Kishin Houkou Demonbane Review

Welcome to part three of the Lovecraft's Holiday Special bonanza, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! To kick the year off, we're going to give you a monster of a review that promises to give you plenty of spills, chills, and thrills! So what are we looking at this time? .... oh dear God. No, no, no... not this! Are you... are you serious? I have to ... please, tell me this is a cruel joke! No! Don't make me sit through...

Seriously, what else of Lovecraft's can I look at instead? There's that comic compilation with Edgar Allen Poe - what? I don't have that here? Damn, damn, damn! What about "Shoggoth On The Roof"? No? "Whisperer In Darkness"- that isn't even finished? God damn it! You mean... I have to sit through this?! I'd rather be eaten by rats in the walls! Better yet, just make me sit through this for 6 hours instead:

... sigh. Anyway, to kick the new year off, we're going to review this anime abomination that came out God knows when. I don't really care, because I personally think it shouldn't have been made. I'm usually in a good mood when I review something up until the bad section, but I can't bring myself to like any aspect of this. Thankfully, I don't have to suffer through this by myself! Anime maestro ONOE and local warden of this loony-bin, LaughingMan, are going to join me! What evils have been unleashed?! Anyway, enough stalling! Let's get this review underway!

ONOE's Review

I honestly never expected Kenny F or LaughingMan (especially LaughingMan) to watch this anime. The suggestion popped into mind when I read Kenny's forum post asking for a new H.P. Lovecraft-based thing to review. Maybe I have an evil muse on my shoulder but the anime "Kishin Houkou Demonbane" (or just "Demonbane" for short) came to mind so I made a half-hearted remark that Kenny could review it since it had some H.P. Lovecraft references sprinkled within. Kenny actually agreed to watch Demonbane, taking it as a test of endurance. I was surprised when I saw that LaughingMan agreed to co-review Demonbane with Kenny, and even invited me to join in on the fun.

The first (but probably not the last) co-review I did was with LaughingMan on the Devil May Cry anime, in which I acted as a counter-weight against LaughingMan's rabid hatred for the 'anime bastardization' of something he actually enjoyed. I believe I am fulfilling a similar purpose with this Kishin Houkou Demonbane review.

Kishin Houkou Demonbane began as an 'eroge' or erotic video game (dating-sim) for the PC and was ported to the Playstation 2, minus the sexual content. The Playstation 2 version of the video game is likely what most of the current fans of Kishin Houkou Demonbane were first exposed to. Since its Playstation 2 port, the game has spawned sequel and prequel visual novels, a television anime, an OVA (Original Video Animation; direct-to-video), and a manga (a comic book).

The television anime adaptation began airing on May 18, 2006, and ended on August 17, 2006. It lasted 12 episodes and from what I researched it followed fairly true to the Playstation 2 video game. The most noticeable change was a new, much happier ending than in the video game.

I was first drawn to Kishin Houkou Demonbane by how extreme the anime appeared and I thought that it would be an anime that would be so cheesy it would have to be good. I have never heard of the Playstation 2 video game until after I finished watching the series, so I came into Kishin Houkou Demonbane without expectations or attachment to what could very well be a superior experience.

However, the anime provided only a mediocre experience for me at best. It was not as bad as I imagine the two H.P. Lovecraft fanboys, Kenny and LaughingMan, will no doubt say it is, but Kishin Houkou Demonbane is far from greatness and (I am assuming) only serves as fan-service for the players of the video game it is based off of; much like "Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children" and the "Devil May Cry anime". Rarely do anime that serve as marketing tools ever achieve true greatness, and Kishin Houkou Demonbane is no exception.

STORY

We are first introduced to the poor detective Kurou Daijuuji who is summoned by the head of the Hado Financial Group, Ruri Hado, and her butler, Winfield, to retrieve a magical tome, a 'grimoire'. Kurou's initial reaction is to reject the offer until he is literally bribed to perform the task. Kurou encounters a young girl named Al Azif, who is the original copy of the Necronomicon, the most powerful grimoire in existence. She is fleeing from agents of the Black Lodge group, headed by evil genius and musician, Dr. West. When Kurou and Al Azif are surrounded and escape is impossible, Al Azif merges with Kurou, giving him magical powers. Unable to defeat the mage Kurou, Dr. West summons his Deus Machina (mecha robot). Kurou's new-found powers allows him to pilot the Hado Financial Group's own Deus Machina, Demonbane, and he successfully defeats Dr. West.

