Blood Reign - Underland Online
- Underland Online
- Mike
- 01/30/01
- click here
Blood Reign: The Curse of the Yoma
I can't quite figure out why there isn't more horror anime in the world. There might be, but we simply don't see it in the United States save for a few titles that just border on the genre such as
Vampire Hunter D or
The Pet Shop of Horrors for instance. When
Blood Reign: The Curse of the Yoma arrived, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. The package boasts something about an army of death and flesh eating stallions. Let's see, death and flesh eaters together in one feature? That can't be true, but I decided to go ahead and give it a try, but being that it was another of the recently re-released Essential Anime titles, I wasn't expecting too much considering my experiences with the other titles from this line had been less than palatable.
Released originally as a two-part OVA,
Blood Reign is set in feudal Japan and is centered around a young ninja named Hikage who is hunting for his former friend and clam member, Marou. Their master has died recently, and Marou has fled the clan, but not after attacking his friend. Afraid that Marou will spread the news of their master's death to rivals and enemies, Hikage goes off in search of him. However, what Hikage finds is a dark world filled with treachery, monstrosities, and other horrors as well as undead fiends.
I've made no bone before about the fact that when it comes to OVA releases, I've not often too terribly impressed, and thus I was thinking that was going to be the same here. Although Blood Reign certainly isn't the pinnacle in anime production, and isn't necessarily a flat out horror title, it does have quite a few moments that make it worthwhile. Actually comprised of two separate features, 'Hikage in an Evil World' and 'Morou With Crazy Fang,' but both of these stories are their own and the characters are the real connection here. What attracts me here though is the gore, and there are some very interesting moments.
If mutations and transformations are your thing however, there are some of those as well. There are women transforming into giant spiders, and as promised, a yoma that takes the form of a stallion complete with vicious teeth capable for mutilating flesh. The scenes are decent, but again, not really something that's going to turn the world on its ear. It does make it a little more entertaining however, and while there aren't nearly enough undead for my liking, I feel that zombies for example should be a part of everything; there are at least enough grotesque creatures to appease most.
Generally, if you have an anime that lends itself to being somewhat of a horror title, most of the gore comes in the form of a bit of blood-letting and some semi graphic mutations.
Blood Reign has that, but more importantly, if you're one that craves more intense visuals, there are plenty of butchered bodies with strewn corpses that have been eviscerated, brutally ravaged, and look partially eaten. I've fine with that, especially considering the fact that when it comes to the modern horror film, be it American or otherwise, gore for the most part has been forgotten, instead taking the path of being a 'sensible' horror film. Usually, that amounts to a bunch of horny teens that put themselves in a position where they should know better, but usually don't. Gore however is but a passing fancy these days, having gone out of fashion with the likes of George Romero, the late Lucio Fulci, and others.
There are flashbacks here and there that give a bit of background on the main characters, and I'm fine with that. They never tend to go on for too long, and they at least do provide some semblance of the relationship between Marou and Higake. In some ways, it gives a bit of alleviation as the OVA does have a more morose feeling much of the time, perhaps even forlorn, but the brief flashbacks bring you right back into this atmosphere. Often, that's been my problems with any OVA, and fortunately, the characters don't seem to be haphazardly thrown in for the most part, an issue that has plagued many of the other horror inspired anime titles that I've had the (mis)fortune of watching.
What's sad though is that there really isn't a great deal of extras on the disc. The original trailers have been included as well as what is called the Dramatis Personae, which really is just information on the characters. Really though, there isn't too much else that I can think of that could have been included, although the folks at ADV usually come up with something. There really wouldn't be much need for historical notes considering that Blood Reign's only real tie to history is the time frame that it takes place in. I don't recall giant spiders roaming the Japanese countryside and terrorizing villagers being mentioned in any of the history classes that I attended.
Blood Reign isn't necessarily a bad feature, it's nowhere near perfect, but it's also not bad to just sit down and smile with glee at the gore and bloodshed, if that's your bag. I'm not quite into horror as much as I was a few years back, and I have to blame that on horrid releases in the world of cinema like Scream and a growing list of others, but considering that this film was done right at the end of the 1980's, right about when the horror genre more or less died in my opinion, it still has some of that horrific nature about it. It's not the type of thing that is going to be frightening in the least, and I doubt it will spawn nightmares, except perhaps in small children, but it shows that Japan knows its gore just like most other countries, and that's a good thing.
Posted on Tuesday, January 30, 2001 (Archive on Wednesday, February 28, 2001)