Deimos no Hanayome: Ran no Kumikyoku

The OVA Deimos no Hanayome is, in one short sentence, a glorified demonstration of the manga. Does it make it bad? Not quite, but it definitely represents wasted potential.

First of all, do you see that pretty interesting premise for the plot in the synopsis? Yeah, forget about it. The main plot is told in the first few minutes and the rest of the OVA dedicates itself to a side story which is pretty much filler, so no revengeful gods, unconventional love or something like that. This is by far one of the greatest flaws here: you've got yourself some good enough source material for an ... entire series, yet choose to pick a random story and go with it.

Despite all of that, the story for the OVA is actually pretty interesting, so it's partially forgiven. The main character, Minako, is looking for her friend, who disappeared after he went to a certain orchid specialist's mansion. Minako finds herself in a very dangerous situation when she faces the siblings Touko and Kaname, both hiding some bizarre secrets... It's not a complex plot, but it certainly works and fits within the overall tone of the manga: dark, tragic and containing some twisted love stories.

The visuals are very good and able to successfully express the melancholy and morbidity through an overall Gothic atmosphere. Despite following the shoujo traditional art style, the characters have more mature looks to match the story nature. The main problem is the animation itself. Sure, many series and OVAs at the time had some awkward animation consisting of still frames in dramatic and action sequences, but it still looks very dated. To the OVA's merit, though, some of the scenes are quite stylish.

A good soundtrack helps tremendously in building a great atmosphere, and Deimos no Hanayome realizes that... sort of. Well, the musics themselves are good and most sound effects are okay (except a certain annoying and completely unnatural scream), but the transition between background sounds is done very poorly: the music just stops in the middle of the scene, then pops up again later, with very little fluidity.

The characters are the weakest part of this, since the main characters are only fully fleshed out in the manga and there is not much time to develop the bad guys. That's why they should have settled for either really adapting the original plot or making a complete standalone OVA with nothing to do with the manga. However, there is a huge problem which unfortunately manifests in the manga as well: all of the characters have their dumb moments sooner or later, and when they do, it's really dumb. They go from the basic "I'll reveal my whole backstory before I kill you, like a classic villain!" to "I've got evidence, experience and good reasons to assume that I'll be killed, therefore I'll walk straight into the danger without any plan! ". The backstory is interesting, though, and that is the only redeeming feature.

This OVA had the recipe for disaster with underdeveloped characters, technical inefficiency and failure to grasp the original plot, but the engaging suspense and nice visuals saved it. In the end, it's still a disturbing story with an interesting development, so horror fans should definitely give it a chance. If you enjoy more mature shoujo stories, Deimos no Hanayome might be for you as well, but be warned that it's basically advertising for the manga and doesn't try to hide that fact.

(Reviewed for the club "Reviews for the unreviewed")

In all my life, I've never witnessed this degree of animation overkill. Studio Madhouse had the opportunity to produce an OVA adapting a shoujo manga where a cursed man pursues a beautiful teen so that her body can be used as the vessel for his wife, whose flesh is rotting away. Sadly, what we get is a random chapter from a 17 volume manga. I don't blame Madhouse for not producing a complete adaptation because, for 1, they were likely commissioned for just 1 episode, and two, I don't think the manga was ever completed either.

I consider Bride of Deimos to be an artistic ... total package. Character designs, background art, scene composition, animation, music, and sound effects, everything combines to create an ominous atmosphere. Although this was likely intended to be a promo for the manga, its end result far surpassed its purpose and created a visual experience capable of standing on its own. Additionally, I couldn't help but notice a similarity to Vampire Hunter D. Surprisingly, it shares the same animation director as Vampire Hunter D, as well as several other 80s classics that you might be familiar with. Furthermore, it was directed by Madhouse co-founder Rintaro who has his own extensive list of accomplishments.

Presentation aside, there is a story that's being told in Bride of Deimos...in fact, there's two. Admittedly, this 30-minute ova felt like it lasted an hour due to it being so dense with artistic value as well as its two stories. The first lays the groundwork for the main plot by introducing Deimos, and his wife's would-be host, Minako. The second story occupies the majority of the OVA. It is basically episodic subplot from the manga that depicts a secluded brother and sister who lure people into their mansion to murder them.

Surprisingly, this segment of the story was pretty impressive, considering it only occupied about 15 minutes of screen time. In addition to being suspenseful, the brother and sister received characterization, a back story, and it's concluded with tragic irony. As long as you come into this ova expecting the main plot to go nowhere and its subplot to be the high point of its narrative, then you'll likely enjoy the OVA even more. Personally, I was confused by this gradual focal shift considering Minako's involvement with the brother and sister duo. Hopefully, this review can set your expectations appropriately, so you know what to look for and don't let its loose ends trip you up.