For the next six episodes, we are introduced to additional members of the Black Lodge, as well as a group of powerful magi and sorcerers calling themselves Anticross. The most prominent villains are Master Therion, the head of the Black Lodge, and his own grimoire, Etheldreda. These six episodes exist solely for establishing characters, though the pacing seems hurried and the relationships between characters is very cliché. Kurou is the noble hero who has to protect his friends; Al Azif is the quick-to-criticize love interest to the hero; Master Therion wants to take over and/or destroy the world.

Despite all the power he possesses, Kurou still acts like a dense and whiny individual like Vash the Stampede from "Trigun." Al Azif can get pretty annoying which prompts Kurou to run away form her every chance he gets such as getting into his car and speeding away from her after the first battle using Demonbane. It's also revealed that Kurou is a freeloader taking advantage of free meals at this nearby church.

Despite my complaints on the early episodes, I still enjoyed the later episodes a fair amount. After episode seven, the anime grows much darker and the remaining five episodes is a long series of battles. I think how over the top each one was compared to the last really helped me retain some interest in a show that really adds nothing new to a tried and true formula for mecha anime.

Really plot is the show's biggest weakness. The most glaring weakness while writing this review is "What is the Black Lodge?" The Black Lodge is indeed a secret society of assassins and hired guns, but little else is either implied or explained. I can't blame the anime, though. It is difficult to construct a decent plot and story arch in a standard 26 episode run, let alone a very meager 12.

ANIMATION

For 2006 anime standards, I am extremely disappointed with Kishin Houkou Demonbane. The animation is not horrible, but it is just horribly average. The drawn animation is average. The CGI mecha fights are average. The whole thing doesn't lean one way or the other, making it completely mediocre and forgettable.

Even the fights are relatively weak in comparison to greater mecha anime like "Evangelion", "Gundam Seed", and (a personal favorite) "Fullmetal Panic". The reason the fights are mediocre is that they fall into what I call the Voltron-Syndrome, where too much of a mecha battle is recycled footage found on every episode. I guess the easiest way to describe it for western audiences is to think about the original "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" and the summoning of the Zords and the making of MegaZord: Often the exact same 3-5 minute footage is used in every episode, quickly turning something really cool looking into a dull chore to watch. As it was in Power Rangers, as it was with Voltron, it is with Kishin Houkou Demonbane.

SOUND

Perhaps it comes as a surprise that a redeeming feature of Kishin Houkou Demonbane is the soundtrack. It's not as fantastic as the scores from "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust", or the jazz-themed soundtrack to the original "Hellsing" series, but it accomplishes its task effectively. A majority of the more noticeable songs in Demonbane are the very mellow, very melodious ones that provide an air of hope within misery. The true testimony to the soundtrack is the ending track which compliments a good ending to the anime. While not the greatest love theme of all time, it is effective none-the-less.

PEDOPHILIA?

While my dislike of the weak story in the anime is my first-and-foremost problem, the use of Lolis (underage girls) as love interests is a very close second. Even before I had read a few of LaughingMan and Kenny Farino's (rightly) negative comments about the excessive "jailbait" in Kishin Houkou Demonbane, I was turned off by how extremely uncomfortable some of the scenes are presented, such as one scene where Kurou is intoxicated by a gas and sexually assaults Al Azif. Through the course of the anime all of the "Grimoire Girls" are blatantly underage (a fact that even the character Dr. West points out). I honestly would have enjoyed Kishin Houkou Demonbane had the female protagonist been visibly closer to Kurou's own age, and the ending would have been romantic in contrast to the air of creepiness it portrayed.

However, it is not only Al Azif that is an under-age love interest to Kurou, but nearly every female character (excluding Naia and the woman of the church) is depicted as not only excessively young, but overly sexual: Ruri Hadou develops a crush on Kurou, and is easily the most discreet about it; Dr. West's bare-legged android creation, Elsa, falls in love with Kurou; the demon girl Nero/ Ennea is blatantly underage but also exchanges passionate kisses with Kurou and even sneaks up on him in the bathtub.

But whatever attention Kurou is getting from the underage girls, it is nothing as blatant as Master Therion's relationship with his grimoire, Etheldreda. That is a whole rant in of itself.

OVERALL

My impression of Kishin Houkou Demonbane is that it is a very brief retelling of the actual game, and while the original may be great, the anime is mediocre at best. So little is explained and explored, and the whole anime feels like just another drop of water in a sea of mecha anime. The only things that makes Demonbane noticeable are the original popular video game, the H.P. Lovecraft references, and the Pedophilia that raises concern.

There is no series licensed for a North American release. It's unknown if and when the series will be licensed in North America. My suggestion is that if there are any American Demonbane fans that they should hope for an English translation of the video game before the anime.

