Violence Jack: Harem Bomber-hen

Overview:

Violence Jack: The Harlem Slum King is the first in the Violence Jack trilogy. These 3 movies are INFAMOUS for older otaku like myself for being the bloodiest, most depraved anime ever made! Does it live up to its reputation? Well...sort of. Violence Jack tries VERY hard to be bloody and controversial, but the animation is so awful that it is difficult to take it seriously. I have heard many otaku say how disturbing Violence Jack is, but lets look further at that claim. When you are comparing animation to live action film, animation is at a huge disadvantage when it comes to being disturbing ... and stomach churning. The only way for the animation to win in that category is to be WAY more violent than the live action film you are comparing it to. Interestingly, the fact that critics and people in general are fairly immune to animated violence allows animation to get away with things that live action couldn't. An example is the animated portion of Kill Bill, that Tarantino admits would have made the movie NC-17 if it had been live action. Having said all of this, does Violence Jack take advantage of this and have content worse than any live action movies? Nope. Not even close! There are actually many live action films like Human Centipede, Hostile, Salo, and obviously A Serbian Film, that are FAR worse in content than Violence Jack. This means that Violence Jack is not going to shock or disturb a exploitation film veteran. Unfortunately, blood and nudity is ALL Violence Jack has going for it.

Spoilers! Like anyone gives a shit anyways.

Story: 1/10

The story is basically a Mad Max ripoff about a post apocolyptic wasteland ruled by bike gangs and a sociopathic anti-hero that brutally kills them all. A comet exploded in Earth's atmosphere, which somehow caused an earthquake that destroyed Japan. That makes ZERO sense from a physics perspective, but I will let it slide because this is a really stupid anime. The titular hero is Violence Jack, a giant gorilla man with Wolverine's sideburns and hair cut. Jack gets his name from the manner in which he stabs people with his "Jack knife". I would reference Man With the Iron Fists here, but no one has ever seen that movie it seems. Jack is causing trouble for a gang called the Slum Lords and the boss is obsessed with killing Jack. One the gang's enforcers helps gather up young women to force into sexual slavery, but he suddenly grows a conscience when one of the girls is his ex-girlfriend. He tries to free the girl, but is caught by the boss of the Slum Lords. The boss will only let him go if he can, of course, kill Violence Jack. What happens next is highly predictable and Jack kills the bad guys and the enforcer while leaving the girl alive. The next part is NOT predictable. Jack randomly holds aloft his knife and is struck by lightning, which allows him to transform into an eagle! WTF?! The only thing I can figure is that Jack is drawn to look vaguely native American and this is some kind of racist stereotype? Afterall, the writer IS the same guy dumb enough to put Harlem in the title simply because it has something to do with a slum.

Characters: 1/10

The only character in this POS worth remembering is Violence Jack, who doesn't even have a speaking line in the first film. Jack just kills bad guys, and good guys often die as well when he leaves destruction in his wake. As a little boy says in one of the most laughably hammy exposition lines of all time" Oh no!, Jack has brought much violence with him once again!!!"

Art: 3/10

I give it a few points for at least remembering to try and draw intestines, organs, and bone shards when people explode instead of just red paint. That puts the anatomical realism of Jack's violence a notch above most anime at least!

Music: 2/10

At least MD Geist and Fist of the North Star had awesomely cheesy 80s soundtracks that you could rock out to. Violence Jack's soundtrack is more what you would expect from a 1970s porn than a 1980s action movie. Fortunately, John Holmes never shows up!

Entertainment: 3/10

If you are a masochist who loves STUPID shit, then you can at least have some fun watching BIORENSU JAKKUU!

Overall: 2/10

Violence Jack is a REALLY shitty anime. The sequels try to turn the gore and nudity up to 11 as if that would make the series better, but obviously to no avail. As merciless as I have been on Violence Jack, at least gorehounds might enjoy it. There are actually worse anime out there and at least Violence Jack knows what it wants to be...unlike fucking Kite! I wouldn't recommend this anime to anyone. Unless you REALLY love watching old, shitty anime!

Long ago, I used to believe that a good story just needed to have some good doses of blood, gore and of course naked women. Those were the days and I was a hungry teenager influenced by a dying and corrupt world. Of course that as the years passed me by, I was influenced by many other things and came to widen my taste range.
So, watching Go Nagai’s gory Violence Jack takes me back to my youth.

