Not Bad. Actually better than a lot of anime's out there. Usual storyline. Demons trying to take over tokyo thus the world. Father tries to stop the villain but fails, 10 years later comes the prodigal son and wham-bam blah blah & so on....Good action, english dubbing is Ok. Needed a little bit more insight on the storyline and the characters lacked some depth. If you follow Kawajiri's work you can c glimpses of his genious. But fans who r looking for Kawajiri's mastery wont find a lot of it in this one.

The son of a Nempo master must stop a sorcerer from raising hell. This is a Bruce Willis meets anime type of film. There isn't much character development at all. What's good about the film is that although the plot line is common in anime, it still entertains. See this if you're fond of lots of action and could care less about emotion.

1988's "Demon City Shinjuku" is a movie that I had extremely high hopes for, but got let down instead. That is not to say that the movie is really bad, it's just disappointing. The OVA (original video animation) is directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, that much-feared Anime' (Japanese animation) film director behind "Wicked City" (1987), "Ninja Scroll" (1993), and "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust" (2000). The story is from the Manga (Japanese comic book) series by Hideyuku Kikuchi, who was also behind the original novels for "Wicked City" and "Vampire Hunter D."

"Demon City Shinjuku" reunites both Kikuchi and Kawajiri for the first time since "Wicked City."

Just to get this out of the way, this is an adult Anime', but it comes nowhere near the lines crossed by "Wicked City" and "Ninja Scroll." You know what I mean: the frequent and explicit sex scenes/nudity and extreme violence. "Demon City Shinjuku" is fairly bloody, but is hardly super-graphic in nature. What would probably earn this movie an "R"-rating if it were live-action or received a theatrical distribution in the United States would be its decidedly coarse language (this review is based on the English-dubbed version) and frank presentation of demons, black magic, and the ghostly netherworld. (It's also interesting to note that some of the characters in the English-dubbed version have British, Mexican and German accents, rather than just standard American English.)

The OVA is set in the near future, where Levih Rah, the demonic overlord of Tokyo's Shinjuku district, is trying to bring about a literal Hell on Earth by attempting to open up a gateway that would allow his benefactors in the demonic underworld to roam free in our dimension. The story is set 10 years after Levih Rah defeated the heroic swordsman Genichirou Iyazoi in a duel, which ultimately led to Levih Rah taking over Shinjuku, which eventually became a crime-ridden, demon-roaming necropolis ("city of the dead" in Greek).

Now 10 years later, Levih Rah and his demonic forces are once again attempting to bring about the apocalypse, but this time standing in his way is Genechirou's teenage son Kyoya, who also possesses extraordinary sword-fighting skills in addition to the power of Nempo, a form of internal energy that is analogous to the concept of chi in Asian philosophy but is presented here as being something much closer to The Force from the "Star Wars" movies. Kyoya is aided in his travels by the beautiful Sayaka Rama, daughter of the World Federation President; Chibi, a young Shinjuku street hustler; and the enigmatic mystic Mephisto.

"Demon City Shinjuku" is a vastly uneven and oddly paced feature but is nonetheless entertaining. To me, that's what really counts, despite the obvious failings of Kawajiri's abilities as a director. Where the film redeems itself, I believe, are in its creature designs and story. The creatures in this OVA are pretty cool-looking and terrifying, and it's interesting to note that shape-shifting is very often a recurring theme in Japanese depictions of other-worldly creatures. The story is also very cool and engaging but what draws it back occasionally are flat characters and a disappointing climax that really lets you down considering everything that led up to it.

This OVA is not a failure, but it's an interesting feature to watch nonetheless. Even though it was directed by Anime' master Yoshiaki Kawajiri, I would not consider it essential viewing in his catalog of otherwise impressive and stunning Anime' features ("Ninja Scroll" remains my personal favorite of the director). I would recommend only watching if you are a hardcore Kawajiri or Hideyuku Kikuchi fan.

7/10

Demon City Shinjuku is just so weird, you have to love it. Sure, it's not the best anime out there, but it's not bad at all either. The character designs are appealing, the story solid, the English dub is awful, however, and the animation is good. It's directed by Kawajiri Yoshiaki, director of Ninja Scroll and the X TV series. In all, it's cool. An 8/10.

Demon City Shinjuku (1988) is a Japanese animated movie currently available on Amazon Prime. The storyline follows a man named Rebi Ra who has opened a gate to hell after killing a martial arts expert who tried to stop him. As various demons and beasts emerge from hell the deceased martial artist's son picks up his fathers sacred sword and sets out to stop Rebi Ra and close the gate.

