Mamono Hunter Youko

Devil Hunter Yohko can be best described as “Sailor Moon for boys.” It has a mix of action, violence with some gore, magical girl themes, and even some light-hearted comedy revolving around teen girls. At face value, this sounds like the recipe for disaster, but much to my surprise, this was pretty enjoyable as a “mindless fun” anime.

A lot of people have compared Devil Hunter Yohko to Buffy the Vampire Slayer; I'm sure most of them are talking about the TV series but since I haven't seen the show, I actually think of the campy 1992 film of the same name since both ... aren't meant to be taken seriously and are fun to watch. Officially, there's six episodes in this OVA, but I say there's five since “Devil Hunter Yohko 4Ever” is a compilation of j-pop music videos using footage from the first three DHY episodes (except for one that has chibi versions of Yohko and Azusa).

Each episode in DHY is a stand alone, so that means each episode has its own plot. This opens the door for repetition and depending on who you are and how you choose to see Yohko', can be a good or bad thing. Basically, the plot of each episode is that demons find a way to break into the human world and Yohko (and later, her apprentice Azusa) have to kill them; the main difference is the demons being slain and sometimes, the settings. I can see why some people wouldn't like this, but since this OVA wasn't meant to be on the same level of anime masterpieces like Grave of the Fireflies and Perfect Blue (and doesn't try to be), I don't really mind this since overall, seeing Yohko and Azusa killing demons is fun. The only episode in this OVA I didn't care for was the last one since it was tremendously mediocre and not a good way to end it. Fortunately, since there aren't any overarching plots in this OVA, it's not necessary to get the whole DHY experience.

I'm not going to bother describing each episode because as stated before, many of them are interchangeable with the plot sequences. However, I will describe some of the characters.

The characters aren't exactly works of art, but they fit in perfectly for this type of anime. Yohko Mano is a good lead character since she does act like a teenage girl and as a heroine, isn't perfect (any decent character has flaws). Yeah, she's obsessed with winning a pretty boy's heart, but fortunately this isn't overdone (except for the sixth episode). I also like how despite being a really tough fighter, she isn't an unstoppable fighting machine; she takes considerable amounts of pain in several episodes. She can be a hoot at times like in DHY episode three, when she's transported into an alternate reality and meets a prince in that dimension, she explodes with joy and says something like “I can finally kiss this cursed virginity goodbye!!” (not quoted verbatim) which got me cracking up a bit. Azusa Kanzaki is Yohko's apprentice in devil hunting and is one of my favorite characters in DHY (along with Yohko) since she's as cute as a lamb and has an admirable spirit to be an expert at her desired trade. Chikako Ogawa (Chi for short) is pretty funny as Yohko's best friend as she feeds Yohko information about the “hot boys” in school and of demons for her to kill.

The animation and artwork is good for a lower budget anime from the early 90's, and since the whole OVA spans about five years (1990-95, I believe), the animation tends to improve as each installment progresses. The music isn't too shabby, and to my surprise, I found some of the J-pop tunes pretty catchy and enjoyable for what they are.

At the end of the day, watching Devil Hunter Yohko is like eating a funnel cake or deep fried Snickers bar. It doesn't contain any nutritional value, and it's not supposed to. If you want to see two sexy teen girls kill demons, then DHY will be your cup of tea.