Violence Jack: Slumking

Long ago, I used to believe that a good story just needed to have some good doses of blood, gore and of course naked women. Those were the days and I was a hungry teenager influenced by a dying and corrupt world. Of course that as the years passed me by, I was influenced by many other things and came to widen my taste range. So, watching Go Nagai’s gory Violence Jack takes me back to my youth. You do have to enjoy gory stories to enjoy Violence Jack, prior knowledge on Go Nagai would be also welcome. Forget about the main plotline and just enjoy thenaked women and the blood and the gore, this is what Violence Jack is all about. It is Violent as the name implies, so no time watching gardens here. But if you still insist and you want to find a story there, it also does have one. A comet has hit the earth and almost eradicated human life. Among survivors, some chose the philosophy of “kill, destroy and rape” all the women and people around. Among those bandits there’s a boss, his name is Slumking. And there’s this individual, a giant kind of immortal one, who no one knows where has come. The animation is pretty good for 1985. As I watched a crappy US dubbed version, the background sounds and music was hidden far away for most of the movie and yes if a US dub can be bad, it can be very bad. (I’ll edit this part when I have watched a proper version.) And that’s it, it’s pretty straightforward material you have here. But the gore is what matters really. If Go Nagai’s name rings you a bell or if you never heard the name but felt curious on what this strange OVA from 1985 might have inside, go ahead. It’ll be a nice experience, well, might not be nice, but you won’t forget it for sure. Rate: 7/10

Story: 1/10 - Pathetic I did not understand this story. Apparently, it has to do with a giant named Violence Jack. Yes, his name is Violence Jack. At that point, when they revealed that was the main characters name, I knew this wasn't going to be very good. The story was absolutely pathetic, and laughable. It jumped around, and really never solved anything. Art: 7/10 - Good Actually, the art was pretty nice considering this anime was made in the Mid-80's. The characters are detailed and so are the surroundings. The colors have a dull hue to them, though, and a lot of the characters really aren't drawnvery well or colored right. It emits a nice 80's retro-trash-porn vibe, which is nice, but not THAT nice. Sound: 7/10 - Good The sound was actually pretty good too. I did not watch this OVA dubbed, as I could not find it dubbed, so I cannot say anything about the dubbing, but the Japanese vocal track was well done, but nothing special. The characters voices barely fit them, but it worked. The sound effects were excellent for their era though, so props to that. Also,Violence Jack has a pretty cool voice. Character: 2/10 - Dreadful Most of the characters, besides good 'ol Violence Jack himself, are stock characters that anybody could come up with, and have no depth. Violence Jack is a strange one though, he barely talks, and when he does, he looks extremely angry, and is short. I never really got attached to Violence Jack, due to his lack of personality. That is not a good thing when you can't really get attached, or even semi-attached, to the main character of a show. Enjoyment: 6/10 - Fair Besides this OVA's obvious faults, it is kind of enjoyable if you are with the right people. It is one of those shows that takes itself WAY to seriously, and in the process becomes rather funny, sometimes to the point of downright hilarious. If you are in a sound state of mind when watching this, you will probably find no humor in this at all though. Overall: 5/10 - Mediocre It isn't that bad, and it isn't that good. Purgatory. If you have the right group of friend's, this is a funny show to watch, once. If you are alone, and looking for a serious dark anime, go elsewhere, Violence Jack is not the thing for you. I would say as long as you can get your hands on a copy of Violence Jack, you should watch it, just for the laughs.