LaughingMan's Review

bas·tard·ize
tr.v. bas·tard·ized, bas·tard·iz·ing, bas·tard·iz·es
1. To lower in quality or character; debase.

Prologue

I haven't written a really scolding review in a while, so when Kenny Farino took up ONOE's challenge to review an anime based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft (a favorite American horror author of Kenny and mine), Kenny invited me to also give my opinion.

However, before we get too far into my review of Demonbane, let me give you my qualifications for reviewing anything Lovecraft related:

So, in a fanboy-like fashion, when I heard from ONOE that there was an H. P. Lovecraft anime, Demonbane, my curiosity was peaked. However, it wasn't until Kenny Farino of The Horror Corner asked my opinion of Demonbane that I decided to sit through it.

Now, one last thing I need to mention: I Hate Anime. It's not because I hate cartoons or whatever, it's because I think that probably 95% of anime is absolutely RETARDED. It doesn't translate well with me, and I wrote why in a previous forum thread. HOWEVER, there are exceptions, as I have found a few anime that I actually appreciate, mostly because they did an outstanding job at either A) Having really cool action sequences (Ghost in the Shell, Hellsing), or B) told a very gripping story that is actually one of the best I've experienced in a long while (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni).

The Story

The anime opens with a misty town set to some pretty decent piano music (hey, I'm a sucker for music). It then introduces us to Kurou Daijuuji, a poor detective living in the town, Arkham City. He gets a phone call from the head of the Hado Financial Group (a young girl) and is paid to find a magic grimoire. A grimoire is a magic book. He tells Miss Leica, a sister in a church orphanage, that he finally has a job, and she immediately jumps on the opportunity for Kurou to pay for all the food he's been mooching over the years. It turns out that the Hado Group picked Kurou because he attended Miskatonic University (briefly) and studied under a secret division. Kurou is the only member that the Hado Group could find.

As Kurou searches for the grimoire in a hazy sect of downtown Arkham City, he finds a bookstore that seemed to materialize out of nowhere and meets up with a wicked-looking woman who calls herself... well... 'Naia'. Given a few enigmatic tips, he leaves the store and unexpectedly runs into Al Azif, an extremely young (and extremely illegal-looking) girl who turns out to be the grimoire Kurou is searching for. So it turns out the a grimoire is not a book but some kind of magic being. Being chased by the Black Lodge headed by the Rock Star, Herbert West, the jailbait girl forges a contract with Kurou, 'merging with him' (MINUS CLOTHING) and bestowing him with powerful magic. So Herbert West and his group of faceless 1920's gangsters try to kill Super-Saiyan Kurou but can't, so Herbert West summons a giant robot.

Soon afterwards, Al also activates Demonbane, another giant robot (of course) owned by the Hado Financial Group, to combat Dr. Herbert West. After kicking West's giant enemy crab robot, the tone of Demonbane changes into a 'comic romance' where Al, the teenage jailbait girl, starts to fall in love with Kurou and vice versa. Afterwards a new organization called "Anti-Cross" ('Anti-Christ' mistranslation?) rears its ugly head and makes life a bitch for Kurou and Al Azif by trying to resurrect the Great Old One, Cthulhu. Meanwhile, in the shadows, Naia is watching the events unfold with anticipation.

The Characters

The first is obviously Kurou Daijuuji, a down-and-out detective and dropout student from the Miskatonic University. He currently lives in Arkham City and is friends with the Miss Leica and the orphans (whose names aren't important... AT ALL). Kurou seems to mooch off the generosity of the church by eating meals there over the course of who-the-fuck-cares. Kurou is also some sort of under-age pussy magnet, as every piece of jailbait in a 30-mile radius is somehow attracted to him.

Overall, Kurou's personality is about as deep as a plastic wading pool. There is so little character development with Kurou to even warrant him being the main character. Does he have any inner-turmoil over his new powers? Is he tempted to use his powers for evil? What is his exact relationship with the children in the orphanage? Was he an orphan himself? Why did Al Azif choose to merge with him exactly? Just because he was closest? What are his weaknesses as a person? Nothing about Kurou is ever answered, let alone implied, EXCEPT that he wants to be a good fellow and save everyone by using his giant robot to battle other robots in the middle of Arkham City where the casualties will be enormous. Anime logic, ladies and gentlemen!

So, besides being about as interesting to watch as a head of cauliflower, I think I have to thank the Outer Gods that they didn't try to make Kurou like Howard Phillips Lovecraft, himself. Unfortunately, it would have added a sea of complexity to the character, but it would have been yet another bastardization to Lovecraft's work.

