Mamono Hunter Youko

Devil Hunter Yohko is a short series from the 90s that's perfect for fans of panty flashes, girls with weapons, and 90's anime artstyle (I do). I first watched this when I was about nine (totally not okay) but it's better suited to teens and young adults. I used to rent it from a local video place that had lots of anime (most of it innapropriate for small children, but I watched it anyway. -_-) and I found the whole series cheap at a Half Price Bookstore when I was in high school. Because I idolized sexy kick ass women like Yohko when I was ... a kid, I may be a little partial. ^^; The story is far from complicated. The action facet of it is actually pretty good from what I remember. There's not really any fluff or nonsense, the episodes are all fairly to the point; things seem normal and then oh, no! Monsters!
I love the art. The eyes aren't big and watery, the costumes are cute, and the monsters are scary lookin'. The music isn't anything special and the theme song isn't very memorable. What stands out most is the main character. If you like women tearing though giant demons, chanting ancient transformation spells, and general magic-girlyness, you will love Yohko. The stereo typical teenage ditz, she tries to lead as normal a life as possible, but always manages to go from school girl to fierce warrior when the situation calls for it. Overall, I'd say it's worht your time. Furthermore, if it weren't for the nudity and language, I'd also reccommend it for younger siblings and kids, cause I had lots of fun playing "Devil Hunter Yohko" on the playground. XD

Devil Hunter Yohko can be best described as “Sailor Moon for boys.” It has a mix of action, violence with some gore, magical girl themes, and even some light-hearted comedy revolving around teen girls. At face value, this sounds like the recipe for disaster, but much to my surprise, this was pretty enjoyable as a “mindless fun” anime.

A lot of people have compared Devil Hunter Yohko to Buffy the Vampire Slayer; I'm sure most of them are talking about the TV series but since I haven't seen the show, I actually think of the campy 1992 film of the same name since both ... aren't meant to be taken seriously and are fun to watch. Officially, there's six episodes in this OVA, but I say there's five since “Devil Hunter Yohko 4Ever” is a compilation of j-pop music videos using footage from the first three DHY episodes (except for one that has chibi versions of Yohko and Azusa).

Each episode in DHY is a stand alone, so that means each episode has its own plot. This opens the door for repetition and depending on who you are and how you choose to see Yohko', can be a good or bad thing. Basically, the plot of each episode is that demons find a way to break into the human world and Yohko (and later, her apprentice Azusa) have to kill them; the main difference is the demons being slain and sometimes, the settings. I can see why some people wouldn't like this, but since this OVA wasn't meant to be on the same level of anime masterpieces like Grave of the Fireflies and Perfect Blue (and doesn't try to be), I don't really mind this since overall, seeing Yohko and Azusa killing demons is fun. The only episode in this OVA I didn't care for was the last one since it was tremendously mediocre and not a good way to end it. Fortunately, since there aren't any overarching plots in this OVA, it's not necessary to get the whole DHY experience.

I'm not going to bother describing each episode because as stated before, many of them are interchangeable with the plot sequences. However, I will describe some of the characters.

The characters aren't exactly works of art, but they fit in perfectly for this type of anime. Yohko Mano is a good lead character since she does act like a teenage girl and as a heroine, isn't perfect (any decent character has flaws). Yeah, she's obsessed with winning a pretty boy's heart, but fortunately this isn't overdone (except for the sixth episode). I also like how despite being a really tough fighter, she isn't an unstoppable fighting machine; she takes considerable amounts of pain in several episodes. She can be a hoot at times like in DHY episode three, when she's transported into an alternate reality and meets a prince in that dimension, she explodes with joy and says something like “I can finally kiss this cursed virginity goodbye!!” (not quoted verbatim) which got me cracking up a bit. Azusa Kanzaki is Yohko's apprentice in devil hunting and is one of my favorite characters in DHY (along with Yohko) since she's as cute as a lamb and has an admirable spirit to be an expert at her desired trade. Chikako Ogawa (Chi for short) is pretty funny as Yohko's best friend as she feeds Yohko information about the “hot boys” in school and of demons for her to kill.

The animation and artwork is good for a lower budget anime from the early 90's, and since the whole OVA spans about five years (1990-95, I believe), the animation tends to improve as each installment progresses. The music isn't too shabby, and to my surprise, I found some of the J-pop tunes pretty catchy and enjoyable for what they are.

At the end of the day, watching Devil Hunter Yohko is like eating a funnel cake or deep fried Snickers bar. It doesn't contain any nutritional value, and it's not supposed to. If you want to see two sexy teen girls kill demons, then DHY will be your cup of tea.

Overview:

We have enough people on this site reviewing the new shit like "Is this a Zombie?", Highschool DD and Btooom. I am continuing in my noble quest to enlighten younger viewers on the forgotten anime of the past. Mostly shitty old anime, because those reviews are both more amusing and honestly much easier write.

Background info:

This was at one point a famous or rather infamous title back in 1990. Firstly, it was the first ADV (the company that brought over Evangelion) VHS release in the US. It was also probably the first Etchii genre anime ever to see American release. This was in the year 1990. ... The US had received gory anime like Akira and Vampire Hunter D. There had also been a very limited release of hentai like the infamous "Legend of the Overfiend" found in the back of seedy video stores. There was no internet at this time, so the only people that had ever seen a hentai were those with enough of a "I don't give a fuck" attitude to walk into a porn store and buy a horribly dubbed cartoon porn much to the laughter and redicule of the store clerk. I was born in 1988 of course, so by the time I wanted to see anime titties around age 10 or 11, the internet had thankfully been invented. The Echii genre for those that don't know is a lowbrow genre that has lots of tits and ass, but isn't actual hentai. It is essentially softcore and includes shows like Ikki Tousen, Seikon, Desert Punk, and Highschool of the Dead. This is the grandfather of all those shows. The trunk of the sleazy Echii tree! It featured copious blood and nudity without having to buy it in a porn store. This made it a somewhat popular title back in the early 90s. Let's see how it stacks up today!

Plot and Characters: 2/10

As you might imagine the plot and characters are very lacking in this one since the only reason it exists is for pointless gore and erotica. Yohko is one of a long line of demon hunters and each episode must fight a new monster, which will inevitably tear most of her clothes off before she can kill it. The original writing was terrible to begin with I'm sure, but the English dub is laughably horrible. The dub actually tries to make "Bitchin" into Yohko's catchphase. How is that a catch phrase!? The only character I liked in this series was Yohko's insane mother that in the first episode hands her condoms and tells her to go out and enjoy as much sex as she can! Apparently "devil hunters" must be virgins, but they don't lose their powers unless they get pregnant. They can have protected sex and still count as virgins. This plothole allows us to see Yohko bang and yet still keep her powers for fighting demons in the next episode. As Yohko would say, "Bitchin!"

Art and sound: 3/10

The art obviously looks extremely dated, but the animation isn't horrible like most 80s OVAs. This isn't MD Geist where a character's body will randomly disappear and leave a floating head and cape. The blood also looks a LOT better than most other shitty OVAs of that time period like Angel Cop or Mad Bull 34.

Overall: 2/10

This is interesting as a historical relic, but as an anime it sucks. Vast improvements in animation quality and a boom in the echii genre has led to hundreds of superior softcore ero titles. Unless you are interested in anime history, there is really no reason to ever watch this piece of shit. Unless of course you just want to laugh at ADV's early dubbing. That is always worthwhile entertainment!