ANIME BREAKDOWN:
Demon City Shinjuku
魔界都市＜新宿＞
"Tokyo. The very near future. The glittering skyline which once rivaled any in the world now lies cracked and crumbling under the weight of an oppressive evil. One man, the tyrannical Levih Rah, has created this Demon City in Shinjuku, the heart of Tokyo --and he doesn't plan to stop there! Rah's mission is to destroy the entire planet --and there are only three days left until his plans come to fruition! For years, no one has dared to cross the foul moat which Rah and his band of street punks, monsters and other fugitives have built around the Demon City. Desperate to rescue her father, who has been taken captive by Rah and his monstrous minions, the young, beautiful Sayaka Rama enlists the help of Kyoya, a streetwise Tokyo teenager. The two bravely venture into the Demon City, where they encounter the fascinating, mystical character of Mephisto, whose spiritual he aling powers could save them from annihilation. But can this team of teenagers and an aged, cynical mystic actually overcome Rah's army of thugs? And if they do, will they be able to do what all before them have died trying to do -- destroy the corrupt Levih Rah himself? "
Article on Hell City (Shinjuku):
(c)Shugou Kikushi/Asahi Sonorama
Japan Home Video-Video Art
"Shinjuku"- the sub-downtown of Tokyo. One day, all of a sudden this corner, brustling with skyscrapers, collapses on account of a great earthquake brought about by demons and becomes an isolated world through gigantic cracks in the ground that came into existence at the same time.
"Shinjuku" is no longer a place of this world. It becomes a place for inviting demons to come..."
The person who will tell you that such a fantastic stage set-up is "this production's best appeal" is director Yoshiaki Kawajiri.
"It's the best idea to turn the city of Shinjuku which really exists into a sort of closed space and allow demons to appear there. It certainly is interesting even just to consider that demons live and breath in the street corners of the so well-known Shinjuku. I think that this production, as something which succeeds Devil City, is great whenever I feel the "demon mansion's fun"- where grotesque things occur one after another."
The story's beginning is a death struggle between GENICHIRO IZAYOI and LEVY RAH, a fight between fellow experts of a martial art. The two are brothers who looked up to RAI as the art's teacher, but Rah is envious of Genichiro whose power barely surpasses his own. Rah sells his soul to an evil thing and obtains the powerful force of darkness. However, the thing that took hold of Rah hs a plan to destroy the world. Genichiro challenges Rah to fight in order to prevent that However, the power of darkness is a dreadful thing, and Genichiro dies while drinking tears of mortification. And then Shinjuku collapses on account of a great earthquake brought about by Rah It is just the prolog up to here. This chapter begins from the part when 10 years have gone by since then. During these ten years Rah turns Shinjuku into a city of Hell. Then Rah tries to welcome great creatures from the world of darkness, and more great disasters.
"In the original work the place is quite bustling with tourists coming to the isolated town of Shinjuku, guerrillas fighting back, and of course city dwellers living there. Because of a problem with time, that sort of factor was cut out. The thing that shocked me the most inthe production this time is just that. Now when I think of it, I have a feeling of regret that sort of factor was not put in a little bit more. But when people are full confusion, shouldn't that be the cataract for demon mansion?"
If Rah can summon the demons, the world will collapse! To prevent that there's nothing else except to defeat Rah. The young man master Rai and the arts selected as the warrior to defeat Rah is KYOUYA, Genichiro's son. Thus a drama about a fight spanning two generations of father and son begins. Incidentally, what kind of practices are the martial arts used by Kyouya and others? According to director Kawajiri,
"There is a line by Rai that said that 'by training people's thoughts, this force will elevate physical energy into spiritual energy and make miracles possible', but if I just say it plainly, it is just some super power. Please consider it as something that makes good use of psychic power in martial arts. The reason why they can cut their opponents is because they can focus their thoughts on each individual weapon. It's interesting that Kyouya and Genichiro's weapon is just a wooden sword, not some sparkling sword. It certainly is unique. Obscurely, this makes the martial art part to be felt, and the gap that if they were common people they would cut through their enemies with a beating sword is a strange one."
Kyouya is taught the arts by his father since childhood. Therefore, Kyouya is also a user of the arts, but with much regret his arms are still inexperienced. Inheriting the blood of his father who was an expert of the arts, her does have the basic qualities. However, he is not able to open his eyes to it with the part of heart that knows how to use it. In short, what is described in the story's twists seems mainly to be how Kyouya opens his eyes as a user of such arts and the drama of his growth. For the sake of his father threatened by Rah's evil power and for the sake of saving Earth from its dilemma, SAYAKA alone gets into Shinjuku. Abandoning her in such a situation, Kyouya also sets foot toward Hell.
"The demon Kyouya first confronts in Shinjuku is TSUCHIONI (which in Japanese means "ground ghost") Because I like demons that are half-human and half-beast, I tried to make it into a crab- like shape. The place of controntation is on top of a car of the underground bullet train. However, because I find it difficult to draw the train cars of today, I draw a new type of car I hypothesized that would exist in the year 1990."