This movie is directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Animatrix) and contains the voices of Hiromi Tsuru (Trigun), Kiyoshi Kobayashi (Lupin the 3rd), Yûsaku Yara (Ninja Scroll), Takeshi Aono (Metal Gear Solid) and Kôji Totani (Wicked City).

I love the animation style which is classic late 80s/early 90s. The narrator could have been better selected but the settings, characters and universe are well portrayed. The characters are fascinating and the dialogue is very good. The final 7 minutes of this film is epic and the concluding battle gives you everything you want to see from this film.

This movie is far from perfect but is a worthwhile viewing. I would score this a 7/10 and recommend seeing it once.

One of the classic anime movies of the 1980s, DEMON CITY SHINJUKU is a comic book adventure through and through, laced with sci-fi and horror aspects. The hero is an upstanding man called in to tackle a villain who's made a pact with the demonic underworld which gives him special powers. Style to spare in this one, alongside plenty of action in a plot reminiscent of HIGHLANDER.

This anime kicked butt. Lots and lots of action and a good story. Great demons and interesting super-powers. Just a great movie. If you like anime you'll like this.

Demon City Shinjuku is a not particularly interesting entry in the anime genre, with a derivative story. Modeled closely on the Star Wars paradigm, it follows the adventures of a young hero, teamed with a female sidekick / princess type and a holographic spiritual mentor, who must defeat an evil man with supernatural powers. Just remove the bizarre demons and punks out of a poor man's Akira, and add in space battles, and you have a George Lucas feature.

Aside from the unoriginal plot, the film suffers from being quite juvenile. It's not just that the violence and nudity are kept to a largely PG-13 level. The film's overall tone is juvenile, without any of the intelligent plotting of Akira or the philosophical themes of Ghost in the Shell. Moreover, the animation comes across as that of a rather grimy Saturday morning cartoon, with none of the beauty of artists such as Hayao Miyazaki.

Ultimately, one cannot escape the conclusion that this was a bargain basement anime thrown onto the American market to cash in on the success of better features like those named above. The only good I can see to this feature is that it would make a reasonably good introduction to more adult anime to teens who are growing out of the Dragonball Z stage.

This is an anime that used to come on the Scifi channel back when it was known as the Scifi channel and not SyFy. It mainly came on when they had anime week and that is when I saw it and a few others. I recently saw an uncut version of this film and there are a few things that were not on the cut version, but for the most part all the scenes were there, just a lot of sex references. I always enjoyed this one, though it seems as if it should have been part of a series or something to explain some of the stuff that is going on, but a lot of anime films are like that; essentially, setting up a world with little explanation and really jumping right into the action.

The story has a man dueling with another. One has been blessed with the powers of the underworld and he soon dispatches the other man. Years later, this man makes his move to open the portal to hell fully and it is up to the son of the man killed to try and stop him. The younger man is a master of an art where he fights with only a kendo stick, but with the help of the president's daughter, a dude on mechanical roller skates and the mysterious Mephisto he just may have a shot at defeating the man the underworld chose as their champion!

I wish I had seen this with subtitles as the dub is not the worst, but there are a couple of characters that were just dubbed poorly. Mainly that small dude on roller skates they for reasons unknown gave a Spanish accent to. The character of Mephisto is cool as you never really ascertain his intentions and it is cool watching evil dispatched with a stick!

The film was good and enjoyable, it could have been a bit longer to allow more character development, but then sometimes that can slow down the pace and the pace of this one is rather good. Our hero must battle a giant spider demon, a strange hairball thing that almost is like a sloth and get by the villain's magic to get by. Totally enjoyable and wish there were more films like this instead of the over saturation of series that is prevalent in anime today.

What even was this? What a just all around bad anime / movie. Nearly incomprehensible, boring, bad animation, etc. Scenes are sometimes completely disjointed and dont seem to really make sense. How does this have a 6.4 rating??

I watched this a long time ago in the days of VHS and I loved it because it told a great story and the characters were interesting. And this is among the favourites of Yosiaki Kawajiri's works I seen.

Also the music was nothing short of great even fantastic in places.

The animation was top notch as well as the fights and character development in this good piece of old school anime.

Also we had a fearsome antagonist in Levi Rah and a brief explanation of what made him become what he became which always suits any kind of anime or manga.

