Wicked City - The city of enchanting beasts

Wicked City - The city of enchanting beasts (妖 獣 都市 Yojū toshi) is a Japanese animated film (anime) for adults on the horror-action genre, 1987 dark fantasy produced by Video Art and Madhouse for Japan Home Video. Based on Black Guard, the first novel in Hideyuki Kikuchi's Wicked City series, the film is the solo directorial debut of Yoshiaki Kawajiri, who has also served as a character designer, storyboard artist, animation director and key animator.

The story takes place towards the end of the 20th century and explores the idea that the human world coexists secretly with the demon world with a secret police force known as the Black Guard protecting the border.

History

The existence of the "Black World", an alternate dimension populated by supernatural demons, is known to few humans. For centuries, a peace treaty between the black world and the world of humans has been maintained to ensure relative harmony. Both sides of the continuum are protected by an organization of secret agents called the Black Guard, specifically a group of radicalized members of the Black World.

Renzaburō Taki, a hired electronics salesman by day, and a Black Guard when needed, has casual sex with Kanako, a young woman he has met for three months at a local bar. Kanako is revealed to be a spider-like doppelgänger of the Black World radicals and she escapes with a sample of Taki's sperm after attempting to kill him. The next day, Taki is tasked with protecting Giuseppe Mayart, a 200-year-old comic mystic and perverse, signatory of a ratified treaty between the human and the black world in Tokyo, and a target for the radicals. Taki is also informed that he will be working with a partner: a black guard from the black world.

While waiting for Mayart to arrive in Narita, Taki is attacked by two radicals on the catwalk, but is saved by his partner, a beautiful model named Makie. Taki and Makie eventually meet Mayart; the trio takes refuge in a Hibiya hotel with spiritual barriers to protect it from the radicals. While playing chess to pass the time, the innkeeper explains to Taki, that he is unsure of his responsibilities within the Black Guard, that he will only appreciate his position once he knows what he is protecting. . During a radical assault on the hotel, Mayart sneaks out.

Makie and Taki find him in a soapy earth in the throes of a radical who has damaged his health, causing a frantic trip to a spiritual hospital under the protection of the Black Guard. Halfway through, Makie is taken prisoner by a sprawling demon and Taki is forced to leave her behind. Upon their arrival at the clinic, Mayart begins his recovery, while Mr. Shadow, the leader of the radicals, uses a psychic projection to taunt Taki by making him save Makie. Ignoring Mayart's threats to be fired, he chases Shadow into a dilapidated building away from the hospital, where he learns that Makie has been gang raped by radicals. A radical woman attempts to seduce Taki, asking him if he has ever intercourse with Makie, but he kills her and the radicals who rape Makie and injures Shadow.

While caring for each other, Makie reveals to Taki that she had once been romantically involved with a member of the radicals and that she had joined the Black Guard because she believed in the need for peace between the two worlds. Upon returning to the clinic, the two are fired by Taki's superior, who believes Taki's wishes are an obstacle to her duties. While driving through a tunnel with a stowaway Mayart, they are trapped by Kanako, who, having determined that Taki and Makie were a couple for genetic reasons, attempts to kill them again. Supernatural lightning kills Kanako, while Taki and Makie are injured. Later they wake up inside a church and dedicate themselves to passionate lovemaking.

A final attack from Shadow comes against Taki and Makie, who is deflected by other lightning strikes generated by a surprisingly healthy Mayart, who reveals that he was indeed hired to protect his "bodyguards". Mayart and Taki nearly defeat Shadow, but the coup de grace comes from Makie, whose powers are increased due to her being pregnant with Taki. Mayart explains that the two are essential to the new peace treaty; Taki and Makie have been selected to be the first couple from both worlds capable of producing half-human, half-demon babies, and their bond will be instrumental in ensuring eternal peace between the two worlds. Although angry at Mayart because they had not been informed of the Black Guard's plans, Taki implicitly admits that he has fallen in love with Makie and, according to the innkeeper's advice, wants to protect her and their baby. The trio leaves to participate in the peace ceremony. Taki remains in the Black Guard to ensure the protection of both worlds and her loved ones.

Production

Yoshiaki Kawajiri had just completed his work directing The Running Man, a segment of the portmanteau film Neo-Tokyo (1987), and was asked to direct a 35-minute OVA short film based on Hideyuki Kikuchi's novel. Writing under the alias "Kisei Chō", Norio Osada's original draft of the script began with Makie's rescue of Taki from two demons in Narita, and ended with Taki's first battle with Mr. Shadow and Makie's rescue. After Japan Home Video showed the first 15 minutes of completed animation, they were quite impressed with Kawajiri's work that the duration was extended to 80 minutes. Kawajiri saw this as an opportunity to explore more characterizations and created more animations for the start, middle and end. The project was completed in less than a year.

Technical data

Original title 妖 獣 都市 Yōjū toshi
Original language Japanese
Country of Production Japan
Year 1987
Duration 82 min
Relationship 4:3
Gender animation, horror, erotic
Regia Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Subject Hideyuki Kikuchi (novel)
Film script Kisei Cho
Producer Kenji Kurata, Makoto Seya
Production house Madhouse, Japan Home Video
Distribution in Italian PolyGram Video
Photography Hitoshi Yamaguchi, Minoru Fujita
Special effects Kaoruko Tanifuji
Music Osamu Shoji
Art director Kazuo oga
character design Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Entertainers Akio Sakai, Kengo Inagaki, Kunihiko Sakurai, Makoto Ito, Masaki Takei, Nobumasa Shinkawa, Nobuyuki Kitajima, Reiko Kurihara, Takuo Noda, Yasuhiro Seo, Yutaka Okamura
Wallpapers Kaoru Honma, Katsushi Aoki, Kyoko Naganawa, Masaki Yoshizaki, Naomi Sakimoto, Yamako Ishikawa, Yoko Nagashima, Yūji Ikezaki

Original voice actors

Yusaku Yara as Renzaburo Taki
Toshiko FujitaMakie
Ichiro Nagai as Giuseppe Maiato
Kouji Totani: Jin
Mari Yokō: Kanako / spider woman
Takeshi Aono: shadow man
Tamio Ohki: hotel manager

Italian voice actors

Francesco Prando as Renzaburo Taki
Cinzia De CarolisMakie
Francesco Bulckaen: Giuseppe Maiato
Gino Pagnani: president
Alida Milana: Kanako / spider woman

Re-dubbing (2002)

Francesco Prando as Renzaburo Taki
Cinzia De CarolisMakie
Massimo Gentile: Giuseppe Maiato
Gino Pagnani: president
Pietro Biondi: professor
Andrea WardJin
Barbara Berengo Gardin: Kanako / spider woman
Mario Bombardieri: shadow man
Giorgio Locuratolo: barman
Irene Di Valmo: geisha

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_City_(1987_film)