Is Bride of Deimos a bad manga adaptation or an awe-inspiring work of art? There are mixed opinions about this, but I think it's open to interpretation. I read a bit of the manga out of curiosity, and it does have a portion of artistic flair in early chapters. It might be a great read; it's just not for me. However, I do know that I will continue to spread awareness about this OVA because I believe its presentation and atmosphere outweigh its broken plot. I give Bride of Deimos a 7.5 out of 10. If you have 30 minutes, I think this is totally worth your time.

Unfortunately, this ova can only be found in VHS rip format. It's currently available on youtube, but youtube compression plus VHS rip quality doesn't do this anime any favors. I recommend finding a higher-quality version of the VHS rip if you can.

Story 6
Art 10
Sound 10
Character 7
Enjoyment 9
Overall 7.5 (rounded up to 8)

How on earth did this pilot not get picked up for more episodes!?

This was clearly meant to be a episodic anime about a girl who is the reincarnation bride of deimos (based on the Greek myth)! And has him giving her guidance and advice (similar to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night’s Maria mixed with Luka from UraBoku).

Judging by this first episode alone, this could of became one of my favourites. (I love episodic detective series like Darker Than Black), but unfortunately, we only got one episode.

The art for this anime is dark and spectacular (even though they use one of the animation scenes 3 times, ... but I see it as being symbolic of the episode’s themes).

The reviews for this anime are poor (probably because many don’t realise that this was a pilot episode for a show that never came to be.

I won’t go into detail about the story of the episode as I believe you should go in blind. It’s only 30 minutes long, so it won’t take up too much of your time.

I hope this does one day get picked up (maybe give it the JoJo treatment of renewing the series with a much larger budget). But until then, give this pilot a watch!

Perhaps it was dumb for me to watch this without the context of the manga, but I'm so used to being able to watch something without reading the manga that this just put me off, to be honest.

It feels like they tried to fit some sort of exposition in at the beginning of the OVA but I found myself quickly lost and bored. Some scenes cut so suddenly and weirdly that I became confused and had no idea what was happening anymore. While the mystery aspect of the plot is nice, there are various things and points I found myself laughing at in how ... ridiculous they are.

Overall, this OVA is unremarkable. If you've read the manga it's probably more enjoyable, but other than that it's a snoozefest.

Another case of "it's very pretty to look at". But without the context of the manga it's based on, there isn't a great deal to latch onto.

(And even after looking up that context, this feels even more random than before. Why not make an OVA covering most of the manga instead of just this random chapter???)

Overall, I enjoyed the visuals far more than anything else in this. I really am a sucker for 80s anime in that sense. But aside from that, it offers little else of value when it's the most random-ass story set inside a far more interesting story that is barely touched ... on. It's hard not to be left feeling cheated, honestly.

This OVA tells a compelling story with nice art and decent music, but it would have worked better if designed more as a standalone piece rather than as a teaser for the manga.

The synopsis listed on MAL, about a demon going after a young woman to use her body as a vessel for his wife's soul, is quickly explained in the first few minutes of the OVA, and then it shifts to an episodic murder-mystery-type case. The case is interesting, and has a satisfying beginning, middle and end. However, many aspects of the plot progression don't make much sense and rely on the viewer to ... suspend their belief pretty heavily.

And throughout the entire OVA, the most confusing thing was, how and why does the main character know who the demon is when he shows himself to her? Also, if this guy is some powerful demon, why doesn't he just take her to the underworld rather than just randomly appear and talk to her, and then disappear again? Furthermore, the backstories of the demon and his wife aren't discussed, so viewers don't even know why the characters are in the situation they're in, etc., unless they had already read the manga.

In essence, this OVA serves as an advertisement for the manga, basically a teaser to get viewers interested in picking up the manga, and for existing manga readers, it offers a little something extra, basically the opportunity to see their favorite characters animated and speaking. If it had been a little longer to explain more of the characters' backstories and motivations, it could have been a better standalone OVA, but instead what we get is something that feels underdeveloped and unimpressive.

It wasn't bad. If it would've been the first episode of the anime or something.
But for just an OVA it was.. well a very weird beginning since there isn't much information about the MC's at all.

I liked the music tho and the art as well, even though it's an old anime I did enjoy it.
The worst about it was that it actually would've been an good anime if it were a whole series. Too bad that potential is wasted.

The story itself is okay. It starts interesting and then it seems like the first episode of something with some short scenes with Deimos, but it doesn't ... reveal a lot about the MC nor Deimos. Most of it was just about about other people which would've been nicer if they made a whole series instead of just this short story.

Overall it was okay to watch, but too bad they never continued with another episode or made this an actual series.