EX Home | Email | Search | Prev. Page | Contents | Next Page
Vol 2 Issue 7
[ANIME REVIEWS]

takegami.
— by Charles McCarter

The opening scene shows a young boy, Kouichi, trying to comfort a little girl named Terumi. She's crying because the other girls are teasing her for her looks, or rather for her lack of looks.
   After the opening credits, the story continues with Terumi and Kouichi in high school. She's still regarded by the other girls as ugly, and consequently, she is still the object of their teasing. So after a series of sleepless nights tormented by bad dreams, Terumi comes to school with a different hairstyle. Meanwhile, Kouichi hears the voice of God, or rather, a god. It's Susanou (one of the ancient gods of Japan). Then there's the buddhist nun who keeps following Kouichi around, but he doesn't notice until the episode is half over (which is kind of surprising, because not everyone dresses like a nun these days). A series of strange murders take place.
   It turns out that Kouichi is the only one who can destroy the Dragon Spirits who are returning. The only catch is that the one the dragon has possessed is Terumi. In short, it's the typical "Girl wants boy who doesn't know she's alive so she gets possessed by an evil spirit and boy must morph into shiny bio-organic creature to fight said spirit" story. But it's really not bad.
   Sure, there are some problems, like the fact that in this world, it seems that Terumi's ugliness is universally accepted when she is the most attractive character of the bunch (even before the hairstyle change). And I can deal with the mixing of Buddhist and Shinto beliefs, as it happens all the time in Japan. But Susanou as the good guy? He is typically shown in the myths (especially the KOJIKI) to be a bullying trantrum-thrower and all-around not-very nice guy. But I realize that I'm being very nitpicky here. Maybe he's trying to make amends.
   Character and monster designs are handled by Ohbari Masami, who directed FATAL FURY, BATTLE ARENA TOSHINDEN, and VOLTAGE FIGHTER GOWCAIZER, and his designs, especially his dragons, are very nice indeed. Music is a blend of traditional Japanese sounds done with electronic instruments. The animation quality is above-average.
   Dubbing being dubbing, I can't really say that much about it. Since I don't know the original voices, however, I can accept the English versions as voices for these characters but I wish that they would learn how to pronounce Japanese names if they are not going to change them. Still, the two main characters did a good job with their roles, especially when it came to making the screaming (and there was a lot of it) sound convincing.
   TAKEGAMI is certainly not going to be revered as one of the all-time great anime titles, but it is fun. Those who enjoy occult/horror anime and are fans of dubs should find this enjoyable.

  TAKEGAMI: GUARDIAN OF DARKNESS
Copyright © 1990-1992 JVC * J.C. Staff * Minamimachi Bugyosho
English Dubbed Version Copyright © 1997 Central Park Media Corporation
U.S. Manga Corps
USMC 1620
Volume 1 of 3
$19.95 SRP
43 minutes
Available Now


EX Home | Email | Search | Prev. Page | Contents | Next Page