Trouble is brewing in the bowels of Tokyo. A superhuman sorcerer named Kano is trying to bring about the destruction of the city. He begins by attempting to awaken the spirit of the cities guardian, and uses a young girl, Yukari, who has been having visions of the cities destruction, to arouse the angry spirit. Despite some opposition by some monks who try to stop the evil magician, it its the guardian itself that refuses. Kano starts his plan "B"- inseminating Yukari with his evil seed and hoping the child can aide him in his plan... Eleven years pass by and the child, Yukiko is now a young girl, who Kano haunts and manipulates. Kano manages create a massive earthquake which destroys the city, but the sorcerer is still not done. Plans of reconstruction begin, starting with the building of a massive subway system, but Kano hides in the Earth and plots- schemes that involve awaking more spirits and using the moon to crush the Earth. A few lone people, psychics and scientists, try to combat him, but their fate lies in the hands of Keiko, a young woman who was raised to combat Kano and protect Yukiko and her family.

And there is so much more, but basically Doomed Megalopolis falls into the fantasy/horror realm of anime, with all the prerequisite quirks, spellcasting fights, funky creatures, effective creepy shocks, seedy relationships, innocents in the hands of evil, and, of course, some gratuitous nudity and bloodletting.

Doomed Megalopolis was made in the capable hands of anime creators like Ninja Scroll's Madhouse Studios and Metropolis' Rintaro. It moves quite well for such a large and long story, the character arcs are set up nicely with few dragging moments since there are little horror scares and sorcererific battles around every corner. Unfortunately for such a sprawling story, there are many plot developments that feel rushed and some standard sketchy characters, as well as a very anticlimactic ending- it needs a grand spectacle, but instead it ends with a simple gesture. Sure there are some clumsy points like supernatural doubt from characters who have seen and battled supernatural shenanigans first hand, but the tale has enough shape shifting creatures and "oh, so good" Vs. "oh, so evil" action drama that it is still a very entertaining work.

The DVD: ADV Films

Picture: Full-screen, standard. Naturally in the decade since it was made there have been leaps made in the animation filed. For its time, Megalopolis looks pretty good, not Akira good, but very slick and pleasing. There were only a few instances where the animation got a bit clunky, where you could tell they had to cut a corner or two. The transfer is quite good, okay contrast, strong color, sharpness, and there is only the slight speck or two in terms of print dirt.

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo English dub only... That's right- English dub only. I was actually pretty shocked to find no Japanese Language track with optional Eng subs. Can't recall the last time I picked up an anime title like this to find it dub only. Well, at least it is a good dub, some decent voice work with familiar voice over artists (prod by Carl Macek and Streamline), and the audio is very clear and well mixed.

Extras: Chapter Selections--- ADV Previews for Devil Lady, Full Metal Samurai, Panic, Samurai X: Reincarnation, Saiyuki, Zone of Enders, Noir, Farscape, Andromeda, Parasite Eve, Destroy all Monsters, The Hypnotist and Daimajn.

Conclusion: Well, considered one of the classic examples of anime, it still holds up after all these years. Fans of the fantasy/horror genre of anime should be more satisfied with this transfer. While it is scant on extras and doesnt have an original language track, it is at least very affordable (Affordable anime, say it isn't so?... I noticed it was around $15 at Best Buy).