Devil Lady
The Show:
Go Nagi is known for his violent and gory manga and anime shows, including
the Devil Man series. Most of the work that he's put out is
love-it-or-hate-it type stuff. You're either a big fan, or you can't
stand the blood splattered ripping-off-limbs shows that he's known for.
In his 1998 series Devil Lady (also known as Devilman Lady)
he tries to appeal to a wider audience while still satisfying his core
of fans. For the most part he succeeds.
Jun Fudo is a very popular fashion model. She's always gracing
the cover of popular magazines and gets to model the most prestigious clothes
and fashions. But Jun has a secret, one that even shoe doesn't realize:
She's not really human. Jun has a demon gene in her DNA that will
cause her to transform into a blood thirsty Beast. She finds this
out one evening when a mysterious woman takes Jun to a warehouse and locks
her in with another human Beast. The animal attacks and as it does
Jun changes. She attacks and kills the Beast, and really enjoys the
violence. Until she reverts to human form that is. Then she
is mortified. A secret government agency wants to use Jun to fight
these Beasts. They are the next step in human evolution, but they
are also intent on destroying those who are not Beasts. Jun is still
able to retain her human soul, at least some of it. The Beast side
of her grows stronger every time she transforms. While fighting monsters
at night and trying to maintain a normal life during the day, Jun starts
to wonder that if this is the next step in evolution, who is to say that
they should be killed.
Devil Lady tries, with a good amount of success, to be something
more than a straight horror show. There is more than just fighting
monster and ripping off limbs. Jan worries about being half monster,
and how that effects people around her. Her character, and
most of the supporting characters are more developed than in your usual
monster show. Of course the show does make some mistakes. The
fact that Kazumi's parents are both murdered doesn't seem to bother her
much at all in the next episode. It was more of an inconvenience
more than anything else.
There was a good amount of continuity in the program, making it more
than just a monster of the week show, which is a good thing. But
even with an overriding story arc, this show is one of those average series
that isn't so good that you really can't wait until the next episode, nor
so bad that you don't want to watch the rest. I enjoyed watching
most of the episodes, but afterwards didn't really think any of them were
outstanding.
One aspect that I really didn't like was the giant monster episodes.
In these shows Jun would become as tall as a building to fight the giant
Beasts. I was expecting Rita Repulsa to throw her magic wand and
yell "Make my creature GROW!" like in the old Mighty Morphin' Power
Rangers shows every time Jun would decide that she needed to be 40
feet tall. I don't know why I can suspend my disbelief over humans
changing into monsters but I can. I draw the line at turning into
giant monsters though.
The animation and look of this series leaves something to be desired.
The animation is very flat, with a two dimensional feel to it. Even
the action sequences lack depth and they are a little jerky, which takes
away from the excitement. The show suffers from rather bland coloring
too. The images look like they come from a comic book, with little
shading or variation in color. Since this series was made in 1998,
I was expecting a little more quality in both the quality of the animation
and the coloring.
The DVD:
One of the irritating things about this set is menu selections.
The various choices are listed on the screen, and a blood splatter covers
the current choice, so that you can't read it. Though I appreciate
the atmospheric quality that the blood adds, it would have been nicer if
they had placed the cursor/blood just below the text.
This is the entire six DVD set, previously released individually, contained
in a six DVD 'brick.' The DVDs themselves seem to be identical to
the individual releases.
Audio:
The viewer has the choice of viewing this program in either a stereo
English dub or in the original Japanese also in stereo. I prefered
the original language although the English dub was good and I listen to
quite a few shows that way. The soundtrack was very adequate, presenting
the dialog and music faithfully, even if it wasn't exceedingly dynamic.
The audio sounded clear on both tracks without any his or distortion.
There are optional full English subtitles or just subtitles for the signs
and song lyrics.
Video:
The fill frame image was a little soft, with the lines not being quite
as sharp as I'd like. The colors were a little muted and there was
a slight grain to the image. But these were minor annoyances that
we critics feel obligated to point out. Overall the picture looked
good, and the encoding didn't introduce a lot of digital defects.
Extras:
As for extras, each DVD has the same original trailer and clean opening
and closing animation. A different a series of four original sketches
to the series, and a selection of previews are also avalible on each disc.
Final Thoughts:
While this isn't my favorite series, I was glad that I had a chance
to watch it. Mush better than Go Nagai's other work, it is more introspective
and philosophical. Fans of his earlier shows shouldn't be disappointed
though, since there are still gallons of gore spilled and splattered about.
Getting all six DVDs for less than the price of two of the individual volumes
makes this a good bargain, and an easy one to Recommend.
Buy: