Hell Target

Esta review también está en español.

Forgotten Horror, Chapter 1: Hell Target
Hell Target (HT) is a 50 minutes OVA that combines a few elements of the science fiction with the classic horror from the 80's, where we had lots of melted heads by the action of acid, deaths everywhere (in the more bizarre ways), and at least one scene of softcore sex.

The story of HT shows us the crew of a spaceship arriving to the planet Hell II, with the intention of finding the survivors of a previous mission, performed a couple of years ago. Once in the planet surface, they discover that the whole trip ... was a waste of time: they found the ship, but no survivors. To justify the cost of the fuel, our heroes decided to discover what the hell happened to the poor bastards. And they find something historical: it looks like the responsible of the deaths is a virus (Fun fact: the science fiction of 1987 considered that viruses are living things) capable of producing telepathic waves that can disturb their victims, and ultimately, kill them. What follows is not difficult to imagine: this virus (and the creepy being that originates it) will begin a slaughter, killing one by one almost everybody (or everybody... if you wanna know the truth, watch the movie!).

But hey, before everyone dies (or not), a small comment about our heroes, the brave astronauts. They are a group of nine people, coming from different places of the world. Of course, we have Japanese, Chinese, German and Soviet people (all of them speaking perfect Japanese, so the communication is not a problem). And as for the design, they are as stereotypical as possible: Braun (German) is blonde; the Russian dude is a large man with a manly mustache (closest to a pornstache than to a FreddieMercurystache); the American is a happy-go-lucky guy with an American flag stamped in his suit, and say things like "Yes Sir!" and "Hi-Yo Silver" (you know, your typical American); and the Japanese are pretty average. BTW, the protagonist of this film is Kitasato one of the two Japanese members.

I have to admit that, for a film so old, the animation is quite good. This is not Akira, but definitely is above average. The animation is pretty fluid, and the character design, though generic, is more than acceptable. The scenarios, on the other hand, are far from satisfactory: everything is very hazy and red. The technological aspect is also quite simple. Although from the outside the ship looks good, inside is grey everywhere, and you could only tell the difference between a cryogenic chamber and a wall thanks to a couple of cheap lights. And about the deaths (a vital point in this kind of movie), well... they are varied. Some are rare and obscure, and others are flashy, full of screams and bones. But, in all the cases, there aren't graphic dismemberment or an unrealistic amount of blood. Remember people, this is horror/science fiction, not a slasher film.

The sound is somewhat peculiar. On one hand, we have the voices. The intonation is good, but remember that most of this people is foreigner, and yet, no one have an accent. So, technically, they all sound good, yet the acting is bad (understood?). The sounds themselves are the typical ones in a sci-fi movie. That means, inside the ship, we hear biiiip-biiiiip and other computer sounds. Outside the ship, we hear screams. And finally to give the audio section a closure, I want to comment the ending. Quite unexpectedly is sung in Spanish! Saraba itoshiki hito yo ~ADIOS AMOR~ is performed by Rosa Bianca (person, band, or whatever), and it has an absurdly good pronunciation and coherent lyrics (two things people from Japan usually don't achieve when singing in other languages). Here's a (short) fragment:
Adiós amor
Los días que te amaba
Tu pelo negro brillaba
Yo te quiero...
It's a nice little ballad, and a good closure to a movie with tons of deaths (A billion thanks to Otrajenie, who found out who performed the song, a detail that eluded me for three damn years).

And now, the final lines. The verdict, if you like. Hell Target is not an outstanding movie nor technically or plotwise, that's for sure (although both comply). It's simply a horror movie (the science fiction elements are more for the atmosphere), a very typical one, with a predictable development and standard characters. But is watchable, moderately enjoyable and not boring (I know it's a little sad that "not boring" is the best thing I can say, but it's true). This is what I would call mediocre, however, in the noble horror genre, mediocre can be good. This is an excellent example of a film I would watch on TV a night if there's nothing on it, or if I catch it during zapping.
I recommend this to people who like classic animation (well, not so classic, it's only 24 years old... good god, I’m so old...) and nonsensical horror, product of that crazy decade known as the 80's.