Also I liked the English dub and Brad Lavelle did a great job in voicing the main character Kyoya Izayoi and Bob Sessions was great in voicing the main villain Levi Rah.

So this is an enjoyable anime made in the late 1980's.

Yoshiaki Kawajiri has some fun, if questionable, popcorn flicks under his name. Demon City Shinjuku (where did the name Hell City Shinjuku, US come from?) is not one of them. DCS is everything bad about the violent anime of the era, and nothing good. Worst of all, it has little to laugh at, or guilty-pleasure action.

The hero is the stock, young, masculine, Japanese every-man. The villain is evil with no character behind him. The love interest is simply there, and lacks any real reason for affection. Their pasts are empty, their presents are uninteresting, and their futures lack change. There isn't even wasted effort here. Its just as pandering as the shallow moe anime of today, only for a different audience of a different time.

The animation and action scenes are alright, but without any likable context to ground them, I wasn't amused. You can see this kind of stuff in many other crappy forgotten demon anime. The one saving grace is a fight with a seductive demoness on a pool table. It was the stylized, over-the-top bad I like from Kawajiri. But its a lone, short scene. You've also got a final battle that's easily won through deus ex machina, like they couldn't come up or afford an actual fight. That ruins the film even for the most tolerant retro-nerd side of me.

There are hundreds of anime out there. And there are dozens that are more exciting, campy, or embarrassing. While I can't say I hate DCS, there isn't a good reason to see it.

Yoshiaki Kawajiri has made his reputation for eye-popping fright visuals and this is his masterpiece of terror. Shinjuku, in Tokyo's business district, has become a portal through which shape-shifting denizens of the demon realm are seeking to invade earth. Humanity is threatened with enslavement by creatures who can appear human but who are terrifyingly inhuman when they reveal their true form. But a plucky girl and jaded street samurai are on hand to foil their plans.

What follows is a fast moving, action nightmare highlighted by nightmarish visions of seemingly ordinary people and objects morphing into their terrifying demon forms.

Genuinely scary stuff.

$20.... I spent $20 on this movie. I had never seen this movie before I bought it. There was no where to rent it in town. I saw a commerical on TV for the best of Japanese anime. I like stories about demons, I like anime. Wow this movie should rock! But it doesn't! I hate this movie! It's funny, that's all it is. The characters swear on an almost constant basis, that's the humor of this movie. The main characters barley evolve. The ending sucks. The ending really sucks. I would've been happier with a guy dancing around in a dinosaur outfit than the ending they put in this piece of crap. There is almost no violence. Almost none. I consider something violent when there's blood and lots of it. This should've been put on Nick Jr as a joke. Even the preschoolers could've created something more interesting than this. So why don't I give it one point? Well that's easy, and there's two reasons for that: 1 point for the swearing. 1 point for the wooden sword. Unless you're in the mood for something to complain about don't watch this anticipating anything. The characters are dull with the exception of the colorful language, the action is tolerable but still not very good, and the ending is the most disgraceful thing since boy bands. Heed my warning: Avoid.

As has been said before, this film is just plain awesome. The animation is top quality and unlike Demon City's counterpart Wicked City, this film can be enjoyed by pretty much any anime fan. Wicked city and Demon City's storylines have many parallels minus the sex. Like Wicked City one of the demons is even an arachnid/humanoid type of creature for example. This title has a great storyline, lots of action, and interesting characters. I don't think I can really say anything that hasn't been said in other reviews on the net so I'll leave it at that. One neat thing, watch for scenes from the opening battle on the television screen in the movie Johnny Mnemonic

Often at 3AM, I decide to revisit the gems from my childhood and this has become somewhat of a contender for most revisited. When I first watched this film I was completely blown away. The best aspect of the film is it's visuals. Albeit the low budget, the visual quality of this film is incredible. All you see are beautiful barren landscapes, finely drawn details, and cool characters. The film is centred on the popular Go Nagai inspired plot of save the world, or save some "thing" involving a girl amidst its plot. However unlike Devilman, there is no emotional depth here. The characters are admittedly shallow, but for that to be an issue for the viewer disregards the purpose of this film. This is a pure action film. Each scene feels kinetic and pulsating, like that of Electric Dragon 80,000V or Tetsuo, the action flows seamlessly but is adjusted by small pauses for dialogue. Often Monster City is compared to Wicked City and Cyber City Oedo 808 but this is criminal. Wicked City is unique and new. Cyber City focuses on a narrative that brings emotional depth not readily available in anime at the time with beautiful animation but it is Monster City that brings the directors vision of pure uncompromising aesthetic amongst a chaotic backdrop of aggressive action and that's why this film will always be a "shallow" but fantasist masterpiece.

