Well I wanted something to wash away the disappointment from watching “Doomed Megalopolis” and it’s safe to say that I got it.
Wicked city is a neo-noir animated horror movie based on “Black Guard” part of six novels by Hideyuki Kikuchi.
There is a parallel dimension populated by demons called “The black world” of which very few people know about. In order to ensure the peace between both worlds a peace treaty has been established. However a radical group of demons from the black world are opposed to this and seek to ruin the treaty so a organisation was created in order to stop them called “The black guard”. Our protagonist – Renzaburō Taki is a part of this organisation who during the day works as a electrical goods salesman. One night he manages to seduce a woman that he has been seeing in a local bar for a few months. Going back to an apartment she reveals herself to be a doppelganger from the black world radicals who escapes with Taki’s semen. The day after, Taki is assigned to protect an old mystic who is going to is crucial for maintaining the peace treaty. In order to aid him he is asigned a partner, a black guard that is from the black world. This seemingly simple task becomes much more complicated almost immediately and we watch our main character try to protect the old man while slowly falling in love in the black guard from the other world.
Related Articles
This film has everything that you would imagine a Japanese horror film would have. Gore, sex, violence, action and horrific other worldly beings. However those things do not make up the bigger part of the story as you would imagine. It is a very interesting x-files ish story filled with action, horror and romance. The animation is very decent for the time, the soundtrack was unsurprisingly awesome and it had a rich plot (which gets a lot more interesting and I can not talk about it without completely spoiling it). It might not be for everybody but if you are an anime fan or someone who is not easily disturbed you will probably love it. It reminded me a bit of “Ninja scroll” one of my favorite animated films which I definitely will have to rewatch soon.
Final verdict: 8/10
Wicked City (US)(UK)(Canada)(Italy)(Germany)
