Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned

The joy I get from watching "Dracula:Sovereign of the Damned" is the same I feel watching "The Room" or the best parts of "Garzey's Wing". To me it is the best of all the famously "so-bad-it's-good" anime because it is consistently so (specifically the dub, the most ideal way to watch). My problem with watching bad anime or movies is that a lot of times it's just actually bad rather than enjoyably so, and at some point it's just an hour wasted. But this 1980's interpretation of the Dracula story is so ridiculous and over-the-top throughout and becomes a delightful sight to witness. In this movie, Draculapretends to be Satan because he hates Satan, and steals a beautiful women who was meant to be a sacrifice for Satan and then falls in love with her. The story from there mostly involves Dracula constantly whining about being Dracula and performing more and more ridiculous acts in the hope of not being Dracula, only to start performing even more ridiculous acts in order to be Dracula again. Meanwhile, a group of completely inept Dracula hunters follow Dracula around and eventually both God and Satan get involved and the shenanigans continue from there. All the comedy comes from both the absurdity of the entire plot as well as the nonsensical dialogue and hilarious voice acting from the dub, which once again is the only right way to watch this. Something to watch with friends while making fun of it, and honestly way better than "Garzey's Wing" in terms of being a bad anime. Also, if you think I spoiled too much in this review, I promise you I did not reveal any of the best parts.

Dracula: Sovereign of the Dracula appears to be an attempt at compressing the events of its source material into a 90-minute film, resulting in really sloppy storytelling and rushed pacing of its events. The major element of the film that was rather confusing was how the title attempted to depict Dracula. Sovereign of the Damned tries making efforts at depicting him as a tragic figure who wanted to live happily with his family, wanted to be left alone and experience life as a mortal man. Yet at the same time, he had no qualms with sucking on the blood of humans or killing others who threatenhim and he tries regaining his immortality later in the film when he loses his vampire power. Other sloppy elements to the film have to do with the implementation of its storytelling. The title's logic with elements to its world get messy, deus ex machina is employed quite often, questionable plot directions take place, certain characters who seem relevant in the film are actually mostly worthless, plot twists occur without any prior foreshadowing and an anti-climactic ending takes place with Dracula's fate. Adding more to this fun mess is that Toei attempts rendering a Western animation style with its character designs, yet this makes them appear more stiff and lifeless in appearance compared to conventional anime designs of the time period. The English dub for Sovereign of the Damned is also a nice example of the rather low standards of anime voice acting in many 1980s dubs with two different types of acting from the voice cast: either bored and flat acting or over-the-top in an attempt at being dramatic, such as the case with Dracula's dub actor in many of the film's moments. Scenes in the film are also usually accompanied by a narrator who acts just as over-the-top as Dracula in attempting to give Sovereign of the Damned's events any sort of meaning or emotion. Overall, Sovereign of the Damned is mostly worth a look just to see how laughably bad it is. Otherwise, don't waste your time seeing it if you are expecting any kind of decent quality to it.

There's something unsettling—and hilariously incongruous—about the way Dracula: Sovereign of the Damned tries to replicate the classic Hammer Horror aesthetic with some of the cheapest, clunkiest, flattest-looking herky-jerky animation this side of Hanna-Barbera. I mean, seriously? Call me crazy, but I'm not sure if the likes of Jabberjaw and Jonny Quest should occupy the same universe as vampires, devil worshippers, child-murdering priests, zombies, karate-kicking demon slayers, wheelchair ninjas, hyperintelligent dobermans, disco studs, reincarnated babies with Jesus powers, and—in a cameo appearance—a surprisingly pointy-eared Satan (or "Lucifer Satan, as he calls himself). Uh, scratch that. On second thought, all of that actually sounds kinda awesome. And hell,let's be honest. It's not like a surprise supporting turn from Scrappy-Doo or The Funky Phantom would make this shit any less ridiculous.

Worst. Scooby-Doo. Movie. EVER! Hoo-boy, was this a train wreck, from beginning to end! A ridiculous, incongruous, silly, improbably train wreck for the ages! Worth watching just because of how bad it really is -- and how it seems to take itself seriously but comes across as so over the top bonkers you cannot look away! The Scooby-Doo analogy is unfortunately apt -- the style and quality of artwork and low-end animation are comparable. And you do have a mismatched rag-tag team (complete with dog!) hunting down the vampire. And thevampire (and the vampire's enemy, too) are so over the top they would fit right in to any Hanna Barbera episode. The plot is beyond insane. Don't try to make sense of it, because you can't. Some of the twists and turns will literally make your IQ drop just by watching. Like I said, Scooby-Doo.