Next is Naia, which is obviously short for Nyarlathotep, The Crawling Chaos. The most frequently referenced character in Lovecraft's work, Nyarlathotep, is a harbinger of destruction and madness; a walking incarnation of the sleeping god Azathoth whose dreams are our living reality. Nyarlathotep is the messenger, heart and soul of not only Azathoth, but the other Outer Gods. Nyarlathotep is manipulating and sadistic, and inspires madness to further the goals of the Outer Gods. As frequently this character appears in Lovecraft's work, I am actually surprised that the 'Cthulhu Mythos' wouldn't more accurately be considered the 'Nyarlathotep Mythos' because it is really the entity that binds the world of Lovecraft together.

THIS is Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos? More like Crawling Cleavage, am I right?

However, I will give the anime a little credit with capturing the overall essence of Nyarlathotep (aside from making The Crawling Chaos a sultry bookworm with Double-D's). In the anime, Naia is (until the end) a spectator who just gets the ball rolling towards an apocalyptic event, which I guess is faithful to H.P. Lovecraft's creation. One interesting thing about Naia is that every once in a while her face will abruptly change into the glowing head of a demon and back again. A further more interesting addition to Naia is that her 'true form' has three glowing eyes, which is actually in H.P. Lovecraft's short story, "The Haunter of the Dark".

Then there is Al Azif, a living incarnation of the book of the dead, The Necronomicon.

According to Lovecraft, the Necronomicon is a book of forbidden knowledge, written by the Mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred (who was later eaten alive by an invisible creature in the middle of a crowd). It is the most widely featured item in all of Lovecraft's work, as well as a popular plot-device for modern novels and movies. Authors such as Stephen King have made reference to it, and horror movies like Army Of Darkness make heavy use of the forbidden book.

However, in Demonbane, the Necronomicon is (apparently) a 12-year-old girl who can summon magic.

And the Necronomicon, the book of forbidden knowledge, is now...
An underage girl and love-interest in the story, of course! Demonbane Necronomicon loli

It's embarrassing enough to watch anime, but I couldn't watch Demonbane in my living room. If my neighbors peeked though my window and saw me watching scenes like the above, I'd get put on a special list and never be allowed to give out candy on Halloween again...

So, Al Azif (the anime name of the Necronomicon character) "fuses" with Kurou during a fight by first embracing each other passionately, then followed by a passionate, pink-and-fuzzy kiss, thus putting Kurou into 'Super Saiyan' mode and allowing him to use magic and to pilot the Demonbane robot ("Deus Machina" to Demonbane fans, "Mech" to most people, "Giant Robot" to me). While Kurou turns into a glam-metal version of Marilyn Manson, Al Azif becomes even more cartoonish in her appearance.

The ONLY remotely funny thing that happens during the entire series are the scenes when Al Azif (jailbait) introduces herself to the church lady as Kurou's "possession", calls Kurou "master" and publicly begs him "not to punish her again". Everyone takes it the wrong way... for the first few episodes, anyways. After a while it's abundantly clear that the only joke is that if you substitute the giant robot with a rusty ice-cream truck, the love story between Kurou and Al Azif is a pedophile's wet dream.

Next is Dr. Herbert West and his own magic-underage-girl, Elisa. Dr. West is apparently a mad scientist (okay, faithful to the source material so far) who creates his own giant mech monsters as well as creating Elisa through his science know-how. Dr. West's hobbies include playing a cherry-red guitar like an epileptic at inappropriate times, and being the series's sorry excuse for a comic-relief. (Fuck the source material.)

From here on out the only remaining characters are the bit-part players. You have the head of the Hado Financial Group and her magic boxing butler, another mech riding pedophile with his own magic girl that both act as polar opposites to Kurou and Al Azif, and a half-dozen members of Anti-Cross who act as cannon-fodder and aren't worth describing.

Affiliations to Lovecraft

That is pretty much it. Period. The rest of the anime is a huge Cthulhu + Power Rangers cluster-fuck.

Lovecraft Aside...

I know my review is horribly biased so I will take the time now to write a little bit about what I enjoyed and did not enjoy with all things Lovecraft aside.

Personally, I thought that the story of the anime was really weak and the characters were extremely under-developed. It seems that some sort of undying love is the only thing holding the characters of the story together at times. Very few of the characters (villains and heroes) have any real motivation. The good guys want to protect people from the bad guys, and the bad guys want to summon a god to rule the world. The relationships that characters have with one another plays exactly out of a Power Rangers episode where a bad guy appears and whose sole goal in life is to defeat the heroes. It's all too two-dimensional.