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Terror olvidado, capitulo 1: Hell Target.
Hell Target (HT) es una OVA de 50 minutos que combina la ciencia ficción con el terror clásico de los años 80, en el que teníamos abundantes cabezas que se derretían por la acción del acido, muertes por todos lados, y al menos una escena de sexo softcore.

La historia de HT nos muestra a la tripulación de una nave espacial arribando al planeta Infierno II, con el objetivo de encontrar sobrevivientes de una misión anterior, realizada hace un par de años. Una vez en la superficie del planeta, descubren que el viaje fue una pérdida de tiempo: encuentran los restos de la nave, pero no queda nadie con vida. Para justificar el gasto de combustible, deciden, al menos, descubrir que fue lo que extermino a los pobres bastardos. Y su descubrimiento es histórico: parece ser que el responsable es un virus (como dato anecdótico, la ciencia ficción del 87 considera que los virus son seres vivos) capaz de producir ondas telepáticas capaces de turbar a sus víctimas, para finalmente llevarlas a la muerte. Lo que sigue no es difícil de imaginar: este virus (y el ser que lo origina) va a empezar a masacrar uno a uno a los recién llegados. Y como también podrán imaginar, dado que esto es una película de terror, lo hace con bastante éxito.

Pero bueno, antes de que estén casi todos muertos, un pequeño comentario acerca de nuestros protagonistas, los valientes astronautas. Son un grupo de nueve personas, de varios lugares del mundo, habiendo obviamente, japoneses, americanos, chinos, alemanes y soviéticos (por suerte, todos hablan perfecto japonés, por lo que el idioma no es un problema). Y en cuanto al diseño, todos son bastante estereotípicos: Braun (alemana) es rubia; el ruso es un hombre grande, con un bigote no gay; el americano tiene una bandera de Estados Unidos estampada en su traje, y tira frases como “Yes Sir!” y “Hi-Yo Silver!”; y los japoneses son normalitos. Ah, el protagonista de este film (o el más protagonista, al menos) es Kitasato, justamente uno de los miembros japoneses.

Tengo que admitir que para ser una película tan vieja, la animación es muy buena. No es Akira, pero decididamente cumple como OVA. La animación es muy fluida, y el diseño de personajes, aunque genérico, es más que correcto (a decir verdad, es más de lo que esperaba del proyecto). Lo que sí es cierto es que los escenarios dejan mucho que desear: todo muy nebuloso y rojo, sin mucha nitidez. El aspecto tecnológico también es bastante simple, aunque por fuera las naves se ven bien, por dentro son grises, y solo hay un par de lucecitas baratas para indicarnos la diferencia entre una cámara criogénica y una pared. Y en cuanto a cómo están dibujadas las muertes (aspecto vital en este tipo de películas)... bueno, hay de todo. Algunas son raras, oscuras e inentendibles, y otras son llamativas, llenas de gritos y huesos. Pero en ningún caso, desmembramiento y sangre en cantidades irreales. Recuerden, horror/ciencia ficción, no slasher film.

El sonido es un tanto peculiar. Por un lado, tenemos las voces. Todas las entonaciones son buenas, pero recordemos que se supone que esta gente es de varias partes del globo, y ninguno tiene si quiera un vestigio de acento. Así que, técnicamente, aunque todos suenan bien, la actuación no es buena (se entiende?). Los sonidos en si son los típicos de una película de ciencia ficción. O sea, dentro de la nave, escuchamos biiiip-biiip y otros sonidos computarizados. Fuera de la nave, escuchamos alaridos. Finalmente, para terminar con el audio, quería comentar el ending. De forma totalmente inesperada, está cantado en español! Saraba itoshiki hito yo ~ADIOS AMOR~ es interpretada por Rosa Bianca (que es una persona, banda, o algo intermedio), y tiene una increíblemente buena pronunciación, y letra coherente (dos cosas en las que los japoneses suelen fallar cuando cantan en otros idiomas). Acá les dejo un fragmento:
Adiós amor
Los días que te amaba
Tu pelo negro brillaba
Yo te quiero...
Una balada muy bonita, como para apaciguar lo que acabamos de ver (un millón de gracias a Otrajenie, que fue la que me paso la info sobre el ending, datos que me eludieron por unos tres años).

