The Devil Lady - The Victorious(Vol. 6)

Rating:
Summary: Epic Tragedy Among All The Blood And Body Parts
Review: The final volume of The Devil Lady is a pretty good ending to a pretty good series. The story, starting off as a tale about a secret government operation set up to hunt down humans who have turned into demons, shifts into a story about human evolution and a tragic love story.

In typical Nagai fasion, The Victorious is loaded with blood and violence (which is always a plus in my book) but the animation is not as good as I would have expected. Fortunately, Go Nagai takes the high road, mostly. This is not a longer version of "Kekko Kamen", very few cheap shots can be found here.

A fair anime series, you could do alot worse.

Rating:
Summary: Evil Makes Good
Review: The story enters its final phases, as Jun must face Kazumi's loss of humanity and then mourn the young model's final sacrifice. This tragedy becomes the symbol of (and force behind) Jun's own struggle to preserve human nature against a deadly attack.

As this is going on, Asuka's own maneuvers to gain power become clear. She has used the demon vaccine as a means of identifying and destroying any opposition to her own drive for power. Only Jun realizes that the imprisonment of Kazumi's old friends and Satoru's demonic gang have only played into Asuka's hands. All this is in aid of a terrible plan to create an angelic reign as terrible as any invention of hell - with Asuka as its master.

Jun's grief, the struggles of the prisoners, Jason's return and Satoru's interference makes Jun's task seem insurmountable. Somehow Asuka's ascension depends on Jun's ruin, but there is even more in play than the viewer suspects. In an eerie parallel to Milton and Dante, Jun's story takes some last minute twists that will surprise and delight the viewer.

Go Nagai, the writer of the story, displays a far more subtle grasp of the allegorical nature of this story than one would suspect from the early episodes - showing considerable adeptness in gradually filling this level in without interfering with the core story. Director Toshiki Hirano, who has a knack for disingenuous delivery that sneaks up behind the viewer and suddenly changing apparent meaning behind the action. While the series does require some tolerance on the part of the viewer for violence and exposure, it use of these effects is not exploitative at all, but instead adds to the overall impact. This is a fine example of horror in Japanese anime.

Rating:
Summary: Evil Makes Good
Review: The story enters its final phases, as Jun must face Kazumi's loss of humanity and then mourn the young model's final sacrifice. This tragedy becomes the symbol of (and force behind) Jun's own struggle to preserve human nature against a deadly attack.

As this is going on, Asuka's own maneuvers to gain power become clear. She has used the demon vaccine as a means of identifying and destroying any opposition to her own drive for power. Only Jun realizes that the imprisonment of Kazumi's old friends and Satoru's demonic gang have only played into Asuka's hands. All this is in aid of a terrible plan to create an angelic reign as terrible as any invention of hell - with Asuka as its master.

Jun's grief, the struggles of the prisoners, Jason's return and Satoru's interference makes Jun's task seem insurmountable. Somehow Asuka's ascension depends on Jun's ruin, but there is even more in play than the viewer suspects. In an eerie parallel to Milton and Dante, Jun's story takes some last minute twists that will surprise and delight the viewer.

Go Nagai, the writer of the story, displays a far more subtle grasp of the allegorical nature of this story than one would suspect from the early episodes - showing considerable adeptness in gradually filling this level in without interfering with the core story. Director Toshiki Hirano, who has a knack for disingenuous delivery that sneaks up behind the viewer and suddenly changing apparent meaning behind the action. While the series does require some tolerance on the part of the viewer for violence and exposure, it use of these effects is not exploitative at all, but instead adds to the overall impact. This is a fine example of horror in Japanese anime.