Various Violent Anime

Another friend of mine wanted anime recommendation, specifically violent ones.  Here is my thorough response.

Fist of the North Star: 

I have never seen “First of the North Star” but here is what I know about it. Inspired by “Mad Max,” and Bruce Lee our hero Kenshiro wonders the wastelands of a post apocalyptic world brutally killing bad guys. The famous Kenshiro line of “you are already dead,” actually was used under two different circumstances, first, it was a bold threat that whoever he was fighting had no chance of walking away alive, and second, he would use a fancy punch that would cause people to explode, so they had yet realize that they were dead.

The first time anyone ever held a real life funeral for a fictional character was when Kenshiro finally killed his older brother. Japan is weird but sometimes awesome.

Berserker:

Guts, what a nice looking fellow

Oh shit I haven’t seen this one either. Guts the berserker is a very big strong dude wielding a huge broadsword and he kills a lot of people. I don’t know the plot but Guts is often considered the manliest anime character of all time and “Berserker” is often cited as one of the most violent. 

Ninja Scroll: 

Watch out! That mother fucker
ain't dead yet.

Inspired by the life of real life folk hero Jubei Yagyu, “Ninja Scroll” is a fantastically well written story with solid characters and lightning fast ninja action. Jubei Kibagami is a ninja who ends up forced to help a government spy in fighting the eight devils of Kimon, each one of which has crazy powers. The creativity that went into the villains’ powers and the way Jubei manages to defeat each one is highly imaginative and exciting, also very violent at times. “Ninja Scroll” was made in 1993 but is probably still the best action themed anime ever. 

The folk story of Jubei Yagyu is about how when the Christians came to Japan they did not just bring their evil Christina magic with them, they also brought their devil, and Jubei was the man who beat him up. The character of Jubei Yagyu has been portrayed multiple times in Japanese cinema including a performance by Sonny Chiba in “Samurai Reincarnation.” 

“Ninja Resurrection” is the anime about Jubei Yagyu and I’m not sure they ever finished it. “Samurai Resurrection,” is a really good live action movie about Jubei Yagyu, he battles Miyamoto Musashi’s ghost at one point in it.

Devil Man: 

If Osamu Tezuka was the godfather of anime than Go Nagai is the perverted uncle no one ever talks about. “Devil Man” was Nagai’s idea of combining western super heroes with horror movies. He was fascinated with the idea of a demon possessed by a man, the opposite of being possessed by a demon, this “Devil Man” could be a super hero whose powers stemmed from evil but were used for good. This may not sound like too original of an idea now (Spawn), but back in 1972 when “Devil Man” was created it sure as hell was. The two part OVA “Devil Man” is very graphic, and the follow up “Apocalypse of Amon” is perhaps even more brutal and is definitely more tragic and heart breaking. 

Rob Zombie is a fan of “Devil Man” and in the song “Super Charger Heaven” he is referring to Go Nagai’s “Devil Man,” with the lyrics:

“Devil man, devil man, calling,
Devil man, running in my head, yeah.”

Stay away from the 2004 live action movie it is terrible and was the winner of multiple Bunshun Kichigo Awards (the Japanese equivalent of The Razzies Awards). “Devil Man” won worst movie among other things. 

Here's a fan made video of Devil with White Zombies' "Super Charger Heaven"

New Getter Robo: 

It is hard to recommend which Getter Robo to watch since the idea has been rehashed and recreated multiple times with multiple sequels. “New Getter Robo” was the most recent and perhaps the least complicated of the bunch. The Getter Robo is another Go Nagai creation where a three piece robot is powered by human aggression. There are three main characters.

Ryoma is a short tempered street brawling martial artists who fearlessly takes loans from the mob knowing (in fact looks forward too) them coming to collect so he can brutally beat them to death.

Hayato is a mass murdering terrorist who may or may not want to destroy the world, in his introduction scene in “New Getter Robo” he claws a man’s eyes out and this dialogue occurs.

“Ah! My eyes!”

“And ears!”

And then Hayato slices off both the man’s ears in with a single attack using both hands. He then proceeds to beat the man’s face in with one finger punches.

Then we have Musashi who is something of a barbarian and simpleton. Musashi is probably the closest thing to a sane person we have in this cartoon.

So yeah some lunatic thought it would be a good idea to give these maniacs a giant robot. In the end when the bad guys reveal that they are not bad guys but rather humans from the future who have been ruined by the getter rays. After this reveal I believe the response from the getter team is something to the effect “Fuck you! We don’t care! Let’s keep fighting!”

So yeah that’s a fun one

I couldn't find the video of Hayato slicing a man's ears off with his bear hands, but here is the opening clip to "Shin Getter Robo Vs Neo Getter Robo - The Movie" where Musashi saves the world from the dinosaur empire:

Violence Jack: 

Looks pretty violent to me

You know I’ve never seen this one, but it is Go Nagai, it is the theoretical sequel to “Devil Man,” and “violence” is in the title so I’m going to have to assume it is pretty damn violent. If Go Nagai feels the need to use the adjective “violent” to describe something it must be insanely violent.