You do have to enjoy gory stories to enjoy Violence Jack, prior knowledge on Go Nagai would be also welcome.

Forget about the main plotline and just enjoy the ... naked women and the blood and the gore, this is what Violence Jack is all about.
It is Violent as the name implies, so no time watching gardens here.
But if you still insist and you want to find a story there, it also does have one.
A comet has hit the earth and almost eradicated human life. Among survivors, some chose the philosophy of “kill, destroy and rape” all the women and people around. Among those bandits there’s a boss, his name is Slumking. And there’s this individual, a giant kind of immortal one, who no one knows where has come.

The animation is pretty good for 1985.
As I watched a crappy US dubbed version, the background sounds and music was hidden far away for most of the movie and yes if a US dub can be bad, it can be very bad. (I’ll edit this part when I have watched a proper version.)

And that’s it, it’s pretty straightforward material you have here. But the gore is what matters really.

If Go Nagai’s name rings you a bell or if you never heard the name but felt curious on what this strange OVA from 1985 might have inside, go ahead. It’ll be a nice experience, well, might not be nice, but you won’t forget it for sure.

Rate: 7/10

Story: 1/10 - Pathetic
I did not understand this story. Apparently, it has to do with a giant named Violence Jack. Yes, his name is Violence Jack. At that point, when they revealed that was the main characters name, I knew this wasn't going to be very good. The story was absolutely pathetic, and laughable. It jumped around, and really never solved anything.

Art: 7/10 - Good
Actually, the art was pretty nice considering this anime was made in the Mid-80's. The characters are detailed and so are the surroundings. The colors have a dull hue to them, though, and a lot of the characters really aren't drawn ... very well or colored right. It emits a nice 80's retro-trash-porn vibe, which is nice, but not THAT nice.

Sound: 7/10 - Good
The sound was actually pretty good too. I did not watch this OVA dubbed, as I could not find it dubbed, so I cannot say anything about the dubbing, but the Japanese vocal track was well done, but nothing special. The characters voices barely fit them, but it worked. The sound effects were excellent for their era though, so props to that. Also,Violence Jack has a pretty cool voice.

Character: 2/10 - Dreadful
Most of the characters, besides good 'ol Violence Jack himself, are stock characters that anybody could come up with, and have no depth. Violence Jack is a strange one though, he barely talks, and when he does, he looks extremely angry, and is short. I never really got attached to Violence Jack, due to his lack of personality. That is not a good thing when you can't really get attached, or even semi-attached, to the main character of a show.

Enjoyment: 6/10 - Fair
Besides this OVA's obvious faults, it is kind of enjoyable if you are with the right people. It is one of those shows that takes itself WAY to seriously, and in the process becomes rather funny, sometimes to the point of downright hilarious. If you are in a sound state of mind when watching this, you will probably find no humor in this at all though.

Overall: 5/10 - Mediocre
It isn't that bad, and it isn't that good. Purgatory. If you have the right group of friend's, this is a funny show to watch, once. If you are alone, and looking for a serious dark anime, go elsewhere, Violence Jack is not the thing for you. I would say as long as you can get your hands on a copy of Violence Jack, you should watch it, just for the laughs.

After 20 years I am still trying to learn what is so great about this short anime OVA. Based on Go Nagai's manga, Violence Jack is a three part OVA that takes place in a post apocalyptic setting where the strong are abusing the weak. Representing justice is the muscular giant Violence Jack. Violence because he's violent, and Jack because, well, he carries a big jackknife in his coat pocket.... clever huh? He runs around the city horribly knifing everyone he thinks deserves it.

Now for starters, this is actually volume one called the Harem Bomber, for some reason in the states it was aired ... out of order and released as volume three The Slum King. I don't know why but it sucks all the same. This volume needs to be seen first though so you can understand why the planet is in the shape it's in.

I've never read the original source material because up to this day I haven't been able to acquire it in English. However, based upon what I researched it sounds like an intricate story, and this anime OVA directed by Osamu Kamijo sounds like a very bad adaptation of it. Violence Jack embodies that 80's anime feel that gave it such a notorious reputation for being all blood and sex. If you know someone who was put off by the anime genre for those reasons during that time period; Violence Jack could have been one of the titles they had seen.