After 20 years I am still trying to learn what is so great about this short anime OVA. Based on Go Nagai's manga, Violence Jack is a three part OVA that takes place in a post apocalyptic setting where the strong are abusing the weak. Representing justice is the muscular giant Violence Jack. Violence because he's violent, and Jack because, well, he carries a big jackknife in his coat pocket.... clever huh? He runs around the city horribly knifing everyone he thinks deserves it. Now for starters, this is actually volume one called the Harem Bomber, for some reason in the states it was airedout of order and released as volume three The Slum King. I don't know why but it sucks all the same. This volume needs to be seen first though so you can understand why the planet is in the shape it's in. I've never read the original source material because up to this day I haven't been able to acquire it in English. However, based upon what I researched it sounds like an intricate story, and this anime OVA directed by Osamu Kamijo sounds like a very bad adaptation of it. Violence Jack embodies that 80's anime feel that gave it such a notorious reputation for being all blood and sex. If you know someone who was put off by the anime genre for those reasons during that time period; Violence Jack could have been one of the titles they had seen. The story is poorly handled as it follows a group of Slum King's henchmen as they search for Jack, or kidnap helpless virgins with intentions on satisfying their sexual desires. Women are chained, whipped, and raped, for reasons I still do not see relevant to the story, fortunately it's not in completely graphic detail. Jack himself has the personality of flat pop. I couldn't find a single reason to cheer for him. The rest of the cast are walking plot devices and nothing more, with one of them dying a dramatic death despite receiving barely two minutes worth of screen time. I guess the anime was trying to evaluate the evil side of man during a time of crisis. This is fine and all, but I would've found it easier to buy in to if the setting was better used and examined. The entire story feels like an excuse for gratuitous sex and violence, and the only thing it has going for it is the consistent tone. There's nothing cheery about this at all, not even the ending. Visually, this OVA really doesn't look all that good either. The excuse this was made back in 1986 is just that, an excuse. I've seen OVA's from the 80's time period that still hold up, with Neo Tokyo and Vampire Princess Miyu OVA coming to mind. The action scenes are terrible, with Jack running by his enemies and either bodies or their pieces hitting the floor. In regards to choreography, there's just none to speak of and the gore doesn't make up for this. Plus there are stills and reused cels in good supply. The backgrounds are actually done well giving off this end of the world feel. Unfortunately they're all wasted on this poorly executed story. The subtitles are pretty uneven because some times they can be read, and on other occasions they shoot by rapidly. There's no English dub so you're stuck with this. This first volume of Violence Jack is indeed skip material. I know of several people to like this, but I think it's the nostalgia deodorant being rolled on thick here, like so many other older titles. I recommend not even bothering with this, especially since it doesn't get much better later on. Highs: Some decent backgrounds, maintains a serious tone Lows: Makes you appreciate better anime

This OVA is short and shittacular, so this review will be too. If there's anything redeeming about this OVA, it's got to be the gratuitous, grisly violence. *Disclaimer: Not an 80s anime guru by any means Art: 7 Despite how old it is.. they did at least try to make the gore brutal by drawing in viscera and not just red waves. A couple of satisfying moments, mostly eh otherwise. Enjoyment: 4 As stated above, if you like grisly, (but cheesy) violence, and some random sexual violence thrown in to be a shocker, there's some entertainment to be gleaned from this. Otherwise, it's asinine and absurd.Sound: 3 Cheesy as hell 80's music. Probably ripped from a C list porno and the creator thought Violence Jack was so stupid that it wasn't worth suing over. Story: 2 Imagine Mad Max, make the plot nonsensical with the only unifying theme as violence, and 30 minutes long. Characters: 2 Violence Jack doesn't even speak in this, yet they make it a point to beat you over the head about explaining how intelligent he is... Well, he's good at using his knife to intelligently eviscerate people, and that's about all. The rest of the 'cast' are a bunch of aimless morons who serve little to no purpose other than to be cannon fodder and take up some screentime running around. Overall: 3.6 (rounds up to 4, because I laughed a couple of times at how ridiculous it was) I was told this was an 80's schlockfest of depravity and ultraviolence. Perhaps I'm just really desensitized to violence, but there wasn't anything abhorrent or reviling here. Violence Jack succeeds in that it achieves what it set out to do. It's not trying to provoker deeper thought or offer extended introspective metaphor. It promises violence, and delivers. I'll give them points for trying; the 80's were a shocking time.