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Devil Hunter Yohko |
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n 1992, ADV Films launched its anime line with Devil Hunter Yohko, an original video animation about a high-school freshman who's destined to become the 108th "devil hunter" in her family's line. The title comes with certain powers, including the ability to magically manifest a traditional costume and a powerful spirit-sword. But it also ensures that Yohko's constantly plagued by angry, vengeful or just ambitious monsters from hell.
Ten years after the videotape's initial launch, ADV is re-releasing it and its numerous sequels on two two-DVD packages. In the original OVA, Yohko finds out about her traditional role after a demon attacks her at school. Yohko's mother had sex before she came of age and thus never inherited the family power, but Yohko is prudish compared to her man-crazy mom, and is still a virgin. Unfortunately, her enemies know about this aspect of her family's power, and plan to change the situation, with the help of a possessed childhood friend of Yohko's.
As the series continues in Devil Hunter Yohko 2, a perky girl named Asuka becomes Yohko's apprentice. She's got the magic costume and the magic weapon, and she can also see things normal people can't, like the angry spirits manifesting in a nearby haunted forest, where construction workers are casually destroying old shrines and spirit wards. Yohko 3 begins with Yokho dreaming about a doomed love affair with an impossibly beautiful man, then finding herself transported to the dimension where he's trapped.
As a commentary track on the first DVD set points out, there was never a Devil Hunter Yohko 4, but a collection of music videos, Devil Hunter Yohko 4-Ever, was positioned to fill in the gap. ADV's second new anthology of Yohko OAVs includes that collection, plus two more series installments: Yohko 5 takes a very dark turn as a powerful demon that's plagued Yohko's family since the beginning of time is resurrected, as cunning and angry as ever. And in Yohko 6, the devil hunter is plagued by a look-alike who's stealing her men, and trying to steal her hereditary title.
From beasts to breasts, something for all
It's obvious why ADV chose Devil Hunter Yohko to launch its business. At a time when "anime" was an unfamiliar term to most Americans, and subtitles were a deterrent for all but the most hardcore fans, the fledgling company needed something unique that would appeal to a wide variety of fans. Yohko's over-the-top mix of horror, comedy, demon-battling action and graphic, R-rated sexual situations was certainly unlike anything that had appeared on American TV, and even 10 years later, it's still relatively distinctive. The first OVA, which features Yohko's mother and grandmother battling with makeshift household weapons over the composition of the breakfast soup and whether Yohko should run out and "lose it" while she's still in the "blossom of youth" seems a bit slow by today's super-hyper anime comedy standards, but it's still weirdly hilarious.
The animation of the first installment is somewhat crude and flat, but still lively, colorful and reasonably consistent. As the series progresses, the animation and the stories improve by leaps and bounds, culminating with a great deal of dynamic, colorful action in the battle-heavy installment six. All the OVAs are relatively short stand-alone stories in the 40-minute range, so none of them have very deep plots, but they move quickly, shift rapidly in tone for maximum impact and stick to now-tried-and-true anime jokes: for instance, the running gag about Yohko's constant crushes on older men, or the one about how klutzy, absent-minded and incompetent she is when she's not actually fighting.
There's nothing terribly unusual about Yohko except its frank dealings with sex, and even that scales back considerably after episode one. (Though Yohko's costume-changing power, which causes her clothes to disintegrate before her traditional devil-hunting dress appears, guarantees viewers will get an eyeful in every episode—and in installment six, nude demon-fighting becomes a way of life for several characters.) Still, it manages the difficult balancing act between humor and horror with good grace, and there's always plenty going on, without the headache-inducing hyper squealing of the series' modern descendents. For some viewers, Devil Hunter Yohko will be a blast of nostalgia; for others, it's just a comfortably diverse series with a little something for everyone.
Normally, I find anime-DVD commentaries pretty dull, but the first-episode "historical commentary" by ADV original staff Matt Greenfield and Dave and Janet Williams was actually involving: Instead of unnecessarily describing the action onscreen or pointing out bits they like, they get into ADV's history, and how Yohko shaped it, and they stick to lively, interesting insider stories. — Tasha
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