The story is poorly handled as it follows a group of Slum King's henchmen as they search for Jack, or kidnap helpless virgins with intentions on satisfying their sexual desires. Women are chained, whipped, and raped, for reasons I still do not see relevant to the story, fortunately it's not in completely graphic detail. Jack himself has the personality of flat pop. I couldn't find a single reason to cheer for him. The rest of the cast are walking plot devices and nothing more, with one of them dying a dramatic death despite receiving barely two minutes worth of screen time.

I guess the anime was trying to evaluate the evil side of man during a time of crisis. This is fine and all, but I would've found it easier to buy in to if the setting was better used and examined. The entire story feels like an excuse for gratuitous sex and violence, and the only thing it has going for it is the consistent tone. There's nothing cheery about this at all, not even the ending.

Visually, this OVA really doesn't look all that good either. The excuse this was made back in 1986 is just that, an excuse. I've seen OVA's from the 80's time period that still hold up, with Neo Tokyo and Vampire Princess Miyu OVA coming to mind. The action scenes are terrible, with Jack running by his enemies and either bodies or their pieces hitting the floor. In regards to choreography, there's just none to speak of and the gore doesn't make up for this. Plus there are stills and reused cels in good supply. The backgrounds are actually done well giving off this end of the world feel. Unfortunately they're all wasted on this poorly executed story. The subtitles are pretty uneven because some times they can be read, and on other occasions they shoot by rapidly. There's no English dub so you're stuck with this.

This first volume of Violence Jack is indeed skip material. I know of several people to like this, but I think it's the nostalgia deodorant being rolled on thick here, like so many other older titles. I recommend not even bothering with this, especially since it doesn't get much better later on.

Highs: Some decent backgrounds, maintains a serious tone

Lows: Makes you appreciate better anime

This is a spoiler free review that covers all 3 episodes of Go Nagai’s cult classic, Violence Jack.

What can I say about it? Well, If you’re reading this, then I assume you’re not sure whether you should watch it. So I’ll do my best to help you make up your mind. Don't worry, I'm not gonna trash it that much or anything. I report, you decide (more or less).

So if you’re familiar with Go Nagai you know that he's known for having eroticism and violence in many of his works. Besides that though, he did end up creating some influential and creative titles ... (Cutey Honey, Mazinger Z), but I don't think Violence Jack falls in to that category.

Anyway, this is an 80’s torture porn OVA and is known as one of the most grotesque, sadistic and cruel anime ever made (and rightfully so).

As you can imagine, the story takes place in a grim post apocalyptic setting. And that's about it, any background info about this is pretty vague.
As for the story itself, well... Each episode has the same story structure, they’re all stand alone and follow the same basic pattern. In each of them there’s some disastrous event in Japan and as a result, the strong people take advantage of the situation and persecute the weak. And we (the audience) get to witness that, with all the Gory details. Sure, it involves themes like anarchy, lawlessness and how some people might behave in such situations, but there’s hardly anything that resembles commentary on it. It’s just there to shock and disgust. And in other cases, to arouse (yep, that's how sick this anime is, folks).

Jack himself is some sort of Giant who always happens to be in the neighborhood during these attrocities. He's quite obviously very strong and he always sides with the weak, but it doesn’t seem like he really wants to. It just looks like he’s doing them a favor or something. Even though I guess he has some sense of justice in him. Besides that though, he’s just a bland heavy dude as far as the anime is concerned because we don’t even find out who he is, since this is an incomplete adaption of the source material (which I haven’t touched). It turns out this is actually a sequel to another of Go Nagai’s works (if you wanna find out who Jack is, just check his character page here on MAL, but apparently it's a spoiler or something).

The rest of the characters are either just there to die and for you to feel sorry for, or completely evil and sadistic people you’re gonna hope to see die miserably. There’s not much else, really. Most of them don’t have any back-story (with an exception or two) and none of them are particularly focused on, or alive long enough to develop so there’s no point in talking about them much.

Production values are somewhat good for its time. The soundtrack has a lot of 80’s sounding music (very 80’s!) but it’s quite creepy and fitting most of the time. Sound effects and (Japanese) voice acting also do a decent job in making the violence more graphic and disturbing. The character designs aren’t very pretty and neither are the colors, but they are mostly detailed. And the same goes for the backgrounds. Animation was ok for its time (not great though) and it gets better with each episode. Overall the directing certainly does a decent job in giving off a post apocalyptic atmosphere. Though it's recommended to watch it in high quality, if possible.

