Toshio Maeda cannot put a foot wrong in my book. Demon Warrior Koji is a stunning three-episode mystery, filled with intrigue, characters bearing heavy burdens and sad pasts, a wacky cast of good guys straight out of a superhero comic book, doomed romance (a Maeda favorite), explicit sex, and all the cruelty and nastiness you’d expect.

A pleasant surprise was that unlike Nightmare Campus and Urotsukidoji, the cast consists almost entirely of adults. But there still is that renowned Maeda controversy, for after all, there’s nothing more he likes to do than portray both sides of human behavior - love and compassion / sheer brutality and coldness. There are a few shocking moments, a hefty dose of foul sexual language, a particularly nasty rape scene and a lot of dead bodies stockpiled by the end. All of this despite the notable absence of tentacles!

What with all the right ingredients for a storming show falling into place, surely the animation - the Achilles heel of hentai - must be a let down. Not so. Demon Warrior Koji looks magnificent. It possesses real visual integrity and certain packs a heavy punch with its muted colors. Of note though is the video quality of the DVD that verges on appalling at times. The picture is murky, soft and fluctuates in quality between episodes - though it does lend a gloomy quality to the atmospherics. I’d attribute this to the original masters rather than any mishandling on the part of CPM, however.

Apart from the fact that there’s untold loose threads still dangling at the end; Demon Warrior Koji is utterly essential viewing. More would be nice!

Individual Rating: Art/Animation: 9 Story/Plot: 9 Characters: 10 Sounds: 6 Ecchi Level: 8

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 10th, 2002 at 12:26 pm and is filed under Demon Warrior Koji, Anime Hentai. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.