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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.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS.

SUMMARY: If you love cheesy, goofy late 80s anime shlock with a genuinely well done cyberpunk/noir setting, this is the OVA for you. If you expect an actually good or deep story that doesn't go totally off the rails, look elsewhere.


Goku Midnight Eye is a 1989 OVA based on the manga of the same name. There are two OVA episodes made, this being the first one, and in my humble opinion far and away the better of the two.

Fair word of warning: I'm a big, big fan of B-movie type stuff, cheesy shlock and all sorts of things that are ... unintentionally hilarious. With Goku Midnight Eye, I personally feel like I've landed a real hit for my growing list of material for B-movie nights. As a result, if you expect a review that takes this OVA 100 percent seriously, then I'm afraid I can't help you.

On the surface, Goku Midnight Eye has all the makings of a really solid action romp. The animation, courtesy of Madhouse, looks fluid and outright impressive at times. The 80s Cyberpunk setting is very well done, and it's no wonder clips/gifs from Goku Midnight Eye show up in a lot of 80s aesthetic collections. Some scenes and moments really do look great, and have a great sense of color and mood. Some of the music also works quite well to round this out.

However, and I cannot beat around the bush any longer ... Goku Midnight Eye is also complete and utter cheesy nonsense that I found impossible not to laugh at. I'm a huge fan of serious Cyberpunk stuff and man, this OVA is not it. It is however genuinely great fun, especially with friends, if you are open to a lovably goofy time. (Bonus points if you pick the dub for this)

The story is about a smarmy, dirtbag noir cop utterly coated in cliches who thinks of himself as the coolest dude in the universe. He tries so hard to seem like a total badass, and I thought it was hilarious. The dub only cranks this feeling up to 11, because in typical 80s OVA fashion it adds a ton of swearing and goofy language.

Our "hero" investigates a dangerous case, comes across a sexy gal and an evil villain, things get violent, then midway-through the story acquires the titular "Midnight Eye" implant as a, spoiler, *literal gift from God*. This is never explained. Gods and other such powers were never even mentioned up to this point. It just happens, and is never discussed again. It allows our protagonist to literally hack anything in the world. It's as goofy and incredible as it sounds, and just one of many moments of fun action paired with hilarious cheese in this OVA.

I'll not spoil anything more, especially not the villain's master plan which is easily one of the funniest and most incredible villain plans I've ever seen. At some point, there is a fight against a naked woman that is half motorcycle. If that doesn't make you want to watch this, nothing will, really.


BOTTOM LINE: I overall give Goku Midnight Eye a 5, since on more objective levels I just don't think it's a particularly well executed OVA. The story explains very little, the characters are cliches, particularly the English dub has a ton of smarmy one liners. There is nothing of real substance there. However, it's also such good silly fun that it gets laughs out of me every time. A great watch for similiarly minded friends.


CONTENT WARNINGS: Strong violence against women, bunch of exposed boobs, moments of gore, assorted 80s sexism. It all comes across as more harmless and dumb than anything else, since the subject matters aren't treated with any sort of depth, but it still felt worth mentioning.