Wicked City (1987) shares the hyper violence and explicit sexual content of Yoshiaki Kawajiri's other classic film, Ninja Scroll (1993). The story is based on the first book of Hideyuki Kikuchi's Black Guard novel series and as a result feels like just the beginning of a longer narrative. Unfortunately, this is all we get. Viewers are left wanting more information about the intriguing world, two-dimensional yet interesting characters, and the clandestine groups introduced. This film is best enjoyed with a focus on its art and animation and without too much thought given to the plot. It is a stylish, dark action-horror flick reminiscent of the many live-action 1980s action/horror B-films with much blood, sex, and rule-of-cool heroics.
Some positives:
- beautiful art and unique character design
- dark film noir color palette (reminded of Batman The Animated Series)
- Kawajiri's stylized ultra violence and
- Kawajiri's unique animation style
- incredible monster transformation animations
Some negatives:
- two-dimensional characters that are kind of basic or not fleshed out
- shallow plot with much left unexplained
- this one is not a thinker
