Mamono Hunter Youko

Devil Hunter Yohko is a short series from the 90s that's perfect for fans of panty flashes, girls with weapons, and 90's anime artstyle (I do). I first watched this when I was about nine (totally not okay) but it's better suited to teens and young adults. I used to rent it from a local video place that had lots of anime (most of it innapropriate for small children, but I watched it anyway. -_-) and I found the whole series cheap at a Half Price Bookstore when I was in high school. Because I idolized sexy kick ass women like Yohko when I was ... a kid, I may be a little partial. ^^; The story is far from complicated. The action facet of it is actually pretty good from what I remember. There's not really any fluff or nonsense, the episodes are all fairly to the point; things seem normal and then oh, no! Monsters!
I love the art. The eyes aren't big and watery, the costumes are cute, and the monsters are scary lookin'. The music isn't anything special and the theme song isn't very memorable. What stands out most is the main character. If you like women tearing though giant demons, chanting ancient transformation spells, and general magic-girlyness, you will love Yohko. The stereo typical teenage ditz, she tries to lead as normal a life as possible, but always manages to go from school girl to fierce warrior when the situation calls for it. Overall, I'd say it's worht your time. Furthermore, if it weren't for the nudity and language, I'd also reccommend it for younger siblings and kids, cause I had lots of fun playing "Devil Hunter Yohko" on the playground. XD

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.

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.