Demon City Shinjuku (1988) Review

Going back to old classics I never saw before, today I look at Demon City Shinjuku. A simple premise, a human strikes a deal with the demons for power in exchange for unleashing hell on earth, a guy is killed trying to stop him, and ten years later that man's son enters into Shinjuku to kill the traitor to humanity and stop hell from coming to earth.

Since the show never gets a more in-depth plot than that you would expect the show to be fairly action-packed, but this is where you are wrong. This is one of those anime that likes to invest a lot of time into characters explaining the story and trying to make some kind of a deep point. Every time it fails to be compelling, so much of the show just feels like people prattling on about nonsense.

This is made even worse by how unlikable any of the characters are. The lead character is an asshole, the leading lady is preachy, the child who sounds like a forty-year-old Mexican whose second language is English is obnoxious, I just don't root for anyone in this show. And despite all the dialogue, there is very little to any of the characters making it hard to find them interesting either.

I don't mean to sound like I'm glossing over the plot, there just isn't much happening in this movie. Guy goes into Shinjuku to protect the president's daughter from the demons there and defeat the guy who caused it all and killed his father, never get's any deeper or more complex than that. It's not a plot with enough going on to criticize or praise, just bare-bones excuse for the minimal action.

This could all be salvaged if either the action is good, or at least the show gives you some of that glorious 80's anime over the top violence, but you get neither. The animation is poor, the action scenes feel rushed and choppy, and it never commits enough to the blood and gore that made certain older shows such a spectacle.

And honestly the visual design overall feels lackluster, at least when in motion. There are times that, isolated for the story and events, there are still images that look intriguing and fantastic. The park filled with bones is a great one. I'm not sure how to describe a show only looking good in screenshots, especially since I don't think it's just the animation that kills it, something about the design just doesn't work in motion.

In the end, Demon City Shinjuku doesn't have anything to offer. Very little character and plot, a lot of preaching about nothing, and lackluster action and violence. Throw in an English dub where no character is putting in any effort and the show is just a chore to watch. Not good, and not bad enough to be enjoyable, it's a show best skipped.