Midnight Eye: Gokuu II

The 1st time i saw midnight eye part 1 and 2 was back in 1997,98 via an rental videotape i never brought back, i was from that point on a keeper! I did a review of part 1, part 2 goes further in the story, wich goes more in to an emotional side since a fine lady is involved. Animation just as good as part 1, nice background sketche´s, futuristic but less important chara. and no involvement in police depart. anymore sadly. It still has some good late 80´s tracks to keep up, and WAY more violent scenes for a cyberpunk cultclassic compared to part ... 1, less mysterious `happenings` is involved but thats up for u to decide!

Its clear cut this sequel to the first Midnight Eye is not as good. It has many of the elements, if not almost all of them that makes Yoshiaki Kawajiri's ovas so brilliant. It has the gorgeous, sharp character designs that lend themselves to the witty yet steadfast heroes and the badass femme fatales we love to root for. It pits them against an unscrupulous, calculating asshole of a villain with a dash of high level crime/government corruption that adds a menancing edge and dispells petty cartooniness they may have. Finally theres the awe inspiring mechanical or body horror artwork that lends themselves to unforgettable, ... kickass death encounters between the heroes and a bizzare melange of ruthless mooks. Except Midnight Eye II does not have that last element; arguably the most essential one that drives the entire momentum and pacing of these action ovas.

The action in Midnight Eye II is good but merely standard and not strategically spaced out throughout the runtime for maximum impact. To add insult to injury, the villains are split between the evil military officer and his bioengineered psychic weapon experiment, who is not clear cut evil. These Yoshiaki Kawajiri ovas do not work so well against a sympathetic enemy like this and as mirrored by the characters deliberation on whether to kill the psychic bioweapon, leads to a less focused plot overall.

What lets the action down is the incompatibility of the main character's powers and abilities (or at least the underutilization of his hacking abilities) against the militaristic nature of the villain whilst still sticking to the solely action focused formula of the first ova. We dont see mech suits or gunships being deployed against the hero, only soldier goons. It would have been far more satisfying to see Gokuu overcome more insane odds with use of his hacking powers. The final encounter with the psychic enemies is more up to par but the damage is already done, the ova has already suffered from a lack of exciting enemy encounters that keeps these ovas engaging from start to end.

The finale however is great, with a nice plot twist and the use of a novel weapon whose blueprints was stolen from the pentagon by Gokuus hacking abilities. A very nice piece of cold war contextualising for some subtle sociopolitical commentary and worldbuilding. If only there was more of this exciting action throughout more of this ova!
And no, the origin of the Midnight Eye is still not explained, though that would probably be opening another can of worms.

This psychic military experiment premise was done better in another Yoshiaki Kawajiri work, the second ova of Cyber City Oedo which is much more focused thanks to its mindless cyborg enemy and greater focus on bureaucratic intrigue and has far more spectacular setpieces. Midnight Eye II is worth a watch as a high production retro ova with gorgeous art but is ultimately an average action sci fi anime of the time.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS.


SUMMARY: Goku Midnight Eye 2 starts out just as goofy and fun as the first part, but devolves into a way more grim and frankly unpleasant watch that was not my cup of tea. If you like 80s style anime gore without a deep story or characters, and just like the action as animated by Madhouse, this is the OVA for you. If you want something in the vein of the fun and goofy action from the first OVA, you will be very disappointed, as this one contains way less (unintentional?) comedy and way more questionable drama.


Goku Midnight Eye 2 starts ... off with what's basically a "cold open", a sequence completely unrelated to the main story. Here, we get a stakeout in an exclusive rooftop club, and soon enough a hilarious chase sequence ensues where our protagonist and the sleazebag mafia man he's after slide around on rooftops. It's directly in the tone of the previous movie, and I really like it.

However, if you are like me and you came for the 80s OVA goofiness, then you should seriously stop watching after this sequence and just pretend it was a short. What follows is a main story that really wasn't what I expected or hoped for, and ended up being a serious buzzkill. As so often, your mileage may vary, but in my opinion Part 2 of Goku Midnight Eye isn't nearly as enjoyable as Part 1.

Part 2's tone quickly shifts to a far more grim and dark one. While Part 1 had a good balance in my opinion to keep things fun, Part 2 goes for a proper overtuned noir story with more gore, a darker backstory and more graphic violence against women in particular. The plotline follows a woman asking Goku's help to save her brother, who turns out to have been subjected to intense brainwashing and medical experiments. He's a complete killer machine, and the amount of gore and violence has gone up as a result. Later on, a prostitute is basically raped to death. 'Nuff said.

The movie's animation has also changed as a result - We see way less of the colorful, moody Cyberpunk aesthetic and more drab backgrounds and colors. The action is toned down in its fun romp-like quality and gets way more serious and gorey. The plot is still nonsense, but instead of being made to enable a goofy, fun time like the first OVA, it feels more as a very basic setup to excuse more brutal scenes. Absolutely not my cup of tea. I don't need every story to be deep, but gore for the sake of gore is not for me.



BOTTOM LINE: I personally cannot recommend this part of Goku Midnight Eye. The dreary art, the way harsher tone and the excess of violence and gore for the sake of it really didn't do it for me. I found some of the scenes outright appalling. The story makes no well executed attempts to justify its brutality - It feels like a proper exploitation movie, and that's not my thing.


CONTENT WARNINGS: Plenty of gore, brainwashing and medical torture, explicit portrayals of rape and murder, more sexism than the first OVA too.