The anime is BORING to watch and I found myself watching the entire episode in fast-forward so I could still read all of the subtitles and understand the plot, but also shave an hour or two off of all the time I'm wasting. The fight scenes are okay and the magic is well animated, but it looked uninspired and pretty "you hit me, I hit you, rinse, repeat". The thing that bored me to death was the re-use of the same special effects footage during different fight scenes (something that, again, Power Rangers did repeatedly).

The animation is okay, but I hate the character and robot designs. The men are overly androgynous, the underage girls are disturbingly over-sexed, and the robots look really bland and almost generic. Tell me again why the green robot is so different than the blue one?

The story is a big cluster-fuck of me not knowing what the hell is ever going on. EVER. To better explain that position, let me describe the story to you below:

So the first episode starts out okay, establishing the characters (but not the motives) and then the next four episodes accomplish nothing but introducing the members of the Anti-Cross group. The fifth episode actually makes a fucking reference or two to the Lovecraft source-material, and establishes the (awkward) relationships between Kurou and Al Azif, complete with a full scene of Kurou nearly RAPING the underage girl (and of course, using anime logic, SHE SECRETLY ENJOYS IT). Episodes 6 through 10 begin to establish the plot, while bringing back past villains as cannon-fodder in a last ditch effort to keep me awake. The last two episodes, however, are confusing as hell because in episode 11, the villain of the entire series CHANGES NO LESS THAN FIVE TIMES! First the blond sorcerer, then the red-headed sorcerer, then back to the blond, then to the cat-girl (it's anime and there's some unwritten law about having to having a cat-girl...) and then back to the original bad guy who is the opposite of Kurou and Al Azif. AND THEN, in episode 12, it turns out that Naia is the ultimate bad girl, she reveals herself to be Nyarlathotep, and tries to get the two mechs to fight and resurrect Azathoth, the sleeping Outer God.

The saving grace of Demonbane is the (first half) of the ending with a very nihilistic approach of having Kurou and Al Azif winning the fight but trapped forever in the coldness of space where they simply try to sleep forever. Then, Al Azif sends Kurou back to earth, sacrificing herself in order for Kurou to live a normal and full life. She sends him back, but he kicks and screams the whole way, refusing to be parted with his underage girl because space has no Age-of-Concent laws. Jokes aside, the ending was one of those somewhat depressing endings that I personally enjoy more than the happy-happy endings that only makes real life look even worse in comparison. I like seeing fictional characters have a shittier life than myself for a change.

Then the second half rolls around, with Kurou wandering the streets of Arkham City. Dr. West drives by with Elisa but neither of them recognize Kurou. It's pretty plain to see that everyone outside of the climactic final battle has no memory of the previous events and that everyone gets to live happily ever after in ignorant bliss. Except Kurou. This ending is even more unbearably bleak and depressing, and I like it even more.

Then, finally, Kurou is outside in the fog, vowing to never forgive Al Azif for abandoning him when he hears her behind him. Al Azif appears, saying that they are bound to each other and (more or less) where one goes, the other has to follow. You assume that the two live happily ever after, but only before you see alternate versions of Kurou and Al Azif (I am guessing they are now gods?) enjoying seeing their two alternate selves together. Finally, they fly away into space on the Demonbane mech. This last part dashed apart what I would have considered a good ending, but, according to Wikipedia, everyone seems to like this ending, so I won't begrudge the anime for appeasing fans.

Even without the influences of H.P. Lovecraft, this anime is still pretty abysmal because it is not only confusing but it is unoriginal and just flat-out boring to watch.

OVERVIEW

For anime watchers who have never been exposed to the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, I honestly can't blame you for liking this anime. It has all the stuff you all seem to like: Giant robots, ridiculously incoherent plots, giant robots, flashy poses, giant robots, underage girls (or 'lolis'), giant robots, and decent animation. Oh, and giant robots.

And it's not my hatred of anime that is talking right now, it's my bitter rage over this wasted potential. Over the years, Japan has released some extremely good horror in movies (The Audition, The Grudge), video games (Silent Hill, Fatal Frame), and yes, even anime (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni). The Japanese culture can very effectively do horror, and I was so hoping that an 'Eastern adaptation' of the stories by H.P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos would have created something special.

But there is one thing to keep in mind: Very few movies have ever paid the proper respects and have ever stayed true to the work of H.P. Lovecraft. This is largely because Lovecraft's written work relies heavily on the reader's imagination and nothing ever produced on screen can ever show an audience anything more horrific than what you envision in your own mind. Lovecraft's work is extremely illusive to capture on film, and I honestly doubt that an anime could fare better, but as a fan of H.P. Lovecraft I would give it an honest chance to impress me.

I think that there may be some hope for a great adaptation of Lovecraft's work in anime, eventually, but Demonbane is not it.

