watch.
The direction of the film is good. The film has a dark serious oppressive tone mixed with a noir style and a seedy feel. The film has a succubus element to it with demon killing the girl he was went to meets and transforms into her. The film is an 80s anime style classic full of sex and violence such as scene where Taki has sex with Kanako, but it turns out to be a spider like demon doppelganger that attacks him. Taki leads a double life as a black guard agent protecting the underground societies as his portrayed as seedy womanising noir cop. Wicked City very atmospheric detective noir film with very tense and over the top action scenes. The film scenes are very over the top in a traditional anime style, but they are also surreal with an interesting use of colours and effects. The film has crazy over the top anime fight scenes combined with body horror. This crazy over the top anime stuff is also shown with the main charters gun and the woman using her fingernails as knives. It turns out both have toy guard an old demon guy called Giuseppe a diplomat who is going to sign the treaty as the film has a good use of suspense. Mayart gives the film some comedy as Wicked City has a lot of world building. The film is both over the top but grounded at the same time as well as being a very sexual film. the demons then break in and attack them in a stylistic fight scene the film has cray over the top stylisation as the demon unleashes his power and everything goes red. Jin one of the demons’ attacks Makie in a fight scene and tries to rape her before Taki saves her as Mayart goes to a brothel showcasing seedy sleazy body horror of the film as they rescue him and kill the prostitute. They. Then drive him into demon space as the film is just one terrible night that they must survive, again the film is very sexual as Makie is raped and kidnaped by a tentacle demon shows with it deepthroating her mouth in a weird disturbing sexual way. Her rape then awakens her powers as the barrier opens and Taki leaves the demon world. Mayart recovers in a weird science tank as the film has a disgusting weird sexual tone of Maki being raped as the film has lots of sex and nudity. The demon woman’s stomach then becomes a vagina and seduces Taki with her body showcasing the weird sexual body horror of the film. Taki then becomes a still red image with a blue semen overlay and Taki shoots her in a blue and white flash. The tone of the film is that of cool weird surreal dread as the bad gooey becomes a monster like the boss battle in a video game. Taki then shoots hi mand he blows hem up in a very over the top anime style as the monster’s body regenerants like the thing. The film also contains 80s romance as they get caught in the spider woman’s web and she attacks them again combing disturbing body horror with sexuality. This film contains a surreal scene of Taki and Makie having sex with is the interrupted by the demon attacking them showcasing the body horror of the film. in a twist in turns out Giseppi guarded then and manipulated them to fall in love and have a kid to protect both worlds. The film the has a crazy surreal action-packed fight scene between Taki, Giuseppe, and the main monster. The main villain then puts himself back together like The Thing. Maki then kills the demon as because she’s pregnant her strengths are heightened showcasing themes of motherhood, womanhood, and femineity. They find out she’s pregnant and they are concerned as well as angry as they were tricked but they love each other as the film ends with them going off together unsure but happy as Taki continues his job as a demon hunter.
The acting in the film is good. Yusaku Yara does a good job Renzaburo Taki the secret agent protagonist of the film. Toshiko Fujita dos a good job as Makie the female agent form the demon world that Taki works with, and they fall for each other. Mari Yokoo dos a good job as the spider woman one of the main antagonists of the film. Ichiro Nagai does a good job as Giuseppe the diplomat Taki and Makie must protect. Tasou Muramatsu does a good job as the Black Guard President Takis boss. Tamio Oki does a good job as Hotelier the main bad guy. Koji Totani does a good job as Jin one of the villains and Makie’s ex.
