Copyright © 1991 Yasuaki Kadola / Toei Video co. / Promise Co.
Copyright © 1998 Manga Entertainment
DUB: 0-44005-55913-2
$19.95
SUB: 0-44005-64393-0
$24.95
60 minutes

The title PSYCHIC WARS does little to describe this anime, which is a 'standard' action title. The plot revolves around Ukyo Retsu, a surgeon that is chosen to continue humanity's fight against a 5000 year old Demon threat.
Starting at a hospital, while operating to remove a cancerous growth from an aged woman, Ukyo discovers a strange pulsing organism that no one has seen before. Before passing away, the woman passes on the powers and duty to fight these demons who would soon rise again to destroy humanity.
Ukyo travels to discover his new purpose, along with his nurse who has fallen in love with him. Eventually, following hunches he investigates the rumor of an ancient ruin of a lost civilization in Japan, and is himself transported back 5000 years to a time where humans and demons were slaughtering eachother.
The character designs are more realistic than current anime, though almost plain. The demon design is very strange (an Oni/Ogre dressed in gold piece armor) and seems very out of place.
The action mainly consists of Ukyo "charging up" and punching the various demons to death. When the battles get tough, he always finds more strength to win the day. There is little suspense to the outcome, and the animation, although not bad, does not portray the combat very dramatically. The violence is clean with little blood or gore. There a little nudity in the show, though very tame especially in comparison to titles like NINJA SCROLL. The animation itself is a little below standard OVA quality, but adequate.
To its credit, the dub was fine and quite listenable. Some of the voice parts did not convey enough emotion, but I suspect the original was like this as well.
What is really strange about PSYCHIC WARS is how nothing ever really happens, or at least it feels that way. It also reminded me in parts of the "Taarna" sequence from HEAVY METAL. Ukyo travels from place to place, based upon intuition, and randomly meets demons who he quickly dispatches. This is an empty world as well, with few people seen beyond the main characters. I found it hard to relate with the main characters, and the plot felt like pieces from different puzzles.
So final prognosis is to give a pass on PSYCHIC WARS in lieu of other finer action titles. This anime has not aged well in the last seven years, and brings back unfortunate memories of when the North American anime industry bought based more on price, not quality.