Y ahora, el momento de la reflexión final. Hell Target no es una película sobresaliente, ni argumental ni técnicamente, eso es seguro. Simplemente, es una película de terror (los elementos de ciencia ficción son casi decorativos, dado que no están presentes esas explicaciones eternas típicas del genero), una muy típica, con un desarrollo predecible y personajes estándar. Pero es mirable, dentro de todo amena, y para nada aburrida. Es lo que yo calificaría como mediocre, sin embargo, en el noble género del terror, a veces, mediocre puede ser bueno. Este es un excelente ejemplo de una película que me quedaría viendo una noche en la tele, si no hay nada mejor.
Recomiendo esto a las personas que le atraiga la animación clásica (bueno, no tan clásica, solo 24 años... por dios, que viejo estoy) y el horror sin mucho sentido producto de esa loca década de los 80.

I truly believe the 1980s OVA boom was the greatest time for anime. But despite that era churning out amazing stuff, there's the inevitable duds. So enter 1987's Hell Target. It's about a group of space travelers who go to the dubiously named planet Inferno II in order to find a missing ship, and run afoul psychic illusion casting space demons with plans of targeting Earth to turn it into hell. It's their hell target. They actually say that. I watched this back to back with the similarly themed Roots Search (which featured a psychic illusion casting vagina mouthed alien...or space demon...or god, who knows), ... and while both are silly fun, I can also say largely forgettable. With just passable art, decent enough animation, and a meh story, there really just anything terribly memorable about Hell Target. The thing I remember most is when it came down to the final two crew members, the man bangs the rightfully hysterical woman to calm her down. His actual post coitus words to her were "are you calm now?" Hell Target keeps it classy. I can't imagine how this ever could've been forgotten.

Hell Target is a pretty interesting anime. I'm not quite sure why it has such a low score. I will say, there's nothing particularly creative about the plotline of Hell Target. Astronauts going out to space and finding a monster picking them off one by one. However, the thing that I felt made this unique and something we haven't quite seen in an story like this before was the use of the art style. The art style is very 1980s, but for the theme of this anime, it works incredibly well to make a dark atmosphere. At many points, you can't quite tell what's going ... on, and I think that makes the anime much better.

One complaint I do have is that the characters are not very well developed. Their deaths don't have a whole lot of meaning so the horror aspect to their deaths was lacking in that area. Without giving any spoilers, there was only one death that I really felt had any meaning.

Overall though, I thought this was a pretty good anime. Especially if you're just looking for a simple horror story set out in space.

Did you ever watch the 1997 movie "Event Horizon"? Well, then you pretty much have the gist of what's going on here.

This 1987 OVA pretty much the same basic idea, with a little bit of "Alien"/"Aliens" mixed in for good measure. That's not to imply that one or the other is ripping off the other -- the basic story idea is generic enough I'm sure that if you sat down and thought about it for a while, you could think up some other examples that follow the same trajectory.

And, unfortunately, "Hell Target" manages ... to follow that trajectory fairly poorly. For a story that relies heavily on space-horror and suspense, there's very little of it here. And, of course, there are times when you just want to scream at the screen, "Don't do that, you idiot!". But, naturally, they never listen. And before you know it, their face is melting off or something like that.

Hell Target is just not worth the effort to watch. With so many other eighties OVAs to sample out there, best to leave this one alone.