![[ANIME REVIEWS]](images/section_anime.gif)
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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.
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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
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