Mamono Hunter Youko

Overview:

We have enough people on this site reviewing the new shit like "Is this a Zombie?", Highschool DD and Btooom. I am continuing in my noble quest to enlighten younger viewers on the forgotten anime of the past. Mostly shitty old anime, because those reviews are both more amusing and honestly much easier write.

Background info:

This was at one point a famous or rather infamous title back in 1990. Firstly, it was the first ADV (the company that brought over Evangelion) VHS release in the US. It was also probably the first Etchii genre anime ever to see American release. This was in the year 1990. ... The US had received gory anime like Akira and Vampire Hunter D. There had also been a very limited release of hentai like the infamous "Legend of the Overfiend" found in the back of seedy video stores. There was no internet at this time, so the only people that had ever seen a hentai were those with enough of a "I don't give a fuck" attitude to walk into a porn store and buy a horribly dubbed cartoon porn much to the laughter and redicule of the store clerk. I was born in 1988 of course, so by the time I wanted to see anime titties around age 10 or 11, the internet had thankfully been invented. The Echii genre for those that don't know is a lowbrow genre that has lots of tits and ass, but isn't actual hentai. It is essentially softcore and includes shows like Ikki Tousen, Seikon, Desert Punk, and Highschool of the Dead. This is the grandfather of all those shows. The trunk of the sleazy Echii tree! It featured copious blood and nudity without having to buy it in a porn store. This made it a somewhat popular title back in the early 90s. Let's see how it stacks up today!

Plot and Characters: 2/10

As you might imagine the plot and characters are very lacking in this one since the only reason it exists is for pointless gore and erotica. Yohko is one of a long line of demon hunters and each episode must fight a new monster, which will inevitably tear most of her clothes off before she can kill it. The original writing was terrible to begin with I'm sure, but the English dub is laughably horrible. The dub actually tries to make "Bitchin" into Yohko's catchphase. How is that a catch phrase!? The only character I liked in this series was Yohko's insane mother that in the first episode hands her condoms and tells her to go out and enjoy as much sex as she can! Apparently "devil hunters" must be virgins, but they don't lose their powers unless they get pregnant. They can have protected sex and still count as virgins. This plothole allows us to see Yohko bang and yet still keep her powers for fighting demons in the next episode. As Yohko would say, "Bitchin!"

Art and sound: 3/10

The art obviously looks extremely dated, but the animation isn't horrible like most 80s OVAs. This isn't MD Geist where a character's body will randomly disappear and leave a floating head and cape. The blood also looks a LOT better than most other shitty OVAs of that time period like Angel Cop or Mad Bull 34.

Overall: 2/10

This is interesting as a historical relic, but as an anime it sucks. Vast improvements in animation quality and a boom in the echii genre has led to hundreds of superior softcore ero titles. Unless you are interested in anime history, there is really no reason to ever watch this piece of shit. Unless of course you just want to laugh at ADV's early dubbing. That is always worthwhile entertainment!

Devil Hunter Yohko is listed as a magical girl horror comedy anime from Madhouse. No, I have no idea how that works. But it's from the same studio that brought us Ninja Scroll, Perfect Blue and Claymore. So how bad could it be?

The story is about a fifteen year old girl named Yohko who comes from a long line of devil hunters and must take on the role to save the world. Each episode covers a different adventure of Yohko's in her efforts. It's a simple enough story and it could work, but in this case issues start popping up right away. Whether it's ... the over-reliance of cliches, the plot holes, the erratic pace that moves really slowly at some points in an apparent effort to create tension, the bits that just make no sense, the plot points that are downright moronic it's just one poorly executed idea after another. The humour is mostly unfunny jokes about Yohko's virginity and even the jokes that had some effort put into them just fall short. The only thing funny about this OVA is the monster design, and I don't think that was intentional, but I'll get back to that later. The best episode is the one that's nothing but music videos, yes that is a real episode apparently they hadn't discovered soundtracks yet in 1990, and that's only because it doesn't have the numerous issues that plague the rest of the OVA.

Let's talk about the characters, there are only five repeating characters, Yohko, Azusa, Chi, Yohko's mum and grandma. The rest are one-dimensional one-shot characters who show up, do something and then are never mentioned or seen again. Fair enough, at least the five important characters are developed... right? Well, no. Yohko is a brainless twit. Azusa is a useless character who follows Yohko around and barely does anything. Chi has virtually no personality whatsoever. Yohko's mum is defined entirely by her libido and Yohko's grandmother is there to be the cliche mentor figure.

Now for the art. It's not bad but it is really lazy. I know, this was made in 1990 I shouldn't expect too much, but even so. There are several moments where they repeat the same animation, backgrounds are barely present and the movements during fight scenes are cumbersome. There's also far too much fan-service in this. Madhouse, seriously she's fifteen, I don't need or want to see her breasts in every episode. They also take advantage of various opportunities to tear her clothes. Good job of keeping it classy there. I said I'd get back to the monster design, like some other anime I've reviewed, the monsters in this look utterly ridiculous. The only time I actually laughed when watching the series was when I saw the fifth episode's monster.

Now we move on to the best attribute of the OVA. The voice acting. It's... competent. Most of the voice actresses do a decent job. The only real issue I had was with Koorogi Satomi who delivered most of her lines like she had gravel stuck in her throat. Is that just how the director thought that old people sound? The music is certainly not bad, some of it is even kind of good. Yet another reason why the random music video episode is the best in the OVA.

The yuri factor is a 2/10. There are a few slightly homo-erotic moments but they never go anywhere and there really aren't many.

My final rating for Devil Hunter Yohko is a 2.6/10. It's just awful. The story is terribly done and the characters are annoying. The best part is the music and, frankly, you could probably find it without watching the anime. I should've left this one in obscurity.