Kenny Farino's Review

-Disclaimers-

1. I share the same position as LaughingMan in terms of anime: I hate it; I can't sit through most of it because I have a burning dislike for most of the stereotypes presented, and many of the cliches that burrowed themselves deep into the cores of most material out there. There are battles that either last several episodes or several seconds, annoying-as-hell characters, pedophilia, etc. However, there are a few out there that I not only stand, but love! Hayao Miyazaki's works, for example, are many examples of anime that is done right! I can even excuse the somewhat ambiguous gender of Ponyo's father in Miyazaki's latest outing "Ponyo" because of how the story was told, and without many of the things that make me hate anime. With that said, let me reiterate my main point here: I do not hate ALL anime, but most of it.

2. I'm a fan of H.P. Lovecraft. When I discovered his vast world and imagination of unimaginable terrors, I began to eat it up like nothing else. It's great, it's freaky, and it's damn creative! My favorite story of his is "The Colour Out of Space" because it chilled me to the core when I listened to it (audio-book), and I was hooked since! I started getting into Lovecraft early this year, but that doesn't excuse me from having to know anything about the universe that this mysterious writer created. It's a good thing that I research whatever I can about him when I'm bored in cinema class! I'm not as well-read as LaughingMan since I've only started to get into him, but I still know enough about Lovecraft to be able to review and critique an anime based on him and his work.

3. I tend to give a balanced review of both good and bad aspects of whatever I look at, but I can't guarantee anything too deep in terms of a good section. I mean, I may be able to give them credit for getting names and terms right, but is that really enough? This disclaimer is to give you a fair warning that the bad section will be overwhelmingly huge, sardonic, and cruel to this anime. Ye have been warned!

4. Final disclaimer: This may contain vulgarities, spoilers, and graphic images. Enjoy!

-Synopsis-

Okay, before we actually review this, we have to know what the story is, right? Right. Now, let me see... it's based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft, and is set in Arkham and the Cthulhu Mythos Universe... um... there are giant robots... and... uh... well, there's also jailbait all over the place... uh... HELP ME, WIKIPEDIA!

Thanks, Wikipedia! See, I tried to understand the plot, I really did. However, this anime was so damn confusing that I really couldn't think of anything at all that could help me make any connections to where the plot was going, or why I should care. One of my main complaints was that Demonbane assumed you knew everything and anything it threw at you, not actually making any effort to explain itself. More on this later, though. Before we actually start tearing through this, let's (begrudgingly) start looking to see if anything was good about this.

-The Good-

...now. What was good? I need a good while to think about this, but I'll try. As LaughingMan said above, it's incredibly difficult to accurately adapt a Lovecraft work on the grounds that the horrors contained are much more horrifying when left to the imagination than on any visual medium. Thus, when we see Demonbane, I can't help but also feel that there was a lot of potential in the concept of adapting Lovecraft for a new Eastern audience. However, while there were some neat ideas in this anime, not a whole lot sticks out to me in terms of creativity. The animation is pretty, I guess, but I'm not an anime affectionado like ONOE so I don't really know the varying qualities of the Japanese style since I never watch it.

-The Bad-

Where do I begin? Well, how accurate is this to the Cthulhu Mythos and the Lovecraft Universe as a whole? Let me make up an analogy. Say you have a book featuring all of Lovecraft's stories, the entire collection. Put it in a bucket. Pour water to submerge the entire thing, and put a lid over it. Wait an entire night to pass, and notice that the pages are so wet and destroyed that all of the ink used to write the works have been wiped off. Then remember that this was a priceless book you "borrowed" from the museum since you work as a curator there, and that you were drunk when you decided to put it in a bucket. Being the Japanese person that you are, you faintly remember something about giant robots and pedophilia for some reason, so you take a crayon after the book dries, and draw crude pictures of both abovementioned things on all of the pages. You take the defiled, ruined book to the museum, and place it back on the podium in the glass stand, and hope to God or whoever you worship that nobody will notice. Three days later, you are sent a notice that you are fired, and have a restraining order filed against you by the Lovecraft book on the grounds of assault and molestation. Get the picture?

"Demonbane" uses the names of locations and monsters, and that's it. THAT'S IT. Everything else about the Lovecraft Universe has been dismissed, and instead of intergalactic monsters we are treated to a story about a war between a vaguely described financial group led by a girl the age of my younger brother, and another vaguely described terrorist organization that's named after a segregated jazz lounge in the 1940's! Seriously, what the hell is wrong with the people who made this series and set of video games?! How much research did they actually put into this where they thought making anything about the Mythos was a good idea?! This is just the tip of the iceberg, because most of the Bad section will be based on the concepts and elements of the story presented in this anime. The concepts and elements of which drag the entire series down for me as a potential audience member, and instead make me sick to the core. Like a Boomer.

