Demon City Shinjuku

Summary: >

Shinjuku: Once a bustling district of Tokyo, now an isolated hive of demons. Ten years ago a duel to the death between martial arts masters Genshiro and Rah ended with the death Genchiro and Rah becoming empowered by a dark evil planning on ruling the world. Slowly he gains power waiting for the right time, while Shinjuku has a sort of hell on earth.

A man who was close to bringing peace to humanity is kidnapped and held captive in Shinjuku. His daughter is desperate to save him, but the only person with a chance of defeating Rah is the son of Genchiro; Kyoya who is now a teenager. While not enthused, Kyoya eventually agrees to help while accompanied by Sakura.

It seems like a fools errand as Shinjuku is a labyrinth of danger with demons lurking in every shadow. They have no clue where Rah is, and even if they do find him Kyoya isn't as strong as his father was when defeated. Even so he'll have to try his best because if he fails there won't be much of a world left to return to.

Thoughts: >

Demon City Shinjuku is a very straightforward "save the world from demons" action title I've always had a soft spot for. I'd say it feels more like a Japanese action movie than an anime. There isn't much of a story, as most of the anime is composed of scenes involving escaping or defeating the various creatures Kyoya and Sakura encounter.

My favorite feature of this this anime is Sayaka, who is just an ordinary girl accompanying Kyoya. She has no special powers or any unusual skills: she's just a girl. Which is maybe why she shouldn't be going in there in the first place, but she still helps Kyoya many times. While Demon City Shinjuku obviously has a lot of supernatural elements, it's quite grounded and somewhat realistic. It's more in line with a horror movie with regular people getting terrorized than a superheros fighting to save the world. Unfortunately I don't think that's what most anime fans want these days, but I rather enjoyed it.

Demon City Shinjuku is a well produced anime with nice character designs (quite creative in the demon department) and good animation. I don't think this is remembered among the classics due to the darker topic and simply being a strait forward action title. For that reason I wouldn't recommend it unless you're really into the demon horror thing, or a connoisseur of classic titles.

Screen Caps: >