The writing in the film is good. The film sets up the idea of there being two worlds the human world and the demon world with the protagonist Taki being a somewhat scummy womanising cop. A demon kills the girl he was meeting and transforms into her, Taki and the woman then have sex and she transforms into a spider demon woman that steals her sperm and tries to kill him before running away. The film sets up the plot of a peace treaty between the demon and human worlds will be sighed tomorrow but experiments on both sides don’t want that to happen as Taki will be acting as a bodyguard for the ambassador. Taki is one of the black guard special human agents that deals with the demon side of thing and is a noir protagonist. Taki is attacked by two demons before being save by Makie his partner showcasing the body horror of the guards as tentacles shoot out of their bodies. The film is very anime with a crazy gun and fingernail claws. Their job is to guard Mayart a senile old demon who is here to sign the peace treaty as the demons show they don’t want him to do it by blowing up his plane. They then meet mayart a pervy old demon as the film shows the idea that having sex with a demon is the best thing ever, but it leads to death. The film also hints to the idea that Mayrt is a decoy sex is a big theme in the film as the demon breaks in and attack them. Mayart goes to a brothel that turns into a sexual body horror as her breast melt into his hands as it turns out she’s a demon as she tries to consume him as they go to rescue him and kill her, and his spiritual energy is drained, and they get him to a hospital as they drive into demon space. The sexual nature of the film is shown when Makie is raped and kidnapped by a tentacle demon as her rape awakens her powers as the barrier is about to open. Makie then seemly sacrifices herself, as the main bad demon guy taunts him showing Maki being raped and taunted him to save her which he decides to try and do. Taki find Maki being gang raped as a female demon tries to seduce him. The demon woman’s stomach becomes a vagina and seduces Taki as he goes inside her body in a weird sexual way. This becomes body horror as Taki comes a still red image with blue semen overlays, but Taki shoots her dead in a white and blue flash as the demon’s attack Taki, and he kills them. The main villain takes the power from his dead comrades and becomes a rock monster that attacks Taki by stabbing him. He shoots him as he blows up in a very over the top anime style as Taki and Makie have a sweet relationship. The monsters body then regenerates like The Thing and the romance between Taki and Maki is very eighties. They get caught in the spider woman’s web as she attacks them Maki then seemly sacrifices herself for him but a bolt of lightning killing her, and Maki is seemly ok leading to a surreal sequence were Taki and Makie have sex. Giuseppe walks into the church as the demon attacks him, in a twist it is revealed that he guarded them and manipulated them to fall in love and have a kid to protect both worlds. The monsters’ sucks Giuseppe into a void and attacks him. Taki is sucked into the void as Giuseppe gets out and attacks him. The main villain puts himself back together and Maki kills the demon because she’s pregnant, so her strengths are heightened. They find out she’s pregnant and they are angry that they are tricked but they love each other, and they go off together unsure but happy as Taki continues his job as a demon hunter.
The cinematography in the film is good. There is a great use of bleu throughout the film and a use of focus shots. The film does a good job at showing a vastness of the city the film also has a good use of red in the film. There is a cool blue foggy look at the airport with a red background. The film has POV shot, shacky cam, zooms closeups and slow motion. The film has interesting shots of Makis mouth as she’s being raped there is a great shot of the shadow of Maki being raped against the red land and the blue sky as therian comes down. Blue lightning bolts then hit her as there a cool use of bleu lighting in the film. There is a cool shot where a demon woman’s Stomach becomes a vagina and seduces Taki inside her body weird sexual body horror Taki becomes a still red image with blue semen overlays, but Taki shoots her dead in a white and blue flash. Blue lightning bolts hit the woman’s and there is a cool use of blue lightning throughout the film. there is a cool use of red flashing lights, red lighting, silhouette shots and overlay effects.
The animation in the film is good. The film has a great 80s gritty animation style with a cool sue of colours like reds, blues, and blacks. From the first scene the film is well animated and stylised witch looks cool. The electric blue punch looks cool, and a lot of the animation has a cool body horror feel with the guards shooting out tentacles form their body. The gun firing in the film is stylised as well as the woman’s red nails slashing. There is a cool flickering effect with the body horror as a monster grows out of the guy as the woman slices him in half and the screen breaks like a mirror. There is a gritty almost chalk like look to some shots and the film is overall very stylised. The film has crazy over the top stylisation as the demon unleashes his power and everything goes red, and the film has weird sexual body horror imagery. There is surreal imagery of them driving into the demon world the sky behind them in the sky glows red and energy goers around the car like a portal as well as this the is a rape scene inside were inside Makis mouth red demon light is shown with saliva. There is blue lighting that comes up from her making rain, there is also cool imagery of the shadow of Maki being raped agents a red land and sky as blue rain comes down. Other cool imagery occurs when a blue lighting bolt this her and red flashing light animation which is gritty and sexual. A very cool animated scene is when the demon woman’s stomach becomes a vagina and seduces Taki by trying to get hm to go inside her body in a weird sexual body horror way, Taki then becomes a still red image with blue semen overlays and when Taki shoots her dead there is a blue and white flash. There are great gory body horror scenes were Taki punches through a guy’s head and black goo comes down from the ceiling. At the climax of the film there is great animation with the spider woman spraying silk form her mouth vagina like discharge at Taki. At the end of the film there is a surreal scene of the two of them having sex shot in slow motion showing that throughout all the horrific stuff they have survived, and they love each other.
Wicked City is classic for 80s anime. It is fun, gory over the top and crazy as well as being a must watch or any fan of Japanese animation.
