T5W#321- Top 5 Extremely Violent Anime from the Late 80’s-Mid 90’s

Anime has gone through a bit of an identity shift in the last couple of decades.  Today it feels more accessible than ever thanks to new gateway titles, like My Hero Academia or Weathering with You, that appeal to virtually all ages and all walks of life.  Thirty years ago, it was another story.  Sure you had family friendly titles on the market like Pokemon.  But Anime was known for more…adult tastes.  In the late 80’s and early 90’s, Anime was your go to genre for everything you loved about the 1981 American Animated Cult Classic Heavy Metal: lots of graphic violence, lots of gore, lots of nudity and very explicit sex scenes and, if it was dubbed in English, swearing galore (cause you know you had to sound so cooool with all the carnage going on).  Having revisited some of this era at Otakon with a screening of Doomed Megalopolis, I’m gonna take a look back at this, the era of Anime I first came into growing up and share my picks for the Top 5 Extremely Violent Anime from the Late 80’s-Mid 90’s.

#5-Silent Mobius: The Motion Picture Part 1

Unlike the incredibly disappointing TV Adaptation, the two part theatrical Silent Mobius prequel delivers more of the kind of terror that the initial premise promised.  Part 2 feels the tamer of the two so I’m slotting Part 1 into this place rather than the entire project.  Katsumi and the AMP are frequently carving their way through the bloody limbs of demented Lucifer Hawks.  But those monsters aren’t pushovers and are pushing back in equal measure, appearing in several terrifying forms.  Probably the most memorable scene in the entire movie involves Katsumi in a shower scene so scary it puts Psycho to shame.  Too bad the TV Anime wasn’t nearly as daring or as pretty (Seriously both parts of this movie are hella gorgeous).

 

#4-X 1999: The Movie

Based on the apocalyptic Manga by CLAMP, the ladies behind Cardcaptor Sakura, X centers on Kamui, a chosen one destined to lead a band of seven Espers in the ultimate battle to protect the Earth from those who would see it reborn and Humanity cleansed as a result.  Before it was the TV Anime I covered in the early days of the Anime Corner, there was a the X Movie which is a gorgeous piece of work (as is pretty much every title on this list really) but it is certainly not for the feint of heart.  A far cry from the colorful and fluffy Sakura, X is filled with hellish visions of blood and ritual sacrifice and has a body count that is borderline depressing by the time the end credits roll.  Granted, the Manga was never finished so an ending had to be made up, though I know I personally prefer the more “uplifting” TV Ending. 

 

#3-Berserk

The 90’s adaptation of Berserk pushed the limits of just how much you could get away with when it came to TV Anime.  The dark fantasy has some epic battles and theyre on a scale that The Lord of the Rings would be proud of.  Unlike LotR, Berserk does look for hope in the darkest of times but rather lets those dark times have their day and they are unrelenting.  Demonic blood spills by the gallon and no character is safe.  One need look no further than the historic Series Finale that resulted in a bloodbath that Yoshiyuki Tomino would approve of.  There are plenty of TV Anime that have gone full on dark but Berserk was the trendsetter to how it could be done (then the sequel came along a couple decades later and showed how it couldn’t be done).

 

#2-Akira

You cant make a list like this and not talk about Akira.  In a time when Disney was starting to emerge as the King of Animation once again with celebrated family fare like The Little Mermaid, Katsushiro Otomo brought his celebrated Manga to the big screen with the exact opposite of family friendly.  Intense motorbike chases, political drama with plenty of backstabbing, and a mentally unstable kid with psychic powers popping heads like balloons, Akira was the new kind of cool for Animation when it arrived in 1988.  One could cite this as the sole reason for the extreme violent Anime boom of the time period as this title broke new ground with visual entertainment with a far more mature and adult edge than anything that came before it.  And its is still a celebrated legend today.

 

#1-Ninja Scroll

Hell to the Yes.  If Akira provided the formula for cutting edge, violent Anime, Ninja Scroll perfected it by turning the clock back a few centuries and planting a wandering Samurai into a twisted tale of devils and revenge with only a sword and his skill to keep him alive.  Ninja Scroll is a simpler movie than Akira but there’s nothing wrong with that.  This is a straight up action fest with fast paced and expertly choreographed battle sequences, slick animation and all the hyper violence and graphic sex scenes that make it perfect for late night Anime screenings at conventions.  If you can find a copy of this movie, Ninja Scroll is a helluva ride that should be taken at least once.