How does one describe this
adaptation of a Ken Ishikawa manga?
The Bible as retold by pulp Japanese anime set in the post-apocalypse and made
in the early digipaint 2000s era of anime. Ken
Ishikawa, the source author, was a friend and collaborator of Go Nagai, together as a pair creating
the Getter Robo franchise, whilst Ishikawa's own career as a manga author
was prolific in its own right before his 2006 passing. Nagai's legacy in the West has grown as more of his work is
available, especially after the success of Devilman
Crybaby (2018), whilst Ichikawa is someone who many might not know of but
has had adaptations of his material come to the West. Yakuza Weapon (2011), a live action film by Tak Sakaguchi and Yūdai
Yamaguchi, is an adaptation of the manga author's work, whilst infamously
there is the anime production Ninja
Resurrection (1997-8). An adaptation of Ishikawa's
manga, which is an adaptation of Futaro
Yamada's 1967 novel Makai Tensho,
I would argue it is infamous because a) it never had an ending and leaves on a cliff-hanger
after two episodes, one which is more blatant in how the anime never really got
going in its plot let alone concludes the manga, b) is pretty lurid for those
who have seen it as a period samurai work with horror and supernatural content,
and c) was likely released in the West with the desire to sell it off the
success of Ninja Scroll (1993), despite their only connections being a lead
named Jubei.
Beast Fighter, if close to the source at all, and with knowledge
that a 1990 straight to video version of this tale exists, shows a feverish
insanity can seep through its author's work. This is a delirious production,
once you get past it being a lower budgeted animated series, where its logical
jumps are contrasted by the abrupt and sudden turn into emotional sincerity in
its final act. Beast Fighter, as mentioned, is set in the post-apocalypse but
one here where barring one ruined wasteland, is mostly well off. There is
cities, government, train services, the news and even online porn sites as one
joke point out, but there is at least an epicentre where children fend for
themselves and murdering punks exist. There is also a credible threat, and this
is where spoilers have to be brought up immediately, as in this world, God is
an entity that is soon to awake, and there are two sides with their eye on this
development. Genzo Kuruma is one of them, an evil scientist who sacrificed his
wife, his son and his son's love to attain his power, who wishes to control God
with his army of mutated humans, based on dinosaur DNA, and recreate Noah's
Ark. The other is his son Shinichi Kuruma, melded with three animals (a lion, a
bear and an eagle) into a powerful chimera, who wants pure revenge on his
father as a result of all this.
The story begins properly with
the introduction of Ayaka, a young woman saved by her father from a fatal heart
disease but was an experiment with the intention of Genzo Kuruma to use his
plans about God, thus kicking off this thirteen episode series. Alongside Tomisaburō
Tengai, his comedy sidekick friend who is yet the head of the ninja clan and
the brother of Maria, the woman Shinichi loved, Shinichi with his obvious
father issues but with Maria's soul within him alongside the animals can either
become a true hero or accidentally be turned into an entity far worse than
Genzo that could annihilate humanity for good. Shinichi is going to immediately
stick out as a lead. He is stereotypical for this medium, the stoic and angry
lead with the positive contrast that he is capable of growing, and even feeling
sadness like the best type of characters, but his powers are certainly
memorable. Most heroes do not punch with an actual lion's head materialising
from their arm in his full form, and it is surreal and certainly fun to
witness, making close quarters combat with him dangerous alongside the bear's
head in his chest and the eagle that he can send out from his back.
Considering, however, this is a series where "pluripotent cells" is a
key plot point, as is cloning God and needing "emotionless" blood to
get the job done, alongside the evil dinosaur mutants, and you are dealing with
an anime where this memorable lead is still one of the saner aspects to the
production. It is a pulpy narrative which is an acquired taste but for those in
harmony is compelling, and whilst there is gore and some luridness, a lot of
the experience of Beast Fighter is a
rollercoaster of abrupt plot events and all of its reinterpretation of
Judo-Christian spirituality in curious ways.