Now that that’s over with, I’ll do spoiler free rants on each episode separately so this review will be more informative, and then go on to my conclusion:

-Vol’ 1- This one has an earthquake, after which, a man kidnaps women and turns them in to sex slaves in addition to going after our hero, Violence Jack. Did I mention that this is the tamer one of the three? Yep, at this point the violence seems pretty basic for an 80’s gore OVA. Besides nudity and sex, there’s nothing here you haven’t seen in the Hokuto no Ken movie. The story was both meh and also paced badly, it seems messy and rushed. 2.5/10

-Vol’ 2- Oh boy, what a nightmare! I can’t describe what takes place here because this review might be removed (assuming these reviews are moderated), but I’ll tell you what the basic premise is; after yet another natural disaster, people go underground and separate in to 3 groups. One group consists of people who just want to find a way to survive, another group has women only (from fear of getting raped) and the third is a group of vicious thugs lead by a transvestite and his.. Giant lover. So you can imagine what horrors take place here... I’m just gonna say that there’s some similarities to the images I’ve seen from the Nanking Massacre. Besides that, it has more of a story, it's paced better, ends properly (for an end of an arc) and the animation improved a little. But it’s also the most offensive. 3.5/10.

-Vol 3- It takes place in a peaceful town somewhere in the wastelands and its quickly attacked by a motorcycle gang. This one is basically like an average HnK episode. But wait, there’s actually a notable character in this one that has some background and a proper motivation (hurray!). The character is a muscular chick with scars on her face and body (she’s really hot btw, they rarely make anime chicks like this nowadays) and we witness her lover being torn to pieces in front of her in the beginning of the episode. As a result she’s out for revenge. Not as insane as Vol’ 2 but still very gruesome at points. Character designs seem more polished and the animation is better too. Unfortunately, this episode ends with some sort of cliffhanger and was left incomplete. 3/10

*Final score and conclusion* 3/10

It’s obviously very bad and repulsive. And it’s not enjoyably bad either.
But believe it or not, It’s actually watchable (assuming you can tolerate the violence) as well as somewhat memorable because it's still on my mind from time to time. Which is more than I can say about some other 80’s/ 90’s gore OVAs that have no narrative coherence whatsoever.
But that still doesn’t make it good.

If you want something similar (and good), I suggest the Hokuto no Ken franchise. Yes, it’s basically Violence Jack for kids, but it has a great deal of memorable characters, nice music and a cool martial arts concept (despite being a little silly).

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I need some counseling.

This OVA is short and shittacular, so this review will be too.
If there's anything redeeming about this OVA, it's got to be the gratuitous, grisly violence.
*Disclaimer: Not an 80s anime guru by any means

Art: 7
Despite how old it is.. they did at least try to make the gore brutal by drawing in viscera and not just red waves. A couple of satisfying moments, mostly eh otherwise.

Enjoyment: 4
As stated above, if you like grisly, (but cheesy) violence, and some random sexual violence thrown in to be a shocker, there's some entertainment to be gleaned from this. Otherwise, it's asinine and absurd.

... Sound: 3
Cheesy as hell 80's music. Probably ripped from a C list porno and the creator thought Violence Jack was so stupid that it wasn't worth suing over.

Story: 2
Imagine Mad Max, make the plot nonsensical with the only unifying theme as violence, and 30 minutes long.

Characters: 2
Violence Jack doesn't even speak in this, yet they make it a point to beat you over the head about explaining how intelligent he is... Well, he's good at using his knife to intelligently eviscerate people, and that's about all.
The rest of the 'cast' are a bunch of aimless morons who serve little to no purpose other than to be cannon fodder and take up some screentime running around.

Overall: 3.6 (rounds up to 4, because I laughed a couple of times at how ridiculous it was)
I was told this was an 80's schlockfest of depravity and ultraviolence. Perhaps I'm just really desensitized to violence, but there wasn't anything abhorrent or reviling here.
Violence Jack succeeds in that it achieves what it set out to do. It's not trying to provoker deeper thought or offer extended introspective metaphor. It promises violence, and delivers. I'll give them points for trying; the 80's were a shocking time.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you all: The worst anime of all time.