*note: this review is based on the subtitled version*

For an anime thats duration is a little under an hour, "Demon City: Shinjuku" is definately up there with some of my all-time favorites. Since it was created by some of the same dudes who made the HUGE hit "Ninja Scroll", "Demon City" is very often compared to it, and is therefore, looked down upon for being nothing like "Scroll" (just look at some of the other comments on this film made by other IMDB users). That's probably why I love it so much.

I HATED "Ninja Scroll". Sorry, but I thought it was worthless. So really, I had no real big expectations, other than the fact that it *could* be a bomb, being released on U.S. MANGA, who are known for some really mish-mash anime releases. However, "Demon City" blew me away with it's clean animation, in-depth storyline, amazing character design, and an ending that's just cheesy enough to still be cool.

The best thing about "Demon City: Skinjuku" is it's evil side. The demons, the big bad guy, and the cursed city of Shinjuku itself, all well though out and beautifully designed. Each battle scene is very different from the next, my favorite being the one in which our heroine confronts a wall of fire conceived from the pain, hatred, and sorrow of the dead.

My only complaint about "Demon City: Shinjuku" is the ending. It's a good cheese, so it's not what the ending IS that bothers me, but just how abrupt it ends. Our hero saves the day, kisses the girl, roll credits.

Using my grading system that seems to p*ss so many off, I'd give "Demon City: Shinjuku" a B+. I love it. I don't really know why, because it's quite different from what I usually enjoy in anime titles, but I love it nonetheless.

now this is an anime! its not the best demon busting i've seen, but it gets the job done. the stortyline is very straightforward, with one or two "huhs?" along the way. the action sequences are nice, but what really makes this movie fall from being great is the lousy ending!!!! why couldn't the ending be as good as the kick ass beginning?? if you like demons and ninja skill, see this.

I actually saw this back in the 80's using a VHS tape on the old VHS Player/Recorder machine. And every single time I watch it, I love it as much as my first time watching it! A great tale of the eternal battle between good and evil wherein one guy takes on the demon hordes of the underworlds devil.

This was made at a time when anime films did not give backgrounds and development on characters. Opting instead to spend a films entire time on the story itself; it worked well because the films then made it so easy to fill character backgrounds in for yourself.

Anime is the best thing to come out of Japan in modern times.

No bad language...no sex...violence but no over the top gore scenes!

While Demon's City plot may be straight forward it is well worth your time to watch it. Actions scenes are cool enough and the animation is exceptional for being created in 1988. Some minor annoyances I noticed were do to dubbing the voice actors. One character is portrayed with a Texan accent, one of the main characters has a very distinct British voice while another character who is a small Japanese boy speaks with an adults Mexican accent. These in no way would make you turn the film off in the middle, but it makes you wonder if they could have been a little closer with the voice acting to original Japanese Version. Very interesting in the long run though.

This is really cool looking anime, with a pretty thin plot, as previously mentioned.

If charater development is important, skip this one.

If you like great visuals with lots of action, you will enjoy this.

A simple sushi-western, Clint Eastwood kind of story about a lone warrior saving the girl.

Excellent animation and some very cool fight scenes. If you like a vusially stunning film, but don't mind a thin plot, this is for you.

When I first watched this movie on the Action Channel, I gotta say that this is one of the most popular anime films since Darkside Blues,and Vampire Hunter D. The film was so cool, I had to see it again,and I did. But after buying the DVD at BestBuy,it turned out to be the best since it was aired on the Action Channel.My favorite characters in the movie are Kyoya,and Mephisto, they are pretty cool. And I do like the fighting scenes, they are intense. And of course. the most scariest thing in the movie are the monsters. So in closing to this film,if you plan to see this film. A word of advice, Please be very careful, it could mess with your head.

For some viewer whom expect to see a raw and gritty with ultra violent like Yoshiaki Kawajiri early work Wicked City will be pretty disappointed because this movie is not like it at all.This is a chessy and over the top anime in a good way with a very simple plot you may see in other anime but the good thing is it not taken it self too seriously.It has good character development,typical 80s animation good in it own right.The only minus thing for me is the last part the ending is pretty rough and i wish they made the anime a bit more longer to satisfied the audience with an epic battle.At an anime it while dated but if you grew up watching this movie it may give you a nostalgic felling