Kyoufu Densetsu Kaiki! Frankenstein

Airing on TV Asahi in 1981, with a running time of 111 minutes, Frankenstein is a reasonably standard retelling of the classic book by Mary Shelley. In a foreboding castle scientist Dr. Victor Frankenstein performs a hideous experiment which he hopes will bring the dead back to life. With the help of his assistant he is successful in reanimating a man recreated from parts gathered from corpses but the creature is unpredictable and horrifying. The doctor flees back to his home in Switzerland leaving his assistant in charge of destroying the monster. But Dr. Frankenstein soon finds that he cannot hide from his shameful secret forever as mysterious murders are committed around him forcing him to question if his creation really is dead and gone...

Frankenstein, Doctor Victor Main

Nozawa, Nachi Japanese

Frankenstein's Monster Main

Komatsu, Housei Japanese

Frankenstein, Emily Main

Serikawa, Yuugo Director

Haneda, Kentarou Music

Shelley, Mary Original Creator

Ashida, Toyoo Character Design

Reviews

Aug 8, 2022

tacaloking

Recommended

this movie i feel is a bit over looked i watched the subbed version base on other reviews the different dubbed versions might have lower quality if comparing it to the original american frankstein this builds on its ideas in many ways

for characters the assistant has more of a character frankenstein himself is much more build up and is while not a complete villain it clearly shows him to be a very flawed person the monster also was built up more doing a very good job in showing a greater depth of him and more time focused on those aspects then the classic movie ... this also gave everything better structure by giving frankenstein a family this allows more drama and giving frankenstein relatable concerns with what he did

for the animation it was not very good i would give it a 5 it does enough to do what its meant to but no scene looked notably impressive the sound does a bit better with music help setting things up and doing a decent job of it and while the japenese voice acting was not great there are enough moments were the it does a decent job in properly giving the intended emotions the there are times it is a bit flat but older anime movies had this problem so i feel this put a little more more effort then average

over all if you seen and liked the original american frankestein this build on the themes of it while adding things to increase the depth that is why i gave this a 8 as it did many things you would want with a frankenstein movie

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Oct 9, 2017

KuudereKun

Recommended

I watched Kyoufu Kaiki! Frankenstein (also known as Monster of Frankenstein and Frankenstein Legend of Terror). An Anime movie from 1981 based on Frankenstein. I watched the Dub that was made in 1984, so one of the older Dubs out there. Most of the voice cast seems to not be VAs I’m used to, but Emily sounds like Nunnally from Code Geass.

The movie was enjoyable, but flawed. For the first half it seemed like they were dropping the usually sympathetic depiction of the Monster. When it does come into play, it makes the first half feel poorly executed.

It’s clearly a ... mainly Universal films inspired project. Somehow they got away with even using the look for the Monster (who gets named Franken here) that Universal owns the Copyright to. Though evidence the writers had read the book exists maybe in that this is a rare film where like the novel Victor Frankenstein rejects his creation immediately.

There is a take on the Blind man who’s nice to the Monster, taken from The Novel but mostly made famous by Bride of Frankenstein.

The movie gives Victor and Elizabeth a daughter, named Emily. While that is new, Emily seems inspired by the girl who gets thrown into the pond in the 1931 James Whale film, they don’t recreate that scene, but numerous hints tell me that is the case. Of course you could also compare her to the little girl from Ghost of Frankenstein. She also shows that Moe in Anime is nothing new.

Inspector Belbo seems very Columbo inspired, how popular was that show in Japan?

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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May 6, 2020

Thedude3445

Mixed Feelings

This thing goes on way longer than it needs to, but I watched this at x1.5 speed for most of the runtime, so I was fine with it lol.

This is a remixed version of Frankenstein turned into some weirdo quasi-sequel where Frankenstein's son complete's his dad's research and then the monster escapes and wreaks havoc on his hometown, where everyone hates him and he learns to accept being hated, because humanity isn't good enough for him.

Dr. Frankenstein's descent into madness as a result of targeted tormenting, Frankenstein's monster having fun baking bread with the little girl and then later punching out a fucking bear, the ... badass bald detective guy who is too smart for the case and nonetheless still gets consumed by the inevitable mob against the monster... there's a lot of good B-movie stuff wrapped in this really silly story.

The part of the movie that makes me give it 3 stars? The monster, knowing that crosses are holy, goes to a church and prays before an icon of Jesus, hoping that he'll be saved, and then getting shot at by Dr. Frankenstein, who shouts, "There's no sanctuary for you here!" Powerful stuff for a B-movie anime OVA.

That, and old pre-90s anime dubbing where everyone talks at motorspeed because they want to fit every bit of dialogue possible into each mouth flap. That stuff's funny.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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