First let me tell you about Go Nagai. He is very influential anime director, who has actually made such classics as Getter Robo and magical girl Cutie Honey, and has inspired people such as Hideaki Anno and the director of Tokyo Gore Police. He is also known for bringing erotic themes to manga and anime, which back in the day was considered taboo but today is not as bad. However, what happens when you take a risque subject and make it the basis for your anime...YOU GET GIANT STEAMING PILES OF SHIT! ... That's right not one pile of shit, three piles of shit, and yes I did watch all three of them for the sake of curiosity and tell you all to stay away from these OVAs at all cost.

So what is Violence Jack about? It's about a guy named Jack...and he's violent. You think this all a joke do you? I'm not joking, this is it. The only other thing we know is that the setting is based in a post-apocalyptic world where resources are rare, men are evil, and women are all walking pieces of meat. Yeah, sounds like a whole barrel of fun isn't it? No, no it is not.

However, it's not the fact that plot of Violence Jack is bad, but more of the sense that the subject matter is probably the most heinous looking thing I've ever experience in my whole entire life. I've seen exploitation before, some people don't like it, some people do. For me, some of the best movies are exploitation (My favorite movie of all time: A Clockwork Orange technically is an exploitation flick). However, Violence Jack is wrong. It's just wrong. Seriously, there is no other way to put it, it's just horribly wrong.

The first OVA is called Harlem Bomber and it is the most shocking out of all of them. I'm going to just put it shortly what happens. There is a character known as the Slum King that owns a sex slave ring, and I'm stopping there, because what follows are nonsensical acts of pure heinousness towards all of humanity and what it stands for. It tells no message and is not in anyway justified. It is simply there just for shock value. The other two OVAs, Evil Town and Hell's Wind, are the same exact thing, just horrible portrayals of what "could" happen to people in a post-apocalyptic world. Some might say that yes, people could succumb to this kind of nature, but if you are going to do that then at least provide with some good story-telling as oppose to pure exploitation.

Let me tell you an anime that did this right: Elfen Lied. Elfen Lied can be debated to be same exact way. I mean Elfen Lied is similar that in that it also portrays human as despicable beings and does dapple in the same territory of woman being used for experimentation. However, where Elfen Lied at least told a interesting story, Violence Jack is pure shock value for the sake of being shock value and nothing else. In short, Violence Jack presents nothing and flaunts it in your face just for the hell of it.

It's not even we know much about Violence Jack other than the fact that he's this guy who kills whoever stands in his way.

Art and sound-wise there is nothing to gawk about. Even for an 80's OVA, I've seen better animation from Macross and Space Captain Harlock, two animes that were made on TV budgets and came out before Violence Jack. That's saying a lot of how bad this anime is if that's the case.

Overall, the three Violence Jack OVAs just piss me off completely. If you were asked to give someone a lesson on how not to make an anime, or any medium for that matter than Violence Jack should be at the top. I never want to see Violence Jack ever again. Go Nagai may have produced some very classic animes, but this is definitely not a work that he should be remembered for, so let's just hope that this anime is never touched and heard of ever again.

The first Violence Jack OVA was created and released in 1986 and is a good jump start to the series. The story is pretty good. Basically it revolves around a girl who is recaptured and about to be forced into sex slavery. At the last moment her boyfriend saves her from captivity. They eventually help Violence Jack in his quest to defeat the Harem Bomber. Besides Ken'ichi and Violence Jack most of the characters are bland and nothing special. The art is nice and colorful. Very good especially considering it was done in the mid 80's. I watched the original Japanese version with English subtitles. ... The voice acting is decent and the sound effects were great. I enjoyed this episode, second best OVA in the series.

Violence Jack. Lads this right here it inspired so many works of Anime and PS2 games what can I say more.

Harlem Bomber Man, can be seen as 2nd or 1st depending on your approach of release order or timeline sequences. I will keep it short and simple.

First it's Art style. This anime series is brutal and high octane show. There's no other show which can rival this level of brutality maybe a few of Kawaijiri works but as the oldest of all this stands on top of the mountain just like Jack. The blood, gore and nudity factor is extremely high. It's not just M ... rated it's beyond that for which it has all the cult following. The cel shaded work and the insane passion put into creating women, Jack, action sequences is extremely top class work there, every single effect is very well made. All shots from close up to long shots are perfectly done.