Considering the screenwriter Junki Takegami also worked on Crystal Triangle (1987), a work about
conspiracies which leads one to ask why would God need a spaceship, the tone is
probably explained by him as much as the source author. There is also the
studio behind this Magic Bus; founded
in 1972, whilst they have assisted with other studios and made porn anime, they
have their own productions and with the likes of Mad Bull 34 (1990–2) among their titles, Magic Bus has its own specific mood when they decide to make
something very weird. Here with Beast
Fighter, they proudly tell this tale without batting an eye or winking in
irony at the material, and without the problematic threat of sexual violence
found in Mad Bull 34 either. For
this series specifically, the religious content is going to dumbfound a few,
and it itself one of the more distinct pieces of this series. With episode
titles based on different books of the Old and New Testament, such as Episode 3
being the Book of Job, this is Christianity from a standpoint of a country
where Christianity is a minority religion.
There is a small minority of
believers, and a history within the country which is prominent, this is
entirely from someone reinterpreting the meanings of the Bible from an entirely
different culture, in ways which are fascinating if eyebrow rising.
Literalising communion as cannibalism is also going to offend some too, so be
warned, as this has the famous story of Mary Magdalene being saved from
stoning, "May he who casts the first stone without sin", conclude
with everyone being chased off or having their head exploded off. All those
willing to go along with this will find some curious interpretations of note,
such as the emotionless blood concept being important as, contrary to what one
would presume, cloning God's DNA does not lead to one's ideal figure but
someone capable of true nobility much to your chagrin.
How this is a lower budget show
also needs to be considered. The time period it was made in, the early 2000s,
is reflected in how this is a production from the time larger budgeted animated
shows in Japan would have been figuring out how to make the new tools look good
in digital ink and paint. Many still
dated themselves, let alone this one, and now that this aesthetic style is
nostalgic is both proof I am old, but is going to be its own factor. Either you
can appreciate this, including the fact you will never get a proper 1080p
resolution for this title, or it will be off-putting in itself. Your composer
here too, Hiroshi Motokura, only has
a few credits under their name including Ikki
Tousen (2003), the original series of the franchise, and they are going to
be a factor as their music is either going to be too cheesy or fits the tone
perfectly. That includes how Motokura
skates on thin ice with a heroic melody sounding suspiciously like Queen's We Will Rock You with just some of the notes changed, something
which has to be heard to be believed.
It is an absurd series, least
until after the halfway mark where it managed to get serious in the midst of
all its absurdities, and contrasting this is how this is a very simplistic plot
at its core. Genzo Kuruma wants his son's blood, especially as it now has
absorbed Maria's, the Virgin Mary figure of this Biblical tale, until he
eventually targets Ayaka, and most of the thirteen episode series is one of two
henchmen, the scientists Genzo has serving for him, their mutant henchmen or an
openly corrupt member of the Japanese government. Though his transformation
into a rat man unfortunately leans into racist stereotypes used against Jewish
people, that is not the anime's fault in being insensitive either, merely to
something to warn of as an accident trigger; the character himself really says
a lot, if accurate to the source material, of Ken Ishikawa's own views of his
own country's government if the Defence Minister here is willing to blow up an
entire hot springs resort with the army, kill everyone in the town, and blame
an accident from a nearby chemical plant just to kill Shinichi and claim the
powers of God for himself.
The logic of the show can be
summed up in how Shinichi can happily sever his own arm off, and be able to
reattach it again, just to shake out parasitic insects one enemy infected him
with, or how this is the kind of show where the lead fights sharks to the death
and then processes to break Leviathan in half with an Argentine Backbreaker
without the show batting an eye. It is amazing to think that, by the final
episodes, the show manages to get serious in a way than is emotionally sincere,
even if the content is still absurd, because it takes a huge risk of killing a
main character off and having the entire last episode effectively tackling the
lead's grief and inability to mourn those he has lost turns him into a Satanic
force. It is a truly strange sensation, for how this show cannot be taken
serious at all initially, I found myself doing so by its ending. Because of how
the conclusion is actually bleak and tragic, with the subject of mourning its
key conclusion, this managed to surpass expectations, gleefully here for its
interpretation of Bible stories and its pulpy style, by caring about its cast,
the true conclusion not that evil is all defeated but one accepting lost. It
was actually quite emotionally stirring, and again, earlier on in this series,
even when dealing with children being killed in the cross fire of this
religious war, it can have them being bounced off walls onscreen in a tonally
absurd moment, or have one of Shinichi's foes being an actual island. So the
show is still as mad as a box of frogs too, you will have to be willing to
accept its own logic to get to this as I did myself, but this managed to not
only live up to the hope of being entertaining, but it managed to actually try
being dramatic too even if this is a show fully of moments which are baffling
too.