For one thing, the story doesn't come close to following anything about the Cthulhu Mythos in any sense of the word. There are no intergalactic creatures that threaten to destroy the very sanity of the human race as everything is plunged into eternal darkness, there is no mystery as to why somebody like, say, Eric Zahn, is left alone, only to later discover that there are monsters in his kitchen sink asking for his immortal soul, and there is nothing indescribable or unfathomable save for why I have the sudden urge to burn the nearest Japanese person. Instead, we have mecha wars in Arkham, led by Al Azif, or the Necronomicon, and a slew of other uninspired characters. This is the farthest away you can get from Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos, and I am ashamed of saying this has anything to do with either of them in the first place. The closest "Demonbane" comes to the Mythos is, as I said, naming things after the Lovecraftian Universe. The episodes are, for the most part, named after sayings or stories from the Mythos, the characters resemble nothing like their namesakes, and this will act as a nice segway into my next complaint about this series: the characters.

"Demonbane" is full of different characters, but most of them leave a salty taste in my mouth that begs to be washed out with bleach and neurotoxins. The main characters are plain, the secondary characters are plain, and the tertiary characters are plain. If I knew what tertiary characters were, I'd tell you QUIET I'M ON A ROLL. Anyway, let's begin with the two main characters, Kurou and the Necronomicon. Kurou is a poor detective who takes advantage of free food drives from local churches, dates 4-year-old girls, and apparently has skills at piloting giant robots without any prior knowledge or training. He suffers from a usual anime archetype, "The Chosen One" Syndrome. Kurou has no idea what he's getting into, he's suddenly thrown into a giant mech, becomes a magic user, and defeats an undefeated Death Robot piloted by a poser named Dr. West. I'm tempted to go on a tangent and rant about West, but I'm saving that for later. Anyway, Kurou defeats an undefeated bot ON HIS FIRST TRY. Where is the logic behind that?! Who would seriously be able to pilot a giant robot and be able to defeat someone with years of experience under his belt ON THE FIRST TRY?! Remember that really fat kid who owns you at Halo 3 all the time because he sat on his ass 24/7 playing the bloody thing while you were doing better things like getting laid and running a business? Imagine your frustration if he suddenly got off of his fat ass, ran a business, and owned yours in just a week. How annoyed would you be if that happened? The same illogical thing happens in "Demonbane," except with giant robots. If only Cthulhu read the script for this...

Al Azif, or the Necronomicon, is the forbidden text, the dreaded container of knowledge that would most certainly drive the reader mad, the tome of spells able to summon Gods, the love interest of a pedophile- wait, what? Yes, in "Demonbane," the Necronomicon gets royally screwed over. What is the most perilous book in existence is now this:

Yes, the most feared book in the Lovecraft Universe is now jailbait. Al Azif makes her entrance by landing panties-and-crotch-first in Kurou's face (see: LaughingMan's review, "Jailbait"). Give yourself a moment for that to sink in.

... ARE YOU KIDDING? THIS IS ONE OF THE BOOKS CONTAINING ULTIMATE EVIL IN THE LOVECRAFTIAN WORLD?! THIS IS THE BOOK WRITTEN BY THE MAD ARAB THAT CAUSED INCOMPREHENSIBLE BEINGS TO DEVOUR HIM WHEN HE FINISHED ITS COMPOSITION?! JAILBAIT?! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!

Not only this, but it goes chibi while Kurou battles the members of the Black Lodge, which in itself just annoys the crap out of me for some reason. We get an underage, purple-haired lolita wearing all white, and you're telling me that I am meant to see this as one of the forbidden evils of the Lovecraft universe? No, this I cannot do. This is just too unbearable as a Lovecraft fan to comprehend. I can't understand this logic, I refuse to understand this logic, and I will not obey this logic. Not only does Japan slap the Necronomicon in the face, but it also uses more lolitas as personifications of other forbidden texts, or grimoires, in the anime. For instance, we have the Pnakotic Manuscripts (or Etheldreda), who serves as the obedient servant of the leader of the criminal organization The Black Lodge, Master Therion. So let me get this straight: a tome that predates human civilization, and was thought to have been started by the Great Race of Yith (an alien species) in Lovecraft's Universe, is subservient to a little brat who happens to be a great sorcerer, and heads a criminal organization? That's ... really retarded, actually.

This logic also applies to the Necronomicon, and it just weirds me out. Imagine if the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis of "Evil Dead" fame (which, although not the same book, bears inspiration from the Lovecraft tome) took the form of a young child and followed Bruce Campbell around as he battled the Deadites in the three movies. That wouldn't be quite as scary or funny, would it? That would be flat-out horrifying, and Sam Raimi would be a notch below Uwe Boll.