Story and Characterization is not strong suite of this show, all 3 OVAs have that problem of maintaining the consistency of Jack. On his power showcase. But this is a show where you will be indulged into the world of Violence Jack, Go Nagai and team did a flawless work here. The show basically have fundamental formula which is now super rare to see. Damsels in Distress and Jack is the hero. However due to his insane power and violence the death follows him.

If you want a high adrenaline octane pumped show likes look no further than Violence Jack OVA series.

Well did I mention the best part ? Soundtrack is LIT. It makes the immersion so unreal and fantastic. Pure masterpiece of work.

I went in with low expectations for this one, but it managed to be even worse than I was expecting.

The beginning is fine, we get some short backstory about how the world has been destroyed and turned into a dystopia after a series of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. We then follow a group of girls escaping some evil-doers who want to make them into sex slaves. Sounds like the start to an entertaining, hyper-violent romp, right? Well, instead it turns into a boring, trash heap. There’s no story, no character development, nothing of real entertainment here.

Answer me this: Who the hell is Violence Jack ... anyway? We are told he’s as big as a gorilla and has sharp teeth… and nothing else? It’s a bit hard to root for the main hero when we know zero about them other than they’re big as f***. What’s his backstory, personality etc.? This is the first episode, you need to give us (the audience) some information to make us care, even a little. Not even the over-the-top violence is fun or amusing, a lot of the action animation is done in a freeze frame style or presented in a repetitive fashion and it’s just a bit of a snooze-fest. I can’t believe I’d ever say that about gory violence! The art and music are serviceable, that’s about it really.

Okay, let me preface this review by saying that I was (initially) ecstatic to see Violence Jack. I'm a big fan of Devilman, and the CB Go Nagai World OVA implies that it may be the secret sequel to the Devilman manga because of the appearance of Ryou Asuka and Miki Makimura. It's even listed OFFICIALLY as a sequel on MyAnimeList.

• I was pumped. I knew it had a bad dub, I heard the “fucking-Jack-fucking-chicken-shit” clip before and I remembered the Anime World Order podcast giving it praise for being a campy gem, but I could only watch 2/3 OVAs because it was so ... fucking awful. If you want a more tame Violence Jack, Mad Bull 34 is an acceptable alternative, or Angel Cop. But please, by the love of God, do not watch Violence Jack!

• That is unless you want to see gratuitous amounts of REALLY graphic rape that should be relegated to the hentai category. Violence Jack is pretty much just a representation of the 1980s, excess in fuck-loads: gore, violence, rape, and edgy, edgy, edgy things that are very cringe-worthy to me. I feel that this NC-17 "piece of art" (more like, piece of shit), seems to try to make a name for itself for being the most controversial. Like, something that someone with industrial piercings would rent at a Blockbuster video store.

• The second OVA was even worse than the first, turning the shock value level up to 1,000. The edgiest possible shit happens, business men and cops raping groups of women, one of those cops killing a child (brutally) for stealing. The end of the OVA turns into an awful rape-fest, and even has a trans-woman attempting to rape a girl in the horrific orgy. Because, you know, if they have a penis they WILL rape someone and if she's a woman, she's getting raped. Great life lessons!

• I knew that it was a post-apocalyptic story and the world is depraved, but Fist of the North Star carried itself with far more graceーin practically the same setting. You didn't see censored penises going in and out of brutalized or dead-eyed girls every few seconds. Nope. Notice that I'm calling FIST OF THE FUCKING NORTH STAR “graceful” compared to this series… you know, that ultra-violent show with tons of muscle men fighting to the death.

• Go Nagai has never been subtle, or really had any reservation about anything. I even had to drop the Devilman Lady manga, and I read EVERYTHING Devilman, because her and her students get gang-raped by huge hairy demons that is on the same level of graphic as the massive troll rape in Berserk, if not more. I will never see fictional trolls the same way ever again, thanks Kentarou Miura! I'm also insulted that Devilman Lady literally gets demon powers from getting raped and ejaculated inside of by a demon… you don't see that happening to Akira Fudou, because, y'know, he's a guy.

• Like I said, the second Violence Jack OVA put me off so much that I couldn't watch the third, but this is coming from a person who doesn't even watch porn. I guess if your kink is sexualized guro, vore, and rapeーthen Violence Jack is right up your alley. Or if you wanted background animation for your black metal concert. I give the first Violence Jack OVA a 1/10 and the second a -10/10.

