Ultimate Anime Horror Collection

LABEL: MVM
RUNNING TIME: 60 mins, 48 mins, 45 mins
RATING: 18
VIDEO FORMAT: 4:3
AUDIO FORMAT: English 2.0, (Excluding Psycho Diver) Japanese 2.0
SUBTITLES: English
DVD REGION: 2

Within this boxset are three anime horror movies; BIO HUNTER, PSYCHO DIVER and TWILIGHT OF THE DARK MASTER. They supposedly form the ultimate anime horror collection. Is this really true?

We start with BIO HUNTER. It's about two nerdy molecular biologists, Komada and Koshigaya teaching at university, but they have another less clean-cut career. They are the Bio Hunters, on a race against time to stop a demon virus that turns ordinary humans into terrible demons.

This transformation is used for shocking effect. It can turn innocence into quite horrific creations. Thankfully, our two heroes always come to the scene, albeit after some flirting at university. Then they get deep down into the action to bring someone back from darkness in true EXORCIST style. However, this film likes to go towards a different genre inspiration occasionally, namely a sort of GHOSTBUSTERS vibe. It provides light relief, which can be suddenly whipped away, leaving no sense of security, and alongside great characterisation it is truly tense. However, character-wise this is Kamada's story really, a tale of doubt and redemption, a thoughtful horror, and a beautifully directed one at that, with brilliant shock tactics, supported by great animation and perfect camera angles.

PSYCHO DIVER follows as a visual treat. It's a dark and vivid world, a personal world of terror for a beautiful pop star named Yuki. She has disturbing nightmares and violent, uncontrollable powers. It takes Busojima, a Psycho Diver, to save her from her inner demon. However, others will stop at nothing to determine her fate, and Busojima is trapped in the middle.

I should start with adding on the fact that this is visually beautiful. Shadow is used commonly, but colour is used effectively to create a mood. In fact, a lack of colour can be just as striking, such as a splurge of blood against a pitch black background. It's very intelligently orchestrated, twisting and turning with pacing changing unexpectedly. All of this makes an excellent tale, like a creepy murder mystery. That's it, with some creepy images, sometimes bordering on disturbing. Seeing inside Yuki's mind is supposed to be truly disturbing, but I find it remains purely weird. An enjoyable movie, memorable slightly, a credit to it's good story, not the Psycho Diving gimmick.

The premise of TWILIGHT OF THE DARK MASTER doesn't sound very scary. It's about an eternally raging war between monstrous demons and noble Guardians fighting for the Great Mother's gift, the Earth. In the modern day, few Demons live and only one Guardian lives, protecting humans against the rising demonic threat.

The above synopsis sounds like a very typical shonen. Yet instead of beginning with a spate of action, it begins in a tranquil setting, a proposal. After the following narrative, it turns into a bloodbath. It's a narrowly focused anime that doesn't try and answer all the questions. It lets you just enjoy this utterly horrible world! On that note, it's near-consistently dark, but it doesn't matter thanks to a captivating story, its occasional over the top moments are soon balanced by some truly disturbing moments that drag you in. It makes some points about the human condition (more subtle in Japanese) to the amazing moments where you will be watching intently, and will stick in your head long after the film has ended. With no over-indulgence in action, by the fairly quick but striking end you're left wanting to re-watch and think it over.

So, back to the main question. Is this the ultimate anime horror boxset? I can say it presents several different aspects of horror. BIO HUNTER, is a shocking adventure, PSYCHO DIVER is the mesmeric journey, while TWILIGHT is the disturbing horror. Yes; the others take parts of horror but TWILIGHT comes closest to being true horror. It's not the ultimate collection; there's not enough truly strong horror. There's not a very wide selection. Yet the anime presented does what it does very well, and TWILIGHT reaches past very good and into excellence. Don't come expecting a collection of masterpieces, but you can expect enjoyment!

Video:

The films have been transferred to DVD well, still at the old 4:3 aspect ratio, and it certainly shows the decade age of the movies, with various forms of artefacting, PSYCHO DIVER and TWILIGHT faring worse. Colour is mostly strong but at its age it can mute on occasion, while the art direction for all is superb, with the look really thought about to create impact. I would like to state that, because they're old movies, the animation can occasionally be staid; a sharp cry from an utterly motionless person. However, overall strong quality for the age.

Audio:

Strong and powerful sound all round with very good soundtracks. All except PSYCHO DIVER have an English and Japanese Soundtrack. The English Soundtracks for all are better, providing a rounder experience overall, although the Japanese for TWILIGHT provides more intellectual depth. The Musical soundtracks raise the films, only once nearly tripping up PSYCHO DIVER near the end with wrongly placed rock music.