Elfen Lied:

I’ve talked about Elfen Lied (German for Elf Song) a lot lately, read about it here: http://colinkellydreams.blogspot.ca/2012/08/the-mirror-elfen-lied.html

In the meantime here is the most upsetting scene in the entire series:

Space Runaway Ideon: 

I don’t consider “Space Runaway Ideon” to be particularly violent and many people think I’m sick for not begin perturb even a little through the course of these series where EVERYONE DIES! I’ll end up writing a whole report about Ideon one day because I’m enjoying it so much, and admittedly there are some outstanding moments in Ideon that make it pretty damn over the top in the violence department. As mentioned a moment ago EVERYONE DIES, including the children on board the Ideon’s spaceship the Solo ship, one of them, a five year old girl gets her entire head removed by a laser blast, and not long after that the universe blows up. No big deal right?

I guess the violence is plentiful in “Space Runaway Ideon,” but it is not the violence I was paying attention to, I was enthralled with the great story which involved characters I really liked and the horror surrounding the unravelling mystery of the power of the Ideon.

This is the series that earned writer Yoshiyuki Tomino the nick name “Kill them all Tomino.” I love “Kill them all Tomino,” he’s a really good writer.

Here's a video containing every death and Easter egg with some really nice happy music:

Claymore: 

Not a particularly good anime, but certainly a violent one. The world of “Claymore” is one where humankind coexists with demons who want nothing more than to eat us, the best solution we have come up with so far is to turn our own into demon altered warriors. By placing the blood of a demon, or flesh, or something, they never fully explain the procedure, we can gain demonic like strength and power. While this may sound a lot like the “Devil Man” premise it is different enough to be considered more or less wholly original. There is no possession involved nor can someone grow stronger by killing other demons. But the demonic touch does heighten aggressive behavior and men being the more violent half of the species prove too unstable to use the power reliably. That’s why all of our heroes are blonde haired blue eyed women; well that doesn’t explain why they are all blonde haired or blue eyes but whatever. I assume the creator really likes blonde blue eyed women so that was the art direction they took; I don’t think any real racist undertones deliberately exist in “Claymore.”

So yeah “Claymore” is violent. There is a strong reoccurring theme of people losing limbs. I mean there must be like forty severed arms in this series.

Higurashi – When They Cry:

This was the anime that made my friends accuse me of being a freak in love with murder, and if not for that accusation I never would have thought to include it on a list of violent anime. You see I don’t think Higurashi is violent, because the violence is never graphic, most of it is implied. When Kechie beats two girls to death with a baseball bat we see he swing and swing like a maniac and we see blood splatter on the walls but we never see the damage done to the girls. When Shion is stabbing Satako to death and laughing manically while doing so, we see Satako cry and scream and we see blood splatter onto Shion but we never actually see the knife going in. Scenes like that sound horrible and what is being implied to us is terrifying but the actual violence we see is minimal. The story captures us in Higurashi, it is all about paranoia and seeing our characters, all of which are all really likable, mentally break, then cross the line, and then do unforgivable things, that’s what so fascinating about Higurahi.

“Higurashi – When They Cry” is a psychological thriller, but there are a lot of things that would put a lot of people off. Of our main cast of friends five out of the six of them are female and we see all of them die multiple gruesome deaths, and as stated in my essay about “Elfen Lied,” there is something so very unsettling about the murder of females and children and that happening multiple times in Higurashi can upset a lot of people. Also the art style is obnoxiously “Moe.” For those of you who don’t know, which would include me before watching Higurashi, “Moe” (pronounced: mo-eh) is the anime style of bright colorful hair and big, big eyes. Basically really cutie pie bullshit, and Higurashi is all about that art style, and everything being all cutesy makes it all the more shocking seeing them brutally die.

Higurashi is too violent and dark for the faint of heart and too cute and girly for the thick skinned, I may be the only person I ever know who enjoyed it.

The famous door scene:

Hellsing:

What if Dr. Van Hellsing didn’t kill Dracula? What if instead he forced him to fight supernatural evil on behalf of the British government? What if this Dracula was a smirking, uncooperative, violently lunatic, who wielded giant bad ass guns that only he, with his super vampire strength, could use? I’m glad someone asked these questions otherwise we never would have gotten an anime as crazy as “Hellsing.”

I cannot in honesty say that “Hellsing” is particularly good, because it isn’t, but it is one of those wonky, silly shows that we all really enjoy because it is so way over the top. We don’t even see a legitimate threat to the hero Alucard (who is obviously Dracula) until the final episode, and even then there is no suspense, we all know Alucard is going to kill Incognito both brutally and smugly. The support cast die off constantly to the point where I can’t remember any of their names unless they were one of three characters who actually matter other than Alucard. The villains never die easy they all get torn to shreds, which proves to be surprisingly easy for Alucard to do. Whenever Alucard is injured he just laughs it off, and this includes things like being beheaded or reduced to vampire soup.

Yeah “Hellsing” is a violent one.