Violence Jack: Harlem Bomber-hen is an OVA that came out in 1986. It is the first of in total 3 OVAs about Violence Jack, that adapts the manga Violence Jack by Go Nagai. Violence Jack: Harlem Bomber-hen was directed by Ichiro Itano (Gantz.)

Violence Jack is about Jack. A beast in a mans body. After the Kanto Hell Earthquake had destroyed everything, a powerful man known as the Slum King rose to power. Being the most powerful man he goes around and does what ever he wants, from killing innocent people, to kidnapping girls and selling them as sex slaves. However, Violence Jack is out to ... kill this man. While this is all going on, we have also got a girl named Mari, who has been seperated from her boyfriend and is trying to find him again, while trying to avoid being captured and sold as a slave.

There is not really all that much to this story. It is mostly a backdrop to the violence and sex of this series, but then again that is also why we watch this in the first place.

The characters in this OVA are pretty much nothing. Violence Jack is the strong beast of a man who kills almost everyone, but for some reason he does not kill the "good" people. Mari is the girl who is looking for her boyfriend, but gets captured and almost becomes a slave. Kenichi is Mari's boyfriend who is now working for Harlem Bomber. Harlem Bomber is the Slum King's right hand man. That is more or less it when it comes to the characters that mean anything. I normally would not even have mentioned the Harlem Bomber if it was not for the fact that he is the Slum King's right hand man and is tied to the story of Mari and Kenichi, cause he is barely even in the show.

The animation in this OVA is ok at best. They clearly went for style over movement here with the character designs having a lot of lines and scars and shades and little details that is hard to animate without it being wonky.

I am not even gonna talk about the music, cause I do not even remember if there was any. If there was any it was very unnoticeable.

I thought that this first OVA was very weak. I went into this show expecting nothing more than violence and gore porn, and on that it delivered, but if you are looking for anything else from this series, then you should just stay away, because there is nothing here for you.

Let me come right out with saying that Violent Jack isnt as trash as people make it out to be if you are in the MOOD for it.

Violent Jack is the first of a trilogy of movies. In this movie, he is off to go and kill a notoriously heinous gang leader in a post apocalyptic japan after a meteorite from space explodes within the earth's atmosphere causing a ton of natural disasters that decimate everything. There is a pseudo- love story B plot happening at the same time with a girl caught for sex slavery and a gang member who were together ... when japan was still a thing and they try to escape together.

not gonna lie, the plot is weak, the sound wasnt the best (but the music was ok. it was consistent with the times so nostalgia points there), the animation was kinda all over the place and the characters were quintessential to the 80s punk shounen genre.

HOWEVER with all of that said, to me, it wasnt completely awful. I was able to enjoy because i watched it for what it was, stupid fun and a bunch of fighting!!!!!!

if you actually came here to see a fleshed out plot with character development with the 30 some-odd minutes the movie was allotted then your kidding yourself. id like to think this anime was made for an audience that really digs edgy violence and needs a quick fix. its just stupid fun and should be taken with a grain of salt!!

Violence jack is not pretty, Jack himself looks great, but the OAV lacked anything that resembles the genre it spans from--Horror.


It starts off with a quick backstory of how the Earth was doomed by a meteor shower, followed by a quick mythology lesson, and Violence Jack doing his best at being a "scary" werewolf-like beast. There is also another protagonist named Kenichi, his love interest, and the oddest form a story can be told.

The way everything is shown feels like a collage-- every idea this show throws at you feels more like ideas put into scenes, and ending with the feeling of "Ok"-- ... in one scene, a man explains to his boss what happens, the man then dies.
It is never shown when he was hit, just that he was. His death was the equivalent of trip damage, It happened.. Period.

There is also the lack of any "horror". Sure, Jack looks kind of scary, but nothing really jumps out as a piece of shrieking goodness. Everything around him screams post-apocalypse, but not on the scale that Vampire hunter D was (Also, if you've seen Vampire hunter D, you'll notice very similar plot points in this OAV).
Though I assume there are not many fans of the manga, this is kind of a moot point, since many people reading this review are probably the ones who will flock to the OAV, instead of the original source material


On it's own two feet, Violence Jack is a gore fest that many might consider a work of exploitation. The violence in this is somewhat outdated by todays' standards, and the story at some points just trails off into other territory. It's all set-up like a dirty, violent movie, who's only goal is to satisfy some dude's fetish.
It goes from violence-rape-lesbian rape-story-Violence Jack-rape-violence- plot-hole-action-End. nothing thicker than that.