Anyway, let's not delay anymore from discussing the other characters, but who is there to really talk about? Aside from the main protagonists, everybody in the show is really on- oh wait, I forgot one. Dr. West. What the HELL have they done to Dr. West?!

Yes, Dr. West is now loud, bombastic, annoying, and flails around a guitar like Demyx from "Kingdom Hearts 2". Seriously, give Demyx a new skin, and you've got Dr. West. His role in the show is to battle Kurou and Al Azif, and fulfill the wishes of his master and Black Lodge. When I first saw him make his intro in the show, my jaw dropped. I was seriously expecting a bespectacled nerd like his movie incarnation or something, and I'm sure Japan could have done something along those lines and still make him the obnoxious comic relief. Oh yeah, did I mention he was comic relief? I use that term sparingly because I found nothing really funny about him, but I did find him to induce another unexplainable bout of wanting to bludgeon a Japanese person over the head with a large, loud musical instrument. He's like a lot of TV Tropes mashed into one character, and they threw him in just to reach the "Annoy the Westerners" status-quo that animes seem to have for me. Dr. West is the scientific genius of the Black Lodge, and creates a series of things to try and destroy our hero, like the Destroyer Robots (and its 12 incarnations), another lolita named Elsa, and a clone of the main giant robot, Demonbane, that Kurou pilots. Other than those, Dr. West serves no real tangible purpose for me, and that's a bummer. Thank god they didn't make him fall in love with little children like the hero, though.

Now, as I was saying, none of the other characters really do anything for me in terms of their presence, or the story. Sure, there are the Anticross Members, but they didn't do anything for me either. Who are the Anticross? They are members of the Black Lodge that battle Kurou. Are you noticing a trend here? Demonbane strikes me as another one of those shows that really seem to focus on just fighting instead of a tangible plot. You know what else does this? Dragonball Z. Pokemon. Oh dear, we're in trouble here. Apart from the really confusing story elements, Demonbane seems to really just focus on the giant robot battles, and Kurou fights about 13 robots, including different forms of West and Nyarlathotep's robots (Who's Nyarlathotep? See LaughingMan's review, he covers her well there). This is in the span of TWELVE EPISODES, PEOPLE. I can't possibly see how much plot can be in here if there are thirteen robots to fight, if I'm correct in the number of enemies encountered in this series. This is one of the main weaknesses of the series, too; everything is shamelessly rushed, and it's annoying as hell. The main story goes by way too fast, and when there are moments where plot can be inserted, there are giant robot battles to make everything a cluster-fuck instead. This confused me so badly that I couldn't understand the last couple of episodes as a result!

You know what could have helped Demonbane significantly in terms of plot? Explaining some of the key elements, but that doesn't happen. AT ALL. When I turned on the first episode, I seriously thought that I missed something else, but it was Episode 1: I Am Providence. Why are the grimoire bad things, for instance? This would be explained for audiences who like Lovecraft, but all other audience members would be lost as to what the fuck a grimoire is. In the first episode, for another instance, who the fuck is Hadou Ruri, and WHY is she important enough for Kurou to kiss her ass all over the place in the beginning? Why should I care about her financial group? What the hell is the Black Lodge? I mean Jesus, the audience isn't a bunch of clairvoyants! Explanation is necessary to produce a good plot, people!

Well, this IS a staple of Lovecraft stories, but he never fully explains the horrors or monsters for a GOOD reason.

Alright, NOW are we done here? Is there possibly ANYTHING else to go over? Okay? Good.

-The Verdict-

As I briefly mentioned in the Good section, there was a lot of wasted potential that could have made a great Lovecraftian anime. However, instead of getting an epic tale of the Great Old Ones threatening the sanity and lives of every mortal being on Earth, we get an unoriginal, plain, boring tale about giant robots, lolitas, annoying doctors, and the bastardization of as many Lovecraft concepts as possible. We also get so many cliches that anime seems to love carrying around, and it's unfair to taunt Lovecraft fans with what could have been. Demonbane is the bane of my existence, it doesn't deserve to be associated with Lovecraft on any level, and it gets:

1/5

This concludes the H.P. Lovecraft's Holiday Special Triple Header! We hope you've enjoyed this wild, creepy ride, and we hope to see you again on CheshireCatStudios.com!

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Kishin Houkou Demonbane is an H.P. Lovecraft-inspired anime complete with giant robots, jailbait girls, and plot holes bigger than Cthulhu.

Introduction by Kenny Farino