The character designs look great, but if you're looking for something a little more intellectual like Akira, stay away from this


I recommend this to anyone looking for a safe, gory tale of a man who's story you'll probably forget once the splatter-fest is over.

I had a decent time watching the first part of the 3-part series. It's an interesting work by Go Nagai.

The characters may seem one-dimensional at first, but upon closer inspection, they have depth. Jack is an interesting character portrayed as a powerful force akin to a wild animal or a demon wind that sets events in motion. His true motives are a mystery to others, but he seeks justice for victims, even if it means turning them into predators.

Violence Jack uses shadow and darkness well. However, since it was made before the widespread use of computers, there are many animation errors. Some of the experimental ... visual effects don't work as well as they could. The combat scenes are quick and violent, without much grace. The show is about a world of violence, and both men and women are portrayed as vulnerable. The character designs fit the post-apocalyptic setting, featuring punk rock and underworld elements.

Overall, this episode was action-packed, intense, violent, and entertaining. The gore is quite good, with many instances of dismemberment and blood splatter. Supposedly, this episode is the least violent among the three films, making me curious about what other surprises the other two episodes hold. I found this decently entertaining despite the near absence of a plot.

(WARNING: This OVA contains extreme violence, [clear] depictions of rape, and other shit)
Violence Jack: Harlem Bomber...

What can I say about the first Violence Jack OVA...? I'll tell you what. This OVA, is shit. Like, really shit. But, it's so shit, it's actually kind of enjoyable.

So, to give a short synopsis from memory. The Violence Jack series takes place in a dystopia where society has been collapsed by natural disasters. Now the wastelands are dominated by misogynistic gangs, bent on sating their lust and doing whatever the fuck they want in a lawless world. However, Violence Jack, a very big and legendary man, awakens, and threatens ... the gangs' way of life.

Take that synopsis as you will. I will not go deep on this review, but also will try not to spoil, because you need to watch this absolute dumpster fire for yourself. You might get a kick out of it!

Story - Blegh: It's very basic and meh, nothing too deep about it, which is fine, but it's nothing special or compelling. But, it also has a bunch of rape shit and stuff. You know, because it's relevant to the story. Idk, I think the writers for this series were just very horny and inserted this... Stuff... So be careful for that crap.

Art - Passable: Art and Animation is... Passable for the time it was released.

Sound - Meh: Sound is low quality, of course, being an old OVA. The sound design is also weird and questionable.

Character - Dogshit: The characters in this show are the absolute worst. I mean THE WORST. You will not get attached to any of them AT ALL. Jack himself is probably the least insufferable character in all of the Violence Jack OVAs, but even then, his character is pretty one-dimensional. There are also decisions made that are so fucking bad it just- ... Yeah fuck these characters. But the characters being so shit is kinda what makes this funny and enjoyable sometimes, especially with their bad to terrible voice acting.

Enjoyement - So Bad It's Good???: Personally, I found Harlem Bomber to be enjoyable, atleast. It was just funny how dumb the characters, and just the OVA all-around is. However, this is a personal say, so I cannot guarantee that you will enjoy this like I did.

Overall, this is a shit-tier OVA that I personally consider to be a so-bad-its-good watch. However, again like I said before, you may not like it like I did. But, beware. This is the ONLY "decent" Violence Jack OVA, but that is not an objective consensus.

Imagine if Mr. Pickles have a Japanese grandfather that somehow became 24% offensive with more gratuitous ultra violence. Our main character Jack has one goal, to rape..... and kill women with his "violent jackknife" wasn't amazing?
I never seen before a anime that failed so badly to represent sex & violence in a artistic way and how could i describe this character if they are all merciless abusing killing monsters that relishes in the most grotesque concepts ever, as we have to stomach this entire OVAs to worn off what feels like someone continually punching me in the shoulder and see what's painful. As ... they are just for the sake of shock and shown endlessly making both about to be interesting as a car wash worker doing an Brooklyn-